2nd Annual Doors Open Burlington

Join us for Burlington's 2nd Annual Doors Open!

On June 11 and 12, residents and visitors to the City will be given the remarkable opportunity to learn about places and spaces normally not open to the general public or for which an admission fee is usually charged. The event will help our community celebrate its historical, cultural and and natural heritage. Admission to all Doors Open events and sites is free! Highlights include historical walking tours, the Fine Art and Craft Festival, a chance to see the Burlington Teen Tour Band practice, and numerous behind the scenes tours at many sites. New sites include The DeGroote School of Business, Ron Joyce Centre, Mountain Equipment Co-op and The Halton Mosque. Don't miss this once a year opportunity.

To view all the sites and find out more information click on the Doors Open Burlington website. We could still use volunteer greeters at some of the sites. Interested? Click here.

First Annual Halton Heritage Conference

Halton Heritage springs to life with the First Annual Halton Heritage Conference. The conference is presented by the Halton Heritage Network and takes place Saturday April 2, 2011. The day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located at Halton Region Museum in Milton. See below for details of presentations.

Prof. Ken Weber of U of T is presenting The War of 1812 - Why Canada Is Not a U.S. State

Noted local historian John McDonald speaks about In Search of William Halton

Four break out sessions include : Local History and our Schools; Undertaking Oral History; Copyright - what could go wrong? and Writing Local History

If you are interested in attending click here for details. I hope to see you there!

Heritage Fair in Burlington, Sat Feb 12th

In addition to many interesting heritage organization displays, the upcoming Heritage Fair will feature these interesting seminars:

Courtship in the Victorian Era at 10 am
Interviewing Grannie: doing Oral History in your Family at 10:30 am
Who were the refugees to Canada in 1784? at 11:30 am
Crawford Lake Village at 12:30 pm
Early Burlington Medicine at 1:30 pm
Burlington's Buried History at 2:30 pm

Location is Central Library and all seminars are FREE!

Eileen Collard and Her Costume Collection

If you are interested in the history of fashion you will want to head to the Joseph Brant Museum where there is a small but excellent exhibition of women's clothing from the 1920's. Currently there are 10 dresses (with hats, shoes and purses) on display that make up just a small part of the wonderful Eileen Collard Costume Collection. Especially interesting are the flappers dresses heavily laden with beads and sequins. These items don't often come out of storage due to a shortage of exhibition space. I understand that future costume exhibitions from different eras are in the planning stage.

To find out more about Eileen Collard and her contribution to the history of fashion in Burlington click here.

Scanning Day at Burlington Central Library

Next Saturday, Burlington Public Library in partnership with the Burlington Historical Society is hosting an Old Photos Scanning Day. Grab your old photo albums and come to the library on Saturday, September 25 from 10am to 3pm for our photograph scanning marathon!
If you have any old photos of your family or business taken in Burlington's younger days, we invite you to share them with us. Bring your photos in and we’ll scan them for you. You keep the original and get a scanned copy, and we keep a copy for our archives. Some images may be added to our online historical photo collection. Please provide a memory stick or an email address when you come in. No appointment is necessary and scanning will take place in the Burlington History Room, Central Library, 2nd floor.

Doors Open 2011 Here We Come!

I think that the numbers speak for themselves. Burlington's very first Doors Open event drew just shy of 5,000 site visits over June 12 and 13th. 15 sites including St. Luke's Church, Ireland House, Knox Presbyterian Church, the Gingerbread House, the Estaminet, Lowville School House and Lowville United Church hosted tours, provided storyboards, and allowed access to archives. Several sites even provided homemade scones, tea,coffee and lemonade. Many visitors said they have been devoted fans of Doors Open events in other communites and commented that they were more than pleased that Burlington partipated this year. Hopefully this will just be the start.

Historical re-enactment - a different take

We often think of historical re-enactments as having to do with military events, such as the yearly re-enactment of the Battle of Stoney Creek at Battlefield House. But St. John's Anglican Church on Dundas St. and the Ireland House Museum have a different idea. On Sunday, June 6th guests will be welcome to become a member of the wedding party during the re-enactment of a historic Ireland Family wedding.

During the re-enactment guests will follow the wedding couple, Eliza Ann and John Ireland, through the day including a wedding brunch, shower, visit to the family home of Ireland House culminating in the wedding ceremony and banquet at St. John's Anglican Church.

For details and tickets call the museum at 905-332-9888.