Co-author of Vimy book to speak at Falls museum
A well-respected Canadian history author will be giving a free public talk at the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls Friday night.
Ian McKay, the Wilson Institute chairperson of Canadian history at McMaster University, will talk about his recent coauthored book “The Vimy Trap: Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War.”
The 2016 book, co-authored with Jamie Swift, was shortlisted for the John A. Macdonald and Shaughnessy-Cohen Prize from the Canadian Historical Association and the Writers’ Trust of Canada respectively.
Friday’s event is scheduled between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on the second floor of the museum on Victoria Avenue. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
“There’s a lot of interest in the Great War at the moment and in fact we’re doing a lot of research for visitors about their families who took part in the Great War, generally in the Canadian Expeditionary Force,” said museum president Jim Doherty. “I just had an email from someone who wants me to look at their grandfather’s sword. I’ll probably look up his history, if he was part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. I’ll be able to give them a great deal of information.”
He said Friday’s event will also include a “very big” announcement about the future of the museum.
Doherty said the museum will announce the soft launch of a history lab initiative that will connect the museum with professors and Brock University.
He said the hard launch of the initiative will be April 7.
“We’re looking at a lot of things, (including) experiential learning, so the students can come here and examine artifacts, do research, take part in the museum, do internships.
“On the 7th I think we’re going to even make it a larger and more expansive thing with a real direct connection to Brock University and the history department.”