History

February 14, 2025

Rediscovering ‘Journal’ history, one photo at a time

Queen’s history isn’t just written—it’s captured. From Princess Diana and King Charles’ Kingston visit in 1991 to The Tragically Hip’s snapshots before becoming legends, The Journal has a knack for capturing history as it unfolds.
February 7, 2025

History, identity, and community: The significance of Black hair

From a young age, Victoria Okwudi, Nurs ’25, was drawn to the art of braiding and styling Black hair. She grew up in iration of her aunt, who owned her very own salon, and revered all the “grown folks” getting their hair done while chatting about their grown-up lives.
January 24, 2025

Sir John A. Macdonald’s story began in Kingston, but where does it end?

Sir John A. Macdonald’s legacy is woven into Canada’s history, with Kingston as the loom where a lawyer’s ambitious beginnings shaped the nation’s fabric.

Kingston, the penitentiary, and corrections

September 2, 2022
Kingston Penitentiary, the oldest penitentiary in Canada, was built in 1833 and opened in 1835, predating Confederation. It operated for 178 years, closing in 2013 after being decommissioned by the federal government.

Unpacking the history of abortion and contraceptives in Canada

May 30, 2022
This article discusses unplanned pregnancy and may be triggering for some readers. The Queen’s Sexual Health Resource Centre (SHRC) can be reached at 613-533-2959. 

A century after Spanish Flu, Queen’s grapples with a new pandemic

March 27, 2020
On March 16, when Principal Patrick Deane ordered undergraduate classes suspended, it was the first time in more than 100 years Queen’s ceased academic operations because of a public health crisis, and only the second time in the University’s history. 

Beneath campus, an abandoned nuclear physics laboratory lies in decay

October 31, 2019
In the corner of a dusty basement classroom under Ontario Hall, a sign reading “danger, do not enter” is crudely taped to a door.

Where did all the feminism go?

October 18, 2019
Second-wave feminist issues, like birth control and abortion, don’t have the same visibility on campus today that they had in the 70s.

The year Rhinos invaded Queen’s

October 10, 2019
Birds have, for too long, held a monopoly as political parties’ mascots.

For Kingston Penitentiary, a dark history revisited

September 27, 2019
Canada’s most notorious prison officially closed its doors on Sept. 30, 2013. Now, in 2019, questions surrounding the legacy of the Kingston Penitentiary have risen to a fever pitch.

Queen’s in print

March 8, 2019
Queen’s legacy is incomplete without mention of its student newspaper—one of Canada’s oldest student publications, at over 140 years old. 

1940s era anti-Semitism crept onto campus

March 1, 2019
During World War II, Canadian campuses faced the anti-Semitism streaming out of Europe. 

The women of Queen’s, as told through their campus paper

November 29, 2018
The first female Editor in Chief of The Journal took over while World War I raged overseas.

A campus history written in war

November 16, 2018
It was 1919. For the students entering or returning to Queen’s after the Great War, campus wouldn’t be the same.

How a 1960s Queen’s student utopia fell from grace

October 19, 2018
Princess Towers—an aging 16-storey apartment building that looms over the Hub—began its life as a student-run utopian commune in the 1960s.