Social History

In the mid-nineteenth century, although officially part of British North America, British Columbia was a wilderness territory, effectively run by the Hudson’s Bay Company who controlled the fur trade throughout the Pacific North-west. The area was largely unsettled and the sparse population was made up primarily of aboriginal people, and a few hundred British settlers [...]

In total, the Great Fire of 1922 consumed 650 square miles in eighteen townships in Northern Ontario. The towns of Haileybury, Charlton, North Cobalt, Thornloe, Heaslip and many other small settlements were completely destroyed. Englehart and New Liskeard were partially burnt but ultimately saved as the winds shifted direction at the last moment. Remarkably, only [...]

“A soldier is not to marry without a written sanction, obtained from his Commanding Officer. Should he marry without this sanction, his Wife will not be allowed in Barracks, nor to follow the Regiment, nor will she participate in the indulgences granted to the Wives of other Soldiers.” ~from the Account Book of William Bond, [...]

The Social Historian is a longform story website featuring social history themed articles across the centuries and around the world. Social History is not concerned with politics and wars, or kings and presidents, but rather with the lives of ordinary people. It is a view of history from the bottom up, rather than from the [...]