My first historical discovery:

As a disclaimer, when you get through this blog post you will probably be thinking that this is the smallest historical discovery in history, and that it has no real importance to the historical world. You know what, that may be true. But it’s one tiny step for history, and all I really got as a historian in training.

So I have been working pretty dam hard on this LACH project. There have been many poorly slept nights over the fact that my house is “lame”. But I did not give up; I really wanted to find something. As a historian who hopes to unleash historical scandals that have been hidden to the world, I may have been approaching my subject with a view already in my mind. I know, very bad historian of me. Ideally, if I could have fabricated a history for it, I would have made it a house where illegal booze was brewed during the prohibition, and the Winder family would have sold the alcohol  from the back of their store in cans marked paint. Yes, I have a little bit of an over active mine, and have been loving “Board Walk Empire”. I did not come across anything of this sort by the way.

So I did the assignment through the steps that were laid down to us. I first went to the ARCC and looked through the Fire Insurance Plans, nothing there changed. Then I went through the bounded copies of the City Directories from 1961-2010. Nothing special there. It was a tad sad though, whenever the husband died (which always came before the wife) the wife would have to move out, probably because she could not afford the rent on her own. Then I faced my fear of microfilm and got the Archivists to teach me, and then re-teach me how to load it. I had some issues with it; I swear my finger almost got sucked in at one point. By the end I did not mind the City Directories on the microfilm, but on that first day when I was looking at them for three hours, I felt so sea sick. What I came across was that in almost every year there were new tenants in my house, and that they were all working class people. I only had George L. Winder live in my house from 1906 to 1911, and while he was living there he did not even own it, it was his father’s, Edward Jr. So even though I had a Winder property, I barely had them living there.

Next I looked at some of the Assessments Roles available at ARCC, and then I went down to Service Ontario. They gave me the wrong number, the number was for Lucan. I will not even get into how much that angered me. So I had to go back to Service Ontario a few more times. Once I got the right number, I had the hard task of determining which Winder is my Winder, no easy feet since they all give each other the same names. I also had to distinguish which property on the lot was mine, I figured that out quite easily though, it’s the one 78 feet from the end.

So once I had all the information collected I was pretty depressed. Nothing cool came up in my research. And since I really want to do well in my masters courses this was not sitting well with me. So I went to the London Room, and used their computers to access Ancestry.com. From there I started entering names from my vast list of tenets, hoping something would poop up.  Trying to research about a city you don’t know much about has its difficulties.

The tenant for the year 1890 is listed as Alfred Wheable, A brakeman on the Grand Trunk Railway. An enlistment paper came up for him on the website. I was all excited maybe I found some great Canadian war hero. Coincidence, I was there on November 11. So I asked the librarian how I can find out more about certain regiments, and people’s military careers. She asked me for whom I wanted this information for, and when I told her she asked me if that was Geoffrey Alfred Wheable’s father. I replied, um who? She repeated the name, like I should know. Then I told her I was not from London. She said there is a school named after him, and that he was a big-shot in the school board.

Alfred Wheable's enlistment form.

I was over the moon, a famous Londoner living in my house. I was so pumped; I headed off to the catalogue boxes to see what I could find out about him. In the London Room there are two “Coronation Souvenir” books one for the year 1937 and the other for 1953. They contain photos and mini-bios of London’s elites, pretty much just men, and some photos of the Royals. Kind of weird in my opinion, are they claiming a similar elite status in London Ontario, to that of the status of the Royals in London England?  In the books they had Geoffrey Wheable’s birthday as February 21, 1891.  I then tried to find his birth certificate on Ancestry.com. I found it, but it was very different. His middle name is written as “Praceadman”. Though I will later discover that his grandmother’s maiden name was Proudman, it could have just been a wrong spelling. However, his birth certificate had the same birth date as the coronation books.

At this point in my research I did not have every year from the directories as I pretty much do now (some are missing from the microfilm). One of the years I did not have was 1891. Surged with hope that I found a person to claim for my house's associated value I packed up my papers in a flash and scurried home to get my car so I could drive to the ARCC.

