Creating Colonial Pasts

Creating Colonial Pasts explores the creation of history and memory in Southern Ontario through the experience of its inhabitants, especially those who took an active role in the preservation and writing of Ontario’s colonial past.

Cecilia Morgan is Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She is the author of Commemorating Canada: History, Heritage, and Memory, 1850–1990s (2016), as well as Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860–1980 (2015).

‘Morgan’s study provides a roadmap for others to explore underutilized collections stored within the local archives across the province—eastern, western, southern, and northern—and their unexplored webs of connections.

Donald Wright, Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick:

“Creating Colonial Pasts is brilliant. Morgan has presented us with a new way of seeing history, memory, and commemoration in southern Ontario.”

Alan Gordon, Department of History, University of Guelph:
“In Creating Colonial Pasts, Cecilia Morgan makes a valuable contribution to the active and ongoing debate about the nature of memory and commemoration in Canada, highlighting the role of place and local knowledge in the construction of historical memory. Each chapter adds a new dimension to this innovative approach to the Canadian study of memory.”