The Hamilton Memory Project

Show & Tell night at The Spec

This Thursday is shaping up to be a fabulous evening at The Hamilton Memory Project "Show & Tell" Open Forum. The idea is for people to search their attics and bring in interesting collectibles and memorabilia items from Hamilton's past that our experts can assess and maybe value. If you have something you would like to bring in please call 905-526-3313. If you just would like to come to watch or ask questions, you need to reserve a spot by calling 905-526-3535.
Margaret Houghton from the Hamilton Public Library is bringing in a sample of weird and wonderful items from the backrooms of Special Collections. The Spectator has a magnificent collection of Frank Panabaker paintings about Hamilton which will be on display.
And the star of the night will be the Westdale graduation ring that belonged RCAF airman Cyril Ridgers, who died in a Lancaster crash in Feb., 1944. The ring was reunited with his family in an emotional ceremony in Germany last week.
Think of it as a Hamilton Antique Roadshow, but we aren't going on the road with it.

Mark

Details:
Thursday March 30 7 pm to 8.30 pm
Hamilton Memory Project Show & Tell Open Forum
The Hamilton Spectator Auditorium
44 Frid Street
Hamilton
Reservation line 905-526-3535
The Open Forum will be live on Cable 14

Questions about sketches

A reader, Stella Dyack, sent in these digital pictures of sketches that she owns. They were passed on to her but she doesn't know very much about them.

She was wondering if anyone had any idea about where the sketches came from. She believes they are of Hamilton. The one looks like it is the Desjardins Canal. And the other looks like it could be Gore Park. But the Cify Hall building in the background doesn't make sense. Maybe it is some other city. Does anyone have any idea?

Mark

More postcards

In today's story "Postcards from the Edge, searching for the spirit of Hamilton" I mention Janet Forjan-Freedman's fascinating collection of Hamilton postcards. She has more than 1,500 of them and she has posted the cards on a website.It's
an impressive site to go through.
But there is also at least one other Hamilton postcard site called Postcards of Hamilton. Janet tells me postcard collecting has becoming increasingly popular and prices are going up because of Ebay and various antique postcard shows that are sometimes held.
As well as the pictures being interesting, often the written message is worth noting as well. I received a call from a woman today who had a 1915 postcard of the Macassa steamship that was a family keepsake because it was written by an ancestor.

Mark

A link to Hamilton history

As a footnote to the story about 1946 that ran on Tuesday, I see  there is a link through the Museum of Civilization to the Spectator's special  Hamilton Centennial edition which we ran 60 years ago. Find it here , about midway down the page. (The link on the page is to a 2 MG .pdf document)

The Museum's site also features a digitized collection of the Spectator's spectacular collection of wartime news coverage

Here's their description of that collection:

During the Second World War, the staff of the century-old Hamilton Spectator newspaper kept its own monumental record of the war. This collection of more than 144,000 newspaper articles, manually clipped, stamped with the date, and arranged by subject, includes news stories and editorials from newspapers, mostly Canadian, documenting every aspect of the war.

Worth a look.

Mark