This site started as a scrapbook project, collecting images of the old streets in Stratford. That itself was interesting to me.

The Streets of Stratford website was created in collaboration with the Stratford-Perth Archives and inputs from many Stratford people.

At the beginning this site was prepared by Paul Wilker who scanned old scrapbooks that contained a series of 180 articles in the Stratford Beacon Herald about the Streets of Stratford. They were written by Stanford Dingman over a period of four years in the early 1980s. There was also a supplement called Streets of Stratford in 2004 in the Stratford Beacon Herald that added more streets. Since March 2021 this project grew with the addition of stories about people and places that were on various websites and pictures and stories contributed by Stratford residents.

Canadian Architect is a magazine for architects and related professionals practicing in Canada and has been in continuous publication since 1955. This national review of design and practice documents significant architecture and design from across the country and features articles on current practice, building technology, and social issues affecting architecture.

Canadian Architect is the journal of record of two national professional associations: the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the AIA Canada Society and is the official magazine of each association – carrying both the RAIC Journal and the AIA Canada Journal within the pages of Canadian Architect magazine.

I would include my photos here but... I don't like the idea of giving them free for commercial use. Yes, I know how easy it is to steal/borrow them anyway, but I like to imagine people using them commercially would at least offer some payment. At least add a few dollars to PayPal or kofi for me. So, I'm joining the site, and I might include some photos, but not my best or favourites. Something, but not everything.

Turns out there is a pay per month version of the site with more features including a bit of photo editing (not enough versus just using Canva as I have been, free).

Unsplash License:

Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use images from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash. This license does not include the right to compile images from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.

Ashley - writer and researcher . I started this website in the summer of 2020. I combined my two favourite things — ghost stories and history — and found an escape from the boredom of lockdown by sharing some of my favourite strange histories.

Researching has been one of my pastimes for as long as I can remember and I was lucky enough to find my own corner of academia after a few years of trial and error. I have a BA and MA in the History of Art from two Canadian universities and I focused my graduate research on monstrosity and hybridity in medieval sculpture (or to put it another way, I wrote about dragons and monsters in medieval Christian art for two years… not a bad gig). Following the completion of my Master’s degree I moved from my home country of Canada to the United Kingdom, met my husband, and decided to make this lovely country my new home. We have two children (our spoiled cat and rabbit) and live on the beautiful and very haunted Isle of Wight off the coast of England. Outside of Curious Archive I enjoy reading speculative fiction, watching kdramas, and listening to a near obsessive amount of music.

But enough about me… what is Curious Archive?

This is first and foremost a website that explores my love of history. The type of history I’m interested in isn’t necessarily found in high school textbooks, but it’s still an important one to to talk about. People might turn their nose up at conversations surrounding ghost stories, UFO sightings, cryptids, urban legends, and conspiracy theories, but these beliefs are part of what makes humankind so fascinating. And it’s the history – the truth – behind these beliefs that I find so interesting. Why is a particular house thought to be haunted? Why did an artist paint something so disturbing and bizarre? What happened in a small town that inspired a gruesome urban legend? Where did the fear of ‘secret societies’ come from? A large part of answering these questions is looking to history, whether that’s through news reports, eye-witness accounts, primary documentation or academic analysis. This type of research also requires some suspension of disbelief. If a group of people think an old mill down the road is haunted, it doesn’t matter if I think it’s true. The fact that they do is what I’m interested in.

Initially, Curious Archive was meant to focus specifically on the United Kingdom. However, as of 2022 I’ve expanded to include stories and places from countries around the world. Our planet is too big and too weird to limit my research to one location! I hope to continue sharing strange and wonderful stories, artwork, and histories from different countries around the world and develop Curious Archive into an extensive database exploring the weird and wacky side of human history.

No updates since 2025. But, I liked the site, hope it gets another chance to shine.

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Adam Harrison - Founder & Editor

Adam Harrison is an Alberta-based writer and the founder of Culture Alberta. He covers local events, food, arts, and community stories across Calgary, Edmonton, and communities throughout Alberta. Adam launched Culture Alberta to give Albertans a single trusted source for everything happening in the province — from weekend events to practical guides on Alberta programs and resources.