Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County
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cabhc.bsky.social
Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County
@cabhc.bsky.social
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Looking after the history of Belleville and Hastings County, Ontario, Canada.

www.cabhc.ca
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Our collaborative interactive exhibit in Belleville's John M. Parrott Gallery has a Haiku Board for poems about the Moira River.
"The Mighty Moira" Haiku activity in the John M. Parrott Gallery.
November 13, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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Circus advertisement from the Stirling News-Argus, July 1880 archive.org/details/stir...
Ad for Forepaugh's Circus in July 1880 in Belleville: "A human being Shot from a Cannon, loaded with powder and sent whriling through space and caught by a lady hanging head downward on the lofty trapeze. This wonder-moving feat performed at each exhibtion by Mons. Loyal, the 'human cannon-ball'. Appearance of the only Female Blondin, M'lle Ella Zuilla, who crosses the high wire 60 feet above the heads of the audience, blindfoled and with her feet encased in sacks, and rides a velocipede over the high wire! All riding on bareback horses! Grand pantomime troupe! 6 great clowns and 10 famous foreign actors. Only exhibition using the new and wonderful Electric Light!"
October 27, 2025 at 7:56 PM
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Guidance on what to wear for students of the new Moira Secondary School in Belleville in 1959.
Typewritten text reads: "MOIRA SECONDARY SCHOOL Belleville, Ontario August 5, 1959 To the Students of Moira Secondary School and Their Parents: As I write this news bulletin it seems apparent that our new school will not be completed by September 8th, but in spite of all rumors to the contrary, we intend to have classes in the building. Since we will probably have an enrolment of approximately 500 students this may at times be inconvenient, but we are expecting that with complete cooperation from our students no academic progress need be lost. Last year the Students’ Council of Belleville Collegiate Institute and Vocational School made a number of suggestions regarding school dress. In line with their observations the following suggestions are being made; (1) Boys wear slacks (grey flannel) and sport shirts. (2) Girls avoid the excessive use of crinolines. A grey flannel skirt would be a useful addition to your wardrobe. The school colours are maroon and grey and so it is possible that the Students’ Council may decide to have maroon school jackets or blazers. The above suggestions are not meant to be obligatory but are made in the interests of economy and appearance. They are made for the benefit of those students who have to purchase new clothing, not with the idea of having anyone discard their present wardrobe. Note: (a) A girl who seeks to impress her associate with elaborate dress is indicating lack of confidence in her own personality. (b) A boy who wears sloppy jeans tends to become sloppy in his thinking and actions. (c) In all school activities may it be kept in mind that no one should be priced out of school by having to spend too much money on clothing and social functions in order to keep up with the crowd. I am looking forward to meeting all of you September. Yours truly, W. J. Musgrove Principal"
September 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
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Find out more about the buildings at the west end of Belleville's Lower Bridge in our latest newsletter at eepurl.com/jl6nJw
View of buildings on the west side of the Moira river in Belleville, taken from City Hall.
September 2, 2025 at 4:27 PM
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Bellevue Terrace in Belleville was built in 1876 at a cost of $12,000. Each of the six luxury tenements had a basement kitchen and dining room and a main floor drawing room and sewing room. On the top floor were bedrooms and a bathroom supplied with hot and cold running water. #ArchivesArchitecture
View of Bellevue Terrace in around 1980. Bellevue Terrace in around 1880.
August 28, 2025 at 3:08 PM
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We have found the best name of the day, no doubt about it. (In Gilbert Parker's papers)
Letter addressed to Sir Fortescue Flannery, Baronet.
July 9, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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These individual pages were torn from our newspaper collections back in the 1970s or 1980s.

It is satisfying to be able to put them back where they belong.

