On Saturday, July 17th, 1943, amidst a lot of other important news, my great-grandpa made front-page-news for winning a car after hanging up on the reporter!

Hey #envhist! Parks Canada is ending its library services+ “decommissioning” its collection. We stand to lose a valuable set of materials that reveal if and how the Agency fulfilled its mandate (or didn’t). Read more here+write the Minister @juliedabrusin.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2026/03/10/c...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon tells Congress the first week of the Iran war cost the US $11.3 billion, an AP source says.

A powerful look at how women’s writing during the Seven Years’ War reveals the raw emotion, loss, and humanity often hidden in colonial archives. A moving reminder that behind every global conflict are intimate stories worth remembering. @tlecaque.bsky.social ageofrevolutions.com/2026/03/02/h...

It is #BlackHistoryMonth. John Baker (d. 1871) was “perhaps the last surviving Canadian slave.” Manumitted after 2+ decades of forced labour, he enlisted in the British army, fought in the #WarOf1812, and claimed to have seen Napoleon at Waterloo. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/baker... #BHM

“America, like a child that has been introduced too soon into life, has conducted herself with an offensive pertness and a ridiculous dignity. She would require that England bend to her in mock-tragedy, like the giant paying his court to Tom Thumb.”

"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."

A.S. Cogswell, 11th U.S. Infantry, Burlington, 17 July 1813: "We have some very good officers, but a large part of them are the most Ignorant and ugly parcel of rascals that I ever saw. Some of them are men tyrannical and swear worse than those Algerine pirates."

If I had to guess, there will likely be greater consequences for the border agents that wrongly let Epstein into Canada in 2014 than the countless pedophilic American elites who trafficked and raped children.

“So much going on, so much to say, and all of it happening so quickly. The pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it and that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind forty atrocities than a single incident.” — a timely reminder from Star Wars

This looks really cool

By the way... Hasphat is a student of Morrowind history. Take the chance to get a little education. And I have a few history books in here. Help yourself. You're welcome to them. No point in being part of history if you're too ignorant to understand it.

Real

Queen's has released its Bicentennial Vision document today, a strategy for what the university will be as it enters its third century in 2041. The terms "arts," "humanities," and "social science" do not appear anywhere in this document #cdnhist

tfw the ague’s been raging in camp for months, it’s humid as hell, the bread has shit particles in it, and now the trees are speaking Mohawk just another day on the Niagara frontier in 1813

If you watch the War of 1812 episode of CBC’s “Canada: The Story of Us,” you’ll see me, amongst others, get ambushed by Tecumseh, surrender Fort Detroit, and die at Fort York.

"Then one fine day the bourgeoisie is awakened by a terrific boomerang effect: the gestapos are busy, the prisons fill up, the torturers standing around the racks invent, refine, discuss. People are surprised, they become indignant. They say: 'How strange! But never mind—it's Nazism, it will pass!'

Anyone out there have access to old British newspapers that can help me track down an obituary for Major-General Thomas Blanshard, born 1789, died 19 June 1859? I suspect he’s the same Blanshard responsible for burning down the White House in 1814. I’m trying to find his birthplace.

From the “Board of Peace” Wikipedia page. This is such a flex, honestly.

The strongest of us live long after death, so that we may guide and protect our children and kinsmen; we speak of such strong spirits as Heroes and Wise Women in our songs, sung so we may not forget their wisdoms and gifts.

DESERTED from the Barracks at Burlington [Vt.] on the 11th May inst. JOHN FISK, an enlisted Soldier, born in Stodard, New Hampshire; aged twenty two years; five feet eight and half inches high, light complexion, light eyes, light hair, & by profession a farmer - has lately resided in Cavendish, Vt.

Anyone have access to these sources? Parker, Wilmond W. "Letters of the War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley." Vermont Quarterly 12 (1944): 104-113. Campbell, Karen S. "Propaganda, Pestlience, and Prosperity: Burlington's Camptown during the War of 1812." Vermont History 64 (1996): 133-158.

