Historic Past, Promising Future: An Archival Research Project on Tourism and Identity in the Limestone City

Abstract

1973: The City of Kingston holds a year-long birthday celebration in honour of its 300th called Tercentenary. Planning for this event takes three years and ongoing consultation with major stakeholders in the city and its residents. This archival research presentation discusses the original motives behind the Tercentenary Committee and its members, the key events in both planning and execution of Tercentenary, and major festivities throughout the year and their impact on the Kingston community and the image of Kingston as a historic city. As with many other heritage tourism events, the City uses Tercentenary to solidify community identity and civic pride in order to further promote tourism and profits from visitors. Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities theory informs the project, alongside other Canadian examples of heritage tourism that shaped regional identity over the past century. Using these secondary sources, I will argue that the Committee(s) desire to tie the City’s Historic Past to its Promising Future shaped their perspectives on marketing Tercentenary to residents and Kingston stakeholders as much as to visitors. This project is one of the first in a new course offered in the History Department titled HIST 501: History/Queen’s Archives Internship. Students complete archival tasks such as indexing and minor preservation and can choose to partake in a personal research project.