The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto is Canada’s largest museum dedicated to Muslim culture. Photography isn’t permitted in most of the museum, so I can’t show you ancient Quran manuscripts or the 16th century marble fountain. The only gallery where photography is permitted is the ceramics showcase. Islam is present Read more
On the short of Lake Erie, Fort Erie stares down Buffalo with its might 18-pound cannons. Soldiers from all over Europe, including Swiss mercenaries, fought for Britain against the rebellious 13 colonies. But in 1814, the Americans captured the fort and used it as a base for attacking the British Read more
Perhaps the smallest museum in Toronto, but not the least interesting (that award goes to the Toronto Police Museum). The Toronto Railway Museum makes its home in a railroad roundhouse shared with restaurants and bars. The roundhouse used to serve nearby Union Station, it’s an excellent example of adaptive reuse Read more
Queen’s Park is officially known as the Legislative Assembly of Ontario – the province’s elected lawmaking body. Here, which parties sit on the left or the right depend on who is in power, the majority sits on the left and the minority on the right, so the two sides have Read more
While all the nice national museums are in Ottawa, the nice provincial museums are up to just as high a standard in Toronto. The ROM is the biggest brother of the provincial museums in the city. Spanning three maze-like floors, the museum tells the story of Earth from the age Read more
Anyone who has loved the Corning Museum of Glass in New York has to pop up to Toronto for the Gardiner Museum of ceramics. It displays ceramicware from all over the world throughout all periods of human history. Porcelain was a luxury item during the 17th and 18th centuries and Read more
Just down the street from the Royal Ontario Museum and the Gardiner Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum is one of of the few free museums on Sundays in Toronto. Its story is basically the history of shoes and how different periods of western history show through European fashion. The exhibitions Read more
Kingston was an important defensive position on the St. Lawrence River facing rebellious America. Fort Henry is the largest fortification along the St. Lawrence waterway west of Quebec City. It was built.in response to the War of 1812 and the limestone citadel was built in the 1830s. It was never Read more
The telephone was conceived and invented in this house in Brantford, Ontario. Alexander Graham Bell lived here with his parents after they moved over from Edinburgh. Bell had a handwritten note detailing where he was during each stage of development to allay any future concerns about where the telephone was Read more
The largest maritime museum on the Great Lakes isn’t the museum in Toledo, it’s in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Valley Camp is a 550-foot long Great Lakes freighter. Although modern ships of the Great Lakes are twice as long, this was one of the largest of its time when it Read more