A History Of Nova Scotia In 50 Objects

Have you ever been to the LaHave Islands Marine Museum on Bell Island? How about the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique, or the Africville Museum in Halifax? Joan Dawson has. Armed with a spirit of adventure, curiosity, and the belief that "treasures can be found in unlikely places," the author-historian has scoured Nova Scotia's National Heritage Sites and community museums for the fifty objects that best "embody the history and culture" of the province. Casting a wide net, from a pair of good-luck Nantucket Whaler shoes to a Mi-Carême seven-beast mask, Dawson unearths the many arcane and overlooked items whose stories collectively form Nova Scotia's historical fabric. Entries are arranged in chronological order, from prehistory to present-day, and each one includes a photograph, description, and contextual history of the object. Written in an engaging, narrative style, A History of Nova Scotia in 50 Objects is both a fabulously unique approach to the province's history and an interactive treasure hunt.

With twenty-five historical photos, and featuring profiles of more than fifty harbours--from the Bedford Basin to Shelburne Harbour to Cobequid Bay, Louisbourg, and Canso--Nova Scotia's Historic Harbours explores each harbour's historical significance and explores how these communities have been shaped by the sea, and how Nova Scotia's growth has been driven by its harbours.

Narrative, photo-filled historical guide to Nova Scotia's inland communities from author of Nova Scotia's Historic Harbours and Nova Scotia's Lost Communities. The story of Nova Scotia's inland communities begins with the Mi'kmaq, who established traditional gathering places in the heart of Mi'kma'ki. Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European settlers, British Loyalists, and former soldiers were among those who also took on the challenges of developing Nova Scotia's inland communities. Some places struggled to survive, but many thrived. Today, Nova Scotia's most successful communities live on because entrepreneurs have adapted to changing circumstances -- and all of Nova Scotia's inland communities have stories to tell. With the help of more than forty historical photos, trusted historian Joan Dawson takes us through the stories of the many Indigenous, Acadian, European, and African Nova Scotian communities in inland Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia's Historic Inland Communities also explores the rivers, roads, and railways that led to the development of those communities-- and the industries that were central to their success.

Beaubassin was once a prosperous farming community at the head of the Cumberland Basin; Africville was the vibrant home of black Nova Scotians who struggled to make a living and found spiritual solace in their church. Both are now gone, one a casualty of long-ago colonial warfare and the other a victim of misguided urban renewal. In this fascinating book, author Joan Dawson (A History of Halifax in 50 Objects) looks at 37 of Nova Scotia's lost communities: places like Electric City, Indian Gardens, and the Tancook Islands. Some were home to ethnic groups forced to leave. Others, once dependent on factories, mills, or the fishery, died as the economy changed or resources were depleted. But they were all once places where Nova Scotians were born, married, worked, and died, and they deserve to be remembered. Featuring over 60 archival and contemporary photos and illustrations, Nova Scotia's Lost Communities preserves those memories with fascinating insights.