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Black Sound and the Archives

Archives play an integral role in shaping public perceptions of Black life. Accessing the archives allows us to expand our understanding of the past and create new ways of seeing and connecting to Black people. However, archives are deeply rooted in settler colonialism. Archivists have privileged the voices and perspectives of white society in their…

Playing The Past: Gaming As Public History

When I first came across the above quote, it made me think back to several successful video games that have been marketed as “historical games,” and really question the accuracy of their historical narratives. As Whitaker explained, many games that are marketed as historical games, even as historical fiction, are disconnected from historical scholarship. As I am…

Processing the Archives: The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives

This summer, I worked as a Project Archivist for The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives. As part of my employment, I was responsible for processing the Mark Young Stark family fonds. Rev. Mark Young Stark served as the Presbyterian Minister in Ancaster, Ontario from 1833-1854 and in Dundas, Ontario from 1833 until his retirement in…

Home Movie Preservation: Westmount Public Library

What is a Home Movie? Home movies are amateur films that capture private moments that are not available on commercially produced films. This type of film making usually concerns itself with aspects of family life, such as family reunions, personal vacations, celebrity sightings, and community events. In recent years, amateur film and film making have…

“Place Names Are Powerful”: Counter-Mapping Indigenous Spaces & Place Names

Colonialism & Erasure Walking around the streets of Toronto, it is difficult to see traces of its long Indigenous history. As a direct result of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing and naming place were replaced with European knowledge systems. While Indigenous place names convey local knowledge about physical landscapes and their histories as a means for navigation, colonial place…

More Than Just A Meme: How To Make Animated GIFs

I came across a tweet by The Archivist that displays a time lapse GIF made from layered historical photographs of Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. I found it very  interesting to watch as GIFs are typically used as memes to provide humour. However, as “flip books of the Internet,” GIFs can, and have, functioned beyond memes to illustrate tutorial…

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