Weddings and Historic Sites

My fiancé and I are in the process of planning our wedding. We wanted a wedding that would reflect who we are as a couple and at a place that is memorable to us.

Then we decided on the Prince of Wales Hotel, located in historic downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake. This hotel was named in honour of the royal visit of future King George the V of England, in 1901. The Prince of Wales' rich history, and gilded Victorian architecture will provide the perfect atmosphere for a truly classic and elegant event. It seemed natural for us to choose a historic site for our wedding as we are both history students and the Niagara area also has fond memories for us.

In my research, I discovered that there are many historic sites that also serve as venues for weddings and special occasions. Here in London, Fanshawe Pioneer Village hosts many weddings each year. Ceremonies at the Pioneer Village, take place at the historic church on site and the receptions are held at the lodge. Museum London also caters to weddings.

I found reception halls to be somewhat cold and lacked that intrigue that a historic site can bring to an event. I'm looking forward to researching the history of the Prince of Wales Hotel and including it in the invitation package. Though we may include some historic elements in the wedding planning, it will still be modern. As the wedding coordinator of the Prince of Wales hotel explained, "Just because a wedding is taking place at a historic site, doesn't mean that it needs to be a themed wedding. It can still be classic and modern."

Historic Scenery

Landscapes tell their own history and can reveal evidence about the past through the interpretation of human interaction with the land. Landscapes can change drastically with time. I have witnessed immense change to the surroundings of a historic site just in my lifetime, due to urban development. The Dionne Quintuplet museum was moved from its original site in Callander Ontario and placed in the City of North Bay. Though not in its original location, visitors could still imagine this as a country home because of the green space and forest surrounding it. Then about 5 years ago a road was built behind the museum and a Home Depot, 5 storey hotel and parking lot completely destroyed the setting. Now visitors are not able to picture how the historic site would have looked amid all the urban development. The Dionne’s would have had a large property with a farm and their neighbours would have been far down the road. With a hotel parking lot encroaching almost on their front door it is difficult to picture the country lifestyle of this family.

New York City has the best examples of seemingly misplaced historic buildings. Trinity Church was once the tallest structure in New York and now this gothic church is completely dwarfed by modern skyscrapers. The juxtaposition is quite poetic. When I first saw this site it triggered my imagination as to how this area would have looked in 1846 when the church was first built.

I believe it is important to have context in order to better understand historic sites and positioning and landscape is an important part of this context. As public historians we must attempt to maintain historic scenery in some way if possible. If this is not possible some information should be provided to visitors about the change that has occurred to the landscape over time. Glassburg in his article "interpreting landscapes" outlines ways that historic sites can maintain their historic surroundings. Historic sites can simply purchase the land surrounding their site. One such example is George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. This task "required curtailing modern development not only on what had been Washington's property, but also on the lands across the Potomac River visible from the site". pg 30 If this kind of money is not in the budget there are other ways to accomplish this through the use of planning tools. One can designate the site a local historic district or place a conservation easement on the area. In rural areas it may be possible to zone the area for agricultural use thus eliminating commercial or residential use.

The park movement of the 1800's speaks to the desire to maintain these natural settings and even more interestingly, the desire to shape even these settings to fit human needs and ideals. Central park designed by Fredrick Olmstead for example, is a beautiful green space but it is not natural in any sense. The park is highly maintained and evidence of human intervention is everywhere with the presence of paths, fountains, cultivated plants, trees and flowers and of course the only animals aside from squires and birds are contains in the zoo. The National Parks though somewhat more natural can still be criticised for catering to human clients. Yellowstone National park for instance is filled with wildlife except for wolves. These sites are examples of the "constructed wilderness" concept, raised in Rebecca Conrad's article “Spading Common Ground".

Conrad argues that the main obsticle to landscape preservation is resource experts imposed differentiation between "natural" and "built". It is easy to recognize the significance of a historic building although it is more difficult to see the importance of historic scenery or historic spaces such as battle sites or simply the historic significance of uncultivated land. We are alienating ourselves from the past if we do not recognize the importance of the historic landscape.


