Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
Designed by Sandford Fleming, the Three Pence Beaver was considered the first stamp of Canada, years before Confederation. Unique in its design, it set several firsts. Before a Dominion, Canada was a province, combining Upper Canada and Lower Canada into one entity, called the United Province of Canada. Other provinces of the time were Nova […]
Packing up their three children, the Héberts sailed across the ocean to New France. With little to work with, the family made a good life caring for natives and settlers It was an offer too good to pass up. Pack up the Hébert family, a French fur-trading company said, and sail from France to the […]
When it came to telephone service in Canada, Melville Bell was the man to see. Helping his son invent the first telephone, Melville owned the Canadian patent rights. When it came to telephone communication, Alexander Graham Bell was the man to see. After years of developing the technology, his success was proven by making a […]
From murmurs of gold on Bonanza Creek in 1897, word spread south with lightning speed. There was gold to be found, supplies to be purchased, but months of travel first. Panning for gold in Canada’s north was an ordinary occupation, and usually not a profitable venture. For years, gold miners plied their skills at finding […]
Printed on a half-sheet of foolscap, the Halifax Gazette provided news from Europe, government announcements, local scoops and advertising to the new citizens of Halifax The elegantly classic masthead, traditional Caslon typeface and enough advertisements to pay the bills, the first newspaper to be published in Canada set the tone for newspapers to come. The […]
British explorer Samuel Hearne was sent North on the search for copper mines by his employer, the Hudson’s Bay Company. After months of travel, he arrived to find no ore It must have been the picture of icy splendour. While searching for copper mines, Samuel Hearne and his guides reached the water’s edge of the […]
Completed in 1832 by the bare hands of men with only rough tools, the Rideau Canal is an engineering achievement of glory. Locks permitted travel uphill and downhill. The visitor today sees a river of calm, flowing blue water and hears shore birds and huge geese calling to their mates. Pleasure boats of all sizes […]
Sugar beets provided a portion of Canada’s need for sugar, and have been tantalizing the country’s tastebuds since the 19th Century. The industry is still strong today. Sugar. The delicate crystals are used in food preparation to sweeten, cut tangyness and tantalize the taste buds; it has been used as a preservative, a meat tenderizer […]
Music, refrigeration, carpeting, plumbing and rootbeer – it sounds like today’s home. Many of the comforts we consider newer were created over one hundred years ago. Imagine the average middle-class Canadian home. The kids are in the kitchen getting root beer from the refrigerator and doing a quick check on the ice. Mom comes into […]
The Royal Montreal Golf Club was the first official permanent golf club in Canada, established in 1873. Men, women and children enjoyed the lush private club facilities. A beloved sport for several hundred years in Scotland, and then by Scottish immigrants in Canada, golf found its first official permanent Canadian home in the province of […]
Canadian Nursing Sisters in WWI – courageous women provided soldiers emergency medical care in the field, and security and comfort that only caring women could provide. Through earsplitting, thunderous explosions and fearful eerie flashes in the distance, the nurses of the Canadian Army Nursing Service in WWI waited for the inevitable arrival of wounded soldiers. […]
A young black man, Elijah McCoy didn’t let discrimination deter his abilities. Educated in Scotland as an engineer, his lubrication devices enhanced the Industrial Revolution Bravely facing the unknown, George McCoy and his wife, Mildred Goins, fled the repression of slavery in the State of Kentucky. Using the Underground Railroad, they made their way across […]