Exhibitions - Historical: Past

Since London’s earliest days of settlement, a perfect storm of geography, climate and human activity have conspired to create a community long marked by severe and catastrophic weather events. Organized by guest curator Lisa Hunter, and incorporating a wide range of documentary imagery, artifacts and descriptive accounts, this exhibition focuses on some of the most extreme weather that has occurred in London since its earliest days, and explores the physical, economic and cultural impacts of these extraordinary events.

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In the early years of the twentieth century, a subtle revolution was brewing in the field of secondary education. London, Ontario, with its booming industry, commercial and business sectors, was suffering from a lack of skilled and disciplined workers.

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How many of us have collected things--stamps, fossils, paintings, comic books--or feel better putting order to the things around us, our closets, our music collection, or perhaps just our kitchen cabinets? Collecting and ordering things is an ancient human characteristic.

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By the second half of the nineteenth century, London, Ontario, had become a bustling centre for publishing with print and lithography shops springing up to fulfill the demand for reproducible art. Although large newspaper publishing companies had their own in-house artists, they also relied on the numerous commercial artists working for local firms.

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In 1793, soon after Upper Canada had been established, Colonel John Graves Simcoe sketched a plan for a new London, assigning locations for several public buildings and designating a large reserve around the fork of the River Thames.

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This exhibition pays tribute to South Street Hospital, which continues to provide services after 136 years in operation. Although it began life as the London General and was renamed Victoria Hospital, what we now know as the South Street Hospital has existed on its present-day site since the 1870s.

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As Canada went to war in 1914 and again in 1939, towns and cities bustled with activity as new industries sprouted into existence, men and women enlisted, militias were formed and people pitched in. The wars dominated everything: newspapers and magazines featured news updates, cartoons and advertisements, music, movies and theatre told of our boys (and girls) gone overseas. Citizens were encouraged to become involved in the war effort, volunteering their time and skills, or going to work in factories and on farms where labour shortages were keenly felt. Community groups supported the troops by gathering or creating items to send to the men and women serving overseas.

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We, as a society, like to garden. We landscape our properties, arrange containers on patios and transform vacant lots into community gardens. Yet in much of North America, we have become accustomed to buying our produce at large grocery stores that offer foods grown all over the world.

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By the turn of the 20th century, an extraordinary idea had taken hold across North America—that frequent bathing, perhaps even a daily bath, was good for one’s health. Personal and domestic hygiene was to become a lucrative business, if the many ads for soaps and cleansers are to be believed. By 1950, product design had caught up with cleanliness and appliances featuring modern lines and new materials had taken over the home—or at least the kitchen and bathroom. The spread of mechanical appliances, which were promoted by savvy advertisers as freeing women from their chores also coincided with rising standards of domestic duty. Far from a fairy tale, the period between 1920 and 1960 marked a dramatic increase in “women’s work.”

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The infamous mug-shot—that look into the face of the accused—has long been a source of intrigue and curiosity.

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Focusing closely on the day-to-day contact between Native and non-Native, as well as larger governmental/colonial interests, this exhibition will pick up the story where archaeology becomes history. Bringing the subject into our own contemporary history, issues such as repatriation, land claims and the current situation and status Aboriginals have within the Canadian context will be explored through artefacts, history and oral traditions.

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