This post comes from Sonya Jones, Curator of The Thomas Bouckley Collection.
Recently the Toronto Star published an article called “Oshawa: the GTA’s final frontier for development”, which details how and why Oshawa has grown and changed so much in the last ten years. The change in economy from reliance on the auto industry to becoming a knowledge economy, through four universities, as well as Durham College, is credited as being the reason why more and more developers are seeing Oshawa’s potential. Exploring how much Oshawa has changed since it was first founded has always been a priority of the Thomas Bouckley Collection. Starting with Bouckley’s vision for documenting his changing city, to continuing that tradition through Then and Now projects, the collection visually tells Oshawa’s story. In continuation of the Then and Now series, the RMG has once again partnered with the Oshawa Senior Citizens’ Camera Club to show the area of Oshawa that perhaps has seen the most changes: the downtown.
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- Looking north up Simcoe Street at Four Corners, c. 1920
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- Simcoe St. at King St. looking North by Edward Warner
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- Looking north up Simcoe Street at Athol Street, 1944
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- Simcoe St. looking north from Athol St. by Graeme George
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- King St. E. just West of Celina looking North West by Denis Lalonde
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- Looking west on King St. E. at Celina Street, 1910
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- Looking south down Simcoe Street at Four Corners, 1908
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- Simcoe St. S. looking south from Four Corners by Alan Dionne
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- Looking east on King St. W. at Prince Street, 1910
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- King Street West looking East from Prince St.- by Graeme George
From its humble beginnings as a small settlement community to that of a large metropolitan city, Oshawa grew out of the intersection of King and Simcoe Streets known as the “Four Corners,” expanding and growing on all sides.
Similar to the Then and Now: Oshawa Creek project, members of the Oshawa Senior Citizens’ Camera Club used historical images from the Thomas Bouckley Collection as a starting point, and photographed the Four Corners as it appears today. This exhibition of side-by-side historical and contemporary photographs is also accompanied by a short video created by the club on the subject. On view until August 29, this exhibition celebrates our changing city!
Details about this exhibition on our website: click here.
