A House on Talbot Street

Since our historic homes project officially came to a close last week with the installation of the exhibit for ARCC, I thought I would also include my 250-word summary about my property (585 Talbot Street) here as yet another example of how the Public History MA Program at UWO is preparing us to write for the public. It wasn't easy to get 2500 words of research notes into a 250 word summary. I definitely had to leave out salient details in order to create a cohesive blurb, but I think the final product works. You be the judge.

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Built in 1877, 585 Talbot St. became the family home of Laurence Gibson. A successful entrepreneur, Gibson, along with William Yates, was the proprietor of the London Machine Tool Company (est. 1873) which manufactured engines and iron-working tools for machinists, boiler makers and brass finishers. At its peak, the London Machine Tool Company employed between forty to fifty people, making it a significant local employer. In addition to his work as a manufacturer, Gibson also worked as an accountant, an insurance agent and a manager of the Huron & Erie Loan and Savings Company during his lifetime.

The centred gable style of the building at 585 Talbot St. represents a subtype of Italianate architecture which is typical of only 15 per cent of Italianate buildings. The simplicity of this design, combined with the white brick that is characteristic of many of London’s buildings, lends the structure a sense of understated elegance. Typical of the style, the building is largely cubic in shape, has a low-pitched roof with exaggerated eaves and tall windows with gently-rounded tops. Among the building’s most notable features are its intricately carved verge board, elaborate Gothic trusses and the cut stone work of the window crowns. Interestingly, the building only sparingly uses the most common feature of Italianate architecture, paired roof-brackets, to accentuate the top of its pilasters. Considered one of the City of London’s finest examples of the Italianate style of architecture, 585 Talbot St. is an integral part of the area’s aesthetic value and historic streetscape.

First Foray into Exhibit Design

Recently our Public History class put the finishing touches on a major project by installing an exhibit in the Schweitzer Gallery, which is located in the entrance to the Archives and Research Collections Centre (ARCC) inside of the Weldon Library at UWO.

Beginning in September, each public history student was assigned a historic home in the Talbot/Ridout Street area. Our job was to research the historical, architectural and contextual values of the homes, evaluate them according to a numerical rating system designed by members of LACH and present both our findings and our recommendations for the homes at a LACH meeting in December. In addition, we were required to write a 250-word description of the home and its significance that could be used as the text for a walking tour booklet or for a heritage plaque. The culmination of this assignment, of course, was creating a exhibit for ARCC which would highlight our research on some of London's historic gems.

Having never worked in a museum or archive before, this was my first true foray into exhibit design; it was considerably more challenging and time consuming than I had expected it to be.
Thankfully, it was a total team effort and we managed to get the display installed without too many headaches.

Although I am pleased with the end result, there are definitely areas for improvement. For instance, we had far too much text and some of it was repetitive. This could have been solved by taking the time to edit the written portion of the exhibit more carefully. As well, what text we did have needed to be displayed in a larger font so that it would be easier for visitors to read. In our defense, however, our font choices were limited by the amount of text we had and the size of the displays cases that we were using. In such a limited space we could not have possibly gone larger without overwhelming the photographs and further cluttering the design. The aesthetics of the display were also hampered by the numbers, size and type of display stands available for our use (many were already being used in ARCC's other three display cases). Without them it was difficult to vary the height and depth of the mostly 2-dimensional materials.

In an ideal world, I also would have liked to include more items that highlighted how we used the resources that are available to the public at ARCC. From city directories to local histories, fire insurance plans, diaries, artwork, pamphlets, walking tour guides, architectural dictionaries, etc., our public history class relied heavily on both the resources cared for by ARCC and the expertise of their staff. Unfortunately we were once again hampered by issues of space. If we had been given a third case in which to display our work, I am confident that we could have followed through on this aspect more thoroughly.

