“Mapping historic Manitoba: development, themes, and applications”
Keynote address by Dr. Gordon Goldsborough
ABSTRACT:
This presentation will describe a 12-year project of the Manitoba Historical Society to develop a comprehensive online inventory of historic sites around the province. Using GPS data, field photography including aerial imagery taken with drones, and archival research, we will show how abandoned places reveal the ways in which rural Manitoba has changed through the 20th century, in terms of depopulation, agricultural mechanization, development of telecommunication and electrical infrastructure, changes in construction methods, evolution of the education system, changing attitudes to organized religion and institutions, and home-front involvement in wartime. Possible applications of this inventory for heritage conservation, promotion of tourism, and education, as well as implications for rural planning and policy development, will be discussed.
Gordon Goldsborough is the Head Researcher, Webmaster, and President of the Manitoba Historical Society, and Production Coordinator & Pageant Editor of the journal Prairie History. He has a weekly program on CBC Radio 1 about Manitoba history and has published four books, including the national best-sellers Abandoned Manitoba and More Abandoned Manitoba. He is also a member of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba.