Stories by author "the Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University": 5
Stories
The Beaton Institute Archives, Cape Breton University
The Beaton Institute, and its predecessor Cape Bretoniana, has served as the regional archives for Cape Breton Island/Unama’ki for over six decades. The Beaton Institute collects and preserves the social, economic, political, and cultural history of…
Sister Rita Clare (1933-2017)
Sister Rita Clare (1933-2017) grew up in a musical family in Sydney. As a child she attended St. Joseph's School and Holy Angels Convent. She graduated from Holy Angels High School, the school where she would teach music for thirteen years. She…
The Sydney Steel Strike of 1923
The steel plant in Sydney, Cape Breton, opened in 1901. It promised to be a modern facility with state-of-the-art Coke Ovens and an advanced steel making process. After the First World War, the steel industry experienced a recession, which caused…
The Glace Bay Heavy Water Plant
Following the Second World War, the federal government sought to develop nuclear energy in Canada. The Crown Corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), was established in 1952 for nuclear energy research and development. By 1962, AECL had…
New Waterford No. 12 Colliery Mine Explosion, 1917
On the morning of July 25, 1917, at No. 12 Colliery in New Waterford, Nova Scotia a devastating mine explosion erupted causing many casualties. It remains the worst mining disaster to have occurred on Cape Breton Island. There were 270 men and boys…