The Mumford Road area of Halifax is one of the busiest shopping districts in the province. It is difficult to imagine a time when this area was considered the outskirts of town, and a lone building was surrounded by nothing but fields, trees, and an…

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…

In September of 1940, Anne-Marie Belliveau, a young woman from Belliveau's Cove, Digby County, was attending the convent school in Meteghan. One night on her way to bed, she began to cough up blood. "I went and told the nun right away," she…

Florence (Flora) Henry (1853-1918) came to Oyster Pond in the early 1870s to teach school. She married John Duncan Mitchell in 1875, had two children, Roxanna and William, and was widowed in 1885 at the age of 32. In 1891, Flora started a general…

Maud Lewis (1903-1970) is surely one of the only Nova Scotia folk artists who has been the subject of a Hollywood movie (Maudie, the 2016 film starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke). In recent years, Maud's life and art have also been explored…

Comfort and care. Those are the words linked to the thousands of quilts made by women volunteers during the Second World War. Of all the services that women provided for wartime relief, perhaps the making of quilts represented the most intimate…

Frank Elam Garber was born in Newcombville in 1877 to Emanuel and Mary Eliza (Hebb) Garber. From a young age, Frank Garber showed artistic abilities as seen in his early charcoal self-portrait, a skill he later applied to his hand-coloured…

If you came to Nova Scotia in the 19th century to hunt or fish – and there were quite a few who did – you hired a guide. You wanted someone who knew the woodlands and wetlands like the back of their hands. Nine times out of ten that meant a…

There are more than a few Nova Scotians who do not make headlines, yet still make important contributions. (Mary) Ellen Robinson (1927-2012) is a wonderful example. In countless, unpublicized ways, this Mi'kmaw Elder lived a life filled with…

Rita Joe's childhood was about as hard as it could be, and her life as an adult was rarely easy. Yet hardships and suffering never broke her spirit. Rita always sought to overcome what stood in her way by living with kindness, strength and…