Historical Reminiscents.

Collection Glimpse: Sharon Temple National Historic Site and Museum

2012-01-26T13:33:00.001-05:00

This is the fourth segment in a series of posts entitled, "Collection Glimpses." Each post in the series focuses on a unique collection, innovative repository, or a not well known cultural heritage institution.

The Sharon Temple National Historic Site is located in Sharon, Ontario, a small community within reasonable driving distance to Toronto. The main feature on the site is a temple constructed by the Quaker Children of Peace organization in the late 1820s. In addition to the large central temple, the site includes eight additional historic buildings in a park setting.

Prior to the 1950s the Sharon Temple Museum was initially encompassed under the work of the York Pioneers and York County Museum. During this period the site focused on the broad history of York County. After 1950 the site began to focus more on the role of the Children of the Peace and develop a site independent from the general history of the County. In 1991, the Temple was dedicated as a National Historic Site based on its architectural significance. Since 1991, a cookhouse, drive shed, and other out buildings have been replicated and programming and collections have grown to reflect the original state of the Temple.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the site is the restored architecture features of the site. The Temple boasts multi-tier construction, a Jacob's ladder inspired staircase, and a pipe and barrel organ. In addition to the great built heritage on the site, the Temple does a variety of outreach programming including an annual concert series and educational tours. Very little of the artifact collection is available for viewing online at this point, however a short digital exhibit about the site was put together in conjunction with the Archives of Ontario.

Photo credits: Stephanie Spencer and zandersaar

Community and Relevancy in Rural Museums

2012-01-23T13:10:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of Curator: The Museum Journal was recently posted online. This issue contained a number of interesting approaches to issues in the museum field. One article I found particularly interesting was Rhianedd Smith's "Searching for "Community": Making English Rural History Collections Relevant Today." The article can be read online here.

Smith's work focuses on rural history museums in the United Kingdom, however her logic and the trends towards more active community engagement are applicable in Canada and in the museum community at large. The tendency of smaller museums to represent a single interpretation of the past is fairly common. Many institutions struggle to include interpretations that will be representative of a culturally diverse area. In Canada this may be in part be due to overarching Euro-Canadian history which has long been the dominate force in small museums.

So how does one make a rural or local heritage collection relevant to a wider audience? Smith provides case examples of some actions that have worked - outreach to a wider range of donors, focusing on the human element, using digital technology to reach a broader audience. More strikingly, Smith highlights the need for flexibility. There is no one size fits all outreach initiative that suit all organizations, however it is imperative that organizations look towards new programming and interpretation options.

Photo credit: Marion Doss

The Slow Evolution of Digital Literature

2012-01-19T09:29:00.003-05:00

Like many others I received an e-reader as a Christmas gift. Despite loving technology I have clung to my love of paper books and in all honesty if my partner hadn't bought me a Kobo Touch I would probably still be buying (and not knowing where to store) an abundance of traditional books. However, since I now have the digital toy I've resolved to read at least every other book on the Kobo.

Some of my initial thought about the e-reader:

The ability to highlight, bookmark passages, and take digital notes is a huge asset for academic reading.

This advantage is the same one that prompts my use of Zotero to keep track of citations and reading notes on my laptop.

The dictionary feature is my new best friend.
The ability to digitally share reading lists, quotations, etc

These are all great reasons to use an E-reader or tablet, however digital texts haven't really advanced traditional reading in any profound way. Ebooks are essentially digital copies of paper books. Given the push for digital interaction, I find it a bit surprising that more innovation hasn't occurred in the development of multimedia and expanded digital texts.

The one example I have come across that pushes the boundaries of e-publishing is Paul La Farge's Luminous Airplanes work. La Farge describes his work as "immersive text", something akin to a new phase of hyperlink books which allows the reader to explore a text in unique and exploratory ways. A recent Spark interview highlights the ideas behind La Farge's work.

Additionally, Apple just announced the introduction of iBooks 2 app which boasts an interactive textbook format. It will be interesting to see if Apple's idea catches on and how it actually works as an interactive medium.

What types of innovation in digital literature would you like to see?

Chief Vann House: Conflicted Interpretation and Restoration

2012-01-17T11:45:00.002-05:00

Tiya Miles article, "Showplace of the Cherokee Nation: Race and the Making of a Southern House Museum", that recently appeared in The Public Historian, volume 33, issue 4, presents an intriguing examination of the role racial perceptions can play in heritage interpretations.

Miles' work focuses on the Chief Vann House State Historic Site in Georgia. This particular heritage site is the former residence of Chief Joseph Vann, who was a predominant plantation owner in Georgia until his family was forced to leave under the 1830s federal Indian Removal bill.

Throughout "Showplace of the Cherokee Nation" Miles describes the 1950s restoration efforts of the Vann House and highlights the ongoing tensions in interpretation viewpoints. Miles illustrates the ongoing tensions between the desire to portray a local heritage indicative of high class Georgia and the government desire to frame the House in 'Indianness.' These contrasting notions of focal interpretation points resulted in an interpretation that Miles describes as reflecting "the dual themes of Native American material culture and antebellum plantation culture. The home was decorated with antiques befitting a well-heeled planter family, but the attic was reserved for display of Indian artifacts such as arrowheads." (p.29) Since no single narrative could be decided upon, the two prominent narratives were intermingled. Both the local heritage advocates and the state government believed that the House had tourism potential, but they differed greatly on what they thought the prime attraction was -- Indianness or Southern plantation heritage.

The Vann House site is not unique in its struggle of historical viewpoints. History is often contested and there is always more than one way to tell the same set of events. I am interested to know how the Vann House site currently functions as a house museum, do the interpreters address the ongoing struggle of viewpoints? Miles also notes that during the 1950s no thought was given to representing the slave presence that once drove the work on the plantation. It would be interesting to see if this heritage is now represented in the House's displays.

What are additional examples of struggles of historical interpretation coming to the forefront in heritage sites?

Photo credit: J. Stephen Conn

Open Access and Archival Journals

2012-01-16T08:24:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of the American Archivist (Volume 75, Issue 2) featured an article by Paul Conway and William E. Landis titled, "Open-Access Publishing and the Transformation of the American Archivist Online." This article provides an interesting examination of recent trends within the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and current thoughts regarding open-access and digital publishing.

Conway and Landis maintain that the SAA has adopted a form of open-access publishing that is a middle ground between completely open access and a pay per use model. This is seen in the assertion that, "all older content is freely available online and represents and unambiguous commitment by SAA to the widest possible dissemination of journal content over time," while newer (most recent six issues) American Archivist content is restricted to SAA members or those who pay for access. This seems like a decent compromise, by still providing all other content to the general publish while maintaining an increased level of content for those who purchase an SAA membership.

However, Conway and Landis astutely point out that this membership or pay wall limits access to the newest scholarship and may leave smaller community archives and professionals outside of the archival field behind. Given, the American Archivist's current state of straddling both paper and digital worlds it seems as though there are a number of accessibility concerns that will have to be addressed in the long run.

Additionally, the concern over the lag time of paper journals - eg. the American Archivist only publishes twice a year, making it a poor venue for time sensitive discussions - is well broached in this article. The SAA's new online review portal has begun to address this concern and provide information that is available only in digital form.

The examination of the American Archivist by Conway and Landis is one of many recent works focusing on the need to bridge the divide between scholarly publication and open access digital publication. Initiatives such as Digital Humanities Now, and media-commons projects are excellent examples of scholarly communities attempting new forms of scholarly digital communication. New alternatives and forms of communication are developing all the time and the archival community has just begun to look into the possibilities offered by digital publication.

New Year Heritage Links

2012-01-06T11:34:00.001-05:00

Lots of heritage and public history on goings this week. Some of the stories that caught my attention:

In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg recently broadcasted five episodes dedicated to the development of written word and how the word has shaped our intellectual history. The podcasts are well worth a listen and include detailed descriptions of a number of artifacts held by the British Library.
The US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released the Citizen Archivist Dashboard project. This digital initiative aims to use crowdsourcing to transcribe, tag, edit, and upload photographs to the NARA collection. The crowdsouring exercises are framed as challenges as means of encouraging user participation, and are overall visually appealing and simple to follow.
The year's first #builtheritage twitter chat took place on Wednesday January 4th. The transcript will be available online in the near future.
The Thinking About Exhibits blog featured a great post on applications that focus on museum objects.

Collection Glimpse: American Folk Art Museum

2012-01-05T10:15:00.001-05:00

This is the third segment in a series of posts entitled, "Collection Glimpses." Each post in the series focuses on a unique collection, innovative repository, or a not well known cultural heritage institution. The first post highlighted the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive and the second installment focused on the Gardiner Museum.

Established in 1961, the American Folk Art Museum is dedicated to the display, preservation, and interpretation of traditional folk art and contemporary self-taught artists from the United States and internationally. The museum hold folk art items from the eighteenth century to the present.

In addition to an extensive collection dedicated to traditional folk art of all mediums and contexts, the Museum's Contemporary Center highlights recent works of art and culture which reflect the ongoing tradition of self-taught artistry in the United States. The Center presents lectures, symposia, and special events. A portion of the Center's contemporary works can be viewed online.

Other than the unique items in the collection, the factor which makes the American Folk Art Museum stand apart is the museum's commitment to outreach and educational programming. The Museum has an extensive collection focused lecture, tour, and workshop schedule. Other outreach initiatives include hands on DIY craft sessions, guitar afternoons, and free music Fridays.

For those interested in American folk art and not unable to visit the museum, there are a wide array of social media and digital display techniques used by the museum. The museum has digitized a number of items and made them available via an image gallery. Additionally, in the past the Museum has produced some exhibit specific apps and digital promotions. The "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts" app is an interesting example of an app allowing remote access to an exhibit.

Overall, the abundance of digital resource and research potential provided by the American Folk Art Museum left me longing for a Canadian equivalent. The Canadian Museum of Civilization does collect Canadian Folk art, however at the moment that collection isn't overly accessible in a digital format.

Photo credit: joevare, cliff1066, and Steve and Sara,

Public Domain Day 2012

2012-01-03T11:30:00.001-05:00

Hurray for access! January 1st was Public Domain Day. On that day, unpublished works by authors whodied prior to 1942 became part of the public domain in the United States. This includes works by notable authors such as:

Robert Baden-Powell (Founder of the Scout Movement)
Frederick Banting (Canadian medical scientist, one of the main discoverers of insulin)
Frank Bridge (English composer and violist)
James Frazer (Scottish social anthropologist)
James Joyce (Irish novelist and poet)
Hugh Walpole (English novelist)
Wilhelm II (The last German Emperor)
Virginia Woolf (English author, essayist, and publisher)

A more complete list can be seen here. Lists of authors whose works entered the public domain in 2011 or 2010 are also available.

However there are some conditions around the entrance of works into the public domain. This legislation only applies to works which have not been previously published and which were not made during parts of employment. Separate copyright legislation applies to those works.

Tale of a Town: History Meets Theater

2012-01-02T09:27:00.003-05:00

This morning CBC played a documentary entitled, "Small Time Stories: From the Tale of a Town - Queen Street West." The radio documentary was based on the work done to compile the multimedia interactive play Tale of a Town that focuses on the history of the Queen Street West neighbourhood in Toronto. The radio production provided an interesting look into some of Queen Street West's more prominent buildings and past residents.

The premise behind the production is very similar to a historical walking tour. The show takes the audience on a promenade-style tour of Queen West by a fictional condo developer, which allows theater to be intermingled with built history and local memories of the area.

The idea of incorporating theater into history isn't anything new - reenactments and many living history sites have been doing this for years. However, Tale of a Town attempts to combine theater, oral history, built heritage, local history, and music. I'm interested to know if similar productions have been undertaken in other cities or venues.

Photo credit: rachel in wonderland

Christmas in the Archives

2011-12-20T08:13:00.000-05:00

Archival institutions across Canada (and the world) often contain some ephemeral material. Some of my favourite types of ephemera are postcards and greeting cards. Given the approaching holiday, here's a glimpse at holiday themed ephemera.

This item is from the Kenneth Rowe fonds held by Library and Archives Canada. This fonds contains a number of scrapbooks and folios with printed material - including the Christmas cards seen to the left. These Canadian Christmas cards are dated

circa 1877-1878.

A Christmas postcard sent to Reg Sherwood by Ada Broderick in 1908. This postcard is part of the collection held by the Burlington Public Library. The library's collection is searchable on OurOntario.

A Christmas card from Superior Paul C. O'Connor of the Society of Jesus of St. Mary's Mission at Akulurak, Alaska to Assistant Director Charles G. Burdick of the Civilian Conservation Corps' Alaska Region, circa December 20, 1938.

Held by the National Archives and Records Administration, and part of the Records of the Forest Service, 1870-2008 group.

Collection Glimpse: The Gardiner Museum

2011-12-14T08:56:00.000-05:00

Gardiner Museum

This is the second entry in a series of posts entitled, "Collection Glimpses." Each post in the series focuses on a unique collection, innovative repository, or a not well known cultural heritage institution. The first post highlighted the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive.