This book claims to have been printed on the frozen River Thames in 1814 during the last of the great frost fairs! Frostiana, published by G. Davis in 1814 (Syn.7.81.93)

"During the winters of 1812-1813 and 1813-1814, the British conducted at least three overland winter marches from Fredericton, New Brunswick to reinforce vulnerable points in Upper Canada and Lower Canada." - @jakebreadman.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2024/02/28/a... #envhist #cdnhist #warhistory

Check out this recent piece by Jake Breadman, former Honours u'grad in Brock History (we've all got a stake @jakebreadman.bsky.social !!) Nice work Jake.

Check out this recent article by Jake Breadman, former MA Public History field graduate.

Today we have "Cardboard Battlefields in 1812: The Invasion of Canada" by @jakebreadman.bsky.social This is the eleventh article in the Playing Inside: Board Games, Video Games, and the Indoors series, edited by @theliftline.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2026/01/07/c... #envhist #warhistory

Hi folks, Would anyone in Washington, D.C. be willing to scan archival documents at NARA for a scared Canadian? I’d be willing to pay per hour tho’ I’m a lowly grad student. Sincerely, Scared Canadian

I missed Tolkien’s birthday on the 3rd, but here’s my latest fun read.

Christmas was wonderful.

They’re going to march Maduro through Washington like he’s Vercingetorix

"As the title of it may indicate, it's kind of two different projects a seaway & a power project which were together & this was all built by canada & the US as well as Ontario & the state of New York & their power entities..." - @danielmacfarlane.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2014/10/29/n...

...are there any video games that do a non-terrible job of portraying the Haudenosaunee? #vastearlyamerica

How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their embroidered circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented). Season's greetings to you all!

Instead of spending big money to recruit a few dozen academics from outside of Canada, I wish the Liberals invested in the outstanding talent coming out of our PhD programs. Postdocs could be extended (#, duration) for large numbers for the same price. It is top-down, headline seeking politics.

ICYMI: "The emotional force of RDR2 rests in its persistent sense of loss. The game tells players repeatedly that the frontier is ending, through dialogue, scenery, and the slow tightening of state authority across the map." - Nolan Reynolds niche-canada.org/2025/12/12/p... #envhist #envhum

has anyone written about the part in LotR where Aragorn designates a reservation for the Drúedain

Instead of « dreams of Albion » it could be « dreams of Turtle Island » - super cool. It would be an ideal setting to tell the story of both, especially if it were centred on Hiawatha et al. & the Great Law of Peace.

It’s funny how professional historians argue about whether « Indigenous medieval history » or the « global Middle Ages » were a thing, and then a video game developer just goes all in with bringing to life medieval South America centred on Indigenous nations. www.ageofempires.com/news/whats-c...

Part of the political project of genAI is to undermine knowledge and expertise until it is meaningless. And this is not theoretical. Actually existing AI is doing precisely this.

Today we have "Playing the Vanishing Frontier: Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Environmental Imagination" by Nolan Reynolds This is the tenth article in the Playing Inside: Board Games, Video Games, and the Indoors series, edited by @theliftline.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2025/12/12/p... #envhum

Louis Hennepin’s Nouvelle découverte d'un très grand pays situé dans l'Amérique entre le Nouveau-Mexique et la mer glaciale, 1697, at the W.D. Jordan Rare Books & Special Collections at Queen’s University.

back on my bureaucratic bullshit youtu.be/adlVvaRsa54

Dear #envhist world: A student wants to explore the development of the Wyoming bison meat trade. Any thoughts re primary/secondary sources to learn more? Thanking you in advance, Alan

Attempting to play as a violent Dunmer abolitionist in my latest Morrowind play through, a real John Brown figure

The place where the Legislative Assembly and Council once stood before it was burnt down by an Anglophone mob in response to the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849. Nearby you can see the faint glimmer of a gas lamp on Rue Sainte-Helene.

The McCord Stewart Museum this past weekend.

Does anyone out there have leads for research fellowships at universities, archives, or museums in New York State? I'm looking into fellowships at the New York State Library and Fort Ticonderoga; I've missed the date for the NYPL. It would have to be available to an international (Canadian) student.