Random Tidbits

I stumbled across these the other day, thought I would share! The links for each have more neato information, if you're interested, and looking for a distraction!

Who knew the mechanical pencil has been around for so long?
"The mechanical pencil was patented in 1822. The company founded by its British developers prospered until 1941, when the factory was bombed, presumably by pencil-hating Nazis."

Two whole warships! Crickey!
"During World War I, enough metal was salvaged from corset stays to build two warships."

Harper & History

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has recently gone on record stating that in order to avoid economic mistakes of the past, "we must be good students of history - and not just recent history." One has to wonder though, just how are Canadians to be good historians when the Harper government continues to cut cultural and historical programs?
I guess I should be happy just to hear Harper speak positively of history...

Demolition by Fire

Yet another historic building has been claimed by fire.

This past summer I witnessed the Alma College fire in St. Thomas. There were attempts being made to save the building and have it provincially designated, but before that could happen, it was destroyed. Two St. Thomas youths have since been charged with arson. The once prestigious college has now completely disappeared from the St. Thomas streetscape.

The day of the fire, I received a frantic phone call from my supervisor at the Ontario Heritage Trust, telling me that I had to go to St. Thomas and document the damage. Up until that point, I must admit I had never heard of Alma College, and while I could tell the building had certainly been beautiful before the fire, I couldn’t believe just how magnificent it had been. I was shocked when I saw photos like this one.

And now yet another historic building has been claimed by fire. Over the weekend the Brunswick Hotel at Talbot & York in London went up in flames. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation and is considered suspicious. The structural integrity of the building is seriously questioned – a fire truck and police cruiser remain on the scene and sections of York and Talbot streets have been closed.

When looking at the Brunswick Hotel, it was difficult to tell that it was an historic building, especially if the 1853 date stone wasn’t noticed. It wasn’t a grand example of architecture, but its history was important nonetheless. It was a commercial hotel, which provided the working class with a place to lay their heads. It was one of the oldest remaining buildings in the downtown core and I won’t be surprised if a parking lot shows up in its place.

Digitizing Archives

For my archives class, I recently wrote an essay on the challenges that archives face concerning electronic and digital records.
While the digitization of archival records is incredibly important, it also poses unique challenges to the archivists – due mainly to the fact that technology is rapidly evolving. The electronic tapes, floppy disks, and zip drives of yester-year are still largely in working condition, but the machines necessary to retrieve their information have long since failed.
When an archive undertakes a digitization project, they must be aware that their technologies will have to be updated on a regular basis. There is a saying in the archival world that digital records “last forever – or for five years, whichever comes first.”*

I thought of this paper, as I was reading this news article about digitizing First World War records.
An archivist named Gordon Jung at LAC acknowledges problems associated with digital records, but also discusses the immense amount of accessibility that these records allow. No longer does a user interested in WWI need to visit Ottawa and sift through boxes of records. For the most part many of these are available online, from the comfort of one’s home.

Now these records are widely accessible and are hopefully reaching a technological savvy generation, who likely do not have any direct connection to the war. The stories of soldiers are available and these digital copies are allowing their stories to survive indefinitely (should the records be constantly updated by LAC that is). As Jung explains, eventually the physical documents will become too fragile for actual use, and the digital copies will act as a stand in, allowing researchers to better know and understand that tumultuous time.

*Colin Webb, "The Malleability of Fire: Preserving Digital Information," in Managing Preservation for Libraries and Archives, ed. John Feather (Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), 31.

91 Hours of Remembrance

Last night at dusk, a vigil for Canada’s 68,000 First World War dead began in locations across Canada and at Canada House in London, England.

Every evening until 11 November 2008, the names of each Canadian man who died in the war will be projected onto a public building or space in various locations.
Each name is projected for 8 seconds, and it will take 91 hours to move through all of those who perished.

For those unable to physically attend the displays, the vigil is available through this website.

The website also helps the user to determine what time a specific individual will be projected – allowing family and community members to know exactly when they should be watching.

The vigil is very simple in design, but incredibly moving – there are no pictures, only names. This certainly is a fantastic use of technology and brings remembrance to the twenty-first century.