History of the Museum
The Gardiner Museum is Canada's only museum dedicated solely to ceramics and is one of the few museums in the world that focuses exclusively on ceramics. The Gardiner Museum opened in Toronto in 1884 and was initially dedicated to holding the collection of artifacts held by George and Helen Gardiner. From 1987 to 1996 the Gardiner Museum was governed by the ROM. From 1996 to 2004 to Museum underwent considerable growth and the collection grew to include ceramics from around the world. The Gardiner then closed from 2004 to 2006 to undergo renovation and expansion. Since reopening the Gardiner has gained exhibition and display space, and a hands-on clay studio space.

The Collection
The collection held by the Gardiner Museum contains more than 3000 pieces of ceramics from around the world. The items in the collection range from ancient pottery to contemporary works of art. A large percentage of this collection has been digitized and made available online. The browse collections feature is a bit clunky, but the ceramics are sorted by collection type and are well photographed.

The Gardiner Museum also houses the Gail Brooker Ceramic Research Library. This library contains over 2500 items including auction catalogues, rare books, scrapbooks, periodicals, and special collections. The collection is searchable online. However, the collection is non-circulating and must be consulted onsite.

Educational Programming
The Gardiner offers a variety of clay classes for all ages and skills levels. All of these classes are run by professional ceramists and are held in a studio setting. The museum also offers school programs, workshops, and group tours. The Museum also holds "Id Clinics" where patrons can bring in objects and have them identified by curators. Additionally, every day at 2pm the museum offers guided tours with the price of admission.

The museum has fairly decent hours and is reasonably priced ($12 for adults and half price admission on Friday evenings). For anyone interested in the clay medium this is the Canadian institution to turn to - both in terms of research materials and exhibited collections.

Photo Credit: wvs and StudioGabe

Teaching with Historic Places

2011-12-13T11:53:00.000-05:00

The December 2011 issue of Public History News contained an article entitled "Teaching Teachers the Power of Place", which focused on the Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program established by the United States National Park Service.

The TwHP program aims to provide resources for teachers based on the properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Flexible lesson plans, powerpoints, case study examples, and other media tools have been developed by historians and teachers to provide support for any school looking to examine history, geography, or social studies from a place based perspective.

What benefits does place based instruction have? Rooting history or social studies firmly in a place helps make the topic more relevant. If possible focusing a lesson on a local site helps students create a stronger connection with their community's past. The use of historic photographs, artifacts, and documents can make even a far away place seem real and assist in making the past relevant to students.

Overall, the TwHP sounds like a great resource for educators both in and outside of formal education institutions. Has anyone used a similar resource or been exposed to a Canadian equivalent?

Photo Credit: edebell

December #builtheritage chat

2011-12-07T16:00:00.001-05:00

This month's #builtheritage twitter chat focused on preservation and the holidays. There was an abundance of good festive promotion ideas, examples of seasonal events, and

First portion of the chat focused on the question, How can you use the holidays to promote your historic site? Some of the proposed activities included:

Displaying old holiday photos on site or on social media
Holding seasonally themed events -teas, crafts, tours, etc
Holiday snacks!
Holiday theater stage at the heritage site, eg. the Christmas Carol
Combine with other local events your activities with other local holiday events
For example, the distillery district in Toronto christmas market, draws thousands
Watson's Mill in Ottawa hosted a Christmas Fair and Art Show this past wknd.
As a backdrop to other heritage events, or as a venue for private holiday functions
Family ornament decorating activities

Second question of the chat, what is the most successful holiday program you have been to/organized at an historic site? Favourites included:

Victorian Christmas at Dundurn Castle in Hamiilton
The Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg
The Candlelight at Dallas Heritage Village.
@KyleGonyou recalled being taken to beakfast with Santa at Fanshawe Pioneer Village
Alight at Night in Upper Canada Villag
Advent of Jazz held at St. Paul, oldest black congregation in Dallas, Texas, which was built by freed slaves.
Biltmore's candlelit self-guided tours with live music and fires blazing.

Third segment of the chat dealt with, How can we encourage people to shop locally in historic main streets?

Combine moonlight madness with other activities such as skating, caroling, etc.
Hold a Christmas festival downtown, and encourage all shops to decorate windows
The main streets are just perfect for decorating - light it up!
Provide more parking
Ask the community what they want

The chat concluded with a discussion of How do you make sure your holiday activities are as inclusive (and/or multicultural) as possible?

Heritage groups, municipalities should encourage all constituencies to celebrate their holiday traditions.
Having personalized items that can be customizable for any holiday
The new inclusive is to do lots of niche activities
Let the historic places speak for themselves. The best places evolve and change with the times if we let them

There was also some discussion about what topics participants would like to see in the 2012 #builtheritage chats. Some suggestions included focusing on main street design issues, preservation 2.0, or the integration of youth in heritage groups.

Collection Glimpse: The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Arcvhies

2011-12-07T14:13:00.001-05:00

This is the first post in a new series of posts entitled "Collection Glimpses." Each post in the series will focus on a unique collection, innovative repository, or a not well known cultural heritage institution.

We are family button- Karen Andrews. CLGA

The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA) is located in Toronto, Ontario and was founded in 1979. CLGA aims to "acquire, preserve, organize, and give public access to information and materials in any medium, by and about LGBT people, primarily produced in or concerning Canada." Currently CLGA is the second largest LGBT archive in the world.

The CLGA's archival holdings are unique not only in their subject matter but in the inclusion of nontraditional archival material types. For example, the CLGA has an extensive collection of t-shirts, buttons, matchbooks, erotica, and other material related the the Canadian LGBT community. The CLGA also has a variety of more traditional archival material including personal and organizational records, photographs, artwork, cartographic material, and audio-visual items.

In addition to the extensive holdings of the CLGA, the Archives has an rich publication history. Since 1979, the CLGA has published or helped publish 15 works on Gay and Lesbian heritage and culture.

The current downside of the CLGA is the limited hours the Archive is open to the public. Recently, this lack of on site availability has been partially compensated by the digitized holdings which can be browsed and searched online. However, currently only a small percentage of items have been made available online and most researchers are still reliant on the physical holdings of the CLGA.

Despite the limited hours, the CLGA is the best resource for primary source material on the Canadian LGBT heritage. The grassroots and community based nature of the CLGA is evident in its holdings, collection policies, and outreach.

Photo credit: Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Heritage Gift Giving

2011-12-05T08:37:00.001-05:00

Tree of books

It's that time of year where many of us are scrambling to find the perfect gift for a loved one. Recently, a number of blogs and organizations have been posting gift suggestions for the heritage lovers in your life. Some of my favourite posted so far, include:

National Trust for Historic Preservation holiday gift guide. This guide provides links to National Trust Historic Sites gift shops and includes a number of unique heritage items. However, be warned that shipping costs vary between gift shops listed and at times is a bit pricey.
The five Christmas Gifts for Heritage Lovers list proposed by Kayla Jonas over at Adventures in Heritage provides great suggestions for heritage people in the GTA area.
The ArchivesInfo blog recently included some great suggestions for homemade gifts to create for those who fancy heritage and history.

Additionally, any of the heritage aficionados I know would love:

A subscription to Canada's History Magazine. It's a great read for people inside and outside academia interested in Canadian History.
An annual membership to a local museum, art gallery, or heritage site.
For the archival minded: a copy of Closed Stacks, Open Shutters.

Photo credit: flickr (shawncalhoun)

Sharing Archival Photographs in a Digital World

2011-12-01T07:50:00.001-05:00

Check out my latest post at the ActiveHistory.ca site. The post talks about options for cultural heritage organizations looking to share photograph collections online through free or low coast image hosting and image sharing sites.

Living History: Holy Walk

2011-11-28T10:28:00.001-05:00

Last week I attended the Bruce Mines "Holy Walk." The idea behind the event is to tell a non-denominational version of the Christian Christmas story in an interactive way. Participants are taken on a walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem and experience the sights and sounds of the era during the walk.

The Holy Walk has been going on for almost 20 years and is put together by local volunteers. Over 150 volunteers take part in the three day performance of the event and work to make the Walk a unique experience. This year's event drew over 2,000 people and raised over $10,000.

The Walk experience was like being in the middle of a living interactive history. There were live animals, character actors, and period structures. Following the Walk I began to consider the potential of using a Walk to depict other historical journeys and events. Perhaps using a Walk to explore the settlement of early pioneers, the journey of Lewis and Clark, or wartime events.

Have you ever participated in a similar Walk?

Photo Credit: Tom Keenan, Sault Star

December Reading

2011-11-23T15:39:00.001-05:00

As the month of December approaches so does long hours spent driving to visit family. Luckily, more often than not I am passenger on these trips and I tend to use the time to get some reading done. Books on my current reading list include:

Unsettling the Settler Within by Paulette Regan. This book has been on my reading list since April when Laura Moadokoro discussed the work in "History in Turbulent" times in an ActiveHistory.ca post.

Collections and Objections: Aboriginal Material Culture in Southern Ontario by Michelle Hamilton.

Manufacturing National Park Nature by J. Keri Cronin. This works looks at the contrived nature of Canada's national parks.

Making Oral History Relevant: The Legacy Project

2011-11-22T14:28:00.001-05:00

The Legacy Project began in 2004 with Karl Pillemer Professor at Cornell University. Pillemer began by collecting 'practical' advice from elderly people in America by having them answer "What are the most important lessons you have learned over the course of your life?" This initiative resulted in over 1500 people over 70 years old describing their personal life lessons and experiences.

The main portion of Legacy Project site is a 'browse by life lesson type' section. This portion of the site includes textual transcripts of elders descriptions of important lessons. The Legacy Project also has a YouTube channel where video versions of the talks with some the elders interviewed can be watched. I wish the site included more video or audio content, reading the transcripts is interesting but doesn't provide the same dimension as video.

What initially drew me to this project was no where in it does Karl Pillemer discuss the fact that he is essentially undertaking an oral history project. Pillmer focused more on the present day applications of the knowledge provided by the interviewed persons. The appeal from a historical stand point of these modern day applications of oral history is that they have the potential to almost 'trick' the general public into take a glimpse into the past.

What Middletown Read

2011-11-21T14:54:00.001-05:00

The What Middle Town Read Project is a searchable database based on the records of the Muncie (Indiana) Public Library from November 5, 1891 to December 3, 1902. The database includes records of all the books that were checked out during this time period.

The data used for this project was compiled based on ledgers found by Professor Frank Felsenstein of Ball State University. These ledgers are essentially circulation records and contain lists all of its patrons, books, and circulation transactions from 1891to 1902.

Users can search the circulation records by patron name, book title, book, author, subjects, and transaction date. Under the patron field is is also possible to search by patron birthplace, sex, race, material status, and occupation. Results also include supplemental patron data from the city directory and census information.

This is a great resource and work has already been done to use this data set to look at larger social trends.
The article "This Book is 199 Years Overdue: The wondrous database that reveals what Americans checked out of the library a century ago" by John Poltz examines some of the historical implications of the Middle Town Read data.

I'm curious if any other libraries have made their old circulation records available and searchable online.

Looking Back: 201 Posts Later

2011-11-18T14:07:00.001-05:00

Credit: kusito

I started the Historical Reminiscents blog in September 2008. The blog was initially started as part of a Digital History course I was taking during my MA in Public History at UWO. Since then I've graduated, and held a number of positions including: historical researcher, collections assistant, a digitization facilitator, and archives technician. Yesterday also marked my 200th post on this blog.

In the spirit of reminiscing, here are some of the most read and some of my favourite posts from the past:

2008
-A post on Web Activism and the multiplicity of options (and consequences) in a digital world.

2009
-A readings inspired post on, How to Forge Public History from the Land
-The Intersection of Art and Technology which looks at the work of Dr Maurizio Seracin

2010
-Looking at the independent digital composure of music in Emily Howell: A Digital Composer
-The importance of Historical Societies and Community Heritage

2011
-Heritage Preservation and Adaptive Reuse: Evergreen Brick Works
- As part of the Natural Heritage blog post series, a post on Point Pelee
-Oral History and the Act of Listening

Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research

2011-11-17T15:35:00.001-05:00

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) recently released, Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research by Laura Schmidt. The guide focuses on how researchers utilize archives and outlines the best way to approach archival research.

In addition to provide useful information for researchers the guide includes a number of guidelines and policies that most archival institutions have to develop at one time or another. For example, the chapter on Typical Usage Guidelines in Archival Repositories outlines a list of common reading room rules and restrictions. This chapter is a great place to start if your institution is looking to develop a policy on what patrons are allows to bring into a reading room.

The Guide's chapter outline is as follows:

The Massey Lectures

2011-11-16T14:17:00.001-05:00

This year marks the 50th anniversary of CBC's Massey Lectures. The lecture series is named after Vincent Massey, Canada's first Canadian born Governor General. Each year the CBC Radio (now in collaboration with the House of Anansi Press, and Massey College in the University of Toronto) invites a well known scholar to present his original research in a lecture series that is later broadcast nation wide.

