What’s Happening
2023 Events at a Glance
As the world got back to some sort of normal living, 2023 was a very busy year for the Fundraising committee as we have attended 10 events so far. The events have all occurred between February and October so far. PSAC components and regional councils held their triennial conventions [...]
Welcome Hannah
We had some very good candidates for our research assistant for this summer. We selected Hannah McCourtie, who is studying a joint Honours degree in political science and history at the University of Ottawa. She has experience in theatre productions, research with the government and other groups. She has [...]
Meet our new employee, Leslie Hutchinson
We are pleased to introduce you to Leslie Hutchinson, our new Curator and Collections Manager and our first full-time employee! Leslie comes to us with a decade of cultural and heritage experience in a variety of organizations, including the Revelstoke Railway Museum and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. [...]
National Day of Mourning, April 28
In 1991 the federal government officially recognized the National Day of Mourning, held annually on April 28, eight years after the Canadian Labour Congress launched the day of remembrance. The date 28 April was picked because on that day in 1914, the Workers Compensation Act received its third reading [...]
ROGERS TV 2023 03 10 Interview of Arthur Carkner about the Workers’ History Museum
https://youtu.be/MMKjbYQBX2U Host: Welcome back to the show. I always love introducing things to our viewers on the show, and I was not familiar with out next topic, which is the Workers' History Museum. It is a virtual Museum and here to tell us more about it I am joined [...]
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 [...]