"Canada exists for no natural reason. ... [This] is not to say that no significant differences exist between Canadians and Americans — just that our shared national border, unlike those of Europe, was not shaped by linguistic and ethnic variations. The War of 1812 made all the difference here. A complicated and unpleasant struggle, mostly forgotten, sundered our two countries. And that struggle is now 200 years old, which makes this as good a time as any to start remembering."
posted by Johnny Assay
on Feb 20, 2012 -
119 comments
The history of Toronto in photos is 90 some odd posts linked to provide a thematically organized visual overview. The vast majority of the photographs featured derive from the Toronto Archives. Should you be interested in a less visually oriented take on Toronto history, there is also the
Nostalgia Tripping series, which was designed to be a bit more about storytelling than just the photos.
posted by netbros
on Dec 5, 2011 -
20 comments
Waterlife — No matter where we live, the Great Lakes affect us all. And as species of fish disappear and rates of birth defects and cancer rise, it seems one thing is clear: the Great Lakes are changing and something's not quite right with the water. An interactive documentary film from the
National Film Board of Canada.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Feb 26, 2011 -
20 comments
In 1933 Newfoundland was a responsible, that is self governing, dominion on a par with Canada and Australia. To avoid a debt default the government suspended its constitution in favor of rule from the colonial office in London. After the second world war and a close referendum the the governments of the United Kingdom and Canada negotiated Newfoundland's ascension to Canada.
The story boils down to a people losing their sovereignty due to a debt crisis. The Newfoundland Royal Commission report of 1933, the basis for the article and the actions it recounts is
here. (The report is seeded with great-if-too-small pictures of Newfoundland from the 1930s and cool maps).
[more inside]
posted by shothotbot
on Jan 18, 2010 -
46 comments
Peace and War in the 20th Century is an ambitious, in progress, massive assemblage of posters, photographs, propaganda, ephemera, letters, diaries, paintings, sketches, stories, letters, music and related items, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The collection is international in scope. Some of the nodes lack content, and the navigation is a little confusing, so the jump I list some of my favourite case studies from their site.
[more inside]
posted by Rumple
on Jan 2, 2009 -
4 comments
It stands as one of the more unusual turning points of the Cold War, thanks mostly to the surprise appearance of several naked middle-aged women. Taking The Cure: How a group of British Columbian anarchists inspired democracy in Russia.
[more inside]
posted by amyms
on May 13, 2008 -
7 comments
From Muddy York to the Toronto of today.... My search to discover the exact age of the house I recently bought led me to the fabulous
Toronto Archives. Even if you don't have the good fortune to live in Toronto and so have the ability to visit the Archives to take a free tour and check out their
massive holdings, they have a whack of stuff on line. Of their million photographs dating back to 1856, over 21,000 are online. Check out some of their
virtual exhibits. I couldn't begin to give you an overview of the site or even the best of its many gems, but check out
Chinatown's VE day victory parade,
Bay and Wellington as it was after a huge fire in 1904,
old advertisements,
letters and
postcards (including
some from the disenchanted), snapshots of a, er,
less politically sensitive time (
thanks, Capn!), and — inevitably! —
hockey artifacts. A friend of mine makes a hobby of Toronto's history, and after this search of mine, I better understand her interest. It’s fascinating to see what lies beneath the
layers of time on a surface so
familiar and
loved.
posted by orange swan
on Jul 4, 2006 -
23 comments
It's Carnival Time! In 2002,
Silflay Hraka launched the internet's first carnival:
The Carnival of the Vanities. Carnivals are showcases of the best that blogs have to offer; bloggers send in posts they have made that they are especially pleased with, and a rotating editor collates them into a weekly edition with editorial comments. Think of carnivals as best-of-the-blogosphere magazines. The Carnival of the Vanities (current edition
here) doesn't have any particular focus, but a number of offshoots dedicated to specific fields have popped up. Stay up to date on blog postings about
philosophy,
science,
history,
the early modern period,
sex,
Canada, and (if desperately bored)
cats. A new carnival about atheism,
The Carnival of the Godless, will be coming out at the end of the month.
posted by painquale
on Jan 23, 2005 -
5 comments
The Virtual Museum of Canada has funded or collaborated on almost
150 virtual exhibits, mostly relating to Canadian History and Culture. There is great diversity, among my favourites are
Nk'Mip Nation Aboriginal Childrens' Art from the Inkameep day school (a welcome counterpoint to the
residential schools tragedy), the historic re-photography and soundscapes of
Montreal, Haida Culture
documented , and also compared to
Inuit Culture, Inuit (Eskimo)
games and
3-dimensional (VR) sculpture, a history of the
Canadian Trucking Industry, a splendid overview of
Canadian documentary film making, Canadian
design in the late 20th century, and the
Shipwrecks of Vancouver Island. There is also a searchable
image gallery. The only thing missing is a historical
whodunnit or
two (or
three). All sites available in both French and English, and some in other languages too.
posted by Rumple
on Nov 25, 2004 -
17 comments
The world's oldest corporation, the
Hudson's Bay Company, has a great introduction to its three-hundred seventy years of history on the site. Once hailed as the largest colonial power other than Russia, England, and the U.S., the Bay has generally left furs and is now the Sears of Canada.
posted by tdecius
on Oct 11, 1999 -
0 comments
