Events
From our great Speaker's Nights featuring experts on local and national history to specialty event programming, our goal is to entertain and educate. Here is a sample of some of the events being held in the coming months. Come join us!
NOTE: OUR SPEAKER's NIGHT SERIES IS AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT FOR MEMBERS OF THE ETOBICOKE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND AS SUCH, THERE IS LIMITED SEATING. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A MEMBER, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
NOTE: OUR SPEAKER's NIGHT SERIES IS AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT FOR MEMBERS OF THE ETOBICOKE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND AS SUCH, THERE IS LIMITED SEATING. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A MEMBER, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
Dear EHS Members,
The City of Toronto has announced a list of facilities that would be closed due to COVID-19 which included the City Museums. You can learn more by CLICKING HERE.
As a result of the closure of Montgomery's Inn and also to support the City's directive to limit public gatherings, EHS will be moving our speaker's nights to online format until further notice.
Please visit our website regularly for updates on future speaker's nights and how they will be delivered. Existing EHS members will receive the detailed information via email to attend these online LIVE events below. To become a member and receive an invite, please CLICK HERE.
Thanks to everyone for your understanding.
Best Wishes,
The Etobicoke Historical Society
The City of Toronto has announced a list of facilities that would be closed due to COVID-19 which included the City Museums. You can learn more by CLICKING HERE.
As a result of the closure of Montgomery's Inn and also to support the City's directive to limit public gatherings, EHS will be moving our speaker's nights to online format until further notice.
Please visit our website regularly for updates on future speaker's nights and how they will be delivered. Existing EHS members will receive the detailed information via email to attend these online LIVE events below. To become a member and receive an invite, please CLICK HERE.
Thanks to everyone for your understanding.
Best Wishes,
The Etobicoke Historical Society
Thursday, January 21, 2021 - Speaker's Night: Shock Therapies - Treatments at the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital.
The shock therapies of the early-to-mid twentieth century are among the most controversial – and most misunderstood – treatments in the history of mental health care. In Ontario, these therapies were introduced and largely centered around the Ontario Hospital, New Toronto (later, the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital). In this presentation, Jennifer Bazar will introduce the arrival of insulin coma, Metrazol, and electroshock therapies in Ontario and the role that New Toronto played between the 1930s and early 1950s. She will likewise discuss the impact of these treatments on patients, their level of success, and the eventual decline in their use.
Jennifer is the Curator of the Lakeshore Grounds Interpretive Centre at Humber College’s Lakeshore campus. While completing her Ph.D. from York University in 2013 in the History and Theory of Psychology, she held teaching positions at Texas A&M University and B.C.’s Simon Fraser University. Jennifer subsequently held postdoctoral positions at York University and University of Toronto/Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. As Curator at Humber since April 2016, Jennifer coordinates the busy schedule of tours and exhibits of the Interpretive Centre. She is also an EHS member serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary since 2017.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
The shock therapies of the early-to-mid twentieth century are among the most controversial – and most misunderstood – treatments in the history of mental health care. In Ontario, these therapies were introduced and largely centered around the Ontario Hospital, New Toronto (later, the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital). In this presentation, Jennifer Bazar will introduce the arrival of insulin coma, Metrazol, and electroshock therapies in Ontario and the role that New Toronto played between the 1930s and early 1950s. She will likewise discuss the impact of these treatments on patients, their level of success, and the eventual decline in their use.
Jennifer is the Curator of the Lakeshore Grounds Interpretive Centre at Humber College’s Lakeshore campus. While completing her Ph.D. from York University in 2013 in the History and Theory of Psychology, she held teaching positions at Texas A&M University and B.C.’s Simon Fraser University. Jennifer subsequently held postdoctoral positions at York University and University of Toronto/Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. As Curator at Humber since April 2016, Jennifer coordinates the busy schedule of tours and exhibits of the Interpretive Centre. She is also an EHS member serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary since 2017.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
Thursday, February 18, 2021 - Speaker's Night: John "Daddy" Hall with Peter Meyler
Born of an Indigenous father and an African mother, John "Daddy" Hall was a product of not one but two oppressed peoples. His gripping story is the stuff of legends—of the War of 1812, of the harsh realities slavery and of triumph in the face of adversity. Over the course of his 117-year life, Hall identified as a freeman, a scout for Chief Tecumseh, was enslaved, made a daring escape for home, a town crier in Owen Sound, Ontario, a husband and, as his nickname aptly suggests, father to an impressive number of children.