Controversy Over Heritage Designation Grows

2020 Lambs Road in Bowmanville is the site of the only battle of the Second World War to be fought on Canadian soil.

What would come to be known as the “Battle of Bowmanville” began on Thanksgiving weekend 1942, when hundreds of German prisoners of war at Camp 30 rioted in response to a federal government order that 100 of their highest-ranking officers be shackled. Using a variety of makeshift weapons including jam jars, baseball bats and hockey sticks, the German PoWs seized control of the camp, taking one guard hostage and barricading themselves in the main hall. The three-day standoff ended only after guards stormed the building, using fire hoses and tear gas to subdue the inmates.

While the Battle of Bowmanville isn’t likely to make it into many history books, historian Lynn Philip Hodgson believes Camp 30 to be a critical piece of Canada’s wartime history. Now in a state of disrepair, this collection of 18 buildings in rural Bowmanville is thought to be the world’s last remaining German prisoner of war camp. A small camp, it housed 880 of the Third Reich’s high-ranking officers during the Second World War. Hodgson believes that by containing these officers and denying Hitler some of his most strategic minds, Canada did its part to ensure Allied victory.

This belief has been at the centre of Hodgson’s ten-year campaign to preserve the site and to turn one of the buildings into a small museum.

Sadly, it has been an uphill battle. Over the years Hodgson has faced uncooperative property owners (Kaitlin Group, a housing development company), demolition plans, vandalism, property damage and, most recently, arson that gutted the camp’s administration building and damaged two others.

Fortunately, a new year has brought new progress. Sort of. In January, in the wake of intense backlash, Kaitlin Group offered the Municipality of Clarington a third of the property to develop as a park.

Victory was short-lived, however. A splinter group, led by Clarington councillor Charlie Trim, has emerged among preservationists. Trim believes that highlighting the war history of the site honours the German officers and could offend veterans living in the area. Instead, Trim wants the site to preserve the history of the training school for delinquent boys that occupied the site for the majority of the time from 1925-1979.

But this proposal is not without its own controversy. In fact, members of the community have stepped forward to remind Trim that the school has its own dark past of physical, sexual and emotional abuse that some may not wish to commemorate either.

It appears there is no easy solution for the preservationists in Durham Region. The Municipality of Clarington has the land. Now the question becomes, what are they going to do with it? Whose history should be privileged? Whose buried? Perhaps the answer lies in finding a compromise that would use the site to interpret all aspects of the area’s history.


Notes:

* This post was originally written as an assignment for my Public History class. The focus of the assignment was to learn how to write a 500 word article about history that would engage and inform a public audience. As it stands, this post represents a significantly altered second draft of my original article and includes corrections I made in response to the constructive feedback of Dr. Jonathan Vance and my peers in UWO’s Public History program.

* Although few people remember it, more than 37,000 German prisoners of war once forcibly called Canada ‘home.’ CBC Digital Archives has done a wonderful job of compiling both contemporary and subsequent news footage about German and Italian POWs here.

* To see what Time Magazine had to say about the Battle of Bowmanville at the time, see this article.

* Click here to see Hodgson's proposal for the site.

Creating a WWI Military Records Pathfinder

Our assignment this week in Dr. Don Spanner's Understanding Archives course was to create a one page (double-sided) pathfinder that would be useful to genealogy enthusiasts searching for records of Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) soldiers who served during WWI (1914-1918). The assignment further stipulated that we must highlight only 3 relevant resources and that we must address finding the soldier's full military service record as well as his burial information (if relevant).

The assignment was an interesting one -- not only did it require me to familiarize myself with a number of wonderful archival and genealogical resources on the web, but it also forced me to work on the rather difficult and little utilized skill of technical writing. I had to focus my usually long-winded writing style in order to be clear, concise, orderly and informative. I must admit, writing for a technical purpose is much harder than it sounds. I definitely have a whole new appreciation for those that write How-To manuals after this assignment!

Although it's text heavy, I've decided to post the finished result of my assignment here in the hopes that it might be useful to someone out there in their search for information about their ancestors.

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WWI Military Records Pathfinder

This genealogy pathfinder has been created to help make the search for the WWI military records of your loved ones easier. It will help you to understand where to look and what information is available in the archives and on the web concerning the military records of those who served as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) from 1914-1918.

A great place to begin any genealogical search is through the Canadian Genealogy Centre available via Library and Archives Canada (LAC) (their homepage can be found here).

