Picturing the Past
 
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Activity, printable version


Lesson Plans for "Searching for the Sublime"


  • INTRODUCTION
  • KEY THEMES
  • ABOUT THE LESSON PLANS
  • INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
  • DEFINING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
  • LESSONS IN SOCIAL STUDIES, CANADIAN HISTORY AND CANADIAN STUDIES
  • Lesson 1: The Industrializing City
  • Lesson 2: The Roots of Outdoor Education
  • Lesson 3: Gender Issues in the Early-Twentieth Century and Outdoor

    Recreation

  • Lesson 4: Landscape and Canadian Identity
  • LESSON IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM
  • Lesson 5: Canada’s Railroads, the Wilderness and Tourism

Comments? Email: library@technomuses.com



INTRODUCTION


Searching for the Sublime is one story in the Picturing the Past (http://www.images.technomuses.ca) website created by the Canada Science and Technology Museum.


This story has five key themes: The City, The Searchers, Algonquin Park, The Great Escape and Being There.


KEY THEMES


The City


  • In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, Canada experienced significant industrial growth and urbanization.
  • Canadian urban population growth was stimulated not only by migration from rural areas to cities, but also by immigration from Britain and continental Europe.
  • It was a time of perceived economic disparity. Factory barons became wealthy, and the middle class grew in size; however, the numbers of the urban poor also grew, and they frequently concentrated in slum areas.
  • Public space became radically altered with the appearance, and then prevalence, of the automobile.
  • The city came to be seen by many as a problematic place that had a negative impact on moral and physical health.

The Searchers


  • Wilderness vacations became increasingly popular for urban middle-class Canadians in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Algonquin Park was a favourite retreat for many people.
  • Some individuals were drawn to Algonquin Park by strongly held aesthetic, religious, scientific, educational, humanistic and feminist convictions.

Algonquin Park


  • Ontario’s first Provincial Park is uniquely situated on a transition zone, and both southern and northern Ontario animals mix. It is 7725 km2 and contains 2000 rivers, lakes and ponds.
  • It is a multiple-use park; today, logging, conservation and tourism all coexist in Algonquin Park.

The Great Escape


  • The construction of the railway facilitated the creation of the modern industrial city, but also became the means by which city dwellers escaped on rural or wilderness vacations.
  • Railways exploited the growing wilderness-recreation movement for financial gain. In turn, this facilitated the growth of the modern tourist industry in Canada.
  • Travel by rail was an integral part of the vacation, and was a nearly universal experience for late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century travelers.

Being There


  • At Algonquin Park, travelers engaged in a variety of activities, from staying in an upscale resort to fishing and camping out under the stars.
  • Some people were permanent residents of Algonquin Park, working as guides or rangers.
  • The Park was frequently promoted as an excellent place to fish.
  • In a period when women did not enjoy the same rights as men, some women found that spending time in the wilderness was a way to assert their autonomy.

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