Peter Meyler is the co-author of A Stolen Life: Searching for Richard Pierpoint, which tells the story of one of Ontario's first African settlers. He edited a reissue of an 1889 book, Broken Shackles: Old Man Hanson From Slavery to Freedom, one of the very few books that documented the journey to Canada from the perspective of a person of African descent. Peter has written numerous articles about Ontario's black history, which have appeared in such publications as The Beaver, the Toronto Star, Share and Families.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
Born of an Indigenous father and an African mother, John "Daddy" Hall was a product of not one but two oppressed peoples. His gripping story is the stuff of legends—of the War of 1812, of the harsh realities slavery and of triumph in the face of adversity. Over the course of his 117-year life, Hall identified as a freeman, a scout for Chief Tecumseh, was enslaved, made a daring escape for home, a town crier in Owen Sound, Ontario, a husband and, as his nickname aptly suggests, father to an impressive number of children.
Peter Meyler is the co-author of A Stolen Life: Searching for Richard Pierpoint, which tells the story of one of Ontario's first African settlers. He edited a reissue of an 1889 book, Broken Shackles: Old Man Hanson From Slavery to Freedom, one of the very few books that documented the journey to Canada from the perspective of a person of African descent. Peter has written numerous articles about Ontario's black history, which have appeared in such publications as The Beaver, the Toronto Star, Share and Families.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
Thursday, March 18, 2021 - Speaker's Night: The Canadian Nursing Sisters - The Forgotten Heroes
This is the story of Canada’s nursing sisters in the First World War and earlier, and the contributions they made for humanity and woman’s rights. They were the first women to vote in Canada, a right earned by their valiant service, and, in many cases, their lives. Fourteen nursing sisters on a Canadian Hospital ship, the RMS Llandovery Castle, gave their lives along with many others on June 27th, 1918. William Graham will explore how most of these nurses went from a secure environment in Canada through the doors of Europe to an unknown and dangerous environment, knowing they might not return.
William Graham is veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force and from whose family five first cousins and one uncle served in the First World War. One cousin and his uncle fought and were wounded at Vimy Ridge. William's book The Canadian Nursing Sisters: The Forgotten Heroes was the result of several years’ research, bundles of old newspaper clippings and family writings as far back as the turn of the century. He is also the author of World War 1 - The Canadian Response.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
This is the story of Canada’s nursing sisters in the First World War and earlier, and the contributions they made for humanity and woman’s rights. They were the first women to vote in Canada, a right earned by their valiant service, and, in many cases, their lives. Fourteen nursing sisters on a Canadian Hospital ship, the RMS Llandovery Castle, gave their lives along with many others on June 27th, 1918. William Graham will explore how most of these nurses went from a secure environment in Canada through the doors of Europe to an unknown and dangerous environment, knowing they might not return.
William Graham is veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force and from whose family five first cousins and one uncle served in the First World War. One cousin and his uncle fought and were wounded at Vimy Ridge. William's book The Canadian Nursing Sisters: The Forgotten Heroes was the result of several years’ research, bundles of old newspaper clippings and family writings as far back as the turn of the century. He is also the author of World War 1 - The Canadian Response.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
Thursday, April 15, 2021 - Speaker's Night: Between Raid and Rebellion: The Irish in Buffalo and Toronto, 1867-1916
William Jenkins compares the lives and allegiances of Irish immigrants and their descendants in one American and one Canadian city between the era of the Fenian raids and the 1916 Easter Rising. Highlighting the significance of immigrants from Ulster to Toronto and from Munster to Buffalo, he distinguishes what it meant to be Irish in a loyal dominion within Britain's empire and in a republic whose self-confidence knew no bounds. With the question of Irish home rule animating debates throughout the period, Toronto's unionist sympathizers presented a marked contrast to Buffalo's nationalist agitators.
