Now in its 14th year, the annual Guided Spirit Walks at Victoria Lawn Cemetery are an excellent way to experience historical narrative lifted off the written page. It’s traditional (and sometimes required) for the writer/director to offer thoughts and perspective on the intentions and research behind the stories of the annual production.
14th Annual Guided Spirit Walks – Historical Profiles
The challenge, which I always enjoy, is simultaneously selecting historic persons to include on the tour whose burials are located on an enjoyable walking tour route that also fit into the theme of that year’s tour, and whose life story can appropriately carry a relevant historical narrative.
14th Annual Guided Spirit Walks – The Source Material
It’s this imbalance of the application of justice, which runs through all the source materials – letters, diaries, court records, jail lists, summaries of convictions, and most of all, newspapers – that threads the many narratives of crime together in this year’s walks. Hundreds of pages of newspapers and handfuls of letters, testimony, and court records show us a St. Catharines that in some ways is unrecognizable, and in other ways, show us that society still has a long way to go.
What Good is History? Let us count the ways!
After another hugely successful production of our annual Guided Spirit Walks, we’d like to say a big “THANK YOU” to the many volunteers – cast and crew – who make it all happen. In case you missed the walks this year, we’d also like to share a bit about the people who are buried at Victoria Lawn that we included this year.
Another Successful Year for Guided Spirit Walks
We are so thankful to our audiences and our volunteers for another very successful Guided Spirit Walk season at Victoria Lawn Cemetery. The walks bring history to life through theatrical performances based on the histories of the folks who made an important mark in our city. Thank you also to the many folks who reached out with kind comments of enjoyment and enthusiasm! We appreciate it!
2023 Guided Spirit Walks – Meet Your Guide: Jane
The annual Guided Spirit Walks are back again this September and we’re excited to share the profiles of the historic people included this year, and our wonderful cast of volunteer performers who will portray them.
2023 Guided Spirit Walks – Dr. Chauncey Beadle
The annual Guided Spirit Walks are back again this September and we’re excited to share the profiles of the historic people included this year, and our wonderful cast of volunteer performers who will portray them.
2023 Guided Spirit Walks – Alpheus St. John
Our spirit walks often employ a few fictional characters to help advance plot or narrative and to help other characters along. Especially when we get a lot of volunteer interest, we can have a bit more fun with larger scenes, more dialogue, and more interesting characters. We’re so pleased to have some local students join us as the fictional granddaughters of Alpheus St. John. In their scene, they are particularly curious about figuring out the history of the name of St. Catharines!
2023 Guided Spirit Walks – Elias Smith Adams and Susan Merritt
The annual Guided Spirit Walks are back again this September and we’re excited to share the profiles of the historic people included this year, and our wonderful cast of volunteer actors who will portray them.
For our next character/actor profiles, we meet Elias Smith Adams and Susan Merritt portrayed by Des Corran and Brenda Schultz.
2023 Guided Spirit Walks – George Rykert
Fictional settlers, (representing real opinions from historical sources) Abigail MacDonald, Jessie Frey, and Sarah Bryan have a bone to pick with Rykert after his town plan is laid out in the most awkward and disadvantageous ways. The scene unfolds quickly into familiar rants about road quality, property development, and the beginnings of urban settlement in our town.
2023 Guided Spirit Walks – Gertrude Yale
The annual Guided Spirit Walks are back again this September and we’re excited to share the profiles of the historic people included this year, and our wonderful cast of volunteer actors who will portray them.
For our first character/actor profile, we welcome back Gertrude Yale, played by Amanda Balyk.
The 2022 Guided Spirit Walks Roar into the 1920s
As part of the Guided Spirit Walks creative team, I can tell you that our historical interests span widely, and we are always imagining up new ways to bring the stories of those buried in Victoria Lawn Cemetery to our audiences. This year, we present Roaring into the ‘20s: A New Chapter for our City and invite you into the stories of those who lived through the tumultuous period of 1920s St. Catharines. We might imagine the Roaring Twenties as a risqué period of flappers, jazz, and prohibition, and while these were dramatic parts of the era, the 1920s can be characterized by even more dramatic shifting social norms, economic and political turbulence, and rapid technological innovations. Some embraced these drastic changes as a signal of a better future, while others were apprehensive.
Behind the Scenes with Museum Kids- Why we chose Soapbox Derby as our Summer Edition theme
he local chapter of the St. Catharines All-American Soap Box Derby originally intended to provide mentorship for local youngsters and encourage community participation. The races very quickly became a staple activity of growing up in St. Catharines. Every year, beginning in 1947, youngsters would race to sign up for the race in the early months of the year.
