While no other details or records about Rachel Barrett’s life are currently known, her carefully wrought stitches in her 1845 sampler serve as a testament to her existence and shed further light on the education of young Black Nova Scotians during…

Halifax Municipal Archives is a relative newcomer to the Nova Scotian archival community, officially opening in 2006. Since the 1970s, the Public Archives of Nova Scotia had acquired historical records from the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, and…

Many of the early British settlements in Nova Scotia were recorded in maps made by Charles Morris, his son, and his grandson. Charles I was born in Boston and was commissioned in 1746 by Governor Shirley to serve in Nova Scotia. In 1748 he was…

Travel back to the late 1700s, to the days when Halifax was just a British settlement. Almon would have been a well-known name. This was thanks to the efforts ofWilliam James Almon, a physician originally from Rhode Island. When the American…

Bartholomew Green, like his father and grandfather, was a printer in Boston, establishing his own printing office there in 1725. He left Boston in 1745 to fight at Louisbourg, but when he returned, was unable to rebuild his business successfully.…

According to a 1759 survey, the land now known as the Halifax Common was a swampy area at the base of the Citadel. Its original purpose was military defense, keeping the area around the Citadel clear in case of any enemy attack by land. In 1763,…

Born in 1897, John "Gee" Edward Ahern was educated at Saint Mary’s University before attending Law School at Dalhousie University. From there, he entered into the world of publishing and editing before launching his political career. He served as…

Born in Wright's Cove on October 25, 1849, George Henry Wright was the member of a successful farming family. Unsatisfied with a farming lifestyle, at age 17, Wright travelled to the United States and apprenticed as a printer. It was during this…

George Wright was born in 1849 in Wright's Cove on the Dartmouthside ofBedford Basin. Wright became a millionaire as a housing developer and by publishing a worldwide trading directory and gazette called Wright's World Business Directory. Wright…

In 1787, the Nova Scotia House of Assembly passed an Act to erect a building dedicated to the legislative work of the colony. While the need for such a building was clear, it wasn’t until 1809 that a joint legislative committee was struck to procure…