Ontario History

Stories from the history of Ontario from the ice age to 1913, brimming with stories of the men and women who left their mark on the province.

Aboriginal Ontario: Historical Perspectives on the First Nations contains seventeen essays on aspects of the history of the First Nations living within the present-day boundaries of Ontario. This volume reviews the experience of both the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples in Southern Ontario, as well as the Algonquians in Northern Ontario. The first section describes the climate and landforms of Ontario thousands of years ago. It includes a comprehensive account of the archaeologists' contributions to our knowledge of the material culture of the First Nations before the arrival of the Europeans. The essays in the second and third sections look respectively at the Native peoples of Southern Ontario and Northern Ontario, from 1550 to 1945. The final section looks at more recent developments. The volume includes numerous illustrations and maps, as well as an extensive bibliography.

Elora: The Early History of Elora and Vicinity provides little-known details about the settlement and development of the Elora area in southern Ontario from the earliest settler in 1817. Then, as now, people were drawn to the Elora Gorge and the rocky banks of the Grand River. The book is a compilation of material that appeared weekly in The Elora Express between 1906 and 1909 with some additional material from the 1920s. Connon traces the settlers as they arrive and reports on the development of the town as they acquired a grist mill, a store, a bridge, and inevitably a railway. Rich with genealogical information, this is an important historical document. Introduction by Gerald Noonan.

Northwestern Ontario is a little-known region that has been central to Canada's prosperity. For many Canadians, the majestic landscape north of Lake Superior conjures up images of tourism, bears, and canoes. For others, it conjures up the phrase "hewers of wood and drawers of water." For almost everyone but its inhabitants, it represents a mythical notion of Canada that never truly existed in the past and certainly does not exist today. In North of Superior, Michel Beaulieu and Chris Southcott explore the region's colourful history from the period before European contact through to the present. Along the way, they tell the stories of the native peoples who first lived there; the traders and adventurers who shaped the region through the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company; the politicians and workers who pushed through the CPR; the lumberjacks and miners who profited during the region's golden age; and the vibrant and diverse communities who make their home there today. Northwestern Ontario has always symbolized wealth and adventure for Canadians. This fascinating popular history will interest anyone who wants to know more about a region that occupies an iconic place in Canada's past.

Patterns of the Past has been published to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Ontario Historical Society. Organized on 4 Sept 1888 as the Pioneer Association of Ontario, the Society adopted its current name in 1898. Its objectives, for a century, have been to promote and develop the study of Ontario’s past. The purpose of this book is both to commemorate and to carry on that worthy tradition. Introduced by Ian Wilson, Archivist of Ontario, and edited by Roger Hall, William Westfall and Laurel Sefton MacDowell, this distinctive volume is a landmark not only in the Society’s history but in the prince’s historiography. Eighteen scholars have pooled their talents to fashion a volume of fresh interpretive essays that chronicle and analyze the whole scope of Ontario’s rich and varied past. New light is thrown on our understanding of early native peoples, rural life in Upper Canada, the opening of the North, the impact of railways, and the growth of businesses and institutions. And there is much social study here too, especially of the new roles for women in industrial society, of working class experience, of ethnic groups, and of children in our society’s past. As well, there are innovative treatments of the conservation movement, of science’s role in provincial society, and of the relationship between society and culture in small towns. Anyone with an interest in the history of Canada’s most populous province will find much in this comprehensive collection.

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