But, please, don't do that.
Pages from the Daily Ontario and Daily Intelligencer newspapers, 1870 and 1877.
May 8, 2025 at 1:29 PM
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All the way from Cornwall, England, Susan sends us this photo taken in Belleville by W. S. Clarke in around 1910. Does anyone recognize any family members in this group? Did your family have connections in Cornwall?
Photo of two women and three men, possibly a family group, taken by W. S. Clarke in Belleville, around 1910.
April 22, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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These four young men were photographed for the Intelligencer newspaper in the 1970s and the negatives were just labelled "Band." Does anyone recognize the group?
Four young men looking through a divided tree trunk. Four young men in shiny tops posing by a parking meter and a sign that reads "Municipal Parking".
April 9, 2025 at 3:18 PM
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Hastings County has the perfect proportions for this 1925 map (2024-100) to fit exactly on top of our map chests. It's a rolled version of map M420-2163 which is online at www.flickr.com/photos/cabhc...
Large paper map of Hastings County, Ontario.
April 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
cabhc.bsky.social
Our latest reading room exhibit looks at emergency preparedness during the 1950s and 1960s. Our reading room is open Mon-Thu, 10-1 and 2-4.
Text on flyer reads: "Fallout, Hastings County in the Nuclear Age, come and check out our new exhibit exploring civil defence preparations during the Cold War. Through official and personal documents it examines local efforts to prepare for the unthinkable-nuclear war". Image of a newspaper headline about ultimatum to Japan backed by the atomic bomb.
March 20, 2025 at 4:45 PM
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How not to label your family photographs.
Front and back of a family photo: on the front, an older woman, sitting in a chair. On the back, the words "Mother's mother".
February 12, 2025 at 5:46 PM
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New addition 2025-014 is a collection of scrapbooks chronicling the long Queen's Park career of Hugh O'Neil (1936-2015), MPP for Quinte from 1975 to 1995.

These items were recently transferred from our colleagues at bsky.app/profile/quin...

discover.cabhc.ca/scrapbooks-r...
Piles of scrapbooks awaiting processing. Six boxes and one wrapped volume of processed archival records.
February 3, 2025 at 7:33 PM
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Answering our own question (from a 1982 bookbinding dictionary). Deakins are very small calfskins.
Deakins: very small calfskins.
January 29, 2025 at 6:56 PM
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Market prices in Deseronto, 130 years ago, from The Tribune newspaper. Does anyone know what "Deakins" were?
DESERONTO MARKET. Deseronto, Jan. 31. 1895 Beets, 10 cents per peck. Beans $1.00 per bushel. Beef, forequarter, 4 to 5 cts. per pound. Beef, hindquarter, 5 " " " Barley, 38 to 40 cents per bushel Butter, 20 cents per pound. Buckwheat, 40 cents per bushel. Celery, 5 cents per bunch. Carrots, 45 cts. per bag. Cheese, 10 to 12 cents per pound. Chickens, 45 to 50 cents per pair. Cabbage, 50 cents per dozen. Deakins 20 cents. Ducks 65 to 70 cents per pair. Eggs, 16 to 17 cents per dozen. Geese, 50 to 60 cents each. Ham,smoked, 10 to 11 cents per pound. Hay 8 dollars per ton Honey, 10 cents per pound Hides, 3½ cents. Mutton, 8 cents Sheepskins, 50-60 cents. Lard, 10 to 12 cents per pound. Onions, 60 to 75 cents per bag. Oats. 30 cents per bushel. Potatoes. 50 to 55 cts per bag. Peas, 50 to 52 cents per bushel. Pork, carcass, 5 to 5½ cents per pound. Pork, cut, 5 to 6 cents per pound. Pork by quarter from 5 to 5½ cents. Rye, 45 cents per bushel. Straw, $2 per load Steak, 10 cents. Tallow, in rough 2½ cents per pound. Tallow, rendered, 5 to 6 cents per pound. Turkey, 40 cents to 75c. each. Turnips, 45 cents per bag. Veal, 8 to 10 cents. Wheat, 55 to 60 cts per bushel.
January 29, 2025 at 6:39 PM
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Our latest newsletter is available at mailchi.mp/8c56cf319740...
It takes a look back at our 2024 statistics and explores a Belleville family's connection with the city of Chicago.
Front page of The Chicago-Belleville News, August 1915.
January 2, 2025 at 4:08 PM
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Lovely to have members of Bethel-Zion Women's Institute at the archives today for a tour. Here they are, taking a look at their Tweedsmuir history books, with contents dating back to 1904!
Women of Bethel-Zion Women's Institute, looking at their group's Tweedsmuir history books.
November 14, 2024 at 8:03 PM
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The latest edition of The Pioneer Times from the Cloyne and District Historical Society has an article about life during the Great Depression based on an interview held at the Community Archives: pioneer.mazinaw.on.ca/wp-content/u... #archives (original here: discover.cabhc.ca/the-years-of...)
Front cover of an interview with Rachel Spencer by Carole Anne Burris.
November 13, 2024 at 1:37 PM