Geoffrey Pracafman Wheable written. Bottom, second from the right.

This was a high point in my researching; I skipped down Dundas then up Richmond to get to my appartment. I went down to my parking spot and grabbed my car and drove to school. I busted in to the ARCC, and on like most Fridays, was the only researcher in there. The archivist asked me what I was going to use today, and I told her the City Directories. Since I was so excited about the fact that Wheable may have lived in my house I shared this information with her. She made me a little sad, she said it did not matter if he only lived there a few years; it was a harsh comment in my mind. I brushed off the remark as the pages of the City Directory zipped by, and I waited to find the beginning of the year 1891. Sadly, Alfred Wheable is not listed as the residents for that year; however, I decided to find him in the directory for that year and was surprised to find that he was not at the house that was listed on Geoffrey’s birth certificate either. My historian senses went off at this point, there has been some poorly documented sources, what should I and should I not trust?

I went home, defeated, to eat and be cheered up by fiction. After what I thought was the big breakthrough for this project, I had bubkiss, I was one sad little historian. I was going to go for a whole fetes angle, which was “he was a fetes in my house, and since he is born in February, he might have lived there for a few days since you don’t know when the data was collected”, but that angle was not very popular.

So I went back to the London Room to see if I could find something else. The very nice librarian who told me who Geoffrey Wheable was, had done some researching to see what the library had on him. Since she knew from last time that I found his birth certificate hard to read and confusing because it had a different middle name, she got me the microfilm reel “Index of Births and Stillbirths 1869-1910”. As I went through it I was socked to discover that his birthday was February, 21, 1890. THIS MEANT HE WAS BORN IN MY HOUSE!!! What! What! Party in the library!

Now you may be asking yourself, how do I know that this document is accurate? Well, unlike his birth certificate that was written in 1929, this index was written in 1890.  Now you may be wondering to yourself, how did this confusion come about? My guess is that since his birth was not documented right away, and his sister, Glady, was born on December 20, 1891, people got the years confused. Also, once I looked at the birth certificate again I noticed that all the other children on the page were born in 1890.

So this is my first historical discovery, the correct birth year for Geoffrey Wheable.

Now you may be wondering, who in the world he is. Here is the point form summary of his life. Began his career as a teacher at Chesley Ave. He later goes on to be the Superintendent of the London School Board for over 25 years. During which time he helped London deal with the demand from the baby-boom population.  Additionally, he helped pioneer many new pedagogy methods in the London Public School system. Wheable stated his influence on teaching to be “from a system of simply imparting information, to that of training the child to think and to use his own judgement.”[1] During World War I he enlisted and served in France and Belgium with 1^st Canadian Infantry Battalion C.E.F.  Wheable was wounded during Passchendaele in November 1917, for which he was awarded the Military Cross.

My angle: The significance of having Wheable born in the house is that it helps strengthen the claim that Wheable was from London. Though Wheable is known for being born in London, he spends his formative years in Port Colborne. Preserving the house where Wheable was born is vital in sustaining the London-Wheable connection.

So after making my first historical discovery I think I have earned my patches. I plan on rocking a cardigan with some elbow patches during my LACH presentation on Wednesday; since I am now one bad ass historian.

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[1] “Wheable Now 25 Years in Ontario Education,” The London Free Press, May 6, 1951, Historical Series Scrapbook volume 7, page 80, call number: r971.326.

Looking Through the Catalogue:

I remember older teachers reminiscing about the Eaton’s catalogue when I was in public school; recalling the fact that their mother’s ordered furniture for their home from it. They remembered the catalogue as a high point, often when their families could buy things from it, it meant that their families, mostly immigrant backgrounds, had made it financially. While going through the catalogue I felt old, because I could remember shopping at the Eaton’s store at Yorkdale mall with my mother. If I mentioned this to anyone at least five years younger than me, they would probably not remember shopping there. When thinking about Eaton’s I was surprised how well I remembered them going bankrupted, then re-opening some stores (including the Yorkdale one), then going bankrupted for a final time. I went to check Wikipedia to see when this all happened. Their final bankruptcy was in 1999, when I was ten. I strongly recall the basement of their store in Yorkdale having a liquidation sale during their first bankruptcy. And that they chose a sparkly indigo blue for their new store near the escalators. On a side note, I really don’t like escalators, because when I was around seven years old I remember watching one of those 20/20 or Dateline specials about dangers. And they showed this kid who lost a chunk of his foot from it being caught in the escalator; I always stare at my feet when on an escalator due to this show. That’s why the sparkly blue is in my memory, because it had to be something eye catching for me not to look at my feet to make sure they did not get sucked into the side of the escalator. 

Though it may seem like I am all nostalgic about Eaton's closing, I don’t really care. It is a tad sadder that the oldest Canadian company (HBC) was sold to Americans. But, since Lord & Taylor bought it, the shopping there has just become so much better.  While I am on this topic of lost Canadian business to America; I think the selling-off of part of CN Rail to Americans probably made John A. MacDonald role over in his grave. Since he temporarily lost being PM for almost making the railway go into the States, and now its own by Americans. Though I think a train from Union Station to Grand Station would make it up to me.

So I should probably stop my mind from digressing, though thats just how it works. I start thinking about one thing off topic, then it snow-balls and I am off googleing random-ass things.

My most predominate memory of the Eaton’s catalogue is from Roch Carrier’s book “The Hockey Sweater”. Which in grade two I remember reading in three different languages (I no longer can do this). The Quebec boy sadly gets a Toronto Maple Leaf’s sweater from the Eaton’s catalogue, instead of the coveted Maurice ‘The Rocket’ Richard jersey.  

The cover of the first Eaton's catalogue, published in 1884.

Now back to the assignment. After doing all these readings about how to preserve, what has been preserved, problems with preservation, ect. I am still impressed by how much is on the internet. The magnitude of it all is far beyond my comprehension. I really like to be able to see and touch things to truly understand and comprehend. Holding a primary document is way cooler than a digital copy, especially when you have to hold it close and squint at it in your attempt to read it, hard to do with a computer that is heavy. Yet, I am all for these out of copyright books to be available for free on-line. Obviously, the benefits of the internet do not reach everyone in the world equally, since globalization as a process hopes from spot to spot, instead of spreading resources evenly.  But let’s not be grim on the eve of another semester finishing, let’s instead be happy that at least some are benefiting; problems with equal distribution of the internet can be a topic for next semester.

One popular undergrad course at this university is Children’s Literature, it’s offered at main and all three affiliates; my sister took it last year. For the first semester of the course you read classical children’s literature. I happened to notice as I looked through the catalogue that many of the children’s books they were advertising were on my sister’s reading list, and are currently now on our shelf of past university books. I went through the books on our shelf and noticed that most were ten dollars, and that she had to read around one book a week. So in a semester she spent over a hundred dollars on these books, not including textbooks for the course. So I went to Project Gutenberg and looked up the famous (but is way too often referenced by people who think they are being profound by making illusions to it) Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”. It is available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12 . I mentioned this to her, that she could have read all these books on-line for free, but she replied that she prefers to read from a printed book, which I really can’t blame her. But it’s still nice to know you have the option.

One aspect that I found really interesting about this assignment was seeing what was popular for boys and girls in 1913-14. As a child, and still now, I enjoy reading what is often the duel year publication of novels about a favourite protagonist, that usually come out before Christmas, and in early spring. Often these types of books that become mass produced by an author by the fifth one are really popular in the time that they are written in, but become forgotten as new popular series get written. I was surprised to see such long lists of books about protagonists I had never heard of, so I decided to look them up. I was pleasantly surprised that the whole catalogue for these protagonists is available free on-line.  For girls I looked up the “Elsie Dinsmore” series by Martha Finley. The first book of the series is available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6440/pg6440.html.  But the rest are also on Project Gutenberg.