Based on Readings:

-Conard, Rebecca. “Spading Common Ground.” Public History and the Environment. Ed. Martin V.
Melosi and Philip V. Scarpino. Florida: Krieger, 2004, 3-22.

-Glassberg, David. “Interpreting Landscapes.” Public History and the Environment. Ed. Martin V. Melosi
and Philip V. Scarpino. Florida: Krieger, 2004, 23-36.

You want a Public Historian

As a discipline, Public History is about making history accessible to the public. I think the best way to define public history is to know where the public historian can be found. They typically dwell in museums caring for artefacts, producing displays, performing administrative tasks, and liaising with the public. Although this is not the only place public historians can be found. There are many non traditional jobs for public historians and well jobs that I didn't even know existed. Did you know that public historians are great at freelance historic journalism? They are useful as heritage planners, documentary and film consultants, potentially historic novelists, educators, archivists, entrepreneurs or even in government. Public Historians are well known for their adaptability, creativity and productivity. So if you have a job involving history, you want a public historian.

The Bridge of Dreams

In 2005, I had the opportunity to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and I quickly realized that it was more than just a bridge. It was a tremendous architectural success and I began to wonder about its history and the impact that this bridge would have had on average New Yorkers. I decided to do some research and this is what I discovered.
The concept for the Brooklyn Bridge arose in the early nineteenth century when New Yorkers began dreaming of a bridge to connect them with America, no one imagined the spectacle it would become. With its mixture of neo-gothic towers, steal spans and cables, Brooklyn Bridge has stood between the shores of the East River for over a hundred and twenty five years.
The construction of the Bridge was indeed a triumph of design and skill. At a time when one in every five bridges collapsed, Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Its granite towers were the largest structures ever built on the North American continent. Its construction was sought with many challenges and came at high finial and human cost. In order to construct the base of the bridge workers were lowered in Caissons, which were large wooden chambers that acted much like a cup flipped upside down and placed in water. The caissons were pressurized and kept the water out so workers could dig on the bed rock of the East River and lay the foundations for the Bridge. Many fell ill and died from what came to be known as Caissons Disease caused by ascending too rapidly from a place of high pressure, today this is commonly known as the Bends. Workers would have suffered from violent cramps, dizziness, vomiting, migraines, extreme fatigue, loss of sight and the loss of feeling in both arms and legs. With the caissons and other dangers of the job the bridge would claim approximately twenty seven lives, including its creator John Roebling.
After fourteen years of waiting and costing an astounding $14 million dollars, New Yorkers celebrated its opening day on May 24, 1883. This event drew close to 150,000 people who waited through the speeches so they may pay the one cent toll to cross the bridge for the first time.
No one could have predicted the tremendous impact of the Brooklyn Bridge for New Yorkers at the turn of the twenty first century. Connecting the island of New York with the main land alleviated much of the overcrowding in the city, greatly enhancing the lives of average New Yorkers. Workers could now find affordable and spacious living conditions in Brooklyn while still retaining their jobs in the city.
The Brooklyn Bridge is still open to pedestrians today, so if you are ever in New York City take some time to cross this bridge and experience its rich history.

RFID chips and Spimes

Imagine a world where everything is on the internet, as suggested by Sean Dodson, in his article "The Internet of Things". The technology exists to place these RFID chips and Spimes, in everyday objects and even in people. But what kind of implications could this have?

Not only could these chips make history with their profound and far reaching impact to the world around them. Imagine the effects on the consumer culture. These chips could be used to increase consumer convenience, predictability and in the end consumer satisfaction. For business, this technology would provide ultimate and valuable market research and would translate into larger and larger profits. This technology could better our lives or offer us a world of even more reduced liberties. Will we as a member of society, give up a little more of our liberty, in exchange for the benefits offered to us by our ever more encroaching society?

