Trafalgar Township Historical Society

A sepia-toned portrait of a young couple—a woman in a blouse and a man in an RAF uniform—sits on a wooden kitchen table beside a steaming metal teapot, an open notebook with a pen, and a closed journal. Overlaid text reads: “No Going Back: Families in an Age of Scarcity. Why resilience—not certainty—is the best inheritance we can pass on. lenispooner.substack.com.”

⚡ Life doesn’t run on certainty anymore—it runs on resilience.

🇨🇦 With tariffs, CUSMA talks & rising costs, the best inheritance isn’t wealth—it’s adaptability, creativity & endurance.
💭 What qualities will Canadians need most to roll with change?
👉 Read: lenispooner.substack.com/p/no-going-b...

Agricultural Heritage of Trafalgar Township (North Oakville) - our fall Heritage Fair Saturday Sept 27 10am-4pm - FREE admission and Free parking.

Join us Sept 9th @ 7pm at the Palermo Heritage schoolhouse, Oakville. Tom Holbrook will discuss the days when preserving fruits and vegetables was essential for families, to the many shapes and designs that filled kitchens over the years. Bring along any jars you may have and your questions too.

YouTube video by Jeremy Hopkin "Toronto Treasures" at Old City Hall

Brought along my vintage Royal York Hotel smoker’s caddy and related ephemera from my collection to the excellent "Toronto Treasures" event at Old City Hall, Toronto, Canada.

#OldCityHall #TorontoTreasures #Museums #hotel #ephemera #history #torontohistory #toronto #canada #jeremyhopkin

"Agricultural in Trafalgar Township" visit us and step back into our farming past! A local Fair like experience with some history! There is lots of room at the old Schoolhouse in Palermo, Oakville, Ontario. Please plan on visiting Sept 27, 2025 10-4pm
More information at tths.ca/heritage-day...

se www.halton.ca/The-Region/E...

Want to come work in beautiful wine country by Niagara Falls and the Niagara escarpment? You can!! Canada Excellence Research Chair in Sustainable Agriculture for Grape and Wine Professor or Associate Professor, Tenured ‪@brocku.ca‬ brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/brocku_caree...

No we are a separate non-for-profit organization. The Halton Regional Services is to be disbanded end of year

Discover the Story of Home Canning Sept 9 7pm at Palermo's heritage schoolhouse (Oakville-Dundas/Brock)
Preserving the harvest was a matter of necessity. Local historian Tom Holbrook takes us back to when preserving food meant skill, ingenuity, and often, trial and error. After, we'll have a Q&A.

Buy local: Discover Ontario agricultural products and support local businesses Supporting local has always been a key part of our agriculture and food production system, and many people ask us how to find Ontario or Canadian products

BUY FRESH🇨🇦BUY LOCAL
Support YOUR Farmers
#buycanadian
#shopcanada
INTERACTIVE Map for You

ofa.on.ca/buy-local/ Buy local: Discover Ontario agricultural products and support local businesses - Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Learning from the 20th Century Agricultural Revolution What can we learn from the dramatic transformation of British farming after 1940? Join this interdisciplinary workshop to explore how past agricultural revolutions can inform future food systems and p...

Registration is open for this one-day interdisciplinary workshop in York @yorkuniversity.bsky.social on 4 September supported by @wellcometrust.bsky.social exploring how the history of the transformation of British agriculture in the postwar period can inform policy.
www.york.ac.uk/yesi/events/...

Trafalgar Township Historical Society was at the Glenorchy Community Festival 27 July 2025! A well done event, lots of fun, even free ice cones! The Teacher was demonstrating the finer points of bell ringing and our country farm maid was hard at work washing the clothes. Great fun for all

Black-and-white photograph taken on July 1, 1925, showing a bustling scene at Sunnyside Station in Toronto, Ontario. A steam locomotive pulling passenger cars has just arrived, with smoke billowing from its funnel. A large crowd of passengers, dressed in early 20th-century attire — men in suits and hats, women in long coats and cloche hats — are seen walking along the platform or descending a prominent wooden pedestrian bridge that spans the railway tracks. The station platform is located below street level in a trench-like cut, with the tracks running parallel on either side of the central platform. People mill about in small groups, some looking directly toward the train, while others appear to be moving to or from the pedestrian bridge. The bridge has covered walkways and a tall central stairway supported by steel framework. In the background, houses and utility poles line the tree-dotted slope above the tracks, suggesting a dense residential neighbourhood nearby. The image captures a moment of public excitement and transit activity, likely tied to Canada Day celebrations, with the era’s strong sense of order and dress etiquette on display. The scene evokes the vital role of rail travel in early 20th-century urban life and the importance of Sunnyside Station as a gateway to Toronto’s lakeside amusement area.