 For boys books they tended to be categorized by the author’s name, and contain lots of colonial imperial imagery (they would definitely not be available in public schools anymore).  One author is G.A. Henry, I provided his book “The Young Colonists” here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32934/32934-h/32934-h.htm. Another popular boy’s author was Horatio Alger, which are available here:

http://www.readbookonline.net/books/Alger/230/. Alger’s books were 19 cents in the Eaton’s catalogue.  Next, out of curiosity, I decided to look through the catalogue of the Toronto Public Library, to see what the likelihood was of me discovering any Alger books as a child. Well it makes sense that I never heard of him. His books are in the catalogue but they are only at the Toronto Reference Library, and they are in the back where you have to get a librarian to bring them out for you. So you can’t take any Alger books home, and you have to know that you want to see his books, you won’t merely discover them by shelf browsing (which is a shame because I find it a great way to discover new books). I think the true beauty in the Gutenberg Project is evident here, for books that are no longer easily available.

In the catalogue I liked the title “High Class Fiction” which cost 50 cents. But I did not know how much that was equal to today.  I discovered that The Bank of Canada has an inflation calculator, which is cool, so you should check it out: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/. The calculator stated that 50 cents in 1914 (which is the furthest back it goes) is $9.90 in 2011. From this list, I decided to seek out an on-line copy of “Torchy” by Sewell Ford, it’s available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20626/20626-h/20626-h.htm. After finding it on the Gutenberg Project website I went to the Indigo/Chapter’s website and was surprised to find that they only had a pre-1923 historical reproduction of this book, and the website kind of hinted that it might have errors. The book is currently out of print, though they claim that they are trying to bring it back into print again. The book is quite expensive for a novel at $34.50. Another book under the High Class Fiction section in the catalogue was “Sowing Seeds of Danny” by Nellie McClung. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was an author, I had not known that prior; it’s available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4376/4376-h/4376-h.htm.

I began to worry that I was not really challenging the system. I figured that novels had a high chance of being preserved since people become so attached to them. So I decided to try and seek out instruction books. I was surprised at first by the easiness it was to find free on-line copies of these books too. I first searched for Mrs. Emma F. Angell Drake’s “What a Young Wife Ought to Know”: http://www.archive.org/stream/whatayoungwifeo04drakgoog#page/n9/mode/2up. But then I realized that was not really a challenge, some feminist historian will definitely want a copy of that someday. So I decided to search for a book about building things, something obscure that they most likely have found a better way of making it by now. I saw in the catalogue Frederick Thomas Hodgson’s “Light and Heavy Timber Framing Made Easy”: http://www.archive.org/stream/lightheavytimber00hodguoft#page/n1/mode/2up. But I found that quite fast too.

Now I was on a quest to stump the internet. I think I may have found it with Frank H. Atkinson’s “The Art of Sign Painting”. The problem with trying to find this book was that many people have referenced it. Also, the fact that Atkinson made an updated copy with a similar title a few years later hinders its search ability. I was only available to find a hard copy that could be shipped to my house, but it was kind of a wonky site.

I liked that this assignment connected the past with the present. Flipping through catalogues is a very common human activity that is shared throughout the world by people of all ages. So far as a history student I have been a bit limited to the historical items made available to me. I enjoyed this assignment because it never occurred to me to look at an Eaton’s catalogue as a means of understanding Canadian society for a particular time. I would have really enjoyed seeing order forms: what was the most popular item sold, who bought what where, and even what got returned the most because of poor manufacturing?  

My Guide to Jewish Cooking:

So there is no way that I am divulging any of my Bubbie’s recipes. (Bubbie is Yiddish for Grandmother just in case you don’t know, and if there are any weird looking words in this blog post for my readers please feel free to google them.) My Bubbie is a wonderful cook, though sadly recently she has been having problems with her hands and has not been able to cook the family dinners as usual. Though my Zaddie (grandfather) has stepped up and has been doing all the cutting and other prep work that is to difficult for her to do now. And for the record, he has always washed all the pots, and that’s a big task, because Bubbie always makes a lot of dishes. After family dinners I am usually found lying on the couch patting my belly and looking very tired. Though I will get up when I here the word desert mentioned, and return to the table.

