In June1974—for the first time in its history—the Toronto Board of Education allowed liquor to be served at one of its schools. The occasion was a bang-up homecoming weekend for Harbord students flocking back to celebrate their beloved collegiate. A stellar barbershop quartet of Louis Weingarten and Frank Shuster (Wayne […]
In 1938, the Toronto Star ran a photo of the previous year’s Armistice Day at Toronto City Hall. The caption said of the gathered crowd: To most of them the Great War is an impersonal memory; evoked in silence on Armistice Day when the nation pauses to honour the fallen; […]
“To represent powerful women on the field.” Ayesha Hossain, student at George Webster school, explains her prize-winning poster. Ayesha’s artwork honours all women who served in military conflicts—but particularly nursing sisters of the Great War—with a special nod to one who died on active service. The text to the right […]
Two facilities on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus were founded specifically for Roman Catholic students: St. Michael’s College and the Newman Centre. Together they offer academic, spiritual, and social services to those studying away from home. St. Michael’s College—officially the University of St. Michael’s College—is a liberal arts […]
Our 2018 fall collection consists of four memorials from three Lakeshore communities of Etobicoke. The southwest boundary of Etobicoke sits along the north shore of Lake Ontario. A few miles east of “the Lakeshore,” concrete roadways and condo canyons hide the lake, except for occasional glimpses. Mimico, New Toronto, and […]
Finding new things to say about “In Flanders Fields” is tricky. Most Canadians can recite a line or two. Many know the whole poem off by heart; maybe pausing to ponder did the poppies “blow” or “grow.” (The answer is “blow” in the first line; “grow” in the last verse.) […]
I think it caught people’s attention, and maybe made them think about Remembrance Day just a little bit longer. Claire Franceschetti commenting on her Remembrance Day project They had lived down the street, around the corner, or maybe right next door. They were young Humbersiders who went off to two […]
For some years, this “Greetings from Humberside” poster hung over the fireplace of a steak house in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Attractive, colourful, and no doubt at times a conversation piece, it was a long way from home. Humberside Collegiate Institute is about 1,500 kilometres (950 miles) from Sydney. What was […]
Toronto neighbourhoods offered both surprises and traditional memorials as we organized 1,508 new names for “back to school” 2017. A happy surprise was solving the puzzle of an unidentified WWI plaque displayed in a local café. The long-forgotten Aura Lee Club, a social and sports group active from 1887 to […]
In November 2016, we added Coleman Avenue School to For King and Country. Except for brief mentions in old issues of the Toronto Daily Star and The Globe, information about the “vanished” school was hard to find. Fortunately, former student Donna Adams-Hannigan offered to share her clear memories of Coleman: […]