Discover new aspects of the history of Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries through thematic tours.
Divided into five major themes and five time periods, these thematic tours may be accessed three different ways, by: Web tours (documented images, in HTML), movie clips (QuickTime version) and movie clips (Flash version).
Featured Thematic Tour

Straitlaced: Restrictions on Women
Elise Chenier, McGill University
What could you expect out of life if you were born a girl at the time of Confederation? There was no single experience that defined women, but most had one thing in common: they were expected to live according to the "feminine ideal." This was the Victorian era; women were thought to be physically fragile and were expected to be sexually chaste and subservient to men.
Themes
First Nations
- "My body is here but my spirit is always there": The Innu Language of the Forest
- "My body is here but my spirit is always there": The Innu Language of the Forest [Innu Version]
- Continuing Negotiations: First Nations and the State
- Exploration in the Canadian Arctic
- Exploration in the Canadian Arctic [Inuktitut Version]
Cartoons
- Funny and Moody: The Best of Aislin's Cartoons
- Funny and Moody: The Best of Chapleau's Cartoons
- Here a scandal, there a scandal: More fodder for cartoonists
- Once a Politician, Always a Butt: Introduction to Editorial Cartooning
- The birth and torment of Miss Canada and Johnny Canuck, or the beginnings of the federation
Places
- A Changing World: Education in New Brunswick
- A Riveted Community: North Vancouver's Wartime Shipbuilding
- A Year to Remember: 1904 New Brunswick
- All in a Day's Work: Lumbering in New Brunswick
- Big Cities, New Horizons
People
- All in a Day's Work: Lumbering in New Brunswick
- Clothes Make the Man
- Evangeline
- Funny and Moody: The Best of Aislin's Cartoons
- Funny and Moody: The Best of Chapleau's Cartoons
Society / Daily Life
- A Bourgeois Duty: Philanthropy, 1896-1919
- A Changing World: Education in New Brunswick
- A Consuming Passion
- A Riveted Community: North Vancouver's Wartime Shipbuilding
- A Year to Remember: 1904 New Brunswick
Politics / Economy
- Confederation: The Creation of Canada
- Continuing Negotiations: First Nations and the State
- Funny and Moody: The Best of Aislin's Cartoons
- Funny and Moody: The Best of Chapleau's Cartoons
- Getting Down to Business: Canada, 1896-1919
Technology, Industry & Commerce
- A Consuming Passion
- A Riveted Community: North Vancouver's Wartime Shipbuilding
- All in a Day's Work: Lumbering in New Brunswick
- Big Cities, New Horizons
- Brand New and Wonderful: The Rise of Technology
- Building a Vancouver Icon: The Lions Gate Bridge
- CPR, from Sea to Sea: The Scottish Connection
- Cures and Quackery: The Rise of Patent Medicines
- Digging for Treasure: Mining in Canada
- Forging the National Dream
- Getting Down to Business: Canada, 1896-1919
- In the Eye of the Camera, 1840-1867
- In the Eye of the Camera, 1867-1896
- Instant Memories
- Lethbridge: Coal City in the Wheat Country
- Montreal 1850-1896: The Industrial City
- Montreal 1896-1914: The Canadian Metropolis
- Moodyville: Legend and Legacy
- Off to the Klondike! The Search for Gold
- Operator. May I help you?: Bell Canada's 125 Years
- The Golden Age of Sail
- White Gold Pioneers: Asbestos Mining
- Window on the World: The Rivers of New Brunswick
Periods
1840-1867
- A Year to Remember: 1904 New Brunswick
- Confederation: The Creation of Canada
- Disasters and Calamities, 1840-1867
- Form and Fashion
- Happy Birthday, Miss Fanny! A 19th-Century Toy Story
1867-1896
- A Consuming Passion
- All in a Day's Work: Lumbering in New Brunswick
- Big Cities, New Horizons
- Brand New and Wonderful: The Rise of Technology
- Clothes Make the Man
1896-1919
- A Bourgeois Duty: Philanthropy, 1896-1919
- A Changing World: Education in New Brunswick
- A Year to Remember: 1904 New Brunswick
- Digging for Treasure: Mining in Canada
- Exploration in the Canadian Arctic
1919-1945
- A Riveted Community: North Vancouver's Wartime Shipbuilding
- Building a Vancouver Icon: The Lions Gate Bridge
- Growing Up Healthy in the 20th Century
- Silver and Gold: Bennett and the Great Depression
- Standardbearers of Acadian Identity