Food for me, and in my observations I have seen this with most ethnicities, is a prime part of connecting with a culture. As a historian I think it would make an interesting topic of inquiry; especially since what people eat tells a lot about them, for example seeing how often a family eats meat may tell you their economic standing. But obviously this is not always the case, if they never eat meat they might be vegetarians like Hindus.

I thought this would be an interesting example for my guide for online resources because I often google recipes. Though in all honesty, I don’t really google Jewish recipes because my Bubbie has taught me all my favourites (and I live with my sister who has mastered all these recipes better than I). I tend to search for recipes that will spice up my dinner for the night with something new. However, I have decided to make a guide for what I know. Though I might not be the best cook, I know how to eat. But as a disclaimer, when doing my research I have been a bit disappointed since many of the Jewish cookbooks that I tend to use at home are not open-source. So this guide is limited to what is available to everyone on-line. Also, I have not made any of these recipes. This guide is not a recommendation of my favourite recipes; it’s just a list of traditional meal recipes.

Further, the recipes that I have included are primarily from the Ashkenazi tradition. Jewish cuisine varies greatly from place to place, depending on what has traditionally been locally available. Additionally, Jewish cuisine also varies depending on how closely one keeps the kosher laws. One example is during Passover, traditionally Ashkenazi Jews do not eat beans because they see the way they expand when they are cooked as rising. (FYI Jews are not supposed to eat anything that leavens during Passover.) But Sephardic Jews do not have this tradition of not eating beans during Passover. 

So here are a few on-line sites that provide recipes for each course in a traditional Friday night meal.

Matzo Ball Soup:

Firstly you need a good soup. Soup also happens to be my favourite part of the meal. I am providing a list of matzo ball soup recipes, which is delicious anytime of the year, but is definitely a must in my family during Passover. Now some advice if you are going to be making your first matzo ball, do not make them too big because they will expand. I learned this the first time I tried to make matzo balls with my Bubbie. She left me to shape the batter while she worked on another dish. When she came over to the table to see what I had made, she said they were too big and that I had to make them smaller. This was not a big task to make them smaller, but the whole fact that they expand has always puzzled me why they are eaten during Passover.

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/matzo-ball-soup/detail.aspx

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/At_Home/Food_and_the_Kitchen/Matzah_Balls.shtml

Gefilte Fish:

You might not be pronouncing that word right, its an ‘a’ sound at the end. Gefilte fish is something I only enjoy if it is freshly made, I never eat that can stuff eww. Also, this is something I have never made and really do not plan on making, because to be done right you need to de-bone the fish. Since I don’t even like de-boning a can of salmon, this dish is too much effort for me to make. But if it is done right it is very yummy. So if you are an adventurous cook here is a new dish for you to try out.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Gefilte-Fish-40014

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/passover/gefiltefish/recipes/food/views/Gefilte-Fish-234457

Brisket:

This meat will melt in your mouth. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/jewish-grandmas-best-beef-brisket/detail.aspx

http://www.cookingnook.com/brisket.html

Kugel:

Kugel is the beloved side dish to brisket, and it comes in many different types. Usually there are at least two types of kugel at our dinners. I will be honest, in my internet research and from watching a lot of Food Network, I have yet to see any recipes that are as good as my Bubbie’s and as low cal (though that is a relative term, I mean in compassion). Here are some recipes for noodle kugel. But I am warning you that I make mine completely different.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1635,146161-226195,00.html

http://judaism.about.com/od/yomkippurprefast/r/kugal_swtnoodle.htm

-this one is pareve so it can actually be eaten with the Brisket.

Desert:

I like banana bread for desert. The leftovers are great with a coffee for breakfast the next day. Were not really a big desert family, since you can’t mix milk and meat. Banana bread and some cut-up pineapple and watermelon is a great way to end this very heavy meal.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

Oy, once your done eating all this food it's time for some Jewish guilt about all the calories you consumed.

I fought the law and the law won.

