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Inside the Museums: Toronto's Heritage Sites and Their Most Prized Objects
Heritage Toronto Book Award ― Shortlisted, Non-Fiction Book
Illuminates Toronto’s early history through its small heritage museums.
A portrait of William Lyon Mackenzie stares from a mural at Queen subway station, his face as round and orange as a wheel of cheese. He served as Toronto’s first mayor, led the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, and was grandfather to William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s tenth prime minister, whose own orange-pink visage graces the Canadian fifty-dollar bill. Three blocks from the station, Mackenzie died in the upstairs bedroom of a house now open as a heritage museum, part of a network of such homes and sites from early Toronto. Inside the Museums tells their stories. It explains why Eliza Gibson risked her life to save a clock, reveals the appalling instructions that Robert Baldwin left in his will, and examines how the career of postmaster James Scott Howard shattered on the most baseless of innuendos at one of the most highly charged moments in the city’s history.
Illuminates Toronto’s early history through its small heritage museums.
A portrait of William Lyon Mackenzie stares from a mural at Queen subway station, his face as round and orange as a wheel of cheese. He served as Toronto’s first mayor, led the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, and was grandfather to William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s tenth prime minister, whose own orange-pink visage graces the Canadian fifty-dollar bill. Three blocks from the station, Mackenzie died in the upstairs bedroom of a house now open as a heritage museum, part of a network of such homes and sites from early Toronto. Inside the Museums tells their stories. It explains why Eliza Gibson risked her life to save a clock, reveals the appalling instructions that Robert Baldwin left in his will, and examines how the career of postmaster James Scott Howard shattered on the most baseless of innuendos at one of the most highly charged moments in the city’s history.
- GenresHistoryCanadaNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
John Goddard
20 books2 followersJohn Goddard works as a Toronto-based journalist, author, copy editor, and media professional. His interests range widely. He travels extensively. He enjoys both writing hard news to deadline, and delving into subjects that most news organizations tend to let fall through the cracks.
As a reporter for The Canadian Press, he covered the American Hostage Crisis in Tehran, and opened the agency’s first bureau in the Far North, based in Yellowknife.
At the Southam News agency, he covered national arts & entertainment news — books, film, dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts.
As a freelance magazine writer for fifteen years, he wrote on everything from a mass caribou drowning in northern Quebec, to the adventures of B.C. author Edith Iglauer, to the truth behind Farley Mowat’s early Arctic books. All three stories won awards.
At the Toronto Star for twelve years until recently, he served variously as a photographer, copy editor, page-layout editor, world-music columnist, reporter for the city-news, business and entertainment sections, and once as videographer documenting pop-star Kemer Yousuf on his triumphant homecoming tour of Ethiopia.
Goddard has written or collaborated on six books covering such diverse subjects as the Arab-Israeli conflict, Indian land rights, and rock and roll. His most recent book tells the stories behind Toronto’s heritage museums and their most-prized artifacts.
As a reporter for The Canadian Press, he covered the American Hostage Crisis in Tehran, and opened the agency’s first bureau in the Far North, based in Yellowknife.
At the Southam News agency, he covered national arts & entertainment news — books, film, dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts.
As a freelance magazine writer for fifteen years, he wrote on everything from a mass caribou drowning in northern Quebec, to the adventures of B.C. author Edith Iglauer, to the truth behind Farley Mowat’s early Arctic books. All three stories won awards.
At the Toronto Star for twelve years until recently, he served variously as a photographer, copy editor, page-layout editor, world-music columnist, reporter for the city-news, business and entertainment sections, and once as videographer documenting pop-star Kemer Yousuf on his triumphant homecoming tour of Ethiopia.
Goddard has written or collaborated on six books covering such diverse subjects as the Arab-Israeli conflict, Indian land rights, and rock and roll. His most recent book tells the stories behind Toronto’s heritage museums and their most-prized artifacts.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 7, 2021
Ok. So this book is a snapshot of ten of Toronto's museums and significant historical sites. I quite enjoyed the historical information in each section, although citing things like a History Channel documentary and tour guide interpretation as main sources felt very unsettling. I've seen interpreters spout off wrong information all the time, a lot of it not maliciously but because that's the history they've heard somewhere else, and believe it to be fact.
Sources specifically about these museums, and the histories of the artifacts within them, is a very ambitious project, mainly because a lot of these sources are unknown or unpublished. I would have liked to see Goddard use things like archival records, unpublished correspondence, etc., rather than practices like citing a large point from the Canadian Bibliography - this is such a large faux-pas, and any history undergraduate would be able to tell you that. Basic research practices and historiographic methodology explains that these types of sources are STARTING points, not where collect facts to base your argument on. I looked at Goddard's biography afterwards, and was actually surprised that he's a journalist. It seems very rushed and like he was only tapping at the top layer of what these sources could offer.
I also wasnt a huge fan of the 'Walkthrough' section for each museum. Artifacts and displays are meant to change over time, and while these particular displays may have been the same for over a decade, I bet some things have moved since 2014. And it's a bit disorienting for people who have never been to the site before.
I was hoping for more of a look into how these museums came to be rather than an extended 2nd hand interpretation of their tours.
Sources specifically about these museums, and the histories of the artifacts within them, is a very ambitious project, mainly because a lot of these sources are unknown or unpublished. I would have liked to see Goddard use things like archival records, unpublished correspondence, etc., rather than practices like citing a large point from the Canadian Bibliography - this is such a large faux-pas, and any history undergraduate would be able to tell you that. Basic research practices and historiographic methodology explains that these types of sources are STARTING points, not where collect facts to base your argument on. I looked at Goddard's biography afterwards, and was actually surprised that he's a journalist. It seems very rushed and like he was only tapping at the top layer of what these sources could offer.
I also wasnt a huge fan of the 'Walkthrough' section for each museum. Artifacts and displays are meant to change over time, and while these particular displays may have been the same for over a decade, I bet some things have moved since 2014. And it's a bit disorienting for people who have never been to the site before.
I was hoping for more of a look into how these museums came to be rather than an extended 2nd hand interpretation of their tours.
January 28, 2015
Disappointing. Not nearly enough pictures. Printed on cheap newsprint in black and white so wouldn't matter anyway if there were more pictures.
November 13, 2017
As a self-proclaimed Museum Nerd, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gives an overview of the phenomenal City of Toronto museums; if I had one nitpick, it would be that not ALL city owned facilities were covered, substituting The Grange, Campbell House and TO’s First Post Office for Scarborough Museum and Todmorden Mills (and the Zion Schoolhouse was a footnote in the Gibson House chapter).
Goddard introduces the site, gives a walk through, and discusses nearby attractions, giving the reader enough to make them want to visit the sites, or revisit favourites. His background of newspaper reporter comes across in his writing style, noticeable but not in the least off putting.
Goddard introduces the site, gives a walk through, and discusses nearby attractions, giving the reader enough to make them want to visit the sites, or revisit favourites. His background of newspaper reporter comes across in his writing style, noticeable but not in the least off putting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews