E302

Have you ever noticed that a simple information search can lead you in strange and wonderful directions? As in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, historical research can lead you down a winding rabbit hole that might take you off your original path and lead you to new and amazing historical places!

This podcast series starts with that premise!

Adrian Petry, Visitors Services Coordinator and Kathleen Powell, Supervisor of Historical Services and Curator, both from the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre, have challenged each other to explore the weird and wonderful places that one hour of research on a topic will take them. Join them as they share their findings!

Welcome to Season 3 of One Hour in the Past. In season one we explored a wide range of topics from the Arts and Crafts Movement to Thanksgiving. In season two we welcomed guests to join us for a trip down the rabbit hole as we researched topics like photography, sidewalks, and telephones. We’re taking this third season of the podcast down a bit of a different path. We’ll be diving a bit deeper into Canadian history by researching Prime Ministers, Maps and mapping, the Family Compact, the Fur Trade, the FLQ Crisis, and on today’s episode: the Family Compact.

On this episode…

Kathleen and Adrian discuss their research into the secretive and mysterious Family Compact, which with their control of the governing Tory Party, concentrated power in their small group in Upper Canada between ~1800 and 1841.

Listen

Listen also on Listen and subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Podcasts, and Spotify (STCM Podcasts).

Footnotes:

1. The St. Catharines Public Library has many copies of the “Big Red Book” titled “St. Catharines: Canada’s Canal City”

2. Loyalism

3. Orange Order

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Company

5. Pronunciation of Strachan

6. The Family Compact and the Welland Canal Company Article

7. The historical plaque denoting the Types Riot at 160 Frederick St in Toronto.