Cedar Park Farm

Lisa Small is a student of Black history and heritage. She believes that they can help us identify areas of interest for archaeological investigation – in fact, this kind of background research is key to understanding and interpreting archaeological finds. Here she examines the background of Cedar Park Farm in a comic book she co-authored with Matthew Wilkinson and Daniel Wong as part of a series, The Grange, presented by Heritage Mississauga. The book takes researched Black history, presenting it in a relatable and accessible format. It is available on Heritage Mississauga’s website: https://heritagemississauga.com/comic-books/

Following the abolishment of slavery in the United States, many emancipated Blacks made northerly migrations into Canada in search of land, opportunities and a new life. Many of those who came to Canada bringing significant means with them to secure citizenship, purchase land, homes and even the freedoms of other Blacks, including family and loved ones. Some Blacks travelled by boat across the Great Lakes and some people/families landed in areas like Oakville, Bronte and Mississauga, formerly Toronto Township.

Mississauga had a relatively small Black population. Census records indicate there were approximately 60-70 recorded Blacks that settled in the Region of Peel throughout the 19^th century and consisted of a diverse demographic of freed Blacks and fugitives who were landowners, farmers, labourers, schoolteachers, barbers and servants.

The Grange, Vol. 8 – Legend of Cedar Park – click to open in a new tab

“The Legend of Cedar Park” is Mississauga’s first illustrative comic book exploring the City’s early Black history during the 19^thcentury. The comic features one of the best-documented early Black families in historic Peel about the story of the Ross Family and their home at Cedar Park Farm.

In the story, you are introduced to Didamia (nee Paul) whose father Benjamin Paul had been a prominent abolitionist and minister at the Wilberforce Settlement, near Lucan, Ontario. Didamia herself had been a schoolteacher before getting married, and the couple would go on to have 11 children here in what is now Mississauga. George Woodford Ross, Didamia’s husband, had been born enslaved in Urbanna, Virginia. After being emancipated, George came to Canada in 1834, and in 1836 purchased a 200-acre farm on Concession 2, Lot 12 near the modern intersection of Burnhamthorpe Road and Cawthra Road. George built the family home circa 1836 and added bricked veneer in the 1870s.

Henry Cook then purchased the Ross home in 1919 and by circa 1975 it was demolished. Since then, much of the Ross-Cook property including the farm has been converted into residential streets and neighbourhoods. What remains today is Rayfield Park, located on part of what was the Ross’ Cedar Park Farm.

The comic also gives a glimpse into the local story of Solomon Northup, a fugitive slave who was born free, kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Northup’s life was portrayed in the novel and film “12 Years a Slave”. According to the “Streetsville Review”, one of Mississauga’s surviving newspapers, Solomon was last reported giving a lecture in Streetsville in 1857 but was chased out by an irate crowd outside the Town Hall never to be seen again after that day.

While the comic mentions notable Blacks like Northup and the Ross family, there remains room for discoveries and to further unpack what does exist of early Black settler life in Peel.

– Lisa Small

Credit: Heritage Mississauga, Modern Mississauga Media, Erin Brubacher, Region of Peel Archives

For More Information:

Brubacher, Erin. “A Fugitive Past: Black History in Mississauga” for Heritage Mississauga. Heritage News, Fall 2006.

Government of Canada, 1865, 1871, 1881, 1901, 1911 census, Peel Region: York West.

Henry, Natasha L. Emancipation Day. Celebrating Freedom in Canada. Dundurn Press, Toronto, 2010.

The Streetsville Review. Proquest Historical Newspaper: The Globe and Mail (1844-2011), The Globe, August 19, 1857, page 2.

Conservation and Agents of Deterioration

In some of our recent social media posts, we have discussed the importance of safe and stable storage conditions for the artifacts in our Collections Repository. But what exactly are safe and stable storage conditions?

A cardboard box of new archaeological materials, prior to being repackaged. This style of packaging is not ideal for providing safe and stable storage conditions.

We have many types of artifacts in our repository. Predominately we have stone objects (such as grinding stones and projectile points), glass (beads), metal (copper beads, pots), bone fragments (food remains, beaver teeth, and other tools and jewelry made of animal bones), and clay pottery. All of these objects are susceptible to Agents of Deterioration.

Agents of Deterioration are forces that can harm artifacts in our collection. They include light, improper temperature and humidity, water, and pests. Our Collections Repository has been designed to help stop these problems from occurring. The temperature is moderated and the humidity is monitored in the repository. All the objects are repackaged into archival plastic bags in archival plastic boxes to help prevent water damage and keep pests out. The repository has no windows to avoid light damage. And the boxes are properly closed when not in use to protect against possible dust or pests. All of these things are done by our collections staff to ensure the artifacts are kept in the best conditions possible.

