Hello!

My Name is Daniel, and welcome to my first blog post ever!!

I'd like to say thanks for joining me in my Public History journey. I'm not quite sure how blogs are typically written, but I guess this will be a glimpse into my historical psyche. 

To start off I'd like to position you all into where I am from and how it has enabled me to grow as a historian. I am from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia; and even more broadly, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. 

Glace Bay is a former mining community on the East Coast of Cape Breton Island, and has been an established town since 1901. At the time of it's establishment the town's first mayor D.W. Burchell stated "...there is reason to feel that Glace Bay will one day take its place among the leading cities of Canada". It was a time when "coal was king" and it was looking like Glace Bay was destined to make its mark on history as the city built by coal on the Atlantic coast. However, due to deindustrialization that destiny never came true. Industrial Cape Breton suffered enormous losses economically, and in relation to its population when the coal mines closed. However, the coal mines officially closed in Cape Breton in 2001. Which meant that the people of Glace Bay had 100 years to acquire immense amounts of history and stories from their time as a coal community. That was the town I grew up in, and this is the place where my love for history began. Hearing the stories and seeing the photos of my ancestors who worked in the mines and who worked at home to keep everything else in their daily lives running smoothly. 

In Digital Public History fashion, here is a short video by the National Film Board of Canada that showcases the relationship between Cape Bretoners and coal.

https://youtu.be/KRP72u2tyKY

It wasn't until my time at Cape Breton University, and the Beaton Institute Archives that I truly had the chance to express my historical love for my community and my island. My first ever experience with Public History was at the Beaton Institute. I was able to work at the front desk as a "Student Research Assistant" and held that part-time position during my undergraduate degree for 3 years. Daily, I would be digitizing textual documents, and negatives from around Cape Breton.

Over the span of the semester I will be sharing a brief mentions of my past experiences with Public History, and new experiences I will be having studying at Western University.

 I hope you enjoy my blog posts, and do not tire of me talking about Cape Breton.

-         Daniel