This year's lecturer was Adam Gopnik, who's talk was entitled "Winter: Five Windows on the Season." In addition to Gopnik's contribution, the entire past 50 years of the Massey Lectures are now available online.

Closed Stacks, Open Shutters

2011-11-15T15:30:00.001-05:00

The Closed Stacks, Open Shutters: An Archivist Photobook became available today. The book initially started off as an idea for a sexy archivist calendar and is the result of a call for “sexy archivist” pictures and on Twitter.

All proceeds raised by the sales of the Photobook go towards next years Spontaneous Scholarships fund which helps pay the registration fee for some students and recent grads at the annual Society of American Archivists (SAA) conference.

Still not convinced? Kate over at ArchivesNext has a great list of the top five reasons to buy a copy.

Beachwood National Cemetery of Canada

2011-11-14T13:39:00.001-05:00

The Arlington National Cemetery in the United States is well known amongst Americans (and Canadians) as the national site historic Cemetery. The Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, Canada receives a faction of the visitors and publicity that the Arlington site does. Perhaps this difference relates to larger patriotic differences in Canada and United states. However, given the rise in dark tourism across the heritage field Beechwood may eventually become more well known to the Canadian people.

Established in 1873, the Beechwood Cemetery is the final resting place for over 75,000 Canadians, including our Canadian Forces Veterans, War Dead, RCMP members, Governors-General and Prime Minister. The Beechwood Cemetery was designated as the national Cemetery of Canada in 2009.

Some of the historical figures buried in Beechwood include: Sir Stanford Flemming, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden, and Tommy Douglas. Cemeteries of all shapes and sizes contain a wealth of genealogical and historical information, and tend to be well worth a visit if you can get over the potentially 'creepy' factory.

The Memory Project

2011-11-11T14:36:00.001-05:00

The Memory Project was started by the Historica--Dominion Institute with funding from Canadian Heritage. The project aims to capture the memories and experiences of all Second World War and Korean War veterans living in Canada. The project is bilingual and includes oral histories, artefacts, and digitized photographs. The stories that have been collected so far are available through a digital archive. This resource is an excellent place for students, teachers, researchers, all of those remembering our past .

Jill Lapore and the Politicization of Birth Control

2011-11-10T15:07:00.001-05:00

Margaret Sanger

The latest issue of the New Yorker contained an interesting article by Harvard history Professor Jill Lepore on the history of politicization of birth control and abortion. Unfortunately the original article, Birthright, is behind the New Yorker's pay wall, however an NPR interview and the New Yorker Out Loud provide a decent summary's over Lepore's work.

Lepore's work highlights the development of the birth control movement under Margaret Sanger and the later attachment of politics and religion to the issue. It is interesting to note that initially many clergy, church organizations, and politicians were pro birth control and held starkly different positions than they do today. Lepore's article also expands on the fundamental shift the birth control movement took as it evolved from American Birth Control League to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Lepore also aim to tie in present day politics and view points into her examination of the past.

The article plays into the large context and values of the period and overall provides an interesting political history approach to a topic which has traditionally been explored under the guise of women's history or the history of sexuality.

What are examples of other political approaches to the history of birth control?

Photo credit: buttonknee

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

2011-11-09T14:36:00.001-05:00

Edmund Fitzgerald lifeboat

Tomorrow marks the 36th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sunk with the loss of the entire crew in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975. The wreck was made famous and engrained in the minds of Canadians by the Gordon Lightfoot song which describes the wreck.

From the Archives:

The CBC Digital Archives has the broadcast footage from the night of the wreck.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum holds the bell from the Fitzgerald, as well as search tape footage.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum also holds and annual remembrance ceremony for the wreck - this year's service happens at 7pm tomorrow evening.

Photo Credit: shipwrecklog.com

American Heritage Vegetables

2011-11-08T12:56:00.002-05:00

Last week's #builtheritage twitter chat on food and preservation provided an abundance of interesting resource material. This week I stumbled across another great food history resource. American Heritage Vegetables is a great database of historical vegetables created by the Center for Digital Humanities of the University of South Carolina. The site focuses on cultivation practices, popular varieties, and recipes for vegetables found in American kitchens and gardens prior to the twentieth century.

The site is searchable and is a great resource for anyone looking to integrate food heritage into their programming. My only complaint is the way in which the recipes are laid out on the site - they are written in paragraph formatting which seems a bit daunting to someone looking to try cooking something in 19th century style.

Hidden No Longer: Keeping Indigenous Heritage Alive

2011-11-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

If you're a member of the Canadian Museums Association you should soon be receiving the November/December issue of Muse. This month's cover article, "Hidden No Longer: Keeping Indigenous Heritage Alive" is written by yours truly.

The article focuses on the role heritage museums have played in presenting indigenous culture and history to the general public. It highlights the 'Ksan Historical Village and Museum, the Woodland Cultural Centre, and the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre as examples of institutions which have strove to accurately and inclusively present and display Indigenous culture.

Coffee Table History Books

2011-11-06T14:33:00.002-05:00

Bookstores are rife with picturesque coffee table books these days. When browsing I tend to do a cursory scan of the coffee table books related to history. Some of the most common topics are built heritage, pictorial biographies of public figures, local history, and the history of everyday topics like beer.

I particularly enjoy the books that focus on built heritage. Some of my favourites are a book on the construction of outhouses and another book on the architecture styles of barns in Ontario. Both of these works are comprised mostly of pictures, with explanatory text as supplementary information.

I recently discovered an old (1964) copy of The Ancestral Roof: Domestic Architecture in Upper Canada by Clarke Irwin on my bookshelf. Unlike a lot of modern day coffee table books, Irwin's work is more text based with pictures as supplemental to his discussion of architectural styles.

The text heavy style of Irwin's book made me consider the evolution of visual histories and popular publishing. I'm willing to bet that the majority of the public are far more willing to buy a pictorial history of the CPR then they are a giant tome detailing the rise of rail transportation in Canada. But perhaps, pictures can be used to inspire a more detailed discussion of a topic and can be integrated into traditional historical approaches to reach a greater audience.

Canadian Public History

2011-11-05T10:38:00.000-04:00

My earlier lament about the state of the Canadian public history community needs an update. Some great news for public history in Canada was announced yesterday. The National Council on Public History is coming to Canada in 2013. The annual NCPH conference will be held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 17-20, 2013. The call for proposals has been included below:

“Knowing your Public(s)—The Significance of Audiences in Public History”
2013 Annual Meeting, National Council on Public History
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 17-20, 2013
In 2013 the National Council on Public History will meet at the Delta Ottawa City Centre, in the heart of downtown Ottawa, Canada, with Canada’s Parliament buildings, historic ByWard market, national museums and historic sites, river trails, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Rideau Canal, and numerous cafes and restaurants within easy walking distance. The program committee invites panel, roundtable, workshop, working group, and individual paper proposals for the conference. The Call for Poster sessions will be issued in fall 2012.
As Canada’s capital, Ottawa is the national centre of the museum, archival and heritage community, and its historical and cultural attractions draw 5 million national and international tourists annually. Ottawa’s two universities have strong connections to public and applied history. The federal government employs many history practitioners and creates a market for private consultants. With so many diverse fields of Public History theory and practice represented, Ottawa is an ideal place to consider issues and ideas associated with the theme of “Knowing your Public(s)—The Significance of Audiences in Public History.”
These could include:

the changing nature of the public and the evolution of the discipline over the last forty years;
how the public and Public Historians influence each other in the production of history;
the effects of changing approaches to public participation, reciprocity, and authority on Public History theory and practice;
the impact of digital media on expanding or excluding public engagement;
generational differences including Public History for the millennial generation;
intersections between Public History practised at universities and in the broader community;
issues related to working with ‘closed’ audiences in fields such as litigation, or government-directed, research;
access to and use of grey literature
the increasing need for audience relevance in times of economic recession;
and diverse cultural and multi-national approaches to commemorating events such as the bi-centennial of the War of 1812 or the 60th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War.

We welcome submissions from all areas of the field, including teaching, museums, archives, heritage management, tourism, consulting, litigation-based research, and public service. Proposals may address any area of Public History, but we especially welcome submissions which relate to our theme. Case studies should evoke broader questions about practice in the field. The program committee prefers complete session proposals but will endeavor to construct sessions from proposals for individual presentations. Sessions are 1.5 hours (working groups may be longer); significant time for audience discussion should be included in every session. The committee encourages a wide variety of forms of conversation, such as working groups, roundtables, panel sessions, and professional development workshops, and urges participants to dispense with the reading of papers. Participants may be members of only one panel, but may also engage in working groups, introducing sessions and leading discussions. See the NCPH website at www.ncph.org for details about submitting your proposal and be sure to peruse past NCPH programs for ideas about new session/event formats.

Proposals are due by July 15, 2012.
All presenters and other participants are expected to register for the annual meeting. If you have questions, please contact the program committee co-chairs or the NCPH program director.
2013 Program Committee Co-Chairs
Michelle A. Hamilton
Director of Public History
The University of Western Ontario
mhamilt3@uwo.ca
Jean-Pierre Morin
Treaty Historian
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
JeanPierre.Morin@aadnc-aandc.gc.ca
NCPH Program Director
Carrie Dowdy
dowdyc@iupui.edu
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When Forever is Only Temporary: The Maple Leaf For Ever

2011-11-04T07:53:00.002-04:00

The original The Maple Leaf For Ever song was composed by Alexander Muir in October 1867. The song became somewhat of an unofficial anthem of English Canadians until the mid 20th Century, children were taught the song in schools and it was almost as popular as O'Canada. The original lyrics to the song included many references to Canada's origins and its ties to Britain, but included little reference to France or Canada's francophone population.

In 1997, the CBC radio show Metro Morning ran a contest to find more commentary/politically correct lyrics to the song. The contest was won Vladimir Radian, his version of the song removes the majority of the references to colonialism and acknowledges the existence of French Canadians. Since Radian's version of the song debuted other Canadian singers such as Anne Murray and Michael Bublé have sang the revised lyrics at public events (eg. the Olympics).

It's interesting to see how the original lyrics have changed so drastically in the revised version of the song. I'm undecided if the new lyrics remove the original context of the song or merely revise it for a new generation. I would be interested to hear other opinions on the matter.

November Built Heritage Chat Summary

2011-11-03T07:47:00.001-04:00

This month's #builtheritage chat topic was the integration of food and heritage. Prior to the chat actually starting @lloydalter posted a great link to food posters from the past. The slide show is well worth a look if you're interested in the evolution of commercialism, food history, or just need a laugh.

The first portion of the chat focused on the question In what ways do you see food/foodways intersecting with preservation? There were a lot of interesting connections made between food and preservation during this portion of the chat, including:

The idea that everyone needs to eat and drink, and that looking at food trends and changes throughout the past is an interesting way to approach heritage.
@stevemouzon suggested that historically market squares and gardens were the focus of towns
wanderu noted that farms are cultural heritage landscapes, barns, silos, cheese factories often have heritage value.
It was also suggested that food is an element of cultural heritage that's often strongly place-based but also has lots of border-crossing potential

Additionally food and food smells have the power to conjure up personal and family memories

The second question of the chat was How have/could you use food in your programs? Responses included:

@jonaskayla: mentioned that @historicplaces has food app that includes recipes from across Canada, some date from as far back as the 18th century
Designing menus based on period foods or demonstrating period cooking methods was suggested
@delaneyhf suggested checking out the Brooklyn Historical Society fall programs as examples of involving food in programming

The third segment of the chat highlighted the question How do we protect our agricultural heritage when it is in working landscapes? Some of the highlights were:

There was a general theme that continuing to work the land and keeping it farmed traditionally helps preserve this part of our heritage.
Reusing agricultural buildings such as barns and silos for other purposes instead of demolishing them.
Need to recognize agricultural heritage in our urban landscapes - old wells, old houses, old roads.

The chat concluded with a discussion of How does and #preservation intersect, if at all, with sustainability? Some of the intersections thought of were;

@delaneyhf noted that "Sustainability is most often achieved through the use / promotion of local resources, be that buildings or food"
The idea that cultural heritage is about ideas and concepts and goes beyond physical heritage.
Overall there was a general feeling that history, preservation, heritage, and food are integral parts of how we should live our lives.

The next #builtheritage chat is on December 7th at 4pm and will deal with holiday promotion in the heritage field.

Photo Credit: United Way of the Lower Mainland

Update: Today the National Museum of American Heritage Blog featured an interesting post on "American History told Through Squash."

Canada Reads Non-Fiction 2012

2011-11-02T08:48:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, the shortlist for CBC's Canada Reads 2012 was announced. This year the contest is focusing exclusively on works of non-fiction and the shortlist includes a couple of history based works. The list includes:

The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown
Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton
The Game by Ken Dryden
Louis Riel by Chester Brown
On a Cold Road by Dave Bidini
Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
The Tiger by John Vaillant
Shake Hands with the Devil by Roméo Dallaire

Paris 1919 deals with the peace talks that took place after WWI and takes a look a both the social and political upheaval that existed following the war. I'm also intrigued by Louis Riel by Chester Brown. The work focuses on the life of Riel, but does so in as a graphic novel. The graphic novel medium has the potential to reach audiences that may not normally be interested in a traditional work of history. I'm interested in how accurately Brown's work depicts Riel and the era.

Do you know of any other non-fiction graphic novels based on historical events?

Post-Halloween Chocolate Thoughts

2011-11-01T17:05:00.000-04:00

If you're like most people you are currently in a post-Halloween candy and chocolate coma. Karlee Sapoznik wrote a great blog post, "When People Eat Chocolate, They are Eating My Flesh: Slavery and the Dark Side of Chocolate," for Activehistory.ca in 2010, that deals with the dark side of chocolate production.

Some chocolate producers, such as Cadbury have made recent efforts to gain fair trade certification for some of their products, however at this point none of the major chocolate producers are using elusively fair trade coco sources. Additionally, as Karlee's article points out there is some question as to if fair trade chocolate is actually any better than non fair trade items. Regardless, Karlee's article is definitely worth a read given the abundance of Halloween chocolate around at the moment.

Seasonal Exhibits: Holiday Heritage

2011-10-31T08:38:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year, Christmas merchandise has already started to fill the malls, and the beginning of the commercial holiday season is looming ever closer. In the heritage field a lot of organizations are beginning to plan and develop exhibits and activities that coincide with the upcoming holidays.

As a child, one of my favourite holiday related exhibits was put on by the Dufferin County Museum and Archives. It focused on old toys and games. I remember thinking it was like seeing a window into the holidays off the past. A lot of museums and archives use the holiday season to display items from their collection relating to the holidays, winter, and seasonal celebrations.

Many heritage organizations also use the holidays to their advantage by holding fundraisers and seasonal workshops. Bake sales, wreath making tutorials, Christmas teas, food drives, and craft/art shows are some of the common fundraisers. Heritage house and light tours are also often undertaken during the holiday season.

What are some of your heritage holiday memories? What is your institution doing in preparation for the upcoming holiday season?

Photo Credit: sickofstatistics

Quilts Galore

2011-10-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

In my previous job as a Digitization Facilitator, for an OurOntario project, I had the opportunity to work with a number of great local history collections. A few of these collections contained quilts made and donated by community members. I was instantly impressed by the work and community memory contained in so many of these handmade quilts. A number of the quilts were done as community fundraisers or as keepsakes and have local family names stitched onto them - a great source for any local historian.

Since my first introduction to quilts in a historic context I've continued to be amazed by the work that goes into quilt making. Some of my favourite quilts from museum collections include:

From the Huron Shores Museum, a Pink and White fundraiser quilt. Community members paid a small fee to stitch their name into the quilt. Additional details for this quilt can be seen here.


Circa 1940


Detail of a section of the names on the quilt.

An intricate scrap style quilt held by the McCord Museum.


Crazy quilt, M965.76.1 1897, made in 1897

The Castle Kilbridge National Historic Site has placed a virtual exhibit on the Virtual Museum of Canada which focuses on quilts given as wedding presents. The quilt below is an example of the items contained in that exhibit.

"Rising Sun," made in 1885

Tangible History: Artifacts as Gateways to the Past

2011-10-26T08:10:00.004-04:00

Powder Flask, McCord Museum, M975.61.76

My most recent post can be seen over on the ActiveHistory.ca site. The post, "Tangible History: Artifacts as Gateways to the Past" focuses on the use of artifacts as primary sources in historical research and in educational settings.

Rainy Day Linkspam

2011-10-21T08:09:00.002-04:00

This week's interesting sites and activities relating (sometimes tangentially) to the heritage world:

The Occupy Wall Street archival project is collecting materials related to the protest, including materials include ephemera, signs, photos, videos, websites, and possibly oral history accounts.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that hyperlinks are not considered libel.
A great ActiveHistory.ca post, "From Pretoria to Winnipeg? The Potential for Transnational Histories of Reconciliation" by Laura Madokoro. The post focuses on Reconciliation in South Africa and takes an interesting look at the development of Freedom Park in Pretoria.
Next week (October 24th - 30th) is Open Access Week. Lots of libraries, higher education institutions, community groups, and scholarly associations have activities going on to raise awareness about open access initiatives.

Writers' Group and Popular Publishing

2011-10-20T08:30:00.003-04:00

Photo Credit: jjpacres

I live in a rural area outside of a small town of just over 1,300 people. The thought of joining a writers group had never occurred to me and I was surprised to find that my local community was actually home to an active writers' group. Amazement of existence aside, earlier this year I gathered up some courage and joined the group.

The group meets monthly and is made up of people with a wide range of backgrounds and writing goals, including: a full-time technical writer, published and aspiring fiction writers, a reporter for a local paper, and people more interested in personal writing than publication.

The group has facilitated a reexamination of my writing style, has helped me gain confidence in my writing, and has inspired me to chase some of those seemingly far off writing goals. Since joining the group I've started to blog more often, wrote a short paper and presented it at a local conference, and I've had an article accepted by a museum association publication.

This community of writers that I didn't even know I wanted or needed has been great positive support network and has helped inspire ideas for both fiction and non-fiction writing.

Do you find talking with others about your writing (academic or otherwise) helpful to the writing or revision process?

Oral History and the Act of Listening

2011-10-19T10:35:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit: ky_olsen

The October-November issue of Canada's History featured an interesting article titled "Guided by Voices" by Mark Abley. This article focused on the oral history practices, using Concordia University's Life Stories of Montrealers Displaces by War, Genocide, and Other Human Rights Violations project. (A great project that is well worth checking out if you're interested in oral history, the history of marginalized groups, or just hearing some breathtakingly emotional experiences).

Abley frames the Life Stories project within the large oral history practice and focuses on the benefits and challenges met by those undertaking any type of oral history. The theme of the article is summed up in the words Abley uses to conclude his writing, "oral history can be a catalyst, not just for academic research, but for reflection, for dialogue, and for political action." The nature of the Life Story's project exemplifies the importance of oral history. Montreal Life Stories has successfully united university researchers, artists, community partner groups, volunteers, new media professionals, and other interested parties.

Additionally, the project has highlighted how valuable including the human and emotional element in history can be. Without personal accounts, written or oral, history has the potential to become a bland list of dates and descriptions. However, oral history is not without its difficulties, there are numerous ethical considerations that must be undertaken prior to beginning an oral history project, especially if that material is to be placed online. Albey notes, "You're dealing with living people who trust you. So our consent forms give layers of choices: They're not copyright agreements, they're right-of-use agreements." The human aspect of oral history must never be forgotten - communities, traditions, and personal preferences need to respected when undertaking oral history interviews.

Abley's article helped spur a lot of positive thoughts about oral history practice, but also highlighted the need to carefully consider all facets before one undertakes such a project.

Canadian Public History: Where Art Thou?

2011-10-17T14:33:00.000-04:00

Credit: Nikopol_TO

Public Historians work in a range of positions within and outside the heritage sector. Public historians can be found in museums, archives, libraries, academic institutions, corporations, not-for-profits, the film industry, research firms, and other organizations.

In the United States the National Council on Public History is an active professional organization that represents, offers services to, and connects public historians. Currently, Canada has no similar active national organization. There is a public history working group under the Canadian Historical Association, but many public historians outside of academia are not involved with this group.

Currently, the institution I work at is a member of:

Each group has a very specific focus and offers a variety of professional development tools, connections, and resources based on its focus. A Public Historian working in an archive may find the occasional article in Archivaria or The American Archivist which approaches archival principal from a public history view point, but that's probably all the PH content one will get.

I've taken to reading The Public Historian and Public History News to get my Public History fix - but since both are American based publications I'm often level longing for Canadian content. ActiveHistory.ca content helps fill in some of the void in Canadian Public History. But I'd love to hear any suggestions on where else to turn for new Canadian Public History reading and collaboration.

Pest Control and Your Family Photos

2011-10-12T11:51:00.001-04:00

Mice, silverfish, cockroaches, and a whole pile of other creepy crawlies can do serious damage to your collection of photographs, letters, scrapbooks, and family memorabilia. This damage can take the form of nesting, eating, and burrowing in your paper based materials.

Most libraries and archives maintain stringent Integrated Pest Management (IPM) systems to protect their holdings from unwanted pests. These IPM systems are often far too time consuming and expensive for the average person to undertake. So what can you do to protect your family's history?

Storage

The majority of pests like dark damp places. Whenever possible avoid storing items in basements, garages, crawlspaces, or attics.
If you know where pests may be entering your house, eg. poorly sealed windows or doors, block off the entry route.
When practical store items in sealed containers NOT cardboard boxes that will deteriorate when wet and can easily be entered by most pests.

Eliminating Pests

Preventative action is better than reactive action, but where necessary there are methods you can take to try and eliminate pests. The method you choose will also depend on what type of pest is in your collection and how comfortable you are with each pest control method.

React at the first signs of pests - droppings or signs of nesting. Do not wait for the problem to get worse.
Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) has a great chart (page 1 and page 2) that outlines which type of control method is applicable to each pest type.
CCI's full pest management guidelines can be seen here.

What other methods have you used to protect your family's photographs and documents?

Full Disclosure: This post may have been inspired by encountering my cat playing with a mouse in my living room this morning.

Day of Digital Archives

2011-10-07T08:23:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was the first annual Day of Digital Archives. The Day was created to raise awareness about the nature of digital archives and digital archival material. The tweets from the day were archived using Twapper Keeper and be read here.

There was also a number of great blog posts done for the event. Some of my favourite posts included: Day in the Life: Digital Archives Educator, The Challenge of Choices, and Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Archiving the Sugar Quill (yes, that is a Harry Potter reference). Overall the day spurred a lot of great reading focusing on the different methods used to begin handing born digital material, the importance of archiving digital formats, and the importance of saving born digital material.

Link Friday

2011-09-30T12:06:00.001-04:00

Some of the interesting stuff I came across this week, all of which could potentially spur individual blog posts - but in most cases someone else has already done a great job of summarizing it.

Culture Days is this weekend. A lot of local museums, historic sites, and art institutions have free programming. Check out what's going on in your area or follow the hashtag #CultureDays
Nuit Blanche is on in Toronto this upcoming Saturday.
Library and Archives Canada announced this week that it has digitized the Canadian Gazette from 1841-1997.
The Canadian Air & Space Museum is being faced with eviction from its historical building, and is slated to be replaced with a hockey rink. Some of this year's MA Public History class at UWO blogged about this recently (The cost of history in the 21st century and Hockey vs. History).
Next Wednesday at 4pm is October's #builtheritage twitter chat. This month's topic is community revitalization.

Banned Books Week

2011-09-26T09:03:00.001-04:00

The American Library Association's national banned books week started on Saturday September 24th and runs until October 1st. The week is meant to celebrate the freedom to read and brings attention to the issue of intellectual freedom and book banning.

During this week bookstores and libraries throughout the United States prominently display books which have made it onto banned books lists or which are in danger of being banned.

A map of the book bans and challenges from 2077-2011 in the US can be seen here. The ALA has also set up a YouTube channel which features videos of people reading excepts from banned books. You can also follow and comment on the week's events using the twitter hashtag #bannedbooksweek

Archives and Google Analytics

2011-09-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

The Spring/Summer issue of the American Archivist has been sitting half read on my coffee table for weeks taunting me. I finally got around to finishing it and found the article, "Using Web Analytics to Improve Online Access to Archival Resources" by Christopher J. Prom particularly relevant.

Prom's work provides a step by step look at the implementation of web analytics in archival digital development. The article focuses on the case study example of the University of Illinois Archives' use of Google Analytics to track user trends.

This case study highlights how analytics can help garner information about which portions of the site are most used, common searches, user interaction with the site, and other specifics about site usage. Prom also presents examples of Analytics shaping site development and facilitating the reconstruction of digital initiatives to suit the needs of users.

I know many heritage organizations use analytics to compile site statistics, as these stats often serve as useful tools to show boards that the site is working because it received X number of hits. However, I would be intrigued to know if other institutions have taken a similar approach to the University of Illinois Archives and used analytics to gain more knowledge about the effectiveness and useability of their site and digital content.

Indigenous Knowledge and Mapping

2011-09-20T14:13:00.002-04:00

Washow Sectional Map, Manitoba Historical Maps

One of the project's currently being undertaken byOne of the project's currently being undertaken by Carleton University’s Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) focuses on the display of Indigenous knowledge and culture through the use of cybercartography.

This initiative has resulted in the creation of cybercatrographic atlases which incorporate interactive perspectives on themes such as homelessness, place names, traditional language, traditional knowledge, and others. These atlases and the project as a whole are completely open source and do an excellent job of blending geomatics, historical landscapes, and technology. Each atlas contains interactive features such as media clips, photographs, video, traditional languages, and historic maps.