The repackaging materials volunteers and collections staff use to safely repackage artifacts for storage.

The boxes are made of polypropylene, a strong water, acid, and base resistant plastic. Our bags are made of polyethylene, which has great flexibility in addition to these other properties. Polypropylene and polyethylene do not off-gas, a process in which plastic emits a gas that can harm the artifacts. This provides strong and durable support for the artifacts they house and help protect against water and pest damage.

Now you know what materials we use to store these artifacts and what the materials protect against, but why does it matter? Well, we hope that these conservation techniques will protect the artifacts for years to come. Conservation is an important part of archaeology and museum work in general. Ensuring objects survive for our descendants is a crucial part of the everyday work we do here at MOA.

Boxes of repackaged artifacts safely in their forever homes in the Collections Repository.

Hopefully, this blog post has taught you a little more about the work we do to ensure the safety of the artifacts in our collections. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to keep up to date with our current projects and learn more about the behind-the-scenes work here at MOA!

Written by Katie Gaskin.

All About the Repository and Contracting Storage

If you follow us on our social media platforms (Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram) you may have seen some of our recent behind the scenes posts. We’ve been taking our followers inside the Collections and Research Wing of the Museum of Ontario Archaeology (MOA) and showing them a little more about how repackaging is done, the history of the space, and its current uses.

The Collections and Research Wing.

We recently received a new delivery of artifacts and I was inspired to tell you a little more about the facility, how it works, and why it’s important. The Museum of Ontario Archaeology is home to the Collections Repository in the Collections and Research Wing. Here over 54,000 boxes of millions of archaeological items can be stored in safe and secure conditions. The collections staff at MOA works tirelessly to maintain this space so researchers, descendant communities, and others can have access to these objects. It is also important as these objects are given proper storage conditions to ensure they last over time.

You may be wondering where these artifacts come from, who they were recovered by, and how they end up here at the museum.

The recent delivery included dozens of boxes of archaeological materials.

These artifacts come from across Ontario. Our current feature exhibition, Who Cares About the Past, and our online video series, Behind the Glass, have both explained how artifacts are recovered in Ontario. Most of the archaeological work in Ontario is done by Cultural Resource Management (CRM) firms. CRM companies are contracted by developers to investigate sites earmarked for development. Before any construction can happen, the CRM company must survey the site and conduct an analysis to evaluate if the site needs to be excavated. To hear more about this, check out our Google Arts and Culture page or the Behind the Glass Series.

So, these objects are recovered by licensed archaeologists working for CRM companies contracted by developers all across Ontario, but how do they end up here at MOA? The short answer is we are contracted to store the objects by CRM firms! They reach out to us about housing the objects in these safe and stable conditions and we draft a contract for them. If you are an archaeologist or from a CRM firm interested in this program, please see the collections page on our website.

Moving the boxes from the delivery van into the Collections Repository.

All the objects are packaged into safe storage conditions and labelled using a complex system that allows our collections staff to easily locate them. If you’re interested in hearing more about what safe storage conditions are, what it means, and how conservation is done—check out our posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and keep your eye out for a blog post right here.

We receive the artifacts in shipments and store them on our shelves. If specified in the contract, we repackage the artifacts to ensure that all materials entering the repository are in the safest storage conditions possible! If you are an archaeologist or someone from a CRM company who is interested in this service alongside our storage service, please let our collections manager know when reaching out to negotiate a contract.

Storing the boxes in their temporary location on the shelves until they can be repackaged.

As part of the agreement for this deposit, our collections staff will repackage the artifacts. That’s why you see the staff moving cardboard boxes in, don’t worry, soon they will be in conservation safe plastic! Interested in what repackaging looks like? Check out the time lapse video we posted on our social media!

Once the objects are repackaged, they are entered into our database. The boxes are labelled by site location or project name, recorded into our database, and placed in the appropriate area in the repository.

Now, these artifacts are available to researchers, descendant communities, and others, like you, who are interested in archaeology! Follow us on social media or check out our Google Arts and Culture pages to see more about the artifacts we house and hear their stories!

Written by Katie Gaskin

The Making of a Model Dig

This week, we are featuring a story from a local Grade 11 student Anna Johnstone who is taking her passion in archaeology and sharing it with the community.

