The Story Behind ‘Farewell to Nova Scotia’
‘Farewell to Nova Scotia’ is a Maritimes anthem that has been performed by everyone from Stan Rogers to Stompin' Tom Connors; from Anne Murray…
June 22, 2026
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Women
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The Hero in Sailor’s Garb
Nova Scotians attend the makeshift funeral for victims of the SS Atlantic catastrophe. Among the dead buried in this mass grave was a sailor…
June 14, 2026
1800s Nova Scotia Women
The Maritimes’ Greatest Bank Robbery
The victim of The Maritimes most expensive bank robbery was the Prince Edward Island bank in 1881. It was, however, not as straight forward…
May 26, 2026
1800s PEI Saint John
Angeline’s Wedding Dress Disaster
For countless ships headed to Halifax’s harbour, the first glimpse of the Sambro Island Lighthouse (pictured) marked the relief of a journey’s end. But…
April 29, 2026
1800s Nova Scotia Women
A Pompous Parisian’s Misadventures In The Maritimes
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…
April 13, 2026
1600s and Before Bay of Fundy Nova Scotia
The First Undersea Cable in North America Went from N.B. to PEI
The completion of the transatlantic cable from Ireland in 1866 was a massive international event (pictured). But 14 years earlier, the first ever undersea…
April 6, 2026
1800s PEI
Bogged Down In Cape Breton: Beryl Markham’s “Beastly Flight”
Hear a much longer (and much better) version of this story on the Backyard History Podcast, starring Stephanie Tait voicing Beryl Markham and producer…
February 24, 2026
1900s Nova Scotia Women
The Woodman’s Ghost
A crew of woodsmen pause for a photo deep in the forest, axes in hand and snow at their feet. What they did out…
February 3, 2026
1800s Long Reads North Shore PEI
Clara Dennis Comes Home to Confront Her Halifax Explosion Legacy
Here we see Clara Dennis during her solo Nova Scotia roadtrip that formed the backbone of her internatsional bestselling book "Down In Nova Scotia."…
December 2, 2025
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Women
A Lifesaving Mission at the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Known shipwrecks of Sable Island, as of the late 1800s (Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: F/240 – 1887) Dorothea Dix somehow slept through the…
August 5, 2025
1800s Nova Scotia Women
Comedy on the Rocks: A Maritime Tale of Ice and Improv
A map of Pictou Island in 1879, from the book "Illustrated Historical Atlas Of Pictou County Nova Scotia." Pictou Island, Nova Scotia, is so…
May 27, 2025
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Strange Tales
The Ghost of Binstead Manor
A sketch of Binstead House, just outside of Charlottetown, PEI. In 1856, wealthy Englishwoman Georgina Pennée moved into the house and found an unexpected…
October 23, 2024
1800s PEI Strange Tales Women
Nova Scotia’s Unsinkable “Ghost Ship,” The Governor Parr
The word “ghost ship” might conjure spectral images of the Victorian era, but a Nova Scotian ghost ship named the Governor Parr was distinctly…
October 9, 2024
1900s Forgotten Ruins Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s Queen of the Bootleggers: Amy Mason
During Prohibition when booze was banned, reluctant liquor control officer Clifford Rose found himself in the middle of a dispute between a corrupt politician…
August 12, 2024
1900s Long Reads Nova Scotia Rum Runners Women
“Canada’s Flying Schoolmarm” Wins at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Aileen Meagher, a runner from Halifax, represented Canada in the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler himself watched her beat the German team for…
July 24, 2024
1900s Long Reads Nova Scotia Women
Unfinished Dreams: Rise and Fall of the Chignecto Ship Railway
An ambitious project to build an oversized railway to carry ships along the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border from the Northumberland Strait to the Bay…
May 15, 2024
1800s Bay of Fundy Greatest Hits Nova Scotia
Liberty On The Rocks (Part Three) Captured in Charlottetown
Hear longer and more in-depth versions of the three stories in the 'Liberty On The Rocks' Trilogy trilogy come to life on the Backyard…
April 10, 2024
1900s Nova Scotia PEI Rum Runners
Liberty On The Rocks (Part Two) Initiation Of A Rum Runner
LISTEN to the full version of this story on the Backyard History Podcast! Read Part One: Liberty On The Rocks: Shootout At Bouctouche Listen…
April 3, 2024
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Rum Runners
A Halifax Christmas Murder Mystery
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…
December 13, 2023
1800s Christmas Nova Scotia
What is a “Bluenoser,” anyway?
In 1899, a reader of the New Brunswick Magazine wrote in inquiring why Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers were nicknamed “Bluenosers.” Evidently insulted, the…
November 23, 2023
1600s and Before Forgotten Ruins Nova Scotia
The Second Halifax Explosion
On 18 July 1945, an ammunition barge blew up at the Naval Magazine jetty on Bedford Basin. Fire spread quickly to piles of ammunition.…
November 19, 2023
1900s Greatest Hits Long Reads Nova Scotia War
Trotsky’s Maritimes Revolutionary Roadblock
Photographer John Muir McKinley, of Woodstock NB photographed German Prisoners of War inside of the Amherst Internment Camp in 1917. One prisoner who he…
October 17, 2023
1900s Nova Scotia War
American Invaders Stole PEI’s Great Seal
Map of Prince Edward Island in 1775. Titled: "A plan of the island of St. John with the divisions of the counties parishes &…
October 1, 2023
1700s Long Reads PEI War
Terry Fox In Atlantic Canada
Statue of Terry Fox in St. John's, Newfoundland, where his Marathon of Hope first began. While Terry Fox’s ‘Marathon of Hope’ had begun with…
September 16, 2023
1900s Moncton Newfoundland Nova Scotia PEI