Mexico City Bus Tour

 

National Antropoloty Museum Mexico City

 

 

The National Museum of Anthropology (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Antropología, MNA) is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun (or the Aztec calendar stone) and the Aztec Xochipilli statue.

The museum (along with many other Mexican national and regional museums) is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History), or INAH. It was one of several museums opened by Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos in 1964.

Assessments of the museum vary, with one considering it "a national treasure and a symbol of identity. The museum is the synthesis of an ideological, scientific, and political feat."Octavio Paz criticized the museum's making the Mexica (Aztec) hall central, saying the "exