An Unrecognized Contribution

Women and Their Work in 19th-Century Toronto
Women in nineteenth-century Toronto owned factories and stores, were involved in professions and vocations, and were not housebound uneducated women as historians generally suggest. Elizabeth Gillan Muir shows how wide-ranging women’s activities were — from owning taverns, schools, and market gardens to working as doctors, musicians, and butchers.

A treasure trove of incredible lives lived.
— RICK MERCER, comedian and author

Muir sets out to restore the faces of women who worked and struggled in nineteenth-century Toronto. A fascinating read.
— WARREN CLEMENTS, author and publisher

Emphasizes the enormously influential role women had in laying the groundwork for life in the city today.
— DR. ROSE A. DYSON, author of Mind Abuse: Media Violence and Its Threat to Democracy

Women in nineteenth-century Toronto were integral to the life of the growing city. They contributed to the city’s commerce and were owners of stores, factories, brickyards, market gardens, hotels, and taverns; as musicians, painters, and writers, they were a large part of the city’s cultural life; and as nurses, doctors, religious workers, and activists, they strengthened the city’s safety net for those who were most in need.

Their stories are told in this wide-ranging collection of biographies, the result of Muir’s research on early street directories and city histories, personal diaries, and other historical works. Muir references over four hundred women, many of whom are discussed in detail, and describes the work they undertook during a period of great change for Toronto.

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