For WWI military records you will want to consult the First World War topic within the Military section of this website. Here you will find the personnel records of more than 600,000 Canadians who enlisted and served as nurses, chaplains and soldiers during the Great War (1914-1918) as either part of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces or the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps.

Under the section marked “Canadian Expeditionary Forces” click on the Soldiers of the First World War database and search by surname, given name(s) or regimental numbers. This database is indexed to the personnel records of CEF soldiers and contains copies of nearly 800,000 Attestation papers that have been digitized and made available for viewing online. Once you have located the desired soldier, you can access their full service record either on-site at LAC in Ottawa or by ordering a copy of the complete service file to be shipped to you (further details about both of these options can be found here).

According to the LAC website, a soldier’s full service record should include the following documents: his attestation paper, record of service, casualty form, discharge certificate, war service gratuity, hospital cards, medical history sheet, medical case sheet, temperature chart, last pay certificate, dental history sheet and medical examination certificate upon leaving the service. For help with interpreting these documents and others, please see the How To Read a Record of Service or Casualty Form, How to Read a Memorial Cross Card and How to Read a Medal Card guides available under the Canadian Expeditionary Force section of the website.

Once you have more information about your desired WWI soldier, you may want to revisit the Military section of the Canadian Genealogy Centre’s website and consult the sections on Military Medals, War Diaries and War Graves to check for applicable resources and/or details.

LAC Pathway Recap: Library and Archives Canada --> Canadian Genealogy Centre --> Military --> First World War --> (Canadian Expeditionary Force) Soldiers of the First World War --> Search

A second resource that you may wish to consult when looking for military records is Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) (their homepage came be found here). Under the VAC sidebar you will find a link for Canada Remembers which is a program that aims to “keep alive the achievements and sacrifices made by those who served Canada in times of war and peace.” This program provides a wealth of background information about various wars and battles Canada has been involved in, links to archival documents and film footage, and a number of VAC remembrance initiatives. Those links most applicable to the majority of genealogical searches are the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and the Books of Remembrance.

The Canada Virtual War Memorial contains information about the graves and memorials of 116,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who lost their lives serving their country. This database is searchable by surname, given name(s), initials and/or year of death. A soldier’s record in the CVWM will provide information concerning their military service (service number, age, force, unit and division) and additional information including date of birth, family connections, hometown, a link to view the page on which they have been memorialized in the First World War Book of Remembrance (1914-1922), and any available digital images (including copies of obituaries, photographs, etc.). The CVWM also provides burial information where it is known (often courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission).

VAC Pathway Recap 1: Veterans Affairs Canada --> Canada Remembers --> The Canadian Virtual War Memorial --> Books of Remembrance --> First World War

VAC Pathway Recap 2: Veterans Affairs Canada --> Canada Remembers --> The Canadian Virtual War Memorial --> Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Finally, you may wish to consult the Canadian Military Heritage Project (homepage found here) which contains a large section on Canada in World War I, including a How to Find Your WWI Soldier pathfinder and a link to the CEF Nominal Rolls (which are available for viewing online or download via Archive.org). CEF Nominal Rolls are lists of soldiers that are part of a unit on a particular date (thus they are broken down by battalion and year). The first page of any nominal roll contains a list of officers, arranged in order of rank. Enlisted soldiers are listed on succeeding pages (arranged alphabetically). Nominal rolls show a soldier’s full name, rank, and regimental number. Most of the nominal rolls found on Archive.org can be viewed in a searchable PDF format.

The Canadian Military Heritage Project also contains links to the Courts-Martial of the First World War database (via LAC) and a large list of WWI databases available in partner with The Canadian Great War Homepage.

CMHP Pathway Recap 1: Canadian Military Heritage Project --> CEF Nominal Rolls --> Archive.org

CMHP Pathway Recap 2: Canadian Military Heritage Project --> (Find Military Ancestors) Courts-Martial of the First World War

CMH Project Pathway Recap 3: Canadian Military Heritage Project --> (Quick Links) The Canadian Great War Homepage