Off the Shelf Blogs

Sometimes you hear about a life that is so grand and full of adventure almost seems impossible. Affectionally known as the Lady Lumberjack, Dorothea Mitchell settled in the Thunder Bay District and led a life full of adventure. Dorothea was a force of nature up until her death in 1976. She never let age nor…

Over two decades before a public library was established in Port Arthur, then Prince Arthur’s Landing, there was the Mechanics’ Institute. The Institute began in 1876 would put on classes and operate a reading room with books for leisure and for learning. In 1907, Port Arthur's Town Hall burned to the ground, resulting in the…

Floor space is not a new issue for the Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) system. In 1951 what is now the Waverley Library was built and the Port Arthur Public Library moved operations to the new location. In 1974 a new addition was built onto Waverley to meet the needs of the public who utilized…

In early September 1916, halfway through the First World War, two haggard Allied soldiers crept toward the barbed wire entanglements surrounding their heavily guarded German prisoner-of-war camp. They had been captured months earlier and had spent weeks carefully planning their escape. Up to this point in the war, no one had ever escaped from German…