Anthropology in Toronto

Yesterday I spent my day at the Spadina Museum with my girlfriend Victoria Costa. We planned on going there for a while, when we first went to Casa Loma last year, we decided that we had to at least visit once. So we finally got around to it a year later and it was such an enriching experience. It was a guided tour with a small intimate group of 6, including Victoria and I. To dive into the actual experience, our guide was named Cathy (short for Catherine) and she was very informative about all of the cultural details of the home and also the aesthetics of how the house was designed including minor details about carpets used, furniture, wallpaper and paintings. We were told the home began construction in 1866 and originally acquired by James Austin from the previous owner William Warren Baldwin. James Austin was the founder of Dominion Bank and Consumers Gas to give a little background on his history. All the additions to the home were completed by 1912. A little fun fact that Cathy shared with us was that the Eatons family were neighbors to the Austins. We also got to see who in the lineage of the Austin family still remains, which was a cool modern perspective at their place in history. Because the estate was built on a hill, it was named Spadina house; Spadina stands for sudden rise of land. That's why Spadina Museum and Casa Loma are on such a high perch. As a summary, we learned a lot about the impact the Austin family had on Toronto financially and how Toronto developed culturally in the 1920s. We learned a lot about the smaller intricacies of the Austin family as well, such as the clubs they were involved in that added to their prestige and their musical endeavors. Overall it was a great experience. A few weeks ago, I made a vow to myself that I would start taking more initiative in my field and become educated in all aspects of our cultural history and other aspects of human development. I'm an Anthropologist in the making, and this experience only helped affirm that conviction I felt.

 Main Entrance

 Garden design at Front entrance

 Front foyer

Indoor garden

 Informal business room

 One of the family rooms

 

Old Canned foods (Servants kitchen)

 One of the beautiful displayed throughout the home

Old newspaper articles

Victoria by the window in one the servants' rooms on the 3rd floor

The archaeological finds from the Spadina house site

Archaeological finds cont'

Archaeological finds cont' 

Me in front of the Spadina Museum, Anthropologist in the making

Victoria in front of the Spadina Museum