100 years ago today: A westbound train pulls into Sunnyside station, Toronto - July 1st, 1925

📸: City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail fonds, Fonds 1266, Item 5749.

#OnThisDay #OTD #1920s #sunnyside #railway #railroad #history #torontohistory #toronto #canada #jeremyhopkin

We'll be at the Glenorchy Fair July 27th! We will have the;
-"Teaching Master" from the Old Palermo school
-Wash clothes, make some bubbles, as they did 100 years ago
-A selection of early school books for sale
-Recipes
Have some fun and meet your local historical society in north Oakville!

#WomeninSTEM
#Feminism
#History
So many contributions from women are omitted from history.

Many Irish immigrants came to Canada and would value these new records

"Something ineffable happens when you write down a thought: You think something you did not know you could or would think and it leads you to another thought… the process of writing itself leads to previously unthought thoughts [and] crystallizes half-formulated or unformulated thoughts"
- Lynn Hunt

Happy Canada Day 2025

Harvard’s unofficial copy of Magna Carta is actually an original, experts say Document issued by Edward I in 1300 was bought by law school library for just $27 in 1946

'David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, stumbled on a document labelled as an unofficial copy of Magna Carta from 1327 in Harvard law school library’s online collection.' Hmmm: 'stumbled on'? No training, rigour or methodology involved in the find, then.

A postcard image of the Montreal skyline in hues of purple and pink at sunset. The text within the images encourages the reader to "Join us in Montreal!" and includes the dates November 14-16.

With double the submissions to our CFP compared to last year, #NACBS2025 is shaping up to be one for the books! Don’t miss out on what is sure to be a fantastic conference!

More info here: www.nacbs.org/conference

Another piece of #DigitalHistory infrastructure closing down:

Halton Peel Genealogical Society (Ontario Ancestors) will have noted speaker John McDonald presenting "The Temperance Movement". To be held at the the Brampton Public Library on Sunday May 25 at 2pm,

Author/historian John McDonald shares the story of Halton's County Court House/Gaol, built in 1853. A tale about the people, politics and drama behind this historic building—home to early county plans, major court cases, and even Halton’s only public hangings-at Palermo's schoolhouse in Oakville

On Saturday, May 24, 2025 11am-7pm it's a day of food, culture & performances at the Asian Heritage Festival, Fowley Park, 106 Fowley Dr, Oakville! @scottxieaj & @navnandaward7 Hosted by the Asian Heritage Society
Bring your family and celebrate Oakville’s vibrant diversity.

Defending the status quo will not protect the humanities’ future If our subjects are to stay alive and relevant, we must engage more strongly with the factors that give them a place in society, says Marion Thain

Opinion: “If we want that project to stay alive and relevant, we must engage more strongly with the factors that give it a place in society.”

Defending the status quo will not protect the humanities’ future, writes Marion Thain

#highered #EduSky

Speaker Night: Join us on Tue. April 1, 2025 at 7pm in the Palermo Heritage schoolhouse in Oakville. It's the 1st of a 3-part series on invasions of Canada - from l'Ancien Regime to Louis Riel. Dave Hobden will be our speaker.

Attended Heritage Week Celebration event Feb 25 at Oakville Town Hall and learned more about Oakville's Heritage Designation Project. All of Oakville's historical societies attended to show their support.

Thanks to Carolyn Van Sligtenhorst and her colleagues for doing a great job last night speaking on “Conserving Oakville’s Rural Settler Heritage”.
To those who attended many thanks for the engagement, bringing pictures, stories and questions to the Event!
We look forward to our next gathering

The old Palermo Schoolhouse was busy last night (4 Feb 2025) with a seminar on “Conserving Oakville’s Rural Settler Heritage” The focus on North Oakville gave us an overview of how the town identifies and helps protect these properties. We look forward to our next gathering.

On Feb 4, 2025 at 7pm in Oakville's heritage 1-room Palermo schoolhouse our speaker topic is "Conserving Oakville's Rural Settler Heritage". Please join us: 2431 Dundas Street West Oakville, Ontario