Project Design
A student-led research project exploring Great Lakes port history.
As we explore Great Lakes port cities, we acknowledge the long span of human history in the region. Inhabited by Indigenous Peoples for 12,000 years, European exploration, colonization, and settlement, would lead to the development of port towns, contributing to the loss of Indigenous ancestral lands and natural resources. Conversely, the nineteenth century is characterized by dichotomies of the regions’ developing port landscape, as a hub of industry and technology, while also a place for leisure and amusement. While in the twentieth century, these spaces were critical to manufacture, staging and mobilizing for global conflict, transforming waterfronts with positive and negative consequences. Today, increasing demand for integrated port networks has led to coordinated infrastructure projects, as stakeholders mitigate impacts due to climate change, severe weather, erosion, pollution, and invasive species. We duly recognize the harms of the past, and the challenges in the present, while reflecting on the broad cultural landscape of these urban coastal areas.
The following essays were researched, written, and edited by students enrolled in Brock University’s second-year undergraduate course HIST 2F00 Great Lakes Maritime and Coastal History. This digital public history project was designed to expand students’ transferable skills, including critical thinking, research, communication, and technology, while they move from choosing a research topic to seeing the published product. By focusing on individual port cities and exploring the range of themes at a particular location, including geography, transportation, recreation, environment, health, industrial and cultural heritage, this body of work seeks to reengage the holistic coastal and maritime experience. Furthermore, by sharing students’ research efforts with the public, we aim to increase appreciation for the connected legacies of our inland seas, and their vital role in supporting community and economic development.
A mari usque ad mare ad interioris mare
