We’re excited to welcome back a favourite speaker, Ron Brown who will look at Ontario’s Ghost Towns, vestiges of once-thriving towns and villages. While some still maintain small resident populations, others exist only as abandoned buildings and foundation ruins; they all are “ghosts” of their former greatness and their images evoke their lost legacies. October’s Local...
A city’s waterworks is largely out of sight and normally attracts little attention. However, the history of waterworks is central to understanding the history of urban growth and planning. In the late nineteenth century, Peterborough faced a crisis. Lack of a water works system placed the town at risk of destruction from fire while the...
Kingston textile historian Joanna Dermenjian will report on her research on “Women’s domestic and charitable making of cloth and fibers”. In particular, she will focus on the effort made by women in Kingston and across Canada during World War II to produce quilts for distribution to soldiers, civilians and hospital in Britain and Europe. We return to in-person...
Brian ‘Chip’ Martin, "From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge: Canada and the Civil War" Retired reporter and journalist from the London Free Press and London author, Chip in his latest book, reveals the breadth of this country’s involvement in the American Civil War. Martin’s research found that more than 40,000 Americans came to Canada during the war...
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—while I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—only this and nothing more...