Currently the GCRC is working on nine different atlases focusing on different aspects of Indigenous knowledge and culture. The atlases include:

The "Living Cybercartographic Atlas of Indigenous Perspectives and Knowledge" is a good place to start if you're interested in exploring the variety of resources complied in each atlas.

Sylvan Circle

2011-09-18T19:29:00.000-04:00

Sadly the area I live in doesn't have any Doors Open events going on this year. Despite this shortfall, the area does have a number of self directed art tours going on this fall. This weekend I took in the Sylvan Circle Tour which features 12 stops and over 50 artists and artisans.

Highlights:

Getting a chance to go into the old community halls and churches that served as venues for this tour.
The three studio stops on the tour, which let you visit the artist's workshop.
Seeing the variety of pottery, paintings, and crafts which are made by locals. Some high points for me were:

Weaving done by Russ Mason
Seeing Susan Levesque's unique style of using gourds as canvas for painting
Stone jewelry by Jeanne Dumas

Sadly, most of the artists that participated on the Sylvan tour do not have an online presence. But in most cases a short bio and contact info can be found here.

Our Roots Our Future

2011-09-14T15:53:00.000-04:00

CC licensed, Steven Burke.

This week the Sudbury CBC radio programs Morning North and Points North are running a series called Our Roots: Our Future. This series is focusing on the history of immigration in Sudbury. Despite having lived in Sudbury for awhile, I had no conception of the diverse cultural past of the city's residents.

So far the series has included segments on:

Well worth a listen if you're interested in local history or immigration patterns.

Engaging Our Community Conference

2011-09-12T08:02:00.001-04:00

On the weekend I spoke at the Engaging Our Community Conference held at Algoma University. The panel I took part in, Beyond Paper: Participatory Past in the Community Archives, focused on the concept of archives as places of engagement. My presentation looked at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre as an example of an archival institution that strives to involve community partners through outreach programming and participatory practices.

My portion of the presentation can be seen here.

Musarians: Libraries, Museums, and Archives

2011-09-08T15:49:00.000-04:00

The Centre for the Future of Museums blog featured an interesting guest post by AAM staffer Lauren Silberman, entitled "Musarians: The bastard children of museums and libraries."

Silberman paints an interesting portrait of a combined Librarian/Museum professional and highlights some of the overlapping interests of both professions. Silberman's post also sparked my thoughts about the overlap between libraries, archives, and museums.

One of the first cultural heritage organizations I worked in contained a museum, archive, and a local history library. However, despite containing all three types of institutions the organization was dominated by museum practices -- the archive was more of a paper museum than an archival institution. Librarians, archivists, and museum professionals all have different skill sets and strengths, there are overlaps but I can see value in each distinct profession. The idea of a Musarian is interesting but I think would be more of a compromise between professions than an ideal sharing of resources.

Remembering the Triangle Factory Fire

2011-09-02T09:43:00.001-04:00

The July/August issue of Archival Outlook published by the Society of American Archivists contains an interesting article on the history of the Triangle Factory Fire and the redevelopment of a commemorative website about the fire.

The re-launched site in January 2011 by the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University's ILR School. This relaunch was timely as 201l marks the centennial anniversary of the fire. Despite including a detailed description of the development and content of the website the Archival Outlook article didn't actually include a link to the site. Thankfully Google came to my rescue, and the site can be found here.

Some of the unique parts of the site include:

Fire victims list. This list provides names, details, and supporting documentation about the 146 people who died in the fire. This section also includes background on how the lists were compiled.
Audio recordings of survivor interviews.
A collection of sounds and plays about the fire.

The site includes a mix of primary and secondary sources and is a great place to start for students and others looking to learn more about the Triangle Factory Fire of 1911.

100@100: Profiles of Centenarians

2011-08-25T09:40:00.000-04:00

The Current on CBC has an interesting ongoing feature this year, which focuses on centenarians in Canada. The program 100@100 aims to speak to 100 Canadians over 100 years old in 2011. The program seems to have slowed down for the summer, but the Current has managed to speak with 29 centenarians so far. So unless the pace picks up greatly I'm not entirely sure the goal of recording 100 centenarians will be met.

I was initially drawn to this program as it allows people from all walks of life participate in oral history. The program also presents the memories and stories of the participants in a manner that is reminiscent of a Grandparent sharing experience. It also emphasizes the importance of recording personal and family histories before all memories are lost. Overall, its a great program if your interested in Canada's oral history.

Returning Home: Repatriation and Missing Children

2011-08-24T06:14:00.000-04:00

My latest post "Returning Home: Repatriation and Missing Children" can be seen over on the Active History site. The post looks at the legacy and ongoing impact of the children that went missing or were buried without their families' knowledge while attending Residential School in Canada.

August 2011 #builtheritage Chat Summary

2011-08-10T19:27:00.002-04:00

August's #builtheritage twitter chat focused on under-served communities and how to reach those communities. The chat included great discussion and a couple of interesting side debates about the term preservation. The complete chat transcript can be found here. Next month's #builtheritage chat is slated for September 7th at 4pm and the tentative topic is collaboration.

The first portion of this month's chat focused on the question Who are preservation messages/sites/programs usually aimed towards? A lot of the responses suggested that preservation messages are often aimed towards the previously converted, and those already interested in preservation. There was also a discussion of what age groups of people are generally involved in heritage preservation. Some of the comments suggested that a lot of the 'official' type groups are aimed at retirees. However, @Wanderu noted that "Community blogs have resulted in a big increase in awareness of heritage and history amongst younger folks"

The second part of the chat dealt with What communities are being under served by the preservation movement? Responses mentioned immigrant communities, youth, rural populations, and low income areas. It was also pointed out that heritage and preservation needs to be made relevant to these communities and that appealing to emotion, telling a story, and engaging communities is essential.

The third segment of the chat highlighted How can you determine what will best serve that community? Suggestions included: listening to the community, being sensitive to needs, and combine education and consultation. A number of participants (@delaneyhf, @BuildingRevival, and @chouse17, @uglyshirt) also mentioned the importance of community engagement and the need to to include heritage in the planning stages).

The conclusion of the chat focused on the question of How can you connect with these groups? The responses in this section mirror the discussion earlier in the chat. Responses reaffirmed the importance of education, consultation, making people aware of resources, and finding common ground. The rural area of Tamworth Ontario was put forth by @ Wanderu as an example of engaging rural communities. @PresNation also mentioned the work that @laconservancy is doing at Wyvernwood as a good example of engagement.

French River Visitor's Centre

2011-08-10T11:01:00.000-04:00

Despite having driven by the French River rest stop and Visitor's Centre on Hwy 69 dozens of time, I hadn't been inside the facility until this past week. I was thoroughly surprised by Centre's content -- it has more interactive displays than most small museum curators dream of --one of the benefits of Provincial funding I suppose.

The current exhibits showcase the history of the French River area, the natural heritage of the area, and the stories of First Nations, French, and English explorers who came to French River. The displays highlight the unique architecture style of the building and features like the section of glass floor showcase the natural landscape of the area.

In addition to the centre, the rest stop includes great walking trails that follow the French River. There is also a walking bridge that crosses the river and provides and excellent view of the surrounding landscape. The French River Provincial Park also includes 290 campsites, canoeing routes, and fishing areas.

Heritage on Mackinac Island

2011-08-02T17:02:00.002-04:00

Last month I spent a day on Mackinac Island in Michigan. This excursion was filled with heritage gawking and a visits to living history sites.

Some of the trips’ highlights include:

Seeing the vibrant outreach programming at the St. Ignace Museums. Each Friday night during the summer months the St. Ignace museums put on educational programming. The evening I was there included a drum circle, and children's music programming.
Heritage buildings on the island. There is an overwhelming number of private and public buildings on the island which could be considered heritage residences. A number of these buildings also included descriptive signage or were open to visitors.
Great natural landscape. My favourite part being the arch rock, and the great views of Lake Huron.
Visiting Fort Mackinac

The Fort has great interactive programming for all ages. For example, there was an entire restored building at the fort that was geared completely to interactive displays for children. It included everything from dress up clothes, touch and feel exhibits, and a "solider instruction corner".
There is also a considerable effort to make the Fort feel as though it is still functioning. Cannon firings, actors in historical costumes, animated displays. and changing of the guards contributed to an overall old-time feel.

It was a great trip. Though, a word to the wise: July/August is the Island’s peak tourist season, I recommend avoiding the main street of the island after about 10 am, unless you enjoy copious amounts of people and touristy shops. Despite the crowded main street the rest of the island wasn’t nearly as crowded and there are tons of walking trails that are little used.

Library Day in the Life Project

2011-07-25T17:19:00.002-04:00

This week (July 25th - July 31st 2011) marks the seventh round of the Library Day in the Life Project. The project is a semi-annual event coordinated by Bobbi Newman. This event focuses on the digital sharing of the daily routines and works of librarians, library staff, and library students from all over the world. Participants share a week or day in their life via blogs, photos, videos, and twitter updates. It's a great way to learn what librarians in a variety of positions do and allows perspective librarians get a glimpse into the actual day to day activities of library professionals.

A full listing of this year's participants can be found here. The list of participants includes a number of great bloggers and some entertaining tweeters. You can also follow the hash tag #libday7 or read the saved tweets via Twapper Keeper or Netvibes.

London's Reform Club

2011-07-14T20:14:00.000-04:00

Ideas on CBC recently ran an interesting program on
London's Reform Club, also known as 104 Pall Mall.

The Reform Club was originally a private club restricted to men who pledged support for the Great Reform Act of 1832. Shortly after its establishment the Club developed as a political headquarters of the Library Party. Since approximately 1920 the Reform Club became purely social in nature and moved away from its original overtly political purpose. The Club is also known for its association with Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, as the club was the location where the idea of the journey was thought of.

The Ideas program provides a great audio tour and look at the history of this interesting historic site.

June's #builtheritage Chat

2011-07-06T18:45:00.002-04:00

The topic for June's #builtheritage twitter chat was heritage tourism. The chat was moderated by @PresConf and @jonaskayla. The chat provided an interesting look into the planning, organization, and success of heritage tourism.

The first portion of the chat focused on the question What tips do you have for starting a heritage tourism program in your community? Some of the suggestions included: starting by hosting an event that will engage the local community, gain the support of the local tourism board, and strive for inclusiveness of organizations in your community. @lloydalter brought forward the example of the Doors Open events as a successful heritage tourism program. This example created an interesting side discussion about what causes Doors Open to be so successful and how to raise money for a free event.

The second segment of the chat focused on the question What strategies do you have for building out your heritage tourism program? Some suggestions included working with the chamber of commerce, partnering with regional tourism programs, and promoting diverse programming. @jonaskayla mentioned Heritage Toronto's great walking tour program that is run entirely by volunteers. This walking tour program is a great example of a grassroots and low cost heritage tourism effort.

The third question in the chat was What is your favoruite heritage tourism place and why? A lot of great examples of heritage tourism sites were brought forth in this section, including: the Byward Market in Ottawa, the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, the distillery district in Toronto, and the Toronto railway heritage centre.

The final section of the chat focused on the question How do we ensure that heritage tourism is authentic? There was a ride range of responses to this question, but a number of them emphasized the need to find a balance in authenticity and accessibility. One of the more intriguing points in this portion of the chat was the idea that the authenticity of a building isn't always the same as an authentic visitor experience.

The next #builtheritage chat is scheduled for August 4th at 4pm, the tentative topic is under-served communities.

New UNESCO Sites

2011-07-05T19:15:00.001-04:00

Ogasawara Islands, Japan

Each year the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) revises its list of world heritage sites. The initiative to designate buildings, towns, landscapes, and other materials on an international scale began in 1972 following the ratification of the convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage.

This year's UNESCO meeting was held in June in Paris, France. During this meeting 25 additional heritage sites gained UNESCO designation. A range of sites were added, however the majority of the sites fall under the cultural heritage type of designation. The 25 additional sites include:

Natural properties:

Ningaloo Coast (Australia)
Ogasawara Islands (Japan)
Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley (Kenya)

Mixed natural and cultural properties:

Wadi Rum Protected Area (Jordan)

Cultural Properties

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison (Barbados)
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou (China)
Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia (Colombia)
The Persian Garden (Iran)
Konso Cultural Landscape (Ethiopia)
The Causses and the Cévennes, Mediterranean Agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape (France)
Fagus Factory in Alfeld (Germany)
Longobards in Italy. Places of the power (568-774 A.D.) (Italy)
Hiraizumi – Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing The Buddhist Pure Land (Japan)
Fort Jesus, Mombasa (Kenya)
Petroglyphs Complexes of the Mongolian Altai (Mongolia)
León Cathedral (Nicaragua)
Saloum Delta (Senegal)
Cultural Landscape of the Serra de Tramuntana (Spain)
Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe (Sudan)
Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps (Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia)
Ancient Villages of Northern Syria (Syrian Arab Republic)
Selimiye Mosque and its Social Complex (Turkey)
Cultural Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa Bint Saud and Oases Areas)
The Residence of Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans (Ukraine)
Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (Viet Nam)

Additionally, the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras) and the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (Indonesia) were added to the World Heritage in Danger list.

