iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Michael O’Hagan

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

"Prisoners in the Park: German PoWs in Riding Mountain National Park" by @michaelsohagan.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2013/06/21/p... #envhist #warhistory #cdnhist #parkhistory

031

Reposted by Michael O’Hagan

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

#Caturday Reading "Some prisoners acquired cats and dogs through sales orchestrated by camp staff or through illicit trade with guards, while others simply "adopted" stray animals that wandered into the barbed wire enclosures." - @michaelsohagan.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2020/04/23/h...

172

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Today marks the 84th anniversary of the sinking of the Bismarck, Germany's famed battleship. But this event has a little-known Canadian connection - the 109 survivors rescued by the British were all transferred to Canada as prisoners of war. #cdnhist #wwii #Bismarck

Black and white photo of German soldiers, sailors, and airmen standing in front of a building. They are prisoners of war at Camp 23 (Monteith).

151

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

“Easter 1941” by Otto Ellmaurer, a civilian internee interned in Camp K near Kananaskis, Alberta. Hopefully everyone has better luck with the Easter Bunny than these two internees! More about Ellmaurer and his art at powsincanada.ca/2025/03/18/k... #cdnhist #wwii

Print of two prisoners of war emerging from a hole dug under a barbed wire fence but are caught by three guards. One prisoner tells the guards “Believe it or not! We are just searching for our Easter Bunny!”

020

Reposted by Michael O’Hagan

Josh MacFadyen @joshmacfadyen.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

The webmap I designed to run behind GeoPEI: PEI Historical Map Viewer and the Time Flies, Online Edition e-book (both free, by the way at upei.ca/timeflies) has just passed 20,000 views! Not the biggest number in DH project history, but pretty neat for a small place like PEI.

upei.ca

Time Flies: A History of Prince Edward Island from the Air - The GeoREACH Lab at UPEI

Thanks to an unparalleled access to historical aerial photographs, Time Flies offers a new history of Prince Edward Island (PEI) Canada from an aerial perspective. The book presents images of iconic l...

132

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Following last week’s post, here are more cartoons by Otto Ellmaurer, a German Canadian civilian internee, from Camp K in Kananaskis, Alberta. This print likens internees to babies and their guards to nannies. Utter chaos appears to reign in the room.

Cartoon print of a prisoner of war guard dressed as a nanny and several internees as babies. Some babies dig a tunnel, one hammers on a wall, while the others ignore the nanny. The nanny states “If you don’t stop digging and behave yourself, I’ll take all your lolly-pops away from you!”

120

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

In July 1940, Otto Ellmaurer arrived at Camp K, an internment camp in Kananaskis, Alberta. A civilian internee from Montreal, Ellmaurer began work on his “Kananaskis Record,” a series of cartoons depicting - and, often, mocking - life in Canada’s first internment camp of the Second World War.

A coloured sketch showing a man wearing a prisoner of war uniform asleep on a bunk. Barbed wire fences are visible through a window. A dog sleeps next to the bed while a crow with crutches stand on the bedpost. The picture is flanked by two trees with several squirrels, two of them wearing POW caps, on the branches.

121

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

In December 1944, the workshops at Camp 42 in Sherbrooke, Quebec were in full swing. But rather than making the usual crates and netting or repairing shoes, some of the internees were focused on building something new: children’s toys.

122

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Almost 85 years ago to the day, a film crew visited Petawawa, Ontario to film scenes at Camp P, Canada's second internment camp of the Second World War. Here's what they saw. #wwii #pow #petawawa #canhist

1164

Reposted by Michael O’Hagan

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

The sources compiled by @alanmaceachern.bsky.social & @michaelsohagan.bsky.social for Canada’s Year Without a Summer continue to be used regularly by instructors and students. niche-canada.org/yearwithouta... #envhist #cdnhist #climhist

niche-canada.org

Canada's Year Without a Summer

Over 120 primary sources on Canada's Year Without a Summer.

22712

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

In December 1939, a film crew arrived at Petawawa to film Canada’s newest prisoners of war - German-Canadian civilian internees Thanks to LAC’s digitization, this short films gives a brief look into life inside one of Canada’s first #POW camps of the Second World War powsincanada.ca/2024/11/19/a...

powsincanada.ca

A Rare Glimpse Inside: Camp P (Petawawa) on Film

Photographing and filming of prisoners of war in Canada during the Second World War remained subject to strict censorship policies. Authorized civilian and military photographs took countless photo…

031

Reposted by Michael O’Hagan

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 25/06/2024

Today on our site Mica Jorgenson is sharing her Living with Smoke: Lessons from the Chinchaga Fire comic that she created in collaboration with Petroglyph Studios niche-canada.org/2024/06/25/l... #envhist #firehistory #wildfires #firestories

niche-canada.org

Living with Smoke: A Comic for the Fire Season

Comics meet fire history, how Mica Jorgenson embraced a new way of presenting her research.

01514

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 19/04/2024

On this day in 1941, guards posted at Prisoner of War Camp X (Angler) in Northwestern Ontario made a troubling discovery: the prisoners had staged what would become the largest escape from a Canadian internment camp during the Second World War.

221

Michael O’Hagan @michaelsohagan.bsky.social · 08/03/2024

Between 1939 and 1947, Canada established twenty-eight separate internment camps to hold German and Italian civilian internees, Enemy Merchant Seamen, and combatant prisoners. You can now find detailed descriptions and photo galleries of each camp on my site: powsincanada.ca/2024/03/07/a...

powsincanada.ca

An Update

I am happy to announce some significant additions to this site. When I first started this site for a Digital History course back in 2013(!), I had always hoped on turning it into a resource for indivi...

0111