In July 2014 a group of volunteer photographers from the Workers’ History Museum (WHM) began creating a visual archive to capture and preserve the histories and memories of spaces where thousands once worked at the E.B. Eddy pulp and paper plant. When the project finished they had taken 73,000 images and 36 hours of video.
Large Space, Building 502. Photo: Paul Harrison. With permission of the Worker’s History Museum.
In association with the Carleton Centre for Public History, the WHM is pleased to be holding the first exhibit of these photographs in the Department of History. The curatorial team consisted of David Dean, Paul Harrison (photographer, WHM), Sara Nixon (MA, Public History, 2015), Barb Stewart (WHM), and designers André Mersereau and Jennifer Comacchio of Chapter One Studio.
| “The photographs that hang from these walls are not passive. They do not freeze time nor are they simply captured snapshots. They act to create new histories and new meanings with each viewing, and with each viewer. They perform history; they perform heritage.” (From the exhibit catalogue.) |
The exhibit is associated with this year’s Shannon Lecture series on Performing History: Re-Staging the Past. It is the first time the Shannons have moved out of the lecture room into an exhibit space. Shannon organizer David Dean remarked “It is wonderful that we have an anonymous donor who, through the Shannon Fund, allows our department to tell stories about the past in exciting new ways.” Consisting of over twenty photographs, the exhibit’s opening will be on Tuesday 3 November from 6:30-8:30 pm on the 4th floor of Paterson Hall and all are welcome. Refreshments will be served. The exhibit closes on Tuesday December 15th.