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Creating Colonial Pasts

History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860-1980

by (author) Cecilia Morgan

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2015
Category
General, Native American, General, Native American Studies, Gender Studies
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442616837
    Publish Date
    Jul 2015
    List Price
    $35.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781442648371
    Publish Date
    Jul 2015
    List Price
    $86.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442626157
    Publish Date
    Jul 2015
    List Price
    $45.95

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Description

Creating Colonial Pasts explores the creation of history and memory in Southern Ontario through the experience of its inhabitants, especially those who took an active role in the preservation and writing of Ontario’s colonial past: the founder of the Niagara Historical Society, Janet Carnochan; twentieth-century Six Nations historians Elliott Moses and Milton Martin; and Celia B. File, high-school teacher and historian of Mary Brant.

Examining the grand narratives of colonial Ontario – the Loyalists, the War of 1812, and the creation of settler society – Cecilia Morgan argues that place played an important role in shaping memory and narrative in locations such as Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Six Nations territory at the Grand River, and the Mohawk community at Tyendinaga. Illuminating the pivotal role of women and Indigenous people in historical commemoration and uncovering the existence of a lively and interconnected circle of historians and heritage activists in late nineteenth and twentieth-century Ontario, Creating Colonial Pasts is a virtuoso study of history-making.

About the author

Cecilia Morgan is Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She is the author of Commemorating Canada: History, Heritage, and Memory, 1850–1990s (2016), as well as Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860–1980 (2015).

Cecilia Morgan's profile page

Editorial Reviews

‘Morgan’s study provides a roadmap for others to explore underutilized collections stored within the local archives across the province—eastern, western, southern, and northern—and their unexplored webs of connections.

Ontario History, Autumn 2016