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

Big Cities, New Horizons
Robert Gagnon, Université du Québec à Montréal
The 19th century witnessed transformations on a scale never before seen. Nothing was left untouched, especially in urban areas, where entire trades disappeared with the emergence of the new methods of production. Innovations in education, medicine and technology were pivotal to the changes, which touched almost every sector of urban activity.
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
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
- Continuing Negotiations: First Nations and the State
- CPR, from Sea to Sea: The Scottish Connection
- Crowding the Parlour
- Cures and Quackery: The Rise of Patent Medicines
- Disasters and Calamities, 1867-1896
- Evangeline
- Fancy Dress Balls: All Dressed Up and Somewhere to Go
- Forging the National Dream
- Form and Fashion
- Here a scandal, there a scandal: More fodder for cartoonists
- In the Eye of the Camera, 1867-1896
- Last Resort: Hospital Care in Canada
- Learning, Limits, and Love: Maritime Girls in the Late 19th-century
- Montreal 1850-1896: The Industrial City
- Moodyville: Legend and Legacy
- Off to the Klondike! The Search for Gold
- Once a Politician, Always a Butt: Introduction to Editorial Cartooning
- Operator. May I help you?: Bell Canada's 125 Years
- Pastimes of Yesteryear, 1867-1896
- Standardbearers of Acadian Identity
- Straitlaced: Restrictions on Women
- The Acadian Renaissance
- The birth and torment of Miss Canada and Johnny Canuck, or the beginnings of the federation
- The National Policy and Uncle Sam's Chagrin
- The splendour and misery of urban life
- Window on the World: The Rivers of New Brunswick
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