1867 MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS TO CELEBRATE

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This proclamation by Queen Victoria, dated May 22, 1867, declared that as of July 1, 1867, the province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick would be united into one Dominion under the name of Canada. July 1 became known as Dominion Day (now Canada Day). So was born our nation, not out of war, revolution or a rally of national pride, but rather through step-by-step negotiations and conferences, resulting in the terms of Confederation. In Marmora the Iron Works had amalgamated with the Cobourg and Marmora Railway Company and the future looked good. Marmora was still known all over Canada and in many parts of the Old World. Indeed, the Village was referred to coloquially as "The Works" and was beginning to boom.

But life was different then. As one child asked, "Why are olden people weird?" and a good question it is. When you look at old pictures, you see the differences, but sometimes, perhaps in the form of a smile or the glint of an eye, you also can see our roots. One hundred and fifty years from now, our descendants will look up our misconceptions and the results they have in the very fibre of their being. They will not likely understand us any better than we do Victorians. The march of time will make us weird and do the same to our descendants in turn forever. For when we march, we march to different drummers. Change touches people subtly, their lives slowly accelerated, their communities expanded and their beliefs are inexorably reshaped.

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April 21, 2017

CELEBRATING 1867 - NO REALLY! DID YOU KNOW?

April 21, 2017/ MHF

TOILET PAPER

In 1867, Thomas, Edward and Clarence Scott (brothers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) were successful at marketing toilet paper that consisted of a small roll of perforated paper . They sold their new toilet paper from a push cart - this was the beginning of the Scott Paper Company.

STEAM-DRIVEN WOODEN MOTORCYCLE

Sylvester Howard Roper (1823-1896) was an American inventor from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Roper developed a coal-powered, two-cylinder, steam-driven wooden motorcycle in 1867. Roper also developed a steam-driven car. Roper died at the age of 73 while testing a new motorcycle

THE TISSUE PAPER PATTERN FOR DRESSMAKERS

Ebenezer Butterick, together with his wife Ellen Augusta Pollard Butterick, invented the tissue paper dress pattern in 1863. Butterick founded the E. Butterick & Company (now the Butterick Publishing Company), in New York in 1867.

Celebrating 1867