Avoiding Chaos: Conference and Workshop Planning

2011-06-29T08:09:00.000-04:00

My most recent post can be see over at the Active History group blog. The post focuses on conference and workshop planning strategies for heritage organizations.

Natural Heritage: Kootenay National Park

2011-06-26T15:12:00.003-04:00

This is the third post in a series focusing on Canada's natural heritage, and more specifically the preservation of this natural heritage through the Canadian Parks System. The first two posts can be seen here and here.

The Kootenay National Park, located in southwestern British Columbia, encompasses a portion of the rich natural heritage region of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Kootenay contains a variety of landscapes and well known landmarks- thrust-faulted mountains, landscapes sculptured by glaciers and water, hot springs, Marble Canyon, Sinclair Canyon and the Paint Pots.

Kootenay is also home to a range of plants and animals. The preservation of diverse nature of Kootenay's landscape is in part responsible for the success of so many different ecosystems within the park - plants from the alpine, subalpine and montane ecological zones can all be found within Kooteny.

In addition to the great natural landscape Kootenay is home to the only landmark in the parks system named after James Bernard Harkin. Harkin was a Canadian civil servant who is seen as the main advocate for the establishment of the Canadian Parks system. Mount Harkin in Kootenay National Park is named after Harkin and his contribution to Parks throughout Canada. A great article focusing on Harking by E.J. Hart appeared in the June-July 2011 issue of Canada's History.

PressForward and #Alt-Academy

2011-06-22T20:46:00.000-04:00

Today marked the announcement of two great open access digital humanities projects. The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media announced its newest initiative, PressForward. PressForward aims to use open source technology as a means of highlighting work that goes beyond traditional publishing methods. This initiative aims to promote open access, new methods of dissemination of online scholarship, and the availability to digital publishing platforms. The digital publications PressForward is launching with can be seen here. An excellent summary of PressForward can be seen on Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog.

Today also marked the announcement of #Alt-Academy, an open access collection of writings on alternative academic careers within the humanities. The term #alt-academy (often shortened #alt-ac) was coined by Bethany Nowviskie and generally refers to people with academic training who are seeking employment/are employed outside of the tenure track but still within the university realm. This newly released collection of works can be found on MediaCommons, a site which emphasizes user participation and community development.

Anne Linday's "Archives and Justice"

2011-06-15T20:19:00.000-04:00

One of the presentations I found particularly intriguing at the Association of Canadian Archivists conference was Anne Lindsay's presentation on Willard Ireland. Lindsay's presentation was a condensed version of an article she wrote for Archivaria. "Archives and Justice: Willard Ireland's Contribution to the Changing Legal Framework of Aboriginal Rights in Canada, 1963-1973" by Lindsay was recently published in the Spring 2011 issue of Archivaria.

Lindsay's work focuses on the role of British Columbia's Provincial Archivist Willard Ireland in the legal cases Regina v. White and Bob and Calder v. The Attorney General of British Columbia. This article uses Ireland's experience as a case example of the role archivists have in providing context to records and the impact which this context can have on present day interpretation of history. Lindsay's work also provides a semi-biographical account of Ireland's professional work and an introduction to the history of land claims in BC. "Archives and Justice" provides a good introduction to Ireland and the impact of archivists on the records they maintain.

Natural Heritage: Point Pelee

2011-06-11T09:50:00.001-04:00

This is the second post in a series focusing on Canada's natural heritage, and more specifically the preservation of this natural heritage through the Canadian Parks System.
The Point Pelee National Park is one of Canada's smallest national parks, however the park attracts approximately 300,000 visitors annually. The park's southern location - the park share the same latitude as Rome and California - contributes to a unique climate, animal habitat, and natural landscape.

Point Pelee Park's founding was based largely upon the work of the members of the Great Lakes Ornithological Club. The club saw Point Pelee as an ideal to spot to track the migration of numerous bird species. This interest in birds eventually became combined with the desire to preserve the natural landscape which attracted such a wide range of birds to Pelee. As a result of the efforts of the Club the park was established as a National Park in 1918.

Today, more than 370 species of birds have been spotted in the Point Pelee area and many of the visitors to the park are avid birdwatchers. In addition to an ideal location for migrating birds, Point Pelee is on the route of migrating monarch butterflies. Each fall the park is swarmed with monarchs traveling south, simultaneously the number of the visitors to the park swells as people attempt to catch a glimpse of thousands of butterflies at once.

Overall, the Point Pelee National Park is an excellent example of a park designed to preserve something very specific. In this case the preservation is focused on the natural habitat of a diverse range of birds and butterflies. Through the preservation of the natural heritage of Point Pelee Canadians are able to experience a part of Canada that is a far cry from the snow and ice that is typically associated with Canada.

Listening to Our Past

2011-06-09T08:14:00.000-04:00

My most recent post can be seen over at the Active History site. The post is a review of the Listening to Our Past website, which presents the oral histories of Nunavut's Inuit peoples. I thoroughly enjoyed discovering this site. There is a lot of great material on it for anyone interested in learning more about Nunavut or the history of Inuit communities.

Ontario Heritage Conference: Creating a Heitage Blog

2011-06-07T08:01:00.000-04:00

Kayla Jonas of the Adventures in Heritage blog recently presented at the Ontario Heritage Conference. The topic of her session was “Using Websites to Communicate Your Message”. Kayla's presentation focused on the use of blogs within the heritage field. Her presentation used this blog and History to the People as examples of personal heritage blogs. The complete presentation can be seen here.

Wrapping Up #ACA2011: Day Three

2011-06-06T17:50:00.000-04:00

The final day of the ACA conference opened with a plenary session focusing on the idea of Being Archived. The panel featured authors Erika Ritter and Rosemary Sullivan. This presentation provided an interesting look on what is like to be on the other side of the fence - to be the one donating your professional and personal records to an institution. The act of donation experience that many archivists don't ever get a chance to experience and this presentation provided a look at what goes through the minds of potential donors.

The morning session I attended was entitled Respect and Recognition Continuity and Change in Archives Practice and Aboriginal Documentary Heritage. The panel featured Terry Reilly of the University of Calgary, Sarah Hurford of LAC, Patricia Kennedy of LAC, and Marianne McLean of LAC. Kennedy, Hurford, and McLean all work in different departments of Library and Archives Canada that deal with the acquisition, reference, and development of Aboriginal heritage collections. All three speakers from LAC focused on the need to develop programming which suits the varying needs to Aboriginal communities, researchers, litigation companies, and scholars. In particular, McLean emphasized the growing need to collaboration at every stage of collection development.

Reilly's presentation focused primarily on her role as the archivist for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC archive is currently in the development phases and Reilly's work focused on the development of policies and collection mandate's within the TRC framework. Like the presenters from LAC, Reilly emphasized the need for the TRC to make its work relevant to First Nation, Metis, and Inuit communities - and the ongoing struggle the TRC has with engagement on the local level.

The final #ACA2011 presentation I attended focused on What is a Record in the Digital Environment? The Speakers included Adam Jansen of the University of BC, Jim Suderman from the City of Toronto, and Luciana Duranti of the University of BC. Jensen's presentation focused on the role of diplomatics (the gensis, forms, and transmission of archival documents) in the digital age. Jensen emphasized the need to archivists to be engaged in the creation of digital content and to understand object oriented programming. Jensen maintained the importance of archivists being digitally literate and being more than merely reactive to digital trends. Jim Suderman's presentation followed a similar vane to the work of Jansen. Suderman focused on the growing open data trend within Canada and the United States. Like Jense, Suderman suggested that archivists should be involved in the establishment and delivery of the digital platforms used by open data initiatives. This panel concluded with an interesting presentation by Duranti focusing on the Facebook Wall. Duranti used archival theory to deconstruct the digital form that is 'the wall' and to explain what the characteristics of a digital record are.

ACA2011 Conference: Day Two

2011-06-03T20:58:00.004-04:00

The second day of #ACA2011 open with a plenary session by Dr. Laura Millar. Milliar's presentation was titled Challenging the Fundamentals: Considering the Future of the Canadian Archival System. The organizational theme of Milliar's talk was based in creating a new 'strategic plan' for the Canadian Archival System. This plan called for a coordinated national strategy for record keeping and preservation, a plan for preserving the digital record, public engagement, and a revised education system. Milliar maintained that archivists should be "auditor, protector, historian, advocate, and adviser." According to Millar, the archival field is currently faced with a time of opportunity - to shape the future of the profession and to shape the society's perception of the field. Similar to Terry Eastwood's presentation yesterday, Millar's talk emphasized the need to be proactive in shaping the archival profession and was hopeful in looking toward future archival developments.

The morning session I attended was entitled The Tangible and the Intangible. Speakers included Anne Lindsay of the University of Manitoba and Creighton Barrett of Dalhousie University. Unfortunately the third panelist, Teague Schneiter, was absent. Barrett's presentation explored English ballads as a type of intangible heritage. This talk highlighted the problem of documenting and arranging intangible heritage based on guidelines designed for written, Euro-centric documentary heritage. Additionally, Barrett called for the use of flexible arrangement during the archival processing of intangible heritage, which would allow cultural heritage to be linked to a provenance of place and an expanded definition of creation.

Lindsay's presentation provided an interesting contrast to the paper presented by Barrett. Lindsay's paper, entitled "Archives and Justice: Willard Ireland's Contribution to the Changing Legal Framework of Aboriginal Rights in Canada" focused on the contributions of archivist Willard Ireland which impacted political, social, and legal forms of knowledge. Lindsay provided an excellent summary of Ireland's involvement in two legal cases which examined the question of Aboriginal title and treaty rights. This presentation saw the role of archives as that of a witness and as playing an essential role in the creation of memory. One of the more profound examples in this discussion of archives of witness was Ireland's court testimony. This testimony placed a piece of paper with 159 'X' marks on it, into the context of a larger treaty framework. The work presented by both Barrett and Lindsay was intriguing and provided food for thought regarding how to best contextualize and preserve unique forms of heritage.

This first afternoon session I attended discussed Collecting in Canada from a historical perspective. This session included presentations by Paulette Dozois (LAC), Anna Shumilak (LAC), and Edward P. Soye (Royal Military College). All three papers in this session focused on the development of different aspects of the archival system within Canada. There was a particular emphasis on the development of LAC. Dozois' work focused on the legacy of Joseph Pope in the shaping of the Canadian archival system, and Soye's work highlighted Dominion Archivists Arthur Doughty's efforts to establish a war museum. This session provided a great overview of the development of government archives within Canada and a good starting point for discussion of how these early beginnings have shaped current government archive policy in Canada.

The final session I attended today was entitled Round Peg Square Hole. This session featured Geoffrey Yeo of the University College London, Joseph T. Tennis of the University of Washington, and Fiorella Foscarini from University of Toronto. All three speakers examined ways in which the movement to a digital environment have challenged traditional assumptions about archival practice. Yeo's work discussed the rise of participatory digital environments and the notion of multiple modes of arrangement. Termed 'arrangement on demand' Yeo suggested that is impossible to predict how all users would like to use archival material and which type of arrangement of material would best facilitate this use. Yeo suggested that technology has provided archivists with an opportunity to arrange records in multiple ways, without changing their physical context. This was a great technology conscious and forward thinking panel that combined traditional archival theory with potential tech innovations.

Association of Canadian Archivists Conference: Day One

2011-06-02T20:20:00.010-04:00

Today was the first official day of proceedings at the 2011 (ACA) Conference. The day opened with a keynote presentation by Terry Eastwood, entitled Thinking About the Base of Archival Practice: Is there a Firm Foundation or Not? Eastwood presented an intriguing look archives through a lens of interpretive social practice, with an emphasis on dissecting the constructivist theories as they relate to archives. Eastwood's talk also challenged accepted archival paradigms - with a particular emphasis on the current accepted modes of description. Overall, Terry's talk seemed like a call to arms for archivists to engage in both theory and practice and to look at the history of archival practice as a means of making progress within the field.

The morning session I attended was a roundtable discussion on Reaching Out to Canadian Society. The panel featured Rob Fisher (LAC), Jonathan Lainey (LAC), Leah Sander (LAC), and Christine Bourolias (Archives of Ontario). The panel framed this discussion of outreach by examining acquisition policies. The speakers emphasized the necessity of using outreach to cultivate the type of acquisitions your institution desires. The discussion portion of the session focused on specific case studies -mainly outreach to ethnic and minority groups. The majority of these examples highlighted the need to build trust relationships within communities and the need for innovate ways of connecting and supporting communities. The session provided a lot of food for thought about ways to engage the general public and the importance of maintaining a strong outreach and acquisition policy.

