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• The archival traces of her life tell the story of a migration from one Black community with British and American affiliations to another with strong Caribbean influences.
• As research associates on the Black Londoners Project at Western University, we are finding historical clues about people like Aurelia Jones and exploring the Black history of London, Ont., by using a digital mapping approach.
• The migrations of Black individuals often reflect the geographic and cultural connections of Black communities across borders and further into the African diaspora.

Black geographies, Canadian myths

• Scholars such as Katherine McKittrick, professor and Canada research chair in Black Studies, have highlighted how understanding Black history means being attentive to how geography, culture and race intersect in the formation of Black communities.
• Such considerations challenge persistent myths of Canada’s past.
• Read more:
  Meet the Black snowshoers who walked 1,000 kilometres across Canada in 1813

  Shifting the focus from nationalist discourse to migrations among Black communities helps us better understand everyday Black life.

Digital Black history projects

• The Black Londoners Project approaches Black history geographically by supplementing the narratives of 16 Black refugees from slavery and racial oppression in the U.S. with archival evidence (among others, personal narratives, census information and newspaper articles) of their lives in London, Ont.
• The website will also connect with other digital Black Canadian History projects:

The Black Press in 19th-century Canada and Beyond explores the history of journalism as intellectual activism in Black Canadian and international history. It is led by Boulou Ebanda de B'béri, research director and professor in the department of communication at University of Ottawa, and Nina Reid-Maroney, history professor at Huron University College;
Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives presents a map of museums and archives that house records of Black-centred histories and is led by Cheryl Thompson, associate professor of performance studies and director for the Laboratory for Black Creativity at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Black oral history, digital mapping

• Digital mapping of Black migrations allows us to centre Black historical presence in public memory and examine Black oral narratives outside of their abolitionist framing.
• The teacher and white abolitionist, Benjamin Drew, published narratives of Black refugees in Ontario in his 1856 anti-slavery report, The Refugee; or, A North-Side View of Slavery.
• However, the attitude of many Black Canadians toward the potential of equality in Canada would change after the 1850s as, for example, access to education became increasingly segregated.
• Many would move within Canada, to the U.S. and other places in search of support from and community with the African diaspora.

Aurelia Jones

• B. Jones’s account, we learned of his spouse, Aurelia Jones (née Bonsor), in the marriage register of Upper Canada/Canada West.
• Following A. B.’s death around 1860, there are few records of Aurelia living in London.
• However, Aurelia reappears in Hutchinson’s Nova Scotia Directory of 1867 and in the 1881 Canada census for Nova Scotia, living in Halifax.
• There, Aurelia lived on Creighton Street with a Black couple from Antigua and Jamaica.

Nova Scotia’s Black communities emerged from layers of migration; for example, Black Loyalists arrived during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), and African Caribbean peoples came looking for work in the 19th and 20th centuries. Creighton Street was a centre of Black Haligonian life well into the 20th century.

Migrations, diasporic connections

• We recognize the irony in writing this piece during Black History Month.
• For Black communities as well as activists and scholars, remembering Black history happens every day of the year.
• Visualizing Black geography asks us to think of more permanent, transnational ways of commemorating Black history and honouring lives like that of Aurelia Jones.

• The Black Londoners Project receives funding from Western's Strategic Priorities Fund.
• David Mitterauer works for Dr. Miranda Green-Barteet and Dr. Alyssa MacLean's Black Londoners Project at Western University.
• Patrick Kinghan works for Dr. Miranda Green-Barteet and Dr. Alyssa MacLean's Black Londoners Project at Western University.

• And even if some few have somehow survived, they are moth-eaten and in a state of decay, and remembered about as well as if they had never existed.
• By making the manuscripts into a book, he would preserve the knowledge they contained – but not the manuscript, not the artefact itself.
• He does not mention how difficult his Byzantine manuscripts were to read and transcribe, even for someone familiar with the language.
• Every manuscript is its own text, its own space of knowledge, and an irreplaceable part of our shared cultural histories.

Preserving the Past

• Our knowledge of the past, and the wisdom we can gain from it, is bound in material objects – whether manuscripts, paintings, ruined buildings or clay pots – that are decaying.
• What will we preserve of the past?
• We are lucky if we can now read a text in 50 manuscripts.
• Read more:
  Uncovering the mysteries of The Book of Kells – from myopic monks on magic mushrooms to superhuman detail

• Manuscript tourism became a popular activity for wealthy scholars like Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), whose collection became the core of the British Museum’s collection.
• Of course, many of these collectors simply stole or smuggled what they wanted from struggling monasteries in what are now Greece, Sinai and Israel.
• But their work made possible the rise of printed editions of classical and medieval works.
• Our modern editions of the Bible and the Iliad, for example, do not exactly match their underlying manuscripts.

