A 300-year-old travel diary reveals what life really looked like in our region's first capital. Map of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, dating…
One hundred years ago, Maritimers rang in the New Year with optimism, oddball traditions, and a world on the brink of change (Provincial Archives…
Many of our beloved holiday traditions are surprisingly young. For example the old Loyalists would have been baffled at what a tree was doing…
Long before the French or English arrived in Canada, vast numbers of Basques fished the waters. They weren't colonists though, but more like seasonal…
Grand Falls name in Wəlastəkwey is Chik-un-ik’-a-bik, which means “The Destroyer.” The name refers back to the story of a young woman named Malobiannah,…
My first ever job was a paperboy. I used to deliver the newspapers that Backyard History is published in. (That’s not relevant to the…
Some exceptionally stylish women (note the scandelous new short haircuts) in 1924 posing painting toys. One century ago, many of the things we take…
It turns out that Santa has had a remarkable number of strange misadventures in the Maritimes over the years. Here are four of them.…
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new book, Backyard History: Rebellious Women in the Maritimes! This one’s for all of you who…
This curious early attempt at Photoshop on Miscou Island from the 1930s played up the legend of the GouGou Monster. Centuries earlier, French explorer…
Nancy New Year is a centuries old tradition which still survives today along New Brunswick's North Shore of a fairy, imagined here by the…
A photo of Charles Sampson that appeared alongside a profile on him in the New Brunswick Reporter in 1874. Notably for the time, this…
On Christmas night in 1824, a drunk and lonely elderly man stumbled through Halifax’s dark, cold and icy streets. Edward Shea had come into…
In 1899, a reader of the New Brunswick Magazine wrote in inquiring why Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers were nicknamed “Bluenosers.” Evidently insulted, the…
In 1905 New Brunswick's most celebrated naturalist and historian William F Ganong went to the North Shore to personally investigate and get to the bottom…
Fort Nashwaak, located where Fredericton in 1692 (from W. O. Raymond's book 'The River Saint John.') 1. Well 2. Barracks 3. Commandant's Quarters 4.…
We’re always taught in school that ever since European colonists arrived in what is now Canada, that it was always a colony of either…
The lighthouses of Machias Seal Island, which remains today the only disputed land between Canada and the United States. The tower on the left…
A 1903 drawing of Santa Claus by Rose O'Neill. Much of how we see Santa is from Clement Clarke Moore's poem 'Twas The Night…
The cover of 'Snap-Dragons' by Juliana Horatia Ewing, a childrens' Christmas story fictionalizing the extremely popular –some might say hottest– Christmas game of the…
Detail of a 1755 map of Nova Scotia. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library On May 12th, 1604, 37-year-old French explorer Samuel de Champlain…
The Lake Utopia Medallion, now found in the New Brunswick Museum N597 In 1863, a recent Scottish immigrant was wandering through the stark and…
Place names changing over time has been a constant. Their meanings, and how they change, can be interesting though. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick…
This 1893 photograph is of a reconstructed caravel, one of the two ships that carried settlers overseas to the lost colony which, if the…