This episode is the first in the Hearing History series, which explores the history of St. Catharines through sound. Close […]
VMLS via Podcast: A Model City
On today’s episode of VMLS via Podcast we’ll hear a presentation from our own Sara Nixon with her lecture titled ‘A Model City: the 1913 St. Catharines Board of Trade Yearbook’. The lecture was originally recorded on May 11, 2021.
Museum Chat Live! E705 – Heritage Advocacy
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we discuss what heritage advocacy looks like on the local level, on the ground and at the grassroots. To help us navigate the many layers to identifying, protecting, and enhancing community heritage, we’ve invite Andrew Humeniuk onto the podcast. Andrew is a member of the the St. Catharines Heritage Advisory Committee and Executive Director of The Brown Homestead here in St. Catharines.
VMLS via Podcast – The Fight for History with Dr. Tim Cook
On today’s episode of VMLS via Podcast we’ll hear from war historian and author Dr. Tim Cook. Tim’s book ‘The Fight for History’ looks at the significance of remembering the Second World War. This lecture was originally presented on April 27, 2021.
VMLS via Podcast – The General: A Symposium with the Brock University Historical Society.
Today’s lecture, is a bit different. We were happy to host the students of the Brock University Historical Society in symposium on the series on April 13, 2021. You’ll hear lots of different voices and stories on this episode. For more information on the work of the Brock University Historical Society, please visit their Facebook page: facebook.com/brockhistoricalsociety.
VMLS via Podcast – Historic Welland Canals Mapping Project
Today’s lecture, originally presented on March 30, 2021, was presented by special guest Colleen Beard, map librarian emeritus at Brock University. Colleen’s Historic Welland Canals Mapping Project has mapped the routes of the three early Welland Canals and her presentation takes us through her website.
Museum Chat Live! E704 – Oral History and Community Voices
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, consider the role of oral history in collecting community stories, and building community legacy.
We discuss the Museum’s oral history collection project, STC StoryLab, and sit down with Reverend Dr. Paul Miller, pastor of Westminster United Church located on Queenston Street in St. Catharines, and a leader in the Queenston Neighbourhood.
VMLS via Podcast – For King and Country
On this episode of VMLS via Podcast: A lecture originally presented in March 16, 2021, examines the experiences of soldiers from St. Catharines who fought in the Boer War.
Museum Chat Live! E703- Cemeteries and Historic Interpretation
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, co-hosts Abbey and Sara look at the development and evolution of the museum’s Guided Spirit walks over the past 11 years. To help us understand the Museum’s Spirit Walk journey, we speak to Adrian Petry, Visitor Services Coordinator at the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. We also sit down with Guided Spirit Walk actors Ian Ashman and Kathie Leblanc to discover what is like to portray local historical figures and the impact Guided Spirit Walks has on the community.
VMLS via Podcast: No Exit: Dead End Streets of St. Catharines
Today on VMLS via Podcast: the history of urban development in the city be exploring the city’s dead-end streets.
VMLS via Podcast: Myths of the Underground Railroad
Today’s lecture, originally presented in February 2021, features public programmer Sara Nixon with a lecture about the most prevalent and persistent myths about the Underground Railroad.
VMLS vis Podcast – Visiting Abolitionists
Today’s lecture features very special guest, local historian, and trustee of the Salem Chapel, BME Church Rochelle Bush. Rochelle discusses how St. Catharines became a hub of abolitionist activity in the 1850s and 60s, and the famous names to visited St. Catharines to do their important work.
Museum Chat Live! E702 – Social Media, Museums & History-Telling
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, co-hosts Abbey and Sara look at the ways social media platforms like Facebook are changing the way we access, understand and learn about history. We consider the relationship between social media, history-telling, and museums. To help us understand the role social media has played in shaping how we consume history, we speak to Chris Barany – founder and administrator of the Vintage St. Catharines Facebook group. We’ll chat with Chris about the intricacies of running a community-driven, history-focused Facebook.
