Founded by German Mennonites in the early 19th century, Berlin (now Kitchener) and Waterloo were thriving cities when Peter Moyer published the first edition of the Berlin Daily News on February 19, 1878. Now called the Waterloo Region Record, the newspaper’s commitment to top-notch reporting and community involvement is nowhere more evident than in “Flash from the Past,” a weekly column devoted to preserving the region’s past.

In 2006, Record librarian Chris Masterman began inviting readers to share memories sparked by photos she unearthed from the newspaper’s archive, a tradition carried on by columnist Jon Fear. Their responses tell the stories that history forgot—the treasured memories and careful details that make a community its own, forging a relationship between the Record and its readers that set a new standard for newsrooms across the country.

Marking the 140th anniversary of the Waterloo Region Record’s publication, Flash from the Past: 140 Photographs from the Waterloo Region Record showcases the column’s best. Lovingly curated by Fear and Masterman, this one-of-a-kind collection celebrates the history of the area and those dedicated to preserving it.

Jon Fear's profile page

Chris Masterman's profile page

Jon Fear grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and studied journalism at Carleton University. He worked as a reporter for two years at the Globe and Mail in Toronto, then travelled for a year before coming to Kitchener in 1978. He was a reporter and copy editor at the Waterloo Region Record until 2013. He now does volunteer work for the Kitchener Public Library’s local history room, the Waterloo Historical Society, and Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region. He also plays tennis and kayaks.

Chris Masterman was the Librarian at the Record for twelve years. She wrote “Flash from the Past” from September 2006 until she left the Record in May 2008. She lives in Stratford, Ontario, where she works sporadically on a short story collection and tries very hard to hide her inexplicable fear of swans. Someday she hopes to live in a place with “by-the-sea” at the end of its name.