In 1895, the bustling town of Chatham, Ontario—then 8,000 strong—celebrated cityhood some 100 years after the first European settlers put down roots where McGregor’s Creek meets the Thames River. Carefully curated from the surviving negatives of the Chatham Daily News and other collections of the Chatham-Kent Museum, A Chatham-Kent Tapestry uses photographs to tell the remarkable history of one of the oldest communities in Upper Canada. From its origins as a naval dockyard and its role as an Underground Railroad terminus to the sugar beet fields and the factories of Gray-Dort, this stunning visual history captures the men and women who built Chatham at work and at play, weathering the changes of life in Ontario’s industrial heartland. Meticulously researched and handsomely designed, A Chatham-Kent Tapestry: A Visual History to 1950 is a “must-have” book for all who call this city home, and local history lovers everywhere.