Hello, my name is Anna and I am a grade 11 student. For my Ancient Civilizations class I had to make what my teacher calls a ‘Passion Project’, which means that each student got to make any kind of project that they wanted as long as the subject related to the curriculum and we could, to quote my teacher, “get it out to the world”. I love to make models and dioramas so as soon as we started brainstorming our projects my mind jumped to a model of a dig site and artifacts that could be found at it. Since it was an Ancient Civilizations class, I decided that a site in Rome would be cool but the model looks as if it could be anywhere, even here in Ontario. Read more

Performing Presence: Pauline Johnson and Her Predecessors

There’s a spirit on the river, there’s a ghost upon the shore,
And they sing of love and loving through the starlight evermore,
As they steal amid the silence,
And the shadows of the shore.
From “Dawendine”

Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) was the best known female Canadian poet of her time. Born on the Six Nations Reserve in Brantford, Ontario, she learned Mohawk stories and traditions from her father, Chief George Johnson. Her mother, an English immigrant, taught her British literature. As an adult, Pauline Johnson drew on both sides of her heritage for her poetry, often writing on indigenous themes within the European poetic style. While many people enjoyed reading her work, Johnson became famous for her public appearances in which she performed in both a “Mohawk princess” costume and in a Victorian evening gown.

These costume changes have fascinated scholars for years. Some believe that Johnson acted as a “cultural mediator,” conveying indigenous culture and concerns such as land rights to her white audiences. Others criticise her praise of British colonial rule, or question whether she played into the common Euro-Canadian opinion that Native culture was on the path to extinction. Johnson’s “Mohawk princess” costume, they argue, was only meant to add exotic appeal.

This photo was taken by the forested creek behind MOA!

Hello Everyone! My name is Zsofia Agoston, and I am a third-year student at Western University majoring in Anthropology and Museum/Curatorial Studies. This year I have been working as a Curatorial Assistant doing an array of jobs including cataloguing archaeological donations, overlooking our archaeological inventory, and maintaining our gallery and exhibition spaces. Prior to this role, I volunteered at the MOA since September of 2016. Read more

The Classificatory-Descriptive Period: Explorers and Romance

Written by MOA Exhibition Intern Joel Wodhams

What do you think of when you think “archaeologist?” Don’t try to be too correct. Have some fun. When I think of an archaeologist I cannot help but imagine an Indiana Jones-like figure: someone exploring jungles and deserts in search of mysteries from the ancient world. This isn’t what archaeology is today, but it is part of the undeniable charm and romance of archaeology. Read more

Colony of Avalon, Ferryland, Newfoundland and Labrador

By Alicia Sherret

Remember that scene in Indiana Jones when you weren’t quite sure if Indy and Marion were going to escape from the snake filled temple in the Well of Souls? Well, there’s an archaeological site a little closer to home with the same secrets, surprises and religious past. While a visit to the Colony of Avalon at Ferryland, Newfoundland, might be a little shorter on action than an Indiana Jones movie, it’s got excitement and interest of its own.

The Well of Souls from Raiders of the Lost Ark http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-20-best-scenes-in-indiana-jones-movies/3/

Protecting the Past

By: Marissa Buckland

When people think of archaeology, they often think of box office hits like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. These movies suggest that archaeological “treasures” can only be discovered in faraway lands such as the pyramids of Peru or the tombs of Cambodia, when in fact archaeological artifacts can be found right outside your back door here in Ontario!

About an hour north of Toronto are a series of archaeological sites near Wilcox Lake, on the Oak Ridges Moraine, located in Richmond Hill, that span most of the human history of Ontario. The TRCA (Toronto and Region Conservation Authority) began initial excavation of the Lost Brant site in 1992 and intensive excavations took place from 1999 – 2002, uncovering almost 10, 000 artifacts, including chert points and pieces of ceramic vessels^[1].

The Speculative Period: Early Collectors

Guest Blog By Joel Wodhams, Exhibit Intern Summer 2017

Canada’s 150th birthday is fast approaching, but did you know there is over 150 years of archaeology at the Lawson site? From its humble origins in the mid 1800s to its current day affiliation with the Museum of Ontario Archaeology and the University of Western Ontario, Lawson has captured the imagination of generations.

Archaeology evolves from the underlying human interest in the past. Archaeology is a modern practice, evolving since the 1800’s, but interest in the human past spans back hundreds of years.

At a time sometimes called the “Speculative Period,” early collectors created their own understandings of the past. The famous example in North America of this speculative period is the Moundbuilder myth: that the large burial mounds in the United States must have been built by an ancient civilization totally unrelated to the indigenous population.

Jury Collection on display at the Western Fair, September 1931.

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