Author: Dr. Gil Stelter Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 From the time that Guelph founder John Galt chose the most prominent location in the new town site for the institution headed by his friend Bishop Alexander Macdonell, what became known as 'Catholic Hill' has been a place of special significance for the entire community. An important part...
Author: Dr. Debra Nash-Chambers Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 Dance class at the Loretto Convent, 1947. (Photo courtesy of Guelph Museums). Women religious from the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) have a long record of service in Guelph that dates back to 1856 when Father John Holzer invited the Lorettos to establish a filiation in...
Author: Jenn Annis Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 Any Guelphite who was awake and Downtown at midnight on Tuesday, August 4, 1914, would not have noticed anything different about the town as the massive hands on the clock aligned at the top. However, by the dinner hour on Wednesday, few citizens would not know that Britain, and by...
Author: Dr Jason F. Kovacs and Dr. Brian S. Osborne Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 WHAT STARTED IT ALL About midnight on May 16, 1889, a fire broke out in St. Sauveur, a village to the west of Quebec City.1 the population fled their homes as the fire raged through the wooden houses, virtually unchecked by the feeble...
Author: Andrea Gal Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 This postcard shouts the Macdonald Institute (Ieft) and Hall (right) on the Ontario Agricultural College campus. (Image courtesy of the Guelph Public Library Archives, Macdonald Institute and Hall, circa 1900 (C6-0000731)). The Women's Institute (WI) began as a farm women's organization, inaugurated in Saltfleet, Ontario in 1897. The mythology of the...
Author: Henry Law Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 In 1827, John Galt, an agent of the Canada Company, founded the hamlet of Guelph. The first tree was felled at a site now located west of the junction of Wellington and Macdonell Streets. It was here that the plans for the future town of Guelph were laid on April...
Author: Jennifer McCulloch Publication Date: 2009 Edited: 2022 Last Boy Scout Troop, Guelph, circa 1905. (Photo courtesy of the Guelph Public Library Archives, Group Photo of 1st Boy Scout Troop, Guelph, ca. 1905 (C6-0000948)). A strategic and progressive militarization of boys occurred within Ontario's school system from the late-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century, in order to instill...