The afternoon session I attended was entitled Preservation and the Total Archives in the
Age of E-records. The presenters -all trained conservationists -included: Ala Rekrut (Archives of Manitoba), Greg Hill (Canadian Conservation Institute), and Rosaleen Hill (Canadian Council of Archives). Greg Hill's presentation focused on the evolution of the role of conservators within the archival field. Hill placed conservation and preservation within a wider historical context and provided a good overview of the field in general. Ala Rekrut's talk was narrower in scope and emphasized the need for collaboration between conservators and archivists. Rekrut discussed the nature of both traditional and digital records and the importance of context and structure in defining the intrinsic value of a record. This session concluded with Rosaleen's remarks on the changing roles and responsibilities of conservators in the age of digital archives. Rosaleen highlighted how modes of technology have fundamentally altered how material needs to be preserved. She also emphasized the need for increased education among conservators and archivists regarding the proper care of electronic records.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's sessions, including a panel on tangible and intangible heritage.

Upcoming Events

2011-05-26T11:11:00.011-04:00

The Canadian history and heritage fields have a busy couple of weeks ahead of them. There are number of national and provincial conferences being held, as well as a few smaller workshops and online events.

The Canadian Library Association annual conference is currently (May 25th to May 28th) being held in Halifax. The program can be found here and a number of participants are tweeting there impressions under the hashtag #CLA2011.
The Canadian Historical Association is holding its annual conference in conjunction with the 2011 Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, from May 30th to June 1st.
The Association of Canadian Archivists' (ACA) 2011 conference will be held in Toronto from June 2 to June 4, 2011. The complete program is available online and the conference hashtag is #ACA2011
June 1st is this month's #builtheritage twitter chat. This month's focus is on local engagement.
This year's Ontario Heritage Conference is being held in Coburg, June 3rd-June 5th. The theme of the conference is "Creating the Will" and the conference schedule can be seen here.
June 15-17th is the Ontario Archives Association conference, which is being held in Thunder Bay this year. The full program is available online.
Doors and trails open events are also occurring in communities throughout Ontario.

I will be attending the ACA conference next week. I am particularly looking forward to two sessions focusing on the issues surrounding the archival preservation of Indigenous heritage. I am also planning to use twitter to follow some of the other conferences that I am unable to attend.

Natural Heritage: Dark Sky Reserve

2011-05-24T19:58:00.006-04:00

This year marks the Centennial anniversary of Parks Canada. This anniversary seems to have contributed to a recent increase in media coverage of natural heritage sites and events. As a result of this inspiration, I've decide to start a series of blogs focusing on Canada's rich natural heritage.

After some debate, I decided that this first post should feature a unique park which is rich in both heritage and forward thinking initiatives. The Jasper National Park in Alberta, is the largest most northerly located park in the Canadian Rockies. The park includes a range of natural and man made heritage features such as: the Sunwapta Falls, the Athabasca Glacier, the Yellowhead Pass, and Jasper House.

Additionally, in March 2011 Jasper was officially designated as a 'dark sky preserve.' This designation means that light usage within the preserve is restricted as a means of preserving a natural dark sky. Currently, Jasper is the largest dark sky preserve in the world. Jasper is also the only dark sky preserve in Canada to encompass a town. More information on Canada's other dark sky preserves can be found here.

Prior to learning about Jasper's designation as a dark sky preserve, I had no idea that such a designation even existed. Furthermore, the idea of the sky being something in need of preserving hadn't really crossed my mind --granted, I'm a bit spoiled by living in rural Northern Ontario which has by most people's standards dark skies. However, considering the ever expanding cities and the rate at which light pollution is generated, Jasper's substantial dark sky preserve is a significant step towards preserving natural heritage that is endanger of being lost to development.

Come On Over! Northeastern Ontario A to Z

2011-05-18T09:52:00.010-04:00

May 10th marked the release of Come on Over! Northeastern Ontario A to Z by Dieter Buse and Graeme Mount, professors emeritus of Laurentian University. From September to November 2010, while developing the book Buse and Mount were featured weekly on CBC Northern Ontario Radio’s Morning North program discussing communities from their book.

Come on Over! features antidotes and histories from over 100 communities in Northeaster Ontario. Excerpts of the book can be viewed online here. Buse and Mount have managed to succinctly cover a range of material, have used approachable language, and provided reference citations for anyone looking to explore their sources in detail. It's great to see Northern Ontario history being explored and discussed on a popular forum and appreciated by a range of people.

An official launch of Come On Over! will be held Thursday May 19th at the Art Gallery of Sudbury at 7 p.m.

Great Lives Podcast

2011-05-09T13:11:00.007-04:00

My most recent podcast addiction is to BBC Radio's Great Lives series. Great Lives is hosted by Matthew Parris. The podcast provides biographical looks at notable people. Each episode features Parris and a guest. Each guest nominates someone they deem worthy of the title 'great life' and Parris, an expert witness, and the guest then proceed to discuss that nominated person's life.

My favourite episodes so far include:
1) Lynne Truss discussing the life of author Lewis Carroll.
2) Sir Gerry Robinson looking at the life of Samuel Beckett.
3) John Harris, Parris, and Barry Miles discuss John Lennon.

Built Heritage Chat: Preservation Jobs

2011-05-04T16:40:00.004-04:00

Today was the #builtheritage chat for May which focused on preservation jobs and employment within the preservation field. The chat was moderated by @jonaskayla, @PresConf, @PresNation, and @PreservationJob. A complete transcript of the chat is available here.

The first question of the chat was What’s more critical to a successful preservation career – degrees or experience? The overwhelming majority of responses emphasized the importance of experience and the diversity of types of experience that organizations are looking for. It was also reinforced that a balance is best: a degree in something, volunteer experience, enthusiasm, and a friendly personality have the potential to contribute to a great preservation career.

Building on the first question the second portion of the chat focused on the question What's your number one tip to recent grads or job hunters? Answers to this question built upon the idea of gaining experience in the preservation field. Volunteering, internships, shadowing, researching, and taking low paying summer jobs were suggestions of ways to gain experience prior to finding that ideal preservation job. Chat participants also emphasized the importance of networking, skill building at conferences and workshops, and becoming involved in your local preservation organizations. It was also noted that the preservation field is wide ranging and hires people with a wide range of skills - human resources, presentation, digital expertise, marketing, etc. - and that grads should took to diversify their strengths.

The third portion of the chat focused on the feel good question, What is the best thing about working in the heritage preservation field? A large portion of the responses focused on the variety of the field, the passion of the people, and the feeling of being involved in something meaningful. A couple of my favourite responses included: "Building something that will strengthen our community. Small towns in Eastern Ontario need help. We can be a catalyst." from @spencervillemil and "inspiring a new set of people - young, old, etc. Getting the message out how important our history is" from @ATHeritageArea.

The last segment of the chat focused on What is the best way to connect with other preservationists? Seeing as how this was a twitter chat it is hardly surprising that many people mentioned social media as a means of connecting. Other mentioned techniques included: conferences, email lists, forums, following up face to face meetings with an email, and meeting up with local organizations while traveling.

In addition to the 'official' questions asked during the chat a few of the chat's participants sparked great discussion with their own questions. @LindsayJSasser raised the question: What are some of the current/upcoming challenges for pres. orgs? What skills can employees bring? Responses focused on grant application skills, presentation skills, a working knowledge of the industry, familiarity with the heritage act, and a willingness to learn.

This was a great chat with a lot of great ideas for those looking to become more involved in their local heritage community. The next #builtheritage chat will be on June 1st at 4pm and the potential topic is local engagement.

Doors and Trails Open

2011-05-04T09:19:00.005-04:00

My latest blog post on "Exploring Local Heritage Through Doors and Trails Open" can be seen over on the Active History site.

Today is also the third #builtheritage chat on twitter. This month's topic is preservation careers and jobs.

Legends Project

2011-04-27T14:02:00.007-04:00

The Legends Project began in 2002 as a small CBC initiative in Iqaluit, Nunavut to record, archive, and create radio dramas of the oral traditions of Inuit and First Nation communities in Canada. Eventually these oral stories and dramatizations were played on CBC Radio in both English and their original Indigenous language.

Currently, the project has eleven segments, each of which highlights the unique culture and language of a distinct community. In addition to being broadcast nationally the Legends Project allows for a high quality recording of endangered languages and traditions to be preserved. Each segment is a unique mixture of English and indigenous language and song, and provides a unique look into traditional practices of a community.

The most recent segment of the Project focuses on the traditions of the Ahtahkakoop, a Plains Cree nation in Sandy Lake, Saskatchewan. This segment highlights the linguistic, cultural, and social struggles of members of the Ahtahkakoop. It also retells a number of the community's traditional stories about creation, family, respect, and survival.

Museum of Online Museums

2011-04-19T14:08:00.006-04:00

I recently came across the Museum of Online Museums (MoOM) site. The site is one of the initiatives undertaken by Coudal Partners, a company focused on design, web publishing, advertising, and commerce. Sadly the site isn't useful as a searchable database of museum exhibits and it is a bit awkward to navigate. However, it does provide an interesting look at a seemingly random collection of online "museum" exhibits. Note: Museum has been placed in quotes as the site uses the term museum very loosely and includes links to exhibits from personal collections.

The main feature of MoOM is an aggregate list site of museums with online exhibits and virtual exhibits. The Museum Campus portion of the site highlights some of the more well known museums (eg. Smithsonian, MoMA, and the Virtual Museum of Canada) which have an online presence. This list in an interesting mixture of institutions and it's not entirely clear what criteria an institution must meet to be placed on the list.

The site also includes a section devoted to interesting small collections and galleries. The majority of these exhibits are hosted on personal websites and are not affiliated with a heritage organization. For the most part this Galleries, Exhibits, and Shows portion of the site focuses on personal collections not on museums. Some of the more interesting collections currently in this section include: the Library of Dust, The Tiny Pineapple Nurse Book Collection, the Matchbook Registry, and the advertising gallery Found in Mom's Basement.

Although I didn't find the Museums of Online Museums site horribly useful from a heritage professional or educational standpoint, the site did provide an interesting look at what people outside of the heritage field consider to be museums or collections.

Heritage Preservation and Adaptive Reuse: Evergreen Brick Works

2011-04-13T12:20:00.012-04:00

A recent Dwell feature focused on the Evergreen Brick Works development in Toronto. This 12 acre site is located at the former Don Valley Brick Works yard, which operated for over 100 years and during its prime produced more than 43 million bricks a year.

When Don Valley Brick Works closed in the 1980s the site fell into disrepair and the heritage buildings were left in a dilapidated state. In the 1990s Evergreen became responsible for the stewardship of the site and in 2002 the development of site’s current form began. Development of the site has focused on adaptive reuse, environmental sustainability and rehabilitation of the buildings.

A large portion of the original structures at the brick works yard have been preserved. For example, the Kilns portion of Evergreen was formally used to fire bricks has been maintained. The area still includes the original kilns and drying tunnels. Evergreen plans to use this space for art installations. The use of space in multiple ways seems like a great way to combine heritage with the interests of a variety of people. Additionally, Evergreen has taken an active role in heritage preservation, by collaborating with the City of Toronto Heritage Preservation Services and the Ontario Heritage Trust.

In addition to the preservation of buildings, this initiative has strove to develop the land on the site in a sustainable way. The site includes a plant demonstration space, a farmers market, and a park. It’s great to both the buildings and the landscape that surrounds them being thought of. A map of the entire site can be seen here.

Learning about the Evergreen Brick Works came as somewhat as a surprise, despite having grown up with in an hour of Toronto I had no idea that this initiative was taking place. The site is a great example of built heritage being preserved and made sustainable through adaptive reuse.

Historypin vs. WhatWasThere

2011-04-07T08:32:00.002-04:00

My most recent post can be seen over at Activehistory.ca. It is the first post in Active History's new website review section. My review looks at place based history websites, and specifically the differences between Historypin and WhatWasThere.

Built Heritage Chat on Sustainability

2011-04-06T19:11:00.006-04:00

Today was the second #builtheritage chat. This month's chat focused on sustainability. The majority of the chat focused on the links between sustainability in the heritage field and the environmental movement. A complete transcript is available here.

The first portion of the chat focused on the question What do the heritage #preservation and the environmental movements have in common? A number of interesting similarities we brought up and a emphasis was placed on the idea of the two movements working together. This portion of the chat also highlighted the importance of seeing heritage preservation as something beyond reusing buildings and as something with can be beneficial to the environment. The participant @wanderu made a great point that both movements focus on cultural landscapes. This point seems symbolic of the overarching commonalities of heritage and environmental movements.

The second question raised in the chat was How are the #heritage #preservation and #environmental movements different? This responses to this question highlighted many of the seeming contradictions between heritage preservation and environmentalism, such as: buildings been seen as obstacles in environmentalism, and private ownership in the heritage movement and the public nature of the environment. Chat moderator @jonaskayla pointed to the Banff Wheeler House as an example of the environment and heritage in conflict. Despite these seeming conflicts the general feel of the chat still emphasized the similarities of the two movements.

