Stories of Love & Loss: Farm Diaries

Explore the lives of historic rural residents and farmers with Catharine A. Wilson, who is the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professor of Rural History at the University of Guelph and founder of the Rural Diary Archive.

Catharine will discuss the importance of nineteenth- and twentieth- century rural diaries as a window to the past, allowing a peek into the daily social and work life of rural families and their neighbourhoods. She will highlight some of the Bruce County diarists and their interesting stories, as well as other diaries included in the University of Guelph’s online Rural Diary Archive and demonstrate how you can use the Rural Diary Archive from home.    

Following the presentation and intermission:  

•  Join Catharine if you would like to learn how to become a volunteer transcriber with the Rural Diary Archive. If you bring your own laptop, you can begin transcribing a Bruce County Diary with Catharine!   

• Or join Archives staff for a behind-the-scenes tour of the archival storage area and an opportunity to view a selection of archival items not often on display. 

This event is FREE.  

Registration is required.  Seating is limited.

REGISTER >>

Presented by Bruce County Historical Society

Admission to the Archives & Research Room is also free all week, April 2-6.  (The BCM&CC is closed April 1 Easter Monday)  

Speaker:  Dr. Catharine Anne Wilson, FRSC, is the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professor of Rural History, at the University of Guelph, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Fellow of the Agricultural History Society. She is the founder and director of the Rural Diary Archive website: Rural Diary Archive (uoguelph.ca) . Her areas of research focus on Canadian rural history; particularly, pioneer family and community life, and local history. She promotes new historical analysis and encourages discussions of rural history among local history groups and international scholars. Her most recent book “Being Neighbours: Cooperative Work and Rural Culture, 1830-1960″ was published in 2022.  https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/beingneighbours 

Rural Diary Archive Rural Diary Archive (uoguelph.ca): University of Guelph’s Rural Diary Archive was launched by Dr. Catharine A. Wilson in September 2015. The online database brings together more than 200 diarists who wrote from 1800 to 1960, including diaries from a variety of individuals, historical organizations, and museums, including Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre. With the help of volunteer transcribers, thousands of handwritten pages are being turned into typescript. You can read and search through typed nineteenth-century diaries and/or help transcribe other handwritten diaries online to make these valuable sources accessible to all. For more information, visit:   Catharine Wilson – Giving New Life To Canada’s Rural Past (uoguelph.ca)