Tapping into Spiritualism in the 2022 Guided Spirit Walks
This year’s Guided Spirit Walks at Victoria Lawn Cemetery roar loudly into the tumultuous era of the 1920s. The spirits on this year’s tour come from all walks of life; we hear from new immigrants arriving to St. Catharines to work on the construction of the Welland Ship Canal, a wealthy female philanthropist, an architectural visionary, a grieving widow, a proud wife, an unstoppable industrialist, and a journalist with a guilty conscience. While each may have little in common, the spirits are brought together, and connect to the audience, through our guide, the renowned spiritualist Jenny O’Hara Pincock.
From the Shelves of Merritt’s Mercantile – Volume 2
For this installment of our Curator’s pick of books from our gift shop, I would like to highlight the book A Future in Doubt: The rise and demise of one small Jewish community and what it says about the future of synagogues everywhere, by Howard Slepkov. Published in January 2021, this book is not only a great history of the St. Catharines Jewish community, the building of the local synagogue, but it is also a really wonderful look at Jewish life in Canada in the 20th century.
VMLS via Podcast – Lost and Forgotten: the Third Welland Canal
Today’s lecture explores the hidden history of the Third Welland Canal. As one of the first major infrastructure projects following Confederation, the canal was a huge success but today is mostly forgotten. Please enjoy “Lost and Forgotten: the Third Welland Canal” originally presented on October 27, 2020.
The Remarkable Estelle Cuffe Hawley
Estelle Cuffe Hawley, here forever known as the ‘remarkable’ Estelle Cuffe Hawley (according to me, anyway) was described as strong-willed, engaged in the community, caring and hardworking. Cuffe Hawley led a life filled with energy, drive, poise, and, of course, hats! Estelle Cuffe Hawley’s penchant for hats won her pride of place in our ‘Hold onto Your Hats’ exhibit, now on display here at the Museum.
Building an “Open” Community Cookbook
On Family Day this year, We asked visitors to share their favourite family recipes with us on what we called “open community cookbooks” and the result was fantastic! Children, parents, and grandparents brought in recipes from home, or took the time to write out recipes on the cards provided. Recipes range from the Filipino dish Chicken Adobo, the “Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever”, and lots of other tasty dishes that brim with family tradition and heritage as evident from the names attributed to the recipes shared.
From the Shelves of Merritt’s Mercantile – Volume 1
As we round out Black History Month, my first Curator’s pick book review in this series will be A Struggle to Walk with Dignity: the True Story of a Jamaican-born Canadian by Gerald A. Archambeau. This book tells the story of Gerald Archambeau and his adventures from his birth in Jamaica to his migration to Canada and many of his ups and downs in between.
Family Dinners: Serving More Than Food
Family culinary traditions tie us not only to each other, but to our family heritage as well. Often, the recipes we use to prepare specific dishes for family meals have been passed down through generations. Learn why family food traditions matter.
VMLS via Podcast – Where They Walk: the Making of the Annual Guided Spirit Walks at Victoria Lawn Cemetery
Today’s lecture features Adrian Petry, visitor services coordinator here at the Museum. In this presentation, he looks at the research that goes into creating our annual Guided Spirit Walks at Victoria Lawn Cemetery, and how dark tourism like ghost walks have influenced the practice public history and the public’s imagination of historical personalities.
Something’s Happening Here! A look at our Interpretive Plan Implementation
Let’s take a look at what’s happening at the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre as we implement our Interpretive Plan and what we have coming up next.
Top #StCMuseum Social Media Moments of 2021
I like to think our ever-growing contributions to the world wide web offer engaging, albeit a bit quirky, historical fun for everyone. Quirky is part of the fun, right?! If I’ve piqued your interest, you don’t have to suffer from FOMO any longer – find and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and right here on the blog to be the first to catch new releases of video series, online lectures, podcast episodes, blog posts, and so much more!
2021-2022 Educational Programs
Ready for 2021-2022! We are thrilled to announce our 2021-2022 educational program offering. We have an exciting line-up of safe, […]
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 30, 2021 marks the first time that Canadians will be marking the new National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day is also marked as Orange Shirt Day across the country as people are encouraged to wear an orange shirt and reflect on the experiences of Indigenous children – those who survived and those who did not – who were sent to residential schools across the country where their culture and identity was stripped away.
To mark September 30th, we are all encouraged to take some time to reflect on the truth of the treatment that Indigenous people have encountered throughout our country’s history. This blog post will provide a few suggestions on resources you can explore that will help you to understand the experiences of the Indigenous community with a view towards reconciliation.