VMLS via Podcast – Marking Time
Today’s lecture features Supervisor of Historical Services and Curator Kathleen Powell with a discussion of ‘Marking Time’ an exhibit that was on display here at the Museum, which featured textiles and fashion from the Museum’s collection which help to mark life’s significant milestones. It’s a bit more visual than our some of the other lectures, so visit our YouTube Play list to watch the lecture in-full.
VMLS via Podcast – the Howe Report
Today’s lecture, presented by Adrian Petry and Sara Nixon, explores the lives of Freedom Seekers as they settled in St. Catharines from their journeys on the Underground Railroad as recorded by Samuel Gridley Howe on behalf of the United States Congress Freedman’s Inquiry Commission in 1863. This lecture was originally presented on November 24, 2020.
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.
Museum Chat Live! E701 – Museums, Myths & History
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, your hosts Sara and Abbey explore how stories that are not based in historical evidence make their way into collective historical narratives, why fiction sometimes spurs from historical fact, and how folklore, myths, and legends can be addressed and interpreted to museum audiences.
VMLS via Podcast – Ontario’s Racially Segregated Schools
Today’s lecture features a very special guest. We were thrilled to welcome Natasha Henry, PhD candidate at York University and President of the Ontario Black History Society. Natasha’s lecture on racially segregated schools in Ontario was fascinating and we think you’ll really enjoy it. This lecture was originally produced on October 13, 2020.
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.
VMLS via Podcast – Stones and Symbols at Victoria Lawn Cemetery
Today’s lecture features special guest Dr. Adam Montgomery, one of the most recognized historians on cemetery history today. Dr. Montgomery shared the history of Victoria Lawn Cemetery in a lecture titled ‘Stones and Symbols of Victoria Lawn Cemetery’. This lecture was originally presented on September 15, 2020. Enjoy the lecture.
VMLS via Podcast – Lost and Historic Architecture of St. Catharines
This next lecture will wrap up our VMLS podcast for 2021 just as the lecture itself wrapped up our first lecture series in the spring of 2020. ‘Lost and Historic Architectures’ was presented by yours truly on June 23, 2020. After this, we’ll be taking a little break but we’ll back with more lectures in January 2022, so stay tuned, and as always, enjoy the lecture.
VMLS via Podcast – Racetracks and Runaway Carriages
Another guest joins us for the lecture today. Dr. Keri Cronin is a historian of visual culture and faculty at Brock University with a special focus on the history of animals. Her lecture titled ‘Racetracks and Runaway Carriages’ Dr. Cronin looks at the history of horses in St. Catharines. This lecture was originally presented on Jun 17, 2020. Enjoy the lecture.
VMLS via Podcast – Archaeology of a 19th Century Shipyard
dramatic arts students from Governor Simcoe Secondary School appear in my discussion of the Shipyard Strikes from 1861 and how we turned some dramatic history into a play. And Dr. Kimberly Monk joins us to talk about the history of the Shickluna Shipyard, along with the thrilling story of the archaeological dig she is leading at the yard. This lecture was originally presented on June 9, 2020.
VMLS via Podcast – The Horseless Revolution
On today’s lecture, we join Curator and Supervisor of Historical Services Kathleen Powell as she talks about the history of Packard Electric and the early manufacturing of Oldsmobile and REO cars here in St. Catharines. The lecture was originally presented on June 2, 2020.
VMLS via Podcast – Tracing the Tracks of the Underground Railroad
On today’s lecture, we join our public programmer Sara Nixon as she traces the tracks of the Underground Railroad and examines the legacy of Freedom Seekers arriving in St. Catharines in the 1850s. This lecture was originally presented on May 26, 2020.
VMLS via Podcast – Open for Business: The Welland Canal in 1830
The story of the first full operating season of the Welland Canal in 1830 is interesting because it challenges the dominant narrative of a well organized, well financed, well run, and generally successful endeavour, when in actuality, it was plagued with problems and failures.
VMLS via Podcast – The 1918 Pandemic in St. Catharines
On today’s VMLS via Podcast is Kathleen’s lecture on the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic in St. Catharines, presented May 12, 2020.
