VMLS via Podcast – Home Sweet Home

On today’s episode of VMLS via Podcast we’re sharing a lecture about urban development in St. Catharines – a long and storied tale. This lecture was originally presented on November 16, 2021 by Sara Nixon.

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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.

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Museum Chat Live! E802 – Why Does History Change? A Perspective on the Evolution of Museums

In this episode of Museum Chat Live! Sean discusses the history of museums since the late 1700s. He delves into […]

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VMLS via Podcast – Canada’s Game in the Garden City

On today’s episode of VMLS via Podcast our Visitor Services Coordinator Adrian Petry gives a lecture about the rich and exciting history of hockey in our city. Hear stories from the early days of pick-up on a frozen Welland Canal to Stan Mikita and the big-league games here at the Garden City Arena.

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VMLS via Podcast: Adventures in Housekeeping

As the 20th century dawned with new excitement and a look forward to the next century, St. Catharines was in a period of growth and prosperity. Did that rosy picture translate into the home and domestic life? Look behind closed doors and catch a glimpse of the domestic sphere and how it was changing with the new century.

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Artifact of the Week: Ville de Mons Medal

This week’s artifact is a Ville de Mons Medal given to John Fitzgerald. This was a commemorative medal that was given to the members of the 3rd Canadian Division for liberating the Belgian Town of Mons on Nov 9th, 1918, two days before the end of the First World War. The ribbon is faded and at one time was the colours of the Belgian flag.

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Artifact of the Week: Carbide Bicycle Lamp

This Miller’s Carbo Carbide Bicycle Lamp is a gas headlight, typical of those used on bicycles around the turn of the 20th century. Similar lamps were used on automobiles at this time. Operators beware: a collision could yield explosive results!

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Artifact of the Week: Metric Converter

This week’s artifact might familiar to some. It’s a slide rule conversion tool for the metric system. Anyone else have one these lying around? This one belonged to Fred Davis, who worked on the Great Lakes.

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The St. Catharines Women’s Literary Club

To mark International Women’s Day, we are looking at the rich history of the Women’s Literary Club, a St. Catharines institution for the education and enrichment of women in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Artifact of the Week: Dining Tablecloth Brush

This dining tablecloth brush used locally, is similar to other types of clothes brushes used in this area, c. 1840. Brushing crumbs, dust, and lint away helped to keep the cloth clean, which was especially useful before machine washing made it easier to wash large items frequently.

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Filling in the Gaps: Historical Records After the Underground Railroad

The stories told over this blog series highlight moments of success, aspiration, challenge, pride, joy, and determination in the lives of Black individuals. These are universal concepts we all feel and experience. These are stories of everyday people, People of Colour who lived, went to school, worked, made friends, and pursued a full life in St. Catharines. These were the lives Freedom Seekers aspired to for themselves and their families when they arrived in St. Catharines more than 170 years ago.

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Life in the City Directories: Historical Records After the Underground Railroad

One brief line in a city directory can offer endless possibility in delving into the working experiences of the people who lived and worked in St. Catharines throughout our past. By tracing the names of Black community members from the earliest editions of our directories in the 1850s through to today, we can trace the legacies first sowed by Freedom Seekers, as well as the continuity of determination and hard work within the community.

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Artifact of the Week: Cream Separator

Donated by a resident of St. Catharines, this model of cream separator was sold by Eatons, and may have been purchased at the Canadian Department Store at the corner of William Street and St. Paul Street. CDS was a division of Eatons.

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Life in the Year Books: Historical Records After the Underground Railroad

As a source, high school yearbooks certainly bring light to the achievements of Black students through the decades of the 20th century, but beyond this, they also offer unique insight into how these students navigated such a formative period of their lives. Though the Black student population in St. Catharines’ high school was small through most of the 20th century, students of colour made considerable impact in their school communities, from their academic successes to contributing their talents to clubs and sports teams. Black experiences, visible on the pages of local yearbooks, shows us all aspects of student life: friendship, school spirit, team participation, and aspirations.

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Life in the News: Historical Records After the Underground Railroad

Newspapers are an important source of information in finding the historical pulse of a community. While the documentation isn’t perfect, and there are always gaps of subjects that didn’t receive coverage, the news stories and photographs can tell us a lot about the tangible history of the subject of news and the history of the community’s intangible biases and interests.

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Who Stayed? Historical Records After the Underground Railroad

There is no information available as to why this population change, although the historical record might help shed some light on some of the reasons, such as difficulty finding work due to discriminatory hiring practices, people moving to be closer to family or support groups in other communities, people moving back to the United States after the Civil War, etc.  We can only speculate based on the historical information available.  The numbers don’t illustrate motivations.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Stories From the Front: St Catharines’ Wartime Sources Part Three

Within days of Canada declared war on Germany in 1914 the 19th Lincoln Regiment and the 44th Lincoln and Welland Regiment were placed on active duty. The men from these regiments were charged with protecting potential targets in Niagara including the hydroelectric sites, bridges, railways and the canal.

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