Active History is proud to present a video each week from New Directions in Active History. The conference took place at Huron University College on October 2-4, 2015 and brought together scholars, students, professionals and community members to discuss a wide range of topics pertaining to active history. In this week’s video we hear from David Dean, a Professor of… Read more »
by Krista McCracken The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) held its closing events in Ottawa from May 31 – June 3, 2015. The event included the release of an executive summary of the TRC findings and Calls to Action made by the Commission. The 388 pages of the summary highlight the work of the Commission and the material… Read more »
By Jeff Bowersox I found out about the National World War I Museum during a recent conference trip – yes, to Kansas City. I was curious to see how it would memorialise a conflict that, for most Americans, is greatly overshadowed by its successor, and decided to visit. The museum is intertwined with the Liberty Memorial, dedicated in 1926 to… Read more »
By Krista McCracken Museums, galleries, parks and other heritage sites play a significant role in commemoration. Exhibitions present specific ways of looking at history and attribute significance to particular historical events. Commemoration at heritage sites might take place in the form of a dedicated memorial site such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum or the September 11th Memorial and… Read more »
By Elisabeth Tower Museums today acknowledge that their visitors are learner communities and that those learner communities bring with them knowledge and authority about the past. This may take the form of personal memory, family heritage, past learning or experiences. Further, learner communities may have their own evidence about the past and may bring different lenses to the interpretation of… Read more »
The graveyard embodies the essence of a community. Who lived here? When? Who had wealth? Who had power? The cemetery knows it all.
By Ian Milligan Do you have a unique collection in your basement that you wish you could share with others? An amazing shrine to your favourite sports team? A unique mason jar collection? Some military memorabilia? What if you could take pictures, catalogue it, and suddenly have a website that’s the equal of many professional museum websites? You can do… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Laurie-Bertram-First-Cut.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadIn this edition of the history slam I talk to Laurie Bertram about her upcoming exhibit Pioneer Ladies [of the evening], which opens this week at the Human Ecology Gallery at the University of Alberta and has previously been on display in Winnipeg. We chat about material culture, the role of trauma in history,… Read more »
Although the lingo in modern scholarship may be less offensive than my tour guide a couple of weeks ago, the message in Merrell’s essay is that similar trends continue among professional historians. Despite broader inclusion of Native people as a subject studied by historians, North American history remains a discipline anchored in a European tradition.
By virtue of its very lack of polish, commitment to community artifacts, and desire to treat different social groups fairly, Ottawa House presents more than a frozen past. It is not perfect, but it shows an active past, where goods moved along a range of trade networks to reach destinations far from their starting points.