Read more:
Dogs in the middle ages: what medieval writing tells us about our ancestors’ pets

Digital decay

• Even if we prefer the edited versions, printed books decay faster than manuscripts, and take up just as much space.
• Print does not solve the problem of preservation; it only postpones it.
• In the 20th century, digital scanning tools and computer-based storage seemed to offer a new kind of solution.

• Second, digital images are often in proprietary formats, meaning that without the library’s viewing software you cannot actually examine the manuscript.
• The digital format is still chained to its digital shelves in a private space.
• Third, as a recent cyber-attack on the British Library demonstrates, the digital space seems not to be safer than the physical one.
• The digital library space, with its proprietary viewing software and its specialised file formats, is now shuttered.

Conservation and accessibility

• Yet physical conservation comes at the expense of accessibility.
• We can, however, use advances in AI and computer technology to improve approaches to digital conservation and enable wider access to the uniqueness of individual manuscripts.
• To avoid digital decay, we need to devote the same attention to digital conservation as to material conservation.

• Images of manuscripts would then have a readable text and all the unique elements of the material original – its decorations and artistry, its errors and doodles.
• In this enhanced digital form, manuscripts could come to local museums, libraries and galleries, where they would be accessible to everyday visitors as well as specialists.
• But unlike him, we can now offer the experience of the manuscript as well as the text, and to a much wider audience.

Jonathan L. Zecher receives funding from the Templeton Religion Trust.

• And even if some few have somehow survived, they are moth-eaten and in a state of decay, and remembered about as well as if they had never existed.
• By making the manuscripts into a book, he would preserve the knowledge they contained – but not the manuscript, not the artefact itself.
• He does not mention how difficult his Byzantine manuscripts were to read and transcribe, even for someone familiar with the language.
• Every manuscript is its own text, its own space of knowledge, and an irreplaceable part of our shared cultural histories.

Preserving the Past

• Our knowledge of the past, and the wisdom we can gain from it, is bound in material objects – whether manuscripts, paintings, ruined buildings or clay pots – that are decaying.
• What will we preserve of the past?
• We are lucky if we can now read a text in 50 manuscripts.
• Read more:
  Uncovering the mysteries of The Book of Kells – from myopic monks on magic mushrooms to superhuman detail

• Manuscript tourism became a popular activity for wealthy scholars like Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), whose collection became the core of the British Museum’s collection.
• Of course, many of these collectors simply stole or smuggled what they wanted from struggling monasteries in what are now Greece, Sinai and Israel.
• But their work made possible the rise of printed editions of classical and medieval works.
• Our modern editions of the Bible and the Iliad, for example, do not exactly match their underlying manuscripts.

Read more:
Dogs in the middle ages: what medieval writing tells us about our ancestors’ pets

Digital decay

• Even if we prefer the edited versions, printed books decay faster than manuscripts, and take up just as much space.
• Print does not solve the problem of preservation; it only postpones it.
• In the 20th century, digital scanning tools and computer-based storage seemed to offer a new kind of solution.

• Second, digital images are often in proprietary formats, meaning that without the library’s viewing software you cannot actually examine the manuscript.
• The digital format is still chained to its digital shelves in a private space.
• Third, as a recent cyber-attack on the British Library demonstrates, the digital space seems not to be safer than the physical one.
• The digital library space, with its proprietary viewing software and its specialised file formats, is now shuttered.

Conservation and accessibility

• Yet physical conservation comes at the expense of accessibility.
• We can, however, use advances in AI and computer technology to improve approaches to digital conservation and enable wider access to the uniqueness of individual manuscripts.
• To avoid digital decay, we need to devote the same attention to digital conservation as to material conservation.

• Images of manuscripts would then have a readable text and all the unique elements of the material original – its decorations and artistry, its errors and doodles.
• In this enhanced digital form, manuscripts could come to local museums, libraries and galleries, where they would be accessible to everyday visitors as well as specialists.
• But unlike him, we can now offer the experience of the manuscript as well as the text, and to a much wider audience.

Jonathan L. Zecher receives funding from the Templeton Religion Trust.

• Today, The Tragically Hip are proud to be announced as the Record Store Day Canada 2024 Canadian Ambassadors, releasing an exclusive standalone live album, Live at CBGB’s, on Record Store Day.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240208395113/en/
  The Tragically Hip Named 2024 Record Store Day Canada Ambassadors.
• “Record Store Day Canada is overjoyed that legendary Canadian band, The Tragically Hip, will be the Record Store Day Canada 2024 Canadian Ambassadors,” says Ryan Kerr from Record Store Day Canada.
• RSDC is looking forward to contributing to the band’s ongoing legacy by releasing Live at CBGB’s for Record Store Day 2024.