About a month ago, a new Canadian Register of Historic Places Web site was launched by Parks Canada. It's a useful tool that has been developed over the last decade by a partnership between Parks Canada and provincial and territorial governments. You can use this tool to find over 12,400 designated historic places across the country. A decade ago, you couldn't find this information without spending months of research; now, you can see how easy it is to find information and history on an historic place.And here's an article about it at ipolitics.ca.
Waldron includes the URL, plus twitter, facebook and flickr info (parks canada is hip with the kids!):
http://www.historicplaces.ca/
twitter: Historicplaces | Repertoirelieux
facebook: Canada's Historic Places | Lieux patrimoniaux du Canada
flickr: Canadian Register of Historic Places
I looked up Africville, and found a fair amount of text, some photos (from back in the day) and a good internet-style map.
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(General view of Africville National Historic Site of Canada prior to the relocation.
Public Archives of Nova Scotia/ Archives publiques de la Nouvelle-Écosse, Bob Brooks Collection/ Collection Bob Brooks.)This is much better than the old registry, which basically told you there was a plaque or should be a plaque and the general vicinity (Halifax!) So yes, the registry will be a "useful tool" for those looking for places to take photographs to illustrate books and newspaper articles, and no doubt a big help to teachers planning field trips.
But I'm scratching my head to think of anyone who would have had occasion to spend months of research to track these down, as Waldron suggests. A coffee table book author? If so, he or she is in certainly in luck.