VMLS via Podcast – Next Stop: the NS&T
Virtual Museum Lecture Series via Podcast In the spring of 2020, we began to offer history lectures through our Virtual […]
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.
Museum Chat Live! – E609: Museum Work in a Pandemic
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we consider how museum work has changed over the past year in the face of a global pandemic. As with many professions and fields, the pandemic has laid bare the challenges in museum work, but has also brought clarity to our strengths and resilience. We’re here to get into the nitty gritty and ask how museums have had to drastically shift focus, innovate to reach audiences, remain relevant in our communities, and continue our overarching purpose, as custodians of the past, to preserve and interpret history in entirely new ways.
Museum Chat Live! E608 – Introducing STC StoryLab
We are thrilled to introduce our newest community-based project: STC StoryLab! This is a multi-year oral history collection project led by the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre to collect and share the oral history of the St. Catharines community. On this episode of Museum Chat Live, we share what STC StoryLab is all about, why we want your stories, and how you can get involved.
Museum Chat Live! E607 – The Howe Report Revisited
On this episode of Museum Chat Live! Sara and Adrian revisit their lecture on the Howe Report presented as a part of the Museum’s Virtual Museum Lecture Series in November of 2020. The lecture focussed on the Howe Report, or using it’s proper name, “The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West: a Report to the Freedman’s Inquiry Commission,” written by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe after his visit to St. Catharines in 1863 to report on the condition of refugee Freedom Seekers to Congress. Howe’s interviews were transcribed and reveal a lot about our community in 1863.
Museum Chat Live! E606 – In Conversation with Tim Cook, Historian and Author
On this episode of Museum Chat Live! We are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Tim Cook, who is a historian at the Canadian War Museum and author of 11 books on Canadian Military History in the 20th Century. In this interview with Tim Cook, our Curator, Kathleen Powell talks to him about his new book – The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering and Remaking Canada’s Second World War.
Museum Chat Live! E605 – Spooky Halloween Episode 2020
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we consider why we’re so interested in the paranormal and delve into a few supernatural stories connected to historic places and events in St. Catharines history.
Museum Chat Live! E604 – Victorian Tweets: Contradictions Performed
As modern, progressive people of the 21st century we enjoy a certain distance from the romanticized and contradictory Victorian period but are we really that different from our Victorian ancestors?
On this third and final episode of this special podcast series, we’ll finally tell you what we think about our post-modernist status as non-Victorians. Enjoy the episode.
Museum Chat Live! E603 – Victorian Tweets: Chronological Identity
As modern, progressive people of the 21st century we enjoy a certain distance from the romanticized and contradictory Victorian period but are we really that different from our Victorian ancestors?
On this second episode of the special podcast series, we’ll explore our chronological identity. Wait. What? Our chronological identity? Listen to the episode to find out more.
Museum Chat Live! E602 – Victorian Tweets: Who Were the Victorians?
As modern, progressive people of the 21st century we enjoy a certain distance from the romanticized and contradictory Victorian period but are we really that different from our Victorian ancestors?
On this first episode of the special podcast series, we’ll explore what it means to be Victorian. We’ll hear some of the tweets and their original sources on this podcast, read and recoded by some familiar voices of staff and volunteers.
Museum Chat Live! E601 – Creating Where’s the Pig?
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we take you on a journey through the creation of the St. Catharines Museum’s Where’s the Pig? virtual adventure series and dig a little deeper into its inspiration and why this kind of museum work is so important!
REPOST: Museum Chat Live! E404 – Guided Spirit Walks
We are gearing up for the 2020 Guided Spirit Walks season, now a virtual experience that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home!
To highlight what it takes to produce our Guided Spirit Walks program each year, we are resharing this 2019 Museum Chat Live! episode, where we chat with cast and members of the creative team about the walks. While this years’ production will look very different than previous years, we are continuing to put our all into creating a high-quality, meaningful experience for you.
Museum Chat Live! E510 – Strike: 1861
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, hear the dramatic and rarely-told story of a major strike closed shipyards across Niagara in the summer of 1861, and how the story has been turned into a play by the students at Governor Simcoe Secondary School.