International Museum Day at the Canadian Museum of Civilization – May 18th, 2010

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Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau QC (Photo by Tasha DiLoreto)

Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau QC (Photo by Tasha DiLoreto)

Since 1977, International Museum Day has taken place across the world on, or around, the 18th of May. This day is meant raise public awareness towards some of the daily challenges that museums face and allows members of the public a glimpse into the way a museum operates. Each year the International Council of Museums (ICOM) chooses a theme that it encourages participating museums to work with, and the theme for 2010 was Museums for Social Harmony. According to ICOM’s Theme Statement, museums “are in a position to address the urgent need for safeguarding cultural diversity and bio-diversity as the common heritage of humanity.”

As a student in the MA Public History program at the University of Western Ontario, I’m currently completing an internship in Gatineau, Quebec, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC). I knew that the museum had some special plans for the day, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to see how the CMC planned to share some typical challenges faced by museums with the general public. Continue reading →

Giving voice to history

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by Laura Madokoro

Last week, the first event by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools was held in Winnipeg. In the same week, British Prime Minister David Cameron issued an apology on behalf of the British government for the “unjustified and unjustifiable” killings of thirteen people in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1972 – an event now famously known as Bloody Sunday. It was a monumental week as far as intended healing and reconciliation goes. Continue reading →

Learning about Teaching Canadian Rural History at Black Creek Pioneer Village

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Daniel Stong Loghouse, Black Creek Pioneer Village. (Photo by John Griffiths under Creative Commons)

Daniel Stong Loghouse, Black Creek Pioneer Village. (Photo by John Griffiths under Creative Commons)

Last Wednesday evening, educators from across the Greater Toronto Area (and beyond) gathered at Black Creek Pioneer Village for the inaugural event in the broader Approaching the Past workshop series (co-sponsored by The HistoryEducation Network [THEN/HiER] and ActiveHistory.ca). I post this here for several reasons: firstly, those who couldn’t make the event can learn what they missed (and hopefully come out for the next workshop on 30 September); and secondly, because it sheds light on both public history and teaching skills.

Led by Ruth Sandwell, a professor from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, the evening was very much participant driven. After a brief introductory speech by Sandwell which explored the various ways that we teach history, the group moved out into Pioneer Village.

Continue reading →

Active History Announcements: June 20-26

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AH_LOGO_WEBThe following upcoming events may be of interest to our readers (click on ‘continue reading’ below for full descriptions):

1)  Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto (PSAT) Fourth Annual General Meeting – July 3

2) ActiveHistory.ca is looking for a co-book review editor

3) Conference Paper of Note: Allan Kulikoff, “A Modest Proposal to Save the Crisis in History”

4) Digest of this week’s blog posts

If you have an announcement that you would like included in this weekly dispatch, please e-mail info@activehistory.ca. Continue reading →

Scientific Instruments as “a History with, of, and Through Things”*

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Cathode contents 5The “Reading Artifacts: Summer Institute in Material Culture Research” at the Canada Science and Technology Museum is another symptom of the growing trend in history and philosophy of science studies to include scientific artifacts as a resource for historical investigation and argumentation. In Leviathan and the Air Pump, Shapin and Schaffer argued scientific instruments are integral to the making of the scientific life. The history of medicine is rife with works discussing how instruments played a significant role in changing the diagnostic acumen of doctors and revolutionizing concepts of disease.  A special issue of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (2007, vol. 38, no.2) even discussed how objects and images can construct three-dimensional understandings of the scientific past. Continue reading →

Colborne Street Breakdown II: Demolition and Community History

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By Karen Dearlove, Executive Director of the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre

Historic Colborne StreetFive city councilors and the Mayor of Brantford have been pursuing the demolition of forty-one heritage buildings on the south side of Colborne Street in Brantford.  Colborne Street is the historic downtown of Brantford and by many accounts this stretch of buildings represents the longest stretch of pre-Confederation buildings remaining Canada.  Yet for years Brantford’s downtown has suffered, as downtowns have across Canada, from the retreat to suburbs and box store retail outlets.  Continue reading →

The possibilities of digital media and print publication

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Parr book coverThe use of new digital media in conjunction with conventional print publication is one of the many important contributions that Joy Parr’s recent Sensing Changes: Technologies, Environments, and the Everyday, 1953-2003 (2010, UBC Press) makes to our understanding of the past.  The book examines how Canadians living in environments affected by megaprojects built after the Second World War responded to rapid environmental, technological, and social change through the use of six case studies.  Parr argues that our senses – not only sight and hearing but also touch, taste, and smell – are essential to how we understand the world around us.

But how can the conventional printed book, which privileges the sense of sight in the form of black text printed on a white page, facilitate an argument that urges us to reconsider the importance of humans’ varied senses? Continue reading →

Active History Announcements: June 13-19

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AH_LOGO_WEB

The following upcoming events may be of interest to our readers (click on ‘continue reading’ below for full descriptions):

1) Job Posting: NiCHE project co-ordinator.

2) Approaching the Past: A series connecting people teaching history – Ruth Sandwell keynote speaker – June 16

3) Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto (PSAT) Fourth Annual General Meeting: NEW LOCATION – July 3

4) Digest of this week’s blog posts

If you have something to announce to the Active History community please contact info (at) activehistory.ca. Continue reading →

Approaching the Past: A Series Connecting People Teaching History

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On Wednesday, June 16th graduate students in History and Education, academic historians, history teachers, and public history professionals will gather at Black Creek Pioneer Village for an evening of discussion around the theme of “teaching history by doing history.”

The event is part of a new series called Approaching the Past: A Series Connecting People Teaching History, sponsored by The History Education Network/Histoire et Éducation en Réseau and Active History, and conducted with support from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Toronto Culture.

The idea behind the series is to bring together educators working in middle and high schools, universities, and museums to discuss teaching history in a variety of contexts. Through workshops on diverse themes related to history education, the series aims to create and strengthen ties between historians, history teachers, and public history professionals across the Greater Toronto Area.  Workshops offer the opportunity to connect with colleagues, meet people teaching history in unique and engaging ways, and be challenged to teach history in ways that connect more deeply with our students. Continue reading →

What the Copyright Modernization Act Means for Historians

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Sean Kheraj

Last week the federal government tabled its long anticipated copyright reform legislation for first reading in the House of Commons. The Copyright Modernization Act or Bill C-32 attempts to overhaul many of the out-dated provisions of Canada’s copyright law that have fallen far behind major technological changes of the last thirty years. For instance, under the proposed legislation, it would now be legal for Canadians to rip a CD to an iPod. Unfortunately, as we give a sarcastic slow-clap for this long overdue “reform” to legalize what has been common (and soon to be obsolete) consumer behaviour for nearly a generation, the canonization of digital locks overrides all of the new fair dealing rights in the bill. And this may be a huge problem for history researchers and educators.

Read the full story here on the Knowledge Mobilization blog.