What’s Happening
Pat McGrath Scholarship Winner 2022
Sarah Kadach from Vernon, BC, is the recipient of the Workers’ History Museum Pat McGrath Scholarship for 2022. She is currently working towards her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN) at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan Campus. She plans to either become a healthcare lawyer or to pursue [...]
Kids reacting to typewriters
Enjoy the reactions of kids looking at old typewriters and trying them out. Hilarious. To all you former secretaries, commercial school grads, computer experts---this is for you and your kids and your grandkids! Look at the watches they're wearing too!... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxRfkZdiAQ
Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) Presidents’ Conference
Barb Stewart and Linda McLaren had an exhibit table at the UTE Conference September 22 to 24, 2022 at the Delta Hotel in Ottawa. It was the first in-person event since the pandemic hit in 2020. There were over 100 UTE members there and it was great [...]
Minnie Bell 2
Devoted followers of the WHM website will recall the "Career of a Canal Tug" feature in our "What's New" section. Well, researcher Paul Harrison, who authored the piece, is not one to rest on his laurels, and has provided the following update: With the help of a genealogist, I [...]
The Career of a Rideau Canal Tug
By Paul Harrison Alva with barge in locks 1905; Workers' History Museum Image Collection PC0112 Among the WHM's image collection items are postcards of the Rideau Canal locks below Parliament Hill, a popular vista - then as now - for visitors to the capital. Unlike most, however, [...]
What It Was Like Logging in Quebec in the 1940s
Before the age of chainsaws and logging trucks, farmers from Ontario—my father and I included—would travel to a logging camp in Quebec to earn additional money during the wintertime. Memories of logging in Quebec in the 1940s Back in 1943, when I was 17, I spent the [...]
Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of March 25, 1911
The Workers’ History Museum held a storytelling evening on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City. That March day in 1911, a fire broke out in the building where young Jewish and Italian women worked making shirtwaist blouses. The exit doors were chained shut [...]
Lucky Us
We are very pleased to have Sam Derby-Wiman doing his placement term from January to April 2021 working on our collection. He is a third-year student in the Applied Museum Studies program (AMS) at Algonquin College and his professional interest is collections management. We are hoping that he [...]
Meet Our Summer Students from 2020
The Workers’ History Museum was very fortunate to receive funding from Young Canada Works for two students from June to October 2020. They worked on two projects over the summer and early fall. We apologise for not posting this earlier but due to the website redesign, it did not [...]
Justice and Dignity for All: Stories from the Struggle for Pay Equity
By Evert Hoogers, retired postal worker and former CUPW National Union Representative. This gripping labour documentary takes 34 minutes to provide an inspiring account of 40 years of struggle by rural and suburban mail couriers in successfully winning the right to unionize, joining the Canadian Union of Postal Workers [...]
Travel Encounters
A SUGAR WORKER'S CEMETERY IN FAR-OFF KAUAI by Paul Harrison, WHM Photographer and Image Archivist In my travels, camera in hand, I am alert for opportunities to explore historical sites, and my connection with the Workers' History Museum makes me particularly eager to identify historic places of work. Rarely, however, [...]
2019 Pat McGrath Scholarship recipient
The Workers’ History Museum is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2019 Pat McGrath Scholarship. She is Katharine Clark Katharine Clark is working on her Master of Science in Statistics at McMaster University in Hamilton. She is a teaching assistant and a new member of the union for teaching [...]