Reminiscences of 10 years of Guided Spirit Walks
There’s nothing quite like a guided tour through a cemetery. There are a lot of versions of this type of event. A spooky walk in the dark, a theatrical ‘spirit walk’ featuring actors portraying folks buried in the cemetery, or even an afternoon historian-led walking tour. Everyone has their favourite experience but it’s the theatrical spirit walk that advances important and personal historical narratives with a high return on interpretive value. The spirit walks also have the unique ability to allow us to lift the primary sources found in the Museum’s collection off the pages of the archives and bring them to life. In most cases, there may not be another opportunity to present those archival sources to the public.
Guided Spirit Walks 2021 Character Exclusives
This year’s Guided Spirit Walks tour theme, “Before they were Famous,” provides a diverse cast of characters.
Wrapped up in History: Guided Spirit Walks Costume Design
One of the most important (and fun) features of our Guided Spirit Walks productions is the costumes. They help to bring our show to life and immerse the audience into past societies.
STC StoryLab Presents: Scott Street Church
Day-to-day our lives may seem ordinary, but everyone’s unique experiences are what make our stories special. These stories tap into feelings of nostalgia, happiness, sadness, and more. These are the stories that help to make St. Catharines what it is today. At the St. Catharines Museum, our goal is to collect these stories and share them for generations to come.
Welcome Back to the Museum!
The St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canal Centre is very pleased to again welcome visitors safely to our facility as of Friday, July 16 at 9:00am. Read here to familiarize yourself with our updated operations to ensure all visitors have the best and safe experience at our facility.
Words for the Future, From our Visitor Book
This year, Museum Week ends with the theme #WordsForTheFutureMW. The words for the future we choose to share today come from our 2019 Visitor Book, where visitors from around the world left their mark and shared their comments about their experience at the St. Catharines Museum. As we enter the summer months of 2021, I was curious to learn what our visitors were saying about the Museum back in Summer 2019. It turns out, there’s a few lessons for the future we can gather from our visitors.
Searching for Family History – Kids Scavenger Hunt
This kid’s activity is part of the St. Catharines Museum’s Museum Week, is a global festival celebrating cultural institutions across the online world. In celebration of #ChildrensEyesMW day, we’ve created this scavenger hunt to spark children’s curiosity in their family history.
Museum Chat Live! E610 – Play & Museum Interpretation
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we chat with St. Catharines Museum Visitor Services Coordinator Adrian Petry to talk about the role and interpretive value of play in museums, and to take a closer-look at the inspiration and thinking behind some of St. Catharines Museum’s play-based programs.
Blossom Time in Niagara
As we near the end of another blossom season here in Niagara, our collective draw to the mesmerising colours and spring smells of the many blossoming fruit orchards dotting across our region is nothing new. Rather, Blossom Time in Niagara is part of a rich history of fruit farming and scenic tourism.
Picture This: Scrapbooking
The tradition or art of scrapbooking emerges from an inherent desire for individuals to leave a legacy. Tangible, but highly visual in nature, a scrapbook is a careful curation of images, clippings, and other ephemera that tells a story of someone’s life at a particular moment in time. Unlike a diary or journal, which are much more intimate and introspective, a scrapbook can be personal, but there is also a performative element of display, or presentation in the way each page is organized. Scrapbooks are curated with an audience in mind.
General Tubman: St. Catharines, 1858 – Part I
At the start of 1858 Tubman was living in the boarding house she rented in St. Catharines, Canada West (now Ontario) with her elderly parents; Benjamin Ross Sr. and Ritta ‘Rit’ Green Ross. The town of St. Catharines was a hub for abolitionist activity. With a population of about 6,500 in 1857, around 600 were people of African descent, and the majority of them were self-liberated African Americans.
We Need Your Postcards – New Exhibit at the Museum
Postcards have a quiet yet significant place in the history of our community. In mid-nineteenth century, postcards were an inexpensive way to send brief messages quickly to friends and family, either close to home or across the country. At the height of their popularity in the early twentieth century, postcards accompanied the tourism boom, serving as a photographic collectable in an age where camera equipment wasn’t quite commercial. The widespread movement of photographic postcards depicting idyllic scenes helped promote tourism in cities and towns across the country.
Mitten Tree – DIY Mitten Tree Ornament Template
Every year the St. Catharines Museum hosts our annual Mitten Tree campaign as a way to give back to the […]
Curator’s Pick – December
With snow softly falling and the holidays approaching, our Curator’s book pic this month is a recipe collection celebrating everyone’s favourite – maple syrup!
Curator’s Pick – November
As we enter November and this month of Remembrance, this Curator’s pick is a book that tells the story of […]