Despite abundant hardships, pioneer life in Upper Canada was romantic and colourful, and Mr. Guillet brings vividly to life the early settlers and their experiences. He draws on contemporary letters, diaries, newspapers, and periodicals, supplementing these researches with interviews with persons who had personal contacts with early life in the province. This volume contains the chapters from Mr. Guillet's large volume, Early Life in Upper Canada, which describes the pioneer home, foods and cooking, milling, lumbering, maple sugar making, fishing, "bees," amusements in town and country, and pioneer sports. It is abundantly illustrated with authentic portraits, photographs, and drawings.

Pioneer Days in Upper Canada (Heritage)

History

Guillet, Edwin

Americas

University of Toronto Press

Mr. Guillet is a familiar figure in the field of Canadian local and social history: his work has been acclaimed for its thorough and accurate research, its skilful use of source material, its wealth of authenticated anecdote, and its attention to detail. Written in an attractive and comfortable style, and illustrated with photographs often contemporary and previously unpublished, his books are a fund of information about areas which too frequently are neglected in Canadian historical writing. Pioneer Arts and Crafts, first published in 1940 and later expanded as a section of The Pioneer Farmer and Backwoodsman (University of Toronto Press), is typical of Mr. Guillet's fine work. In this book he describes all aspects of domestic manufactures and processes of pioneer days: he traces the development of wood-working in furniture and buildings, and of the tanning, spinning and weaving industries. He describes many farming activities which have long since disappeared, for example soap-making and lime-burning. There are several chapters on cooking and various food processes and recipes which include preparation of drugs and medicinal remedies, substitutes for tea and coffee, and the making of lard and sausages. Throughout this account there are quotations from contemporary journals, and anecdotes about various personalities in those early times, which bring our pioneering past to life again. Recommended for use in Ontario schools by the Minister of Education, this book is for all ages, for everyone interested in Canada's pioneering heritage.

Pioneer Arts and Crafts (Heritage)

The Lives and Times of the Patriots was first published in 1938, the centennial of the Upper Canadian Rebellion and the subsequent Patriot raids over the border from the United States. The Canadian part of the agitation for constitutional and social reform, long a subject of controversy and bitterness, is now generally considered to be, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier put it, a fight "for constitutional rights, not against the British Crown"; but very little in the American movement, allegedly in sympathy, can be justified, its aims and conduct being no better than-and often interior to-the Fenian Raids of some thirty years later. The story of the events and their consequences is unfolded from a wide coverage of source materials, and described from both Tory and Reform, Loyalist and Patriot point of view. Exciting trails and escapes from jails and forts follow one another in quick succession, and the lives and experiences of participants are traced around the world to the prison colony of Van Diemen's Land and home again, as diaries, letters, and narratives tell their story, supplemented and verified by official documents, contemporary newspapers, obituary notices, and tombstone inscriptions. Rare illustrations complement this careful account of what must be taken to be, with all its deficiencies, a notable episode in the history of human freedom.

The Lives and Times of the Patriots: An Account of the Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837-1838 and of the Patriot Agitation in the United States, 1837-1842 (Heritage)

From the portage trails snaking their way through the wilderness to superhighways carrying the raw materials and produce of an industrial nation, Canada's roads have had a romantic but long-neglected history. For the first time their development is described in this handsomely illustrated volume by a distinguished Canadian historian. Mr. Guillet has written a book which is often humorous and always human, to be enjoyed by readers of many ages. It contains nearly two hundred sketches, engravings, paintings, and photographs, most of them contemporary, gathered from archives and libraries across the country and well displayed in the specially chosen large format. Few are generally available elsewhere. For school and public libraries, as well as the general reader, this book documents a fascinating aspect of Canada's social history.

The Story of Canadian Roads (Heritage)

Business & Money

Economics

The Great Migration (Second Edition) (Heritage)