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.
One Hour in the Past E404 – Restaurants and Taverns
On this episode, we welcome Christine Girardi, Assistant Curator from the Niagara Falls History Museum to join us for a discussion on the history of taverns and restaurants.
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.
One Hour in the Past E403 – Military Rations
On this episode, we welcome Michael Ashford from the Niagara Military Museum, located in Niagara Falls, Ontario to discuss one hour of research into military rations.
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.
One Hour in the Past E402 – Mealtimes
This season on One Hour in the Past, we are cooking up some food fun! Each episode this season takes down the research rabbit stew of food and food related topics! We will also be joined by some special guests from other museums around the Niagara region.
On this episode, we welcome Sarah Kaufman, the Managing Director/Curator of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum to discuss the timing of food consumption: mealtimes.
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.
One Hour in the Past E401 – Spices
This season on One Hour in the Past, we are cooking up some food fun! Each episode this season takes down the research rabbit stew of food and food related topics! We will also be joined by some special guests from other museums around the Niagara region.
First up is a deeper dive into the history of spices! We are joined by Stephanie Powell-Baswick, Director / Curator of the Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum who joined us as we explored the interesting and exotic history of those things that add flavour to our foods!
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.
One Hour in the Past E306 – The October Crisis
On the season 3 finale of One Hour in the Past, Kathleen and Adrian discuss their research into the mysterious and turbulent history of the FLQ and the October Crisis.
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.
One Hour in the Past E305 – The Fur Trade
On this episode of One Hour in the Past, Kathleen and Adrian tackle the expansive history of the Fur Trade.
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.
One Hour in the Past E304 – Maps and Mapping
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!
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.
One Hour in the Past E303 – The Prime Ministers
On this episode of One Hour in the Past, Kathleen and Adrian explore the complicated histories of Canadian Prime Ministers.
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.
One Hour in the Past E302 – The Family Compact
On this episode of One Hour in the Past 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.
Museum Chat Live! E509 – The Friends of the Carousel
On this episode of Museum Chat Live! we chat with members of the Friends of the Carousel about this beloved local attraction.
Museum Chat Live! E508 – Canal Crossings: Lifting Us Up
We end the Canal Crossings miniseries on a lighter note, to “lift us up” if you will, and explore a few community stories involving canal crossings in our history. We hope that these stories give you a smile, probably a head shake, and ideally a reminder that our community would not be same without these canal crossings.
One Hour in the Past E301 – Printing
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 history of printing.
Museum Chat Live! 507 – 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe
In this episode of Museum Chat Live! we are talking to Mayor Walter Sendzik who tells us about his trip to the Netherlands and Bergen op Zoom in October 2019 to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands and the contributions of local soldiers in that campaign. Kathleen Powell and Adrian Petry will also chat about St. Catharines and the home front during the Second World War and about how the city welcomed its soldiers home to the community.
Museum Chat Live! 506 – Canal Crossings: Bridge Accidents
On this episode of Museum Chat Live, your cohost Sara and special guest, Des, dig into the darker history that surrounds the canal crossings – the tragic accidents involved in bridge construction and maintenance, and other bridge disasters.
We turn our attention to this grim part of Welland Canal history in honour of the National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured in the Workplace held on April 28.
Museum Chat Live! E505 – Canal Crossings Miniseries: The Crossings Today
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, your co-host Sara chats with special guest, Des Corran, about the canal crossings in-use today.
We explore not only the surviving bridges from when the Welland Canal opened in 1932, but also the construction of the underwater tunnels and the Garden City Skyway.
One Hour in the Past E206 – Stuffed Animals
On this episode: Kathleen and Adrian look at the history of stuffed animals and Teddy Bears. It’s a hilarious discussion of toys, President Teddy Roosevelt, music, and Furbie. Join them as they take this deep dive into the history of our fuzzie-wuzzie friends.