Reconstructing the Past

From October 1943 to October 1945, over 400 German prisoners of war (PoWs) were employed in a woodcutting operation in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park. Housed in a newly built camp on the shore of Whitewater Lake, the PoWs had better living conditions than the majority of civilians living around the park. When the buildingsContinue reading “Reconstructing the Past”

Lasting Effects: PoWs in Riding Mountain National Park

The following video is the result of a digital history assignment that I’m currently taken. The assignment tasked us with using digital methods to examine a significant or interesting landscape and naturally I chose the site of the Riding Mountain Park Labour Project in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park. For those not familiar with it,Continue reading “Lasting Effects: PoWs in Riding Mountain National Park”

Adventures in Arc – Part I

Having moved over my GIS project over to ArcGIS over the weekend, I though I’d share my progress. While I’m still trying to adapt to differences between QGIS and the Arc family, I can definitely see the advantages in using these programs. Arguably the most significant advantage of ArcGIS is its tools for spatial analysisContinue reading “Adventures in Arc – Part I”

Website Updates

I’ve added some new pages to the website about my research of German Prisoners of War in Canada during the Second World War. These pages can be accessed by click the “PoWs in Canada” at the top right of the page or by clicking here. I’ve also included a list of internment camps in Canada,Continue reading “Website Updates”

Making Progress with HGIS

Having completed Monday’s HGIS workshop with Don Lafreniere, I have to say that, after going in with experience in Quantum GIS and some ArcGIS, I found the workshop significantly less daunting than my previous time with Arc. Overall, I’m impressed with what ArcGIS has to offer and I’m looking at different ways to incorporate itsContinue reading “Making Progress with HGIS”

GIS on the Go

For this past Monday’s Digital History class, we took a field trip to London’s Victoria Park to better understand what Spatial History offers to both historians and the general public. As part of this, we looked at using the free iOS App iGIS. With the ability to visualize GIS data, including georeferenced images, on aContinue reading “GIS on the Go”

London HGIS Calling!

This past week, in preparation for an upcoming assignment, I’ve been trying my hand at some Historical GIS. I spent the weekend going through the the GIS tutorials at the Geospatial Historian which, following up from my earlier post regarding mapping with Google Maps Engine, I highly recommend! The program of choice is Quantum GISContinue reading “London HGIS Calling!”

Mapping PoW Camps and Labour Projects in Canada

One of my projects this past summer was to go through the all of the records I’ve digitized from Library and Archives Canada and create a database of every PoW Camp (large, traditional camps) and Labour Project (smaller work camps) in Canada during the Second World War. As this is going to be useful (IContinue reading “Mapping PoW Camps and Labour Projects in Canada”

Sergt. Harry Proven, 1893-1918

September 29, 2013 marks the 95th Anniversary of the death of my great-great uncle, Sergeant Harry Proven. Unfortunately, in the past ninety-five years, much of the history has been lost to time as his younger brother, Ernest Proven, was mortally wounded at Vimy Ridge, and the third brother, my great-grandfather, shared few stories about hisContinue reading “Sergt. Harry Proven, 1893-1918”

A Note on Sources

This week in our Digital History class, we were asked to comment on how historians can use new technologies to disseminate our sources. In order to do so, we were also asked to talk about our sources and incorporating them into a new, digital history. So what are my sources and what do they haveContinue reading “A Note on Sources”