William Jenkins is an Associate Professor of Historical Geography at York University. He completed his PhD in Historical Geography at the University of Toronto in 2001 after obtaining an MA from University College Dublin, Ireland in 1995. William specializes in the study of Irish migration to Canada and the U.S. from 1815 to 1914 and has written several books and many articles on the topic. His current book, Between Raid and Rebellion: the Irish in Buffalo and Toronto 1867-1916, has won awards from the Ontario Historical Society, Canadian Historical Association, the American Conference for Irish Studies and The Geographical Society of Ireland.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
William Jenkins compares the lives and allegiances of Irish immigrants and their descendants in one American and one Canadian city between the era of the Fenian raids and the 1916 Easter Rising. Highlighting the significance of immigrants from Ulster to Toronto and from Munster to Buffalo, he distinguishes what it meant to be Irish in a loyal dominion within Britain's empire and in a republic whose self-confidence knew no bounds. With the question of Irish home rule animating debates throughout the period, Toronto's unionist sympathizers presented a marked contrast to Buffalo's nationalist agitators.
William Jenkins is an Associate Professor of Historical Geography at York University. He completed his PhD in Historical Geography at the University of Toronto in 2001 after obtaining an MA from University College Dublin, Ireland in 1995. William specializes in the study of Irish migration to Canada and the U.S. from 1815 to 1914 and has written several books and many articles on the topic. His current book, Between Raid and Rebellion: the Irish in Buffalo and Toronto 1867-1916, has won awards from the Ontario Historical Society, Canadian Historical Association, the American Conference for Irish Studies and The Geographical Society of Ireland.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
Thursday, May 20, 2021 - Speaker's Night: The Ward
From the 1870s to the 1950s, waves of immigrants to Toronto – Irish, Jewish, Chinese and Italian, among others – landed in ‘The Ward’ in the centre of downtown. Deemed a slum, the area was crammed with derelict housing and ‘ethnic’ businesses; it was razed in the 1950s to make way for a grand civic plaza and modern city hall. John Lorinc will use archival photos and contributions from a wide variety of voices to tell the story of this complex neighbourhood and the lessons it offers about immigration and poverty in big cities.
John Lorinc is a Senior Editor at Spacing Magazine and an award-winning journalist who has contributed to Toronto Life, MacLean’s, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Saturday Night, Report on Business, and Quill & Quire, among other publications. As the non-fiction editor for Toronto’s Coach House Books, he has contributed to many books including The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood and The Ward Uncovered. John also specializes in leading walking tours of The Ward and other Toronto historic areas, some of which have been included in the annual Jane’s Walks.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET
From the 1870s to the 1950s, waves of immigrants to Toronto – Irish, Jewish, Chinese and Italian, among others – landed in ‘The Ward’ in the centre of downtown. Deemed a slum, the area was crammed with derelict housing and ‘ethnic’ businesses; it was razed in the 1950s to make way for a grand civic plaza and modern city hall. John Lorinc will use archival photos and contributions from a wide variety of voices to tell the story of this complex neighbourhood and the lessons it offers about immigration and poverty in big cities.
John Lorinc is a Senior Editor at Spacing Magazine and an award-winning journalist who has contributed to Toronto Life, MacLean’s, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Saturday Night, Report on Business, and Quill & Quire, among other publications. As the non-fiction editor for Toronto’s Coach House Books, he has contributed to many books including The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood and The Ward Uncovered. John also specializes in leading walking tours of The Ward and other Toronto historic areas, some of which have been included in the annual Jane’s Walks.
Start Time: 7:30pm ET