The third portion of the chat focused on the question What can we as heritage professionals and advocates learn from the environmental movement? The responses emphasized the need of the heritage field to learn about promotion, the use of statistics, marketing, and highlighting the benefits of heritage preservation. One of the most retweeted points in this section was from @perkinswill_PR and emphasized that it is necessary "Separate preservation from obstructionism! Preservation is about the FUTURE, not putting the past in a pickle jar." Preservation needs to be made relevant to present and future concerns.

The final segment of the chat focused on how the movements can work together to achieve sustainability. Some general themes which came out of this discussion included: the need to network outside of your own field, the benefits of finding common ground in policy and political advocacy initiatives, and the need for give and take on both sides.

Overall, this chat included a lot of great ideas, positive thoughts, and points to consider. It was interesting to see that the overwhelming majority of participants believed in the benefits of combining heritage and environmental preservation movements. The next #builtheritage chat will be on May 4th at 4pm and will focus on building a career and job hunting in the preservation field.

Ermatinger Old Stone House

2011-04-04T10:06:00.011-04:00

I recently made a visit to the The Ermatinger-Clergue National Historic Site in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. The site includes the original Ermatinger stone house and the Clergue Blockhouse. The Ermatinger house is locally known as the Old Stone House and was built between 1812-1814. The house is the oldest stone house north of Toronto. The first resident of the House was Charles Oakes Ermatinger (1776-1833), who was a prominent figure in Lake Superior trading.

The initiative to make preserve the Ermatinger house began in the last 1960s and currently operates as a house museum which reflects the domestic and professional life of Charles Oakes Ermatinger and other prominent residents the House between 1808 and 1870. The physical structure of the house has been remodeled to look like it did in the era of Ermatinger.

In 1996 the Clergue Blockhouse was to be demolished for the expansion of the St. Mary's Paper Mill. As a result of community and heritage efforts the building was moved to the Ermatinger House site in 1996. The lower portion of the Blockhouse was constructed in 1819 as was part of a powder magazine belonging to the Northwest Company. In 1894, Francis Hector Clergue bought the property surrounding the old powder magazine. Clergue converted powder magazine into a space suitable for his home and office. It is this stage of the Blockhouse that has been restored in the historic site.

I will admit that prior to my visit to the site I had little background knowledge of either buildings or residents of buildings. It was interesting to learn about the place of these buildings in local history. Additionally, the combination of the two buildings on the same site also allows for the emphasis of Sault Ste Marie as a trading hub and allows the site to provide educational programming on the fur trade and local industry. However, overall I think I was most interested in the local efforts undertaken to return both buildings to their former states. The site highlights the potential of local history sites and the ongoing efforts which are required to preserve heritage buildings.

Linguistic Heritage

2011-03-28T14:13:00.006-04:00

Language is one of the most commonly used means of expression. A language speaks volumes about the culture that developed it. Despite the value society places on language, there are a number of Aboriginal languages in Canada which are in risk of dying off within a generation. The impact of the residential school system and the Canadian government's policy of assimilation played a major role in the loss Aboriginal language. By removing children from their communities and forcing them to speak English multiple generations of Indigenous people have lost their traditional language.

A recent segment on Spark discussed the use of digital translators in Inuit communities as a means of teaching dying languages to youth. The digital translator discussed was Phraselator. Phraselator allows language speakers to record as many phrases and words as possible and then their students can listen access these recordings as necessary. At five thousand dollars each and given the fact that the Phraselator cannot compare to being exposed to an actual native speaker, the device seems like a poor solution.

Despite the drawbacks of this particular digital translator's implementation, it is crucial that we begin some form of language preservation. This may include educational incentives for those wishing to learn a language or preserving both written and recorded language alongside accurate translations. The use of digital recordings, transcription, and OCR software all have potential to be adapted to help preserve Indigenous language and teach a new generation the language.

Second Built Heritage Chat

2011-03-28T13:50:00.003-04:00

Earlier today the topic for the second twitter #builtheritage chat was announced. The chat will take place on April 6th at 4pm and will focus on sustainability.

Kayla Jonas provides a great summary on how to participate in the chat.

The first #builtheritage chat was a huge success and I am looking forward to seeing what this new topic inspires.

Citing in Popular Publishing

2011-03-24T20:23:00.005-04:00

Recently, while at a friend's house I picked up a local history book that was sitting on their coffee table. The book focused on the history of Espanola Ontario that was written by a local history enthusiast. In the introduction of the book, the author stated that he had not made an effort to record any sources; however if readers were curious they could contact him and he might be able to point them to where his information came from. Instantly, the academic historian in me cringed and I began to lament the state of local history writing.

However, upon later reflection I began to think about the larger question of citations in popular publishing, local history works, and public history writing. Footnotes or endnotes are standard practice in academic writing. But, they are rarely used in more popular publishing. In my mind good public history writing should find a way to cite information without being intrusive.

Digitally published information can include hyperlinks as a means of providing supplemental and source information without the formality of a footnote. Print publishing is faced with a slightly more arduous task of integrating sources into the flow of writing. Despite the many intrusive methods of citing information, good writers can seamlessly note where material derived from within the context of their writing. I think it is crucial that academic historians who desire to be accessible to a popular audience consider how to maintain historical credibility while appealing to the reading sensibilities of the public at large.

Public history works which immediately come to mind as having successfully integrated source material and popular writing include: Beautiful Barrie: The and its people, No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War (includes a well organized section of endnotes), and the majority of the articles printed in Canada's History Magazine.

What works do you consider successful balances of academic and popular history writing?

Active History Website Reviewers

2011-03-19T10:28:00.004-04:00

Is there a heritage website you absolutely love? Or a history website you find unbearably frustrating? Active History is looking for website reviewers. The call for website reviewers posted on Active History can be seen below:

As a growing number of historical resources become available online, the internet is increasingly becoming a site of serious historical research, inquiry and education. Yet it is important to approach information on the internet with caution, assessing its value with a critical eye.

ActiveHistory.ca is expanding its review section to include scholarly analysis of websites. It is imperative in this “digital age” to develop the tools necessary to critically engage with this expanding resource base.

If you are interested in reviewing a website that features historical content, please send an expression of interest to info@activehistory.ca.

The Porcupine Express

2011-03-12T10:20:00.003-05:00

This week's Northern Ontario historical photo focuses on Timmins and more specifically The Porcupine Express, circa 1915. In 1911, the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway line was extended to South Porcupine. That rail line is currently known as Ontario Northland Railway. South Porcupine is now one of the many neighbourhoods which makes up Timmins.

Timmins is currently in the midst of celebrating four centennials. These celebrations have inspired a number of commemoration projects and local histories to be written. A concise history of mining in the area is one example of this commemoration.

Photo credit: The History of Timmins, The Early Years. This website has a number of photographs of Timmins and area from Library and Archives Canada and local collections.

Open Source Options For Heritage Organizations

2011-03-10T13:33:00.004-05:00

My most recent post focusing on the open source software alternatives available to heritage organizations can be seen over at the Active History Group Blog. The post focuses primarily upon the benefits of using open source exhibit design and photo manipulation tools such as Google Sketchup, GIMP, and Inkscape.

Nippising Junction Public School

2011-03-06T15:35:00.004-05:00

This week's Northern Ontario Historical Photograph is of the Nippising Junction Public School in 1948. This one room school house was for grades one to four and serviced an area that is now part of North Bay, Ontario.

This photograph is from the Michael Oldfield collection held by the Nippising University Archive. The Archive has a number of interesting collections, including a well documented selection of panoramas. However, the local history website and a number local history projects were completed by the Centre for Community and Oral History which no longer exists.

Built Heritage Twitter Chat

2011-03-02T15:43:00.009-05:00

The first built heritage twitter chat took place earlier today. The chat focused on adaptive reuse and was moderated by @jonaskayla, @presconf and @presnation. The chat was well organized and included a number of interesting questions and examples were brought up. The #builtheritage chat is currently slated to run on the first Wednesday of the month at 4pm. The complete transcript of the chat is available here.

The first portion of the chat focused on the question "What are you favourite examples of adaptive reuse?" Some of the most interesting examples included the Ford assembly building in Richmond CA, The Alumane Theatre which was once a fire hall, Toronto's Distillery District, and the converted Brisbane Powerhouse.

The discussion then moved on to the question, "What are the biggest barriers for adaptive reuse?" This portion of the chat focused mainly on the misconceptions associated with adaptive reuse. Misconceptions include the idea that adapted buildings can't be green, that reuse prohibits city growth, and that the people automatically assume a higher cost is associated with reuse.

The third portion of the chat focused on what steps heritage groups can take to encourage adaptive reuse. One of the best points in this section was the need to acknoweldge adaptive reuse is also a great "in-between" between full-fledged historic preservation and living/working in a modern setting. Additionally, it is essential that people be aware of what the advantages of adaptive reuse are, be shown successful examples, and highlight the flexibility in reuse.

A follow up question asked for input on how to local support for adaptive reuse of buildings. Suggestions included giving tours of reuse buildings, getting support from the local government, highlight the integrity of the building and what it means to the community in a wider historical context.

The final portion of the chat focused on the question "Is there a building you would like to see reused? For what?" A couple of the neat suggestions that were put forward included: The Auchmar Estate to be reused as a conference centre and the R.L. Hearn Generating Station as a museum.

Overall the chat brought up some interesting ideas and it was great to see people of a variety of backgrounds and interests take part in the discussion. I look forward to seeing what type of discussion the future chats inspire.

Main Street Sudbury, circa 1910

2011-02-28T19:03:00.004-05:00

This week's Northern Ontario historical image is of the Main Street of Sudbury, circa 1910. The image is from the Archives of Ontario and is part of the Photographs of the Audio-Visual Education Branch series.

The Archives of Ontario also holds a number of historical maps of the communities within the Sudbury district. Many of these communities were eventually amalgamated to form the City of Greater Sudbury in 2001. The majority of these maps can be found in the Parent plans series, which contains maps showing the status of crown land from circa 1785 to 1970.

Hidden Legacy Conference Highlights

2011-02-26T11:11:00.003-05:00

This past week I attended the Hidden Legacy Conference in Winnipeg. The conference featured an interesting combination of speakers and highlighted a variety of view points relating to trauma and inter-generational impacts.

The first day of the conference included eight main speakers and a panel discussion. The first keynote speaker of the day was Dr. Gabor Maté. I found Maté to be one of the most interesting speakers of the entire conference. His talk on the "biology of loss" focused on the physiological and psychological impacts of trauma, the biology of addiction, and the impact of parental health on children. Maté argued that First Nation people are not more genetically predisposed to alcoholism, drug use, depression, and addiction in general. Rather, addiction is a symptom of a much larger societal problem and a result of continuous trauma. Maté also emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping healthy or unhealthy lifestyles and the need to look at the interconnected nature of mental and physical health.

Juxtaposed with Maté's presentation was Eduardo Duran's discussion of the soul wound. Duran's work includes a much more spiritual component than the work of Maté. Duran emphasized the idea that trauma is a spiritual entity. He asserted that trauma has an energy, and it is that negative energy which plagues the victims of abuse and violence. Despite having different definitions of trauma both Duran and Maté argued for the need to treat inter-generational trauma in a holistic way.

In addition to the more psychological discussions of trauma there was a number of interesting speakers who discussed their first hand experiences with coping with trauma. Vern White, Chief of Police Ottawa, provided an interesting perspective on Northern Native communities. White focused on the general population's lack of awareness of the welfare of First Nation people. White emphasized the need for engagement of both parties during reconciliation and the interconnected nature of our society. A hurdle as large as racism and trauma can't be overcome unless everyone works together.

Similar to White, a workshop run by Ruth and Greg Murdock focused on the personal experience and societal impacts of trauma. This workshop emphasized the impacts of lateral violence, vicarious trauma, and techniques for overcoming hurt.

Overall, the conference featured a great number of informed presenters and highlighted a number of important issues that have arose from the legacy of the residential schools. Many of the presentations did not focus directly on the residential schools. Rather, they spoke to the societal problems which have developed out of seven generations of Native people being impacted by the residential school system.

Fort William Grain Elevator

2011-02-20T13:24:00.006-05:00

This week's Northern Ontario historical photograph highlights a part of Thunder Bay's history. The photograph is of the CPR grain elevators in Fort William, circa 1920. Fort William, Port Arthur and outlying townships amalgamated in January 1970 to form Thunder Bay. Fort William was established as a trading community and was essential in the movement of grain and other goods across the North.

This photograph is from Library and Archives Canada and is part of the Topley Studio fonds, which includes a number of interesting photographs of Ontario (predominantly the Ottawa region) from 1868-1926.

Additional photographs of the Fort William grain elevator and a great collection of historical photographs of the Thunder Bay region and Northwestern Ontario can be found on The Gateway to Northwestern Ontario site.