The Unwritten Rules of History
“Canoeing on Lake of Two Rivers near the summer resort, Killarney Lodge, Algonquin Park, Ontario.” Chris Lund. Canada. National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque. Library and Archives Canada, e010955768 CC by 2.0
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
I’m still sad that I didn’t get to go to the CHA this year. Thankfully, Canadian historians on Twitter did an absolutely amazing job of retweeting a huge number of panels, giving me and others a little taste of the conference! Rather than let this information vanish into the twitterverse, I decided to consolidate it into one place.
Everyone has those moments – you’re doing research in the archives, and come across something super cool that makes you go, “huh,” but it is too small to turn into an article. Maybe copies end up in a file on your computer, or maybe the story just lives on in your head, but no more! Inspired by Nursing Clio’s Adventures in the Archives, this new series, entitled “Huh, that’s cool,”* will finally bring those awesome finds to light.
“Daring Crime Cases. Vol 2, No. 6 (August-September 1943.” Norman Book Co. Library and Archives Canada. Rare Books. Pulp Art collection. True gangster crime cases, Vol. 2, no. 6 (August-September 1943), nlc010130. CC by 2.0
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
It’s that time of the year again: conference season! For most Canadian historians, this means the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) Annual Meeting, which starts on May 30th and runs until June 1st! I can’t go this year, but my intrepid friend Catherine Ulmer has agreed to serve as my “official” CHA report. So we can look forward to her reports in two weeks. If this is your first time attending the CHA conference, or Congress in general, everything can seem really intimidating. So in this blog post I’m going to give you a beginner’s guide to the CHA conference, and at the end, give you my suggestions for must-see panels!
Aimé, Dolorès and Clément Déry playing with rabbits on Déry farm, Cold Lake, Alberta (1951). Provincial Archives of Alberta, A15762.
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history. Continue reading
Victoria Day – it sounds like a pretty straightforward holiday. And you’d think that it would have a relatively straightforward history. At least that what I thought when I decided to write a blog post about Victoria Day. And boy, was I wrong. This entire week has been an exercise in frustration. But that’s actually normal. A good historian can never assume that a particular subject is going to be a no-brainer, since sometimes the simplest questions have the most complex answers. And sometimes, when you’re a historian, even if you ask all the right questions, all you get is a week of abject chaos. Because that’s how history works – its messy, complicated, and sometimes, the answers just aren’t there. So in today’s blog post, while I will talk about the history of Victoria Day, I’m also going to talk about realities of doing history.
In our Historian’s Toolkit series, we look in depth at one online resource that history professors can use to teach Canadian history. To see others from this series click on the category, “Historian’s Toolkit.”
**Check back on Friday for a special blog post all about Victoria Day!**
Seven-Up Vancouver booth (1961) / Pacific National Exhibition Fonds / City of Vancouver Archives / AM281-S8-: CVA 180-6634
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
RT @paulisci: Live footage of Canadians hurrying to fill in the census right away. pic.twitter.com/VuJRwEpU5M
— Andrea Eidinger (@AndreaEidinger) May 5, 2016
It’s Census time! I know I was super excited to get my card in the mail, and then bitterly disappointed that I got the short-form questionnaire. Some of you (ok most of you) might be wondering what the heck is wrong with us census-lovers. In news reports on the subject, you’ve likely come across references to the first census in Canada, conducted in New France (Quebec) in the 1660s, some discussion of the abolishment of the long-form questionnaire and its subsequent return, and some about how Canadians broke the census website in their enthusiasm. But what these news stories don’t tell you is why the census is important.So this week, I’m going to talk about the history of the census in Canada, what purpose it serves, and why Canadian historians are in love with it. And I promise to not talk about numbers. 😉
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