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.
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.
Most of the time, when we think of the bridges on the Welland Canal, we think of being stuck at them. The many bridges that cross the canal from Port Weller to Port Colborne are often just thought of as part of the infrastructure that gets us from Point A to Point B- with sometimes a wait in between. But, when you are stuck at a bridge, waiting for a ship to pass, have you ever really thought about what that bridge represents? We can actually tell so many stories and explore our history in new ways by talking about the crossing points on the Welland Canal.
As historians, it is our job look at the current global pandemic with a historical lens. How can we ensure that the stories and experiences of the people in our community living through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic are preserved for future generations?
It is part of the mission of the St. Catharines Museum to collect and tell the collective story of our community, and, understanding this unprecedented time, we hope to document how the current health crisis is impacting our community for future generations.
“Sara the farm cat isn’t sizing up dinner at Bert and Jennifer Dimmers’ poultry barn in Ridgeway yesterday. The eight-month-old feline is used to wandering through the different pens without harming the birds, including these one-week-old Muscovy ducks”
Colour the map. Choose a different colour for each route and perhaps colour the different cities and towns along the canal in different colours too.
Tubman’s connection to St. Catharines is significant. Tubman lived in St. Catharines and used the city as her base of operations from 1850-1857 and even attended the Salem Chapel – B.M.E. Church that still operates on Geneva Street. An important historical figure in both Canadian and American history, Harriet Tubman also worked for the Union Army during the American Civil War, serving as a cook, nurse and even a spy!
Lesson: Freedom Bag ActivityTopic: Black HistorySub-Topic: Freedom Seekers on the Underground RailroadGrades: 4-8 Instruction for Educators Note: This activity assumes […]
The picture of Canada and of St. Catharines I had in my head was one that was a ‘safe haven’ for Freedom Seekers. Technically true: legal freedom was available to Freedom Seekers. But St. Catharines wasn’t much of a ‘promised land’ afterall. Understandably, it is difficult to reconcile this information found in the testimonies of the Howe Commission, into the established picture we have of St. Catharines.
St. Catharines in this period was truly the industrial hub of Niagara. Agriculture and shipbuilding – the largest employers – dominated the landscape. The Welland Canal brought innovation, wealth, technology, and tourists to St. Catharines. It was dirty – animals had the run of downtown, but it was also clean – Victorian tourists swept into the city at this time to take advantage of all the recreational opportunities available.
I have seen hundreds of cases where families were separated. I have seen them in droves 150-200 together – men, women, and children – linked side by side. There used to be two drivers to a drove, one driver in front and one behind. I have seen them from eight or nine years old up to 45 and 50; and when the mothers were sold, I have seen young babes, torn from the cradle in these gangs. I have seen this, many and many a time, and heard them cry fit to break their hearts.
Black history is a part of Canadian history and that history includes racism. It’s difficult to come to terms with, I know. I love sharing the exciting story of Harriet Tubman and others who found freedom and refuge in St. Catharines. I have difficulty coming to terms with the idea that even though Freedom Seekers were welcome and supported in the community, they (and other minority or immigrant groups) were treated poorly, were openly disrespected, and experienced racism.
Kathleen welcomes St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik to the podcast to discuss telephones. They have a great history-based conversation about this ever-changing technology.
On this episode of One Hour in the Past, Kathleen and Adrian look at the history of shopping. The rabbit holes and tangential side-bars abound in this hilarious discussion of shopping carts, catalogues, and shopping malls.
On this episode of One Hour in the Past, we welcome Manager of Programs and Cultural Services Lori Mambella to the podcast to discuss cross letters. It’s a great conversation that leads down some interesting rabbit holes and Kathleen and Lori even consider the future of letter writing.
Kathleen and Adrian welcome Tisha and Carolyn from the St. Catharines Downtown Association for a discussion about sidewalks. Spoiler alert: there are approximately 500 kms of sidewalks in St. Catharines!
Morningstar Mill remembers the Black Watch. This token is hammered into one of wooden flour elevator shafts in Wilson Morningstar’s […]
On this episode…
Kathleen and Adrian jump into the world of the styles and forms of Arts & Crafts architecture, design, decor, and explore a little into the lives of the founders of the movement. They end this episode with a discussion about great examples of Arts & Crafts architecture in St. Catharines.
When our exhibit focused on objects found in attics and walls, titled Lost & Found, was coming together, Kathleen became intrigued with the soda water bottle that was to be included in the exhibit, and the history surrounding it. And that’s where our conversation picks up on the podcast for this episode: the history of Soda Water (and the history of Soda Water in St. Catharines).
E305 This is the first in a series of episodes that details the Fallen Workers of the Welland Canal. Over […]
Rowing has been a popular sport in the community for more than 100 years! As host to the Royal Canadian Henley Race Course, the community has been lucky to host many world class regattas showcasing rowing’s best! Our community has also trained some of the best rowers in the world.
