Emerging historian Autumn Beals leading the Bad Girls tour, July 30, 2022. Image: Ashley Duffus | |
Happy New Year & Thank You! | |
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We begin 2023 by celebrating you and the many acts of giving that together allowed us to start this year with more than $45,000 in new support for our Equity Heritage Initiative. Your generosity will empower more emerging historians from equity-deserving communities with mentorship, paid work, and opportunities to shape our programming and the narratives of the city.
We are in the process of hiring a total of three 12-month long contracts. These emerging historians will work across the organization, in programming, development, and communications to rethink our programs, engage new communities and partnerships, and shape the new State of Heritage Report.
Over the coming year, you can look forward to programs by emerging historians on topics ranging from Jewish heritage, the Bloorcourt neighbourhood, to the Scarborough Bluffs, in addition to Victoria Atteh's Little Jamaica digital program and in-person event, featured in our last newsletter.
More emerging historian opportunities — funded by you — will be posted in the upcoming months. Stay tuned to this newsletter and our social media channels for announcements.
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AIDS Action NOW! Protest, April 25, 1990. Image: AIDS Activist History Project | |
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We're kicking off the New Year with a digital tour featuring one of our most popular walks of the past season. From the discovery of insulin to the first Black licensed practitioners of medicine, Toronto’s scientists, caregivers and activists have contributed to groundbreaking change in health care for over two hundred years. Today, the city remains a hub for medical education and research.
Discover Toronto's legacy of medical innovation and community advocacy on this self-guided tour.
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This digital tour was developed by Emerging Historian Serena Ypelaar and made possible by program champions: | |
Clothing donations, Yonge Street Mission, about 1912. Image: Toronto Public Library | |
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Characterized by strong religious sentiment, rapid population growth, and socioeconomic upheavals, 19th-century Toronto was an incubator for social reform movements and charitable institutions.
Explore the origins of some of our early reform organisations, and their impact on the city’s social welfare landscape today, on this original and new self-guided tour.
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This digital tour was developed by Emerging Historians Anthony Badame and Stephanie Read-Sukhareva and made possible by program champions: | |
New Hopper Hut Restaurant at Ellesmere and Kennedy, November 14, 2022. | |
New Places, New Palates: Tamil Cooks in Toronto's Kitchens | |
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Did you know that during the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka, Tamils fled their homeland and Toronto became home to one of the largest Tamil populations outside of South Asia? Discover how Tamil refugees became the backbone of the city’s restaurant industry, and the community's stories of loss, resilience, and determination.
For Tamil Heritage Month, take another look at this self-guided tour.
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This digital tour was developed by Emerging Historian Vanessa Vigneswaramoorthy and made possible by program champions: | |
Emerging historians Jeremie Caribou and Vanessa Vigneswaramoorthy, July 3, 2022. Image: Ashley Duffus | |
Grow your career with us! | |
Are you a planner and facilitator looking to expand your experience in advocacy and community consultation? We are hiring a full-time, 12-month Project Coordinator under our Equity Heritage Initiative. This role will support the development and launch of the State of Heritage Report, a major public policy report that provides recommendations to municipal leadership on heritage planning and programs across the City of Toronto. The application deadline is February 3. | |
This opportunity is part of Heritage Toronto's Equity Heritage Initiative, made possible by TD Bank and funding from: | |
Public Health in Toronto plaque, 60 Queen Street West, December 13, 2022. | |
Discover new installations on public health, faith and sacrifice, and Black culture | |
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Last year, we added 56 new plaques to Toronto’s streets, ranging in subjects from destroyed ancient footprints that would have been among the earliest evidence of human activity in Ontario, to the first Mid-Century Modern high-rise project in downtown Toronto which anchored the development of the Church–Wellesley Village.
Recently, we installed new plaques on Public Health in Toronto (60 Queen Street West) and the Four Seasons Yorkville (29 Avenue Road). In partnership with the Toronto Legacy Project, we also installed two new plaques to mark places where great people achieved great things in our city: Michael Power at 86 Berkeley Street, in honour of Toronto's first Roman Catholic Bishop who died of typhus while caring for the sick, and Miss Lou at 140 Adanac Drive, in celebration of the poet and performer who galvanized West Indian culture with her work. Bundle up, get outside, and check them out!
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Creating Toronto tour, August 28, 2022. Image by Ashley Duffus. | |
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Our tours bring people together to experience our city and to connect with each other. Would you like to be part of this? We particularly encourage tour proposals from equity-deserving individuals or communities, or which focus on topics or neighbourhoods related to these communities.
Submit a proposal to lead a volunteer public walk with us during our 2023 season. Proposals will be accepted until January 31, 2023.
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Exploring the transformative impact of the CN Tower on the city, fifty years after construction began on the landmark which now defines Toronto's skyline. (Canadian Geographic) | |
From moments you could call Torontopian to others described as more like a dysTOpia, this review identifies the successes and challenges resulting from amalgamation. (Toronto Star) | |
Aesthetically described as "a monster", plans for the waterpark will dramatically change the location's heritage value while privatizing public land and consuming half a billion dollars in public money. (The Globe and Mail) | | | | |
