Inside Hamilton’s Museums helps to satisfy a growing curiosity about Canada’s steel capital as it evolves into a post-industrial city and cultural destination. In this special excerpt we visit Whitehern historic home and garden, which comes with three generations' worth of family possessions — everything from antique furniture to paintings, photographs, diaries, letters, and old toys. John Goddard takes us on a detailed tour of the historic home, providing fascinating historical background and insight into the McQuesten family secrets.

Exploring Hamilton through its heritage museums. Inside Hamilton’s Museums helps to satisfy a growing curiosity about Canada’s steel capital as it evolves into a post-industrial city and cultural destination. With an emphasis on storytelling and unsung heroes, the book identifies where Sergeant Alexander Fraser bayonetted seven enemy soldiers in a shocking attack to save Upper Canada in 1813. It evokes the day in 1939 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth opened the Queen Elizabeth Way, the first intercity divided highway in North America. And it illuminates the four months in 1846 when an otherwise immensely privileged teenager, Sophia MacNab, documented her mother’s excruciating demise. Appealing to Hamiltonians and visitors alike, the book brings to life the former residents of Dundurn Castle, Whitehern Historic House, the Old Waterworks, Battlefield House, Griffin House, the Joseph Brant Museum, and the Erland Lee Museum, birthplace of the Women’s Institutes.

How did a privileged Victorian matron, newly widowed and newly impoverished, manage to raise and educate her six young children and restore her family to social prominence? Mary Baker McQuesten’s personal letters, 155 of which were carefully selected by Mary J. Anderson, tell the story. In her uninhibited style, in letters mostly to her children, Mary Baker McQuesten chronicles her financial struggles and her expectations. The letters reveal her forthright opinions on a broad range of topics — politics, religion, literature, social sciences, and even local gossip. We learn how Mary assessed each of her children’s strengths and weaknesses, and directed each of their lives for the good of the family. For example, she sent her daughter Ruby out to teach, so she could send her earnings home to educate Thomas, the son Mary felt was most likely to succeed. And succeed he did, as a lawyer and mpp, helping to build many of Hamilton’s and Ontario’s highways, bridges, parks, and heritage sites, and in doing so, bringing the family back to social prominence. Mary Baker McQuesten was also president of the Women’s Missionary Society. The appearance, manner, and eloquence of various ministers and politicians all come under her uninhibited scrutiny, providing lively insights into the Victorian moral and social motivations of both men and women and about the gender conflicts that occurred both at home and abroad. This book will satisfy many readers. Those interested in the drama of Victorian society will enjoy the images of the stern Presbyterian matriarch, the sacrificed female, family mental illness, the unresolved death of a husband, and the dangers of social stigma. Scholars looking for research material will find an abundance in the letters, well annotated with details of the surrounding political, social, and current events of the times.

This multi-functional reference is a useful tool to find information about history-related organizations and programs and to contact those working in history across the country.

Experience a ghostly thrill with Mark Leslie’s five books on strange supernatural happenings. Macabre Montreal Montreal is steeped in history and culture. But there are dark tales, eerie stories, and ghostly spectres that come alive once the sun goes down. Creepy Capital True stories of ghostly encounters and creepy locales lurk throughout the Ottawa region. Come along with Canada’s paranormal raconteur extraordinaire, Mark Leslie, and discover the first-person accounts of ghostly happenings at landmarks throughout the historic city and surrounding towns. Haunted Hamilton From the Hermitage ruins to Dundurn Castle, from the Customs House to Stoney Creek Battlefield Park, the city of Hamilton, Ontario, is steeped in a rich history and culture. But beneath the surface of the Steel City there dwells a darker heart — from the shadows of yesteryear arise the unexplained, the bizarre, and the chilling. Spooky Sudbury From haunted mine shafts to inexplicable lights in the northern sky, there are strange things afoot in the peaceful northern municipality of Sudbury; eerie phenomenon that will amaze, give you pause, make you wonder, and have you looking twice at what might first appear to be innocent shadows. Tomes of Terror It’s been said that books have a life of their own, but there’s more than literature lurking in the cobwebbed recesses of dusty bookstores and libraries across Canada. Read about some of the most celebrated and eerie bookish haunts, and try to brush off that feeling of someone watching from just over your shoulder...

From the Hermitage ruins to Dundurn Castle, from Customs House to Stoney Creek Battlefield Park, the city of Hamilton, Ontario, is steeped in a rich history and culture. This title offers a collection of tales compiled from the files of the paranormal group Haunted Hamilton, which has been investigating Hamilton's historic haunted past since 1999.

This special three-book bundle collects three haunting books on the supernatural by Mark Leslie. In Spooky Sudbury and Haunted Hamilton he relays creepy tales from two of Canada’s cities. Lock the doors and turn on all the lights before you settle down with these stories, because once you begin to read about the supernatural elements that lurk within these seemingly normal towns in Southern Ontario, strange bumps in the night will take on new, more sinister meanings. In Tomes of Terror Leslie has compiled true stories of the supernatural in literary locales, complete with hair-raising first-person accounts. You may even recognize a spectre of your local library lurking in these true stories and photographs. If you have ever felt an indescribable presence hanging about a quiet bookshop, then you’ll enjoy these fascinating and haunting tales. Haunted Hamilton Spooky Sudbury Tomes of Terror