History News

The Department is very delighted to announce that, beginning in January 2017, Brittany Luby will be joining our faculty. Professor Luby comes to us from Laurentian University.   

University of Guelph history professor Kevin James has a genuine passion for researching tourism history in the United Kingdom. From 2010 to 2012, James had the opportunity to lend his expertise to the BBC program Grand Tours of Scotland.

This June, Alan Gordon and Susan Nance are featured in a special issue of Histoire sociale/Social History on tourism in Canada with articles on pioneer villages as living history museums, and on horses of the 1920s Calgary Stampede, respectively.

It is with great sadness that we note the passing on July 15 of History Department Professor Emerita Mary Rogers.

Mary completed her education at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for almost a decade at Sweet Briar College before coming to the University of Guelph in 1966. She was trained in medieval religious history.

Congratulations to our own Dr. Alan Gordon for his new publication with UBC Press, Time Travel: Tourism and the Rise of the Living History Museum in Mid-Twentieth-Century Canada (2016)

Dr. Gregory Klages, a long-time instructor for the Department on our main campus and at the Guelph-Humber campus, has just published a new book. Published with Toronto's Dundurn Press, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction weighs in on the mysterious death of a well-known painter associated with the famed "Group of Seven" artists.

This week Dr. Susan Nance is interviewed in a piece on VICE, "Ringling Bros. Elephant Sanctuary is Hardly a Paradise." The story explains the nature of and controversy over the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circuses' decision to retire the company elephants and keep them at a facility in Florida in which the animals will be bred with artificial insemination and employed in cancer research. 

On Wednesday, Dr. Matthew Hayday spoke with eleven different CBC Radio One shows, from Cape Breton to Whitehorse! On the shows, Matthew discussed the post-politics careers of various 20th century Canadian Prime Ministers.

Here's a sample from On the Coast, CBC Vancouver - Matthew's interview is at 2:06:00

This June, Alan Gordon and Susan Nance are featured in a special issue of Histoire sociale/Social History on tourism in Canada with articles on pioneer vilages as living history museums, and on horses of the 1920s Calgary Stampede, respectively.

The special issue is the result of a Fall 2014 workshop on Canadian tourism history sponsored by Jack Little and Ben Bradley, held in Vancouver BC. Other departmental participants included our own Linda Mahood, who featured some of her forthcoming research on hitchhiking and youth cultures, and Kevin James, who delivered a keynote speech on the culture hotels and inns in 19th century Ireland.

get the postcard .pdf

History graduate students in HIST6280 - Canada: Community and Identity, an MA course taught by Dr. Catharine Wilson, have each created a half-hour radio show on CFRU Radio 93.3 FM featuring a diarist from the Rural Diary Archive website. See the schedule below!

The Rural Diary Archive website is funded by the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professorship in Rural History. For more, visit the Rural Diary Archive

The project has also been featured in The Ontarion

Thursday June 2, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: James Carpenter, Lambton County, 1880-84," by Joanne Ryan

Thursday June 9, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: Samson Howell, Brant County, 1868-69," by Karley McLinden

Thursday June 16, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: James Bowman, Guelph, World War I," by Kyle Pritchard

Thursday June 23, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: John Phenix, Simcoe County, 1896-97," by Marissa Gareau

Thursday June 30, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: Elizabeth Simpson, Dufferin County, 1878-82," by Nicholas VanExan

Thursday July 7, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: William Standen, Simcoe County, 1879," by Jodey Hodgins

Thursday July14, 1:00-2:00 pm 
“Rural Diary Archive: Matilda Hill, Wellington County, 1884-85," by Katrina Gale