April is International Genocide Awareness Month and will also mark the opening of a new, temporary exhibit created by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) about Holodomor – or Ukrainian Genocide of the 1930s.
We sat down with Natalie Duduch, a child of a Holodomor survivor, and a member of the Niagara Chapter of the UCC to talk about Holodomor, the Congress’ education efforts, and the exhibit that will be here at the Museum from April 4 to November 31, 2018.
Did you ever notice 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 starts with that premise.
Stories like the establishment of the Refugee Slaves Friends Society here in St. Catharines, or the popular Emancipation Day Picnic, held at Lakeside Park from the 1920s to the 1950s to celebrate the 1833 Act for the Abolition of Slavery, are enjoyable to share and to consume because they can help us to feel better about ourselves and our past while living in troubling times. Unfortunately, history is messy. We love organization and labels as much as you do, but history is complex and accurately telling stories includes acknowledging the bad parts too. Recognizing messy histories can actually help to clean up and heal the impacts that history has on our community today. Reconciling the good with the bad parts of our history can help us to move forward.
The St. Catharines Museum recently catalogued an artifact that offers a unique perspective to Black History and the legacy of […]
Black History Month is an incredibly important time to recognize, reflect, and commemorate the history of the Black community in St. Catharines, and indeed, throughout Canada. It does not start on February 1, nor stop on February 29.
More over, Black History should never be recognized, reflected, or commemorated as a silo of history. Black History is as important and vital a part of the Canadian story as any other.
I’ve found myself searching for ways to make our history relevant to our current human experience. To be honest, it can be difficult to connect to the past with the news the way it is these days. Things move so fast that it’s hard to figure it all out.
Yet parallels exist. Our community has a strong history of responding to injustice with compassion and action. And so my goal, with this first post in our series of four is to reveal how our history can inspire compassion and action in our daily lives and in our community.
In this podcast study guide (to go along with your reading of the book) we take a look at the idea of Merritton, one of the 4 former cities that amalgamated into St. Catharines, and it’s development as a ‘company town’ alongside the historic Welland Canals. Of course, the history of Merritton, and the history of any place, is far more complex than could possibly be analysed in a brief study-guide podcast, and so this episdoe should not be considered a complete history of the town, but rather the presentation of one idea as a just one part of explaining its rich history.
Excerpt from “Walk Y” in “St. Catharines A-Z” by Junius, originally published in the St. Catharines Journal on December 25th, […]
The holidays are an exciting time of year but for many people in our community who find themselves in a place of need, it can be a cold, uncomfortable, and lonely time.
We round out the autumn Books & Brews book club with a wonderful selection titled ‘Volkswagen Blues’ on our last Books & Brews podcast episode of 2017. The 1980s novel by Jacques Poulin (translated to English by Sheila Fischman) tackles colonialism, Quebecois national identity, and Canadian and American Indigenous-Settler history.
It’s the spookiest time of year! In the haunted spirit of Halloween, we’ve dedicate this episode of Museum Chat Live! to some of the creepiest and eeriest stories in St. Catharines’ history. You might want to listen with the lights on…
Since Margaret Laurence’s Can-Lit stalwart novel is so incredibly rich of historical themes, we had to pick just one to talk about on our podcast. The choice wasn’t difficult, though, and we spent this episode talking about the historiography of Louis Riel and the Metis peoples of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
How do we deal with monuments that commemorate problematic histories and problematic historical figures? It’s a debate that has gotten quite heated in recent weeks, and as museum professionals, the Museum Chat Live! podcast team thought we’d weight in.
The role of gender in advertising has been an issue in society since the advent of modern media and advertising methods. Over the years media sources have used methods that concentrate on sex and stereotypical images and ideas of the parts men and women play as consumers. Such methods have constructed a paradigm of how we view females and the roles they play in society, the most prominent being the housewife which began in the early 1950s.
The plans continue to remain an important resource in my work as a public historian at the Museum today. I often find myself considering research questions by first checking the city’s business directories spanning the last 150 years, and the fire insurance plans. They aren’t perfect – they are static and only cover certain geography – but the visuals are priceless.
And that’s why we just couldn’t keep these plans to ourselves.
Excerpt from “Walk P” in “St. Catharines A-Z” by Junius, originally published in the St. Catharines Journal on August 21st […]
We’re kicking off Museum Chat Live! with an episode dedicated to our Books & Brews Book Club with a discussion of our first book, set for September 19, of Green Grass, Running Water.
Excerpt from “Walk O” in “St. Catharines A-Z” by Junius, originally published in the St. Catharines Journal on August 14th, […]
Our Fall 2017 Books & Brews series opens space for the voices of Indigenous, female, and French-Canadian authors to consider the impacts of colonization on what it means to be Canadian. The books we have selected explore Canadian-ness and the Canadian experience through the intersections of race, class, culture and identity.
A staggering 137 men lost their lives as a result of accidents that occurred during the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. This number is shockingly high. To our knowledge, it is the largest loss of life in the history of Canadian government infrastructure projects.