There is still one more issue I would like to bring up as a historian. I’m interested to know what effect this technology would have on historiography.
Imagine a historian is in the process of writing a historical biography. In the modern world there are already ample records to sift through when attempting to thoroughly understand a subject; in recent history, there are governmental, personal, even corporate records to choose from. Now imagine a world with RFID chips. There would be endless amounts of data. Even if the individual does not have an RFID chip themselves, if every object around every person does, it would be possible to recreate the entire world a person lived in based on their interactions with objects in the world. These every day objects would have a complete provenance on record. One would know the location and history of the objects throughout their existence and could essentially use this information to track movements and actions of historical events and figures. With these objects also recording and transmitting this information it could be accessible and stored for possibly eternity in the archives of the internet. It would stand to reason that such useful and potentially profitable information would not just end with the destruction of the object, it’s more likely that this information would be stored for future research and reference purposes. Historians could access this information and have to ability to recreate the actions of every person during every event in modern history simply by accessing the logs of nearby objects. Such ability would offer historians a truly new tool to examine history. To assign a neologism, It would be possible to have almost total-micro history. With this type of technology, the only mystery left to the historian would be access to the actual mind of the subject. Who knows where technology will take us next.

Promise Land Project and Symposium

This summer I'll have the opportunity to join the Promise Land Project as a research assistant under the direction of Dr Nina Reid Maroney of Huron College. The project I'm part of is a five-year $997,784 Community University Research Alliance (CURA) grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for work on the significance of black history in the Promised Land communities. It is a collaborative venture involving both universities and the community.

As a wonderful orientation to the project, I was invited to attend the Promise Land Symposium which took place on March 13 to the 15th 2009, at St Clair College in Chatham Ontario. During this event I was able to meet the project team which includes both national and international researchers and supporters. I had the opportunity to meet and listen to lectures from Dr. Boulou Ebanda de B’béri from the University of Ottawa, Marie Carter of the Dresden Community, and Devin Andrews project coordinator among many other talented and dedicated team members.

This event was an opportunity for those involved in the project and the public to share their research and thoughts on the anti slavery movement of South-western Ontario in the Nineteenth Century as well as contemporary issues of cultural identity.

For my contribution over the summer, I will be completing the database of African American Canadian land settlement in South Western Ontario, work which began last year. Once this is complete I will transfer this data to a geo mapping program. The idea behind this project, is that links and connections will show themselves if they are presented visually and spatially though mapping.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the abolitionist movement in South-western Ontario I have put a display together at Huron College. It is located in the basement of the Administration wing across from the Huron Diocese Archives. And will be there to view until next month.

The Meaning Behind Accession Numbers

I've decided to create my own Snow Globe Museum in order to demonstrait the use of accesssion numbers for museum artefacts. I hope you enjoy the tour.

The accession numbers I’ve given to these snow globes provide information in themselves about the artifacts. The first number is the year the object was accessioned into the museum. For instance these snow globes were acquired in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The second number refers the order they were accessioned that year. For instance, if the accession number indicates 01 as the second number, this means the item was the first artifact acquired that year. If the accession number is 02 this means it was the second artifact acquired that year and so on. The last number refers to the number of items in that acquisition. If there were multiple items acquired at the same time and part of the same collection or provenance then further numbers would be indicated to represent the different items in that acquisition. Some times artifacts also have parts. For instance a tea pot has two components a pot and a lid. These items would be further identified by issuing the letter A for the lid and B for the pot. These letters would be placed at the end of the accession number. For instance, if this item were in two parts their succession numbers would be 2009.02.1.a and 2009.02.1.b. Although there are various ways to number artifacts this is the most commonly used method.

Melissa's Snow Globe Museum


Artifact Number 2007.01.1
Name: Snow Globe of Chateau Frontenac
Measurements: 10 cm height 7 cm width
Condition: New
History of Artifact: This item was acquired as a souvenir from Quebec City on November 20 2007.


Artifact Number 2008.01.1
Name: Snow Globe of Angel
Measurements: 10 cm height 8 cm width
Condition: New
History of Artifact: This item was a gift


Artifact Number 2009.01.1
Name: Snow Globe of Labrador Puppy
Measurements: 10cm height 7 cm width
Condition: Damaged
History of Artifact: Christmas Gift


Artifact Number 2009.02.1
Name: Snow Globe of Ducks in Nature
Measurements: 14 cm height by 10 cm width
Condition: New
History of Artifact: This item was bought on sale at Wal-Mart in January 2009