Now you might be wondering why that is my title for my blog on writing html. Well, it just happens to be the song I did my victory dance to after making my web page.  Though occasionally words such as; I, computer, and I won, happened to get thrown in instead of the usual words.

So this assignment has given me some faith that I might be able to gain some much needed computer skills. Ideally for my next semester project I would like to make a video game about smuggling booze during prohibition era Canada and America, and the whole point will be to bring it over the boarder. Though this still might be too big of a step for me. I might also do a model of siege warfare.

So when you look at my web page you might be thinking, eww freakishly bright. Yes, it is a tad tacky. But playing around with the colours was fun, reminded me of the good old days back in elementary school when we all took turns to play on “Kid Pics”, my favourite computer program of all time. If you have never used it, it’s like paint on the computer, but a thousand times better.

I was surprised when creating my web page how some arrows (< >) and slashes (/), let the computer know what you want a web page to look like. I enjoyed the try it yourself sections on w3schools.com , that let you see instantaneously what my attempts looked like, and that I could revise them easily.  Having the ability to try different options, before adding it to my own HTML document was important for me because I find that I need a concrete example to let me see my possibilities before I can start thinking about what I want to do from there. It’s like what someone said in class, that sometimes you need to be given a box to think out of it, it’s that way with me and technology. I need to be sure that my computer will not spontaneously blow-up before I try new things. – Yes, that is a fear, since I am bad with remembering to back-up documents.

Web Dragons

“How can you tell if you arrived at the truth if you don’t know what the truth is?” – this is SO true for young historians.

I found that especially in the first two years of undergrad when one began their research for a paper there was almost too much information out there, and one was not sure what to use and what to trust. As more and more documents are being copied on to the internet, and the amount of journals keeps increasing and becoming more easily available there needs to be a larger focus in the earlier years of undergrad (but also in highschool) on determining the validity of a source. And the constant preaching that Wikipedia is bad, is not a sufficient enough response.

In this week’s readings I really enjoyed the authors account of the history of the library. One point I found interesting was the idea that the librarians’ role has changed over time, from trying to accumulate as many books as possible to now deciding what should be kept, disposed of, and what should be stored in the limited amount of archival space. Since last week I learned how all the internet data is stored by companies such as Google, I wonder from this what will survive. The authors’ of Web Dragons noted that humans have often kept information, but it often gets destroyed over time, such as the library in Alexandria. So this makes me think that even though we are currently storing mass amount of info, it probably won’t all survive, leading me to wonder what will future generations be using to analyze us.

But the way technology seems to be going I might have a time machine and be able to see.

Cyberspace Frontier

So I am half way through this weeks reading of Blown to Bits: Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion and I am not sure how to feel. I have gone through quite a range of emotions while reading this from very panicked and paranoid to very passive that this will not actually affect me since I have no plans to commit a crime.

In grade ten I was an avid CSI (Las Vegas version) watcher, I was even in Las Vegas for a few days and purchased the shirt. And from my viewing thought I was knowledgeable about the need to remove one’s finger prints from any crime. However, now there is a new digital fingerprint that I am aware of, and really not sure what to do about it.

So I might not really care if the grocery store knows what I eat. But I hate the idea that my private information is said to be de-identified, but by using other public information one can re-identify my personal information.

However, I feel that we have only reached the shores of the Cyberspace frontier, and I am looking forward to see how society, especially the laws, adapts to this new ground.

Another year at Western!?!

So it is September again and I am back at Western for my fifth year.
 

I am excited to become a MASTER OF HISTORY (which should always be said in one of those deep powerful voices that shakes the room; example, when Aladdin enters the cave).

Now you may be wondering why I gave my blog its name.

Namely, because it’s the whole reason why I decided to study public history, I wanted to get out! (My ass is permanently engraved into one of the chairs in Taylor library. I liked studying there because those science students who all want to go to med school are freakishly intense and will verbally attack anyone who makes a noise, so it’s the quietest library.)

By get out I mean that I want to actually use my random historical knowledge in real life. Other then kick butt in Jeopardy when something in my field comes on.