Voices from the Vault
Audiograms
The Canadian Passages project transforms written archival materials—such as letters, diaries, and essays—into audiocasts. These portable narratives offer a flexible way to interact with rich historical content. Our innovative approach makes history more accessible, engaging, and impactful. With a focus on Canadian subjects, the writing contains diverse topics and viewpoints. Preserving and sharing these stories helps connect with our heritage.
Audio breathes new life into archival texts
Stories
Giving a voice to historical writing, literally
Applying digital technology to the writing lets the audience listen to the words as if the writer were reading them aloud. Most of the writing featured has never been seen by the public and contains personal accounts of historical events and unique insights into our past. While the stories come from the naval world, our hope is to translate specialized history into universally relatable human experience.
Approach
Many documentaries rely on historians to describe and interpret events with quotes from eyewitnesses or interviews with participants done long after. Our approach is to use the words penned at or near the time by those who were there. The audience hears the accounts as they were written. Commentary provides background information and context without opinions.
The words as they were written
Subjects
Patrick Willet Brock & Roland Bourke
The content for this project comes from the archives of the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum. Our first subject is Rear Admiral Patrick Willet Brock, nicknamed Canada Brock in the Royal Navy, without whom this project would not have happened. Canadian Passages hopes to create audiograms from the writings of other subjects contained in the archives of CFB Esquimalt, and we are currently working on audiograms for Roland Bourke, VC, DSO.
Audiograms
View the Canadian Passages YouTube channel trailer below. When new audiograms have been posted, they will appear on the Audiograms page and on YouTube at @canadianpassages.