The stars draw curious hearts to thoughts of distant worlds. Dr. Alice Vibert Douglas gazed in fascination at twinkling stars as a devoted astrophysicist. Alice Vibert Douglas was born on December 5, 1894 to Methodist missionary parents in Montreal, Quebec. Sent to live with family in England when her parents died in 1904, Douglas […]
Dr. Helen Sawyer Hogg spent her life watching the skies through the lens of a telescope, searching for Globular Clusters, encouraging star-gazing and promoting astronomy A young student at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts in 1922, Helen Battles Sawyer was set on being a chemist. A class trip to watch the eclipse of the sun in […]
Forensic scientist Wilfred Dérôme established “Institut de Médicine Légale et de Police Scientifique” to examine crime scene evidence and find the truth. For years in the early 1900s, Dr. Wilfred Dérôme worked in the Pathology Lab of the Notre Dame Hospital in Montreal. As the Director of the hospital lab, he examined evidence brought to […]
Hélène Boullé came to New France in 1620. Dissatisfied as a settler, she stayed only four years in Canada. Returning to France, she founded an Ursuline Convent. A bride at the tender age of 12, Hélène Boullé was given in marriage to Samuel de Champlain, one of France’s great world explorers, and early settler of […]
Imbuing paintings with colour and emotion, Paraskeva Clark also added dashes of political views. She was one of Canada’s most talented artists of the 1930s and ’40s.At the end of her long and flourishing career as a prominent fine artist, Paraskeva Clark made startling statements. Difficulties Faced by Women Artists “I would like to […]
Hanging on store racks, displayed near check-outs, the endearing, colourful character heads on dispensers captured the market as an affordable combination of candy and toy. Pop out a flavourful tablet to savour while we discover the inventive history of PEZ. Operating a food ingredients business in the 1920s, the Haas family of Vienna, Austria expanded […]
In the early 1940s when wartime Japan threatened the supply of natural rubber, a chemist at General Electric Company’s laboratory in Connecticut was tasked with finding a new synthetic rubber compound. Extensive experiments did not improve on the products already available, however, a lab accident proved interesting. Spilling boric acid into silicone oil, James Wright […]
The average toy chest is a bit too small to hold the big toys. Instead, the Tonka® trucks loved by boys and girls of all ages get parked elsewhere for quick return to play. The yellow-and-black trucks with catchy black lettering were introduced in 1947, and instant recognition for sturdy construction that ignites imaginations and […]
Claiming the title of the birthplace of hockey, Montreal, Kingston, and Windsor, Nova Scotia each has a long history with the sport. The invention of table hockey is much easier to narrow down. There is only one birthplace of the indoor hockey game in 1932: the Toronto basement of Donald Hill Munro Sr. In the […]
In the early 1900s, the air in many homes was not clean. Circulating particles of coal soot and wood smoke from heaters left wallpaper with dark, grubby smudges. Homemakers made their own compound to roll up and down on the wall to remove the dirt. Kutol Products filled the need with a handy pre-made substance […]
Everyone has a favourite way to start. Some begin with a central section, joining a tab and a blank to work outward on the jigsaw puzzle image. Others begin with flat-edged corner pieces and interlock from the perimeter inward. Regarded as the first to produce jigsaw puzzles in the mid-1700s, British cartographer and publisher John […]
Understanding the needs and desires of customers was a crucial business advantage for Edwin Binney and Harold Smith. Establishing a partnership in 1885, the Binney & Smith firm transformed from producing dull charcoal and lampblack paints to wax sticks in a burst of vibrant hues. Stacked on shelves, tucked in toy boxes, strewn across the […]