New project looks at the builders behind the buildings

Originally published in yFile: York University’s News.
The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies recently launched "City Builders: An Oral History of Immigrant Construction Workers in Postwar Toronto," a public history and research project, with funding from the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 183, the largest construction union in North America.

Construction of the Ross [...]

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Our Top 5 Responses from #AskAnArchivist Day

Ranging from silly in nature to serious, hundreds of questions descended upon archival professionals during #AskAnArchivist Day on 4 October 2017. By participating through Twitter, our responses went beyond campus boundaries to engage with fellow archivists and the broader community.

These five tweets were our favourites that helped reach an audience fourteen times the size of [...]

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World Ballet Day : Behind-the-scenes photographs of the National Ballet of Canada

Lawson documented 25 years of CBC production
With World Ballet Day falling on a Thursday, it’s the perfect opportunity to highlight “Throwback Thursday” photographs of the National Ballet of Canada. The fonds of Robert Lawson, a Canadian Broadcasting Company production designer in the 1950s and 1960s, is an invaluable collection of over 11,000 photographs documenting the early days [...]

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Celebrating Jean Augustine, Education, Community & Diaspora

On Sunday, 9 September 2017, Hundreds of guests came to celebrate Augustine's eight decades of accomplishments (many of which are recorded in her fonds!). During her birthday speech, Jean Augustine shared her pride in preserving her records at York University Libraries.

What an entrance for Dr. Jean Augustine as our community celebrates this amazing woman #onpoli [...]

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Caribana’s Golden Anniversary: An archival research guide

Fifty years of celebrating Caribbean culture, playing mas, and dancing to the beat of the steel pan are preserved in archival records across Ontario. Over the years, the cultural event has grown from a community’s centenary gift to Canada to North America’s largest cultural event!
As gifting gold is a tradition for fiftieth-anniversaries, our gift to celebrate five [...]

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Out of the Box : Summer 2017 : Mariposa Folk Festival, Joyce Wieland & Destination Canada

The Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (CTASC) escape the reading room and reach out to the wider public through the work of its researchers and partnerships. Over the summer, archival holdings play a starring role in a book on the Mariposa Folk Festival, in addition to an installation featuring Joyce Wieland and an exhibition titled [...]

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