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The Murder of Timothy McCarthy

For decades, Acadian singers would open a long, mournful ballad with those words in the song called “Le Meurtre de Timothy McCarthy,” which means…

1800s Long Reads Moncton Women

The Sunken Treasure Ship In The Bay of Fundy

There is more than lobster to be found in the waters beyond Dipper Harbour, where this curious 1960 tourism promo was shot. A century…

1800s Bay of Fundy War

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…

1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Women

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…

1800s Nova Scotia Women

Marilyn Monroe’s Secret Trip to Miramichi

Find a longer version of this story – and many others – in the fourth Backyard History book ‘Mysterious Stories From Atlantic Canada’s Past,’…

1900s North Shore Women

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…

1800s Nova Scotia Women

The Strange Journey of Louisa Journeaux

When 22-year-old Louisa Journeaux stepped into a rowboat one quiet Sunday evening, she couldn’t have imagined that the whole world would hear about it.…

1800s Newfoundland

The Night The Crocodiles Attacked

A Fredericton Commando’s Second World War Victory Had The Japanese On The Run. Then Came The Crocodiles. Frederictonian Bruce Wright’s (left) idle daydreaming during…

1900s Fredericton Strange Tales War

Kethro The Barber’s Curious Singing Career

One of the oldest photos of Fredericton’s Christ Church Cathedral, taken in 1857. Ten years after this photo was taken, the letters of British…

1800s Fredericton Strange Tales

Georgina Whetsel and the Backlash to Blackface

In the winter of 1889, Saint John threw itself a party and accidentally exposed some deeply uncomfortable truths about race, respectability and who was…

1800s Saint John Women

New Years A Century Ago

One hundred years ago, Maritimers rang in the New Year with optimism, oddball traditions, and a world on the brink of change (Provincial Archives…

1900s Christmas Fredericton Saint John

Jesse Skuse’s Long Road Home

On these foggy Saint John streets in 1894, an eight-year-old girl was found crying, all alone. She had been abandoned by her adoptive parents.…

1800s Saint John Women

The Hero of Priestman Street

Fredericton’s Bryan Priestman survived two world wars — only to lose his life on Remembrance Day, trying to save an eight-year-old boy. (Provincial Archives…

1900s Fredericton Greatest Hits War

My Classmate Who Never Came Home

Colin Wilmot's photo in our high school yearbook. Back in high school, I sat next to a warm, funny, kind-hearted soul named Colin Wilmot.…

1900s Fredericton War

The Great Fredericton Fire

This tapestry depicting the Great Fire of Fredericton today hangs in Fredericton's City Hall, in the council chambers. (Or, at least it did when…

1800s Fredericton

The Hatchet Buried In The Stream

As he neared the end of his long and eventful life, legendary Wolastoqiyik Sachem (chief) Gabriel Acquin sat down with UNB professor Dr. Edward…

1800s War

The Prison Camp Poem of Alfred Elsliger

Alfred Elsliger (Canadian Virtual War Memorial) Alfred W. Elsliger enlisted with his friends, including my Great Uncle Wilfred Smith, in his little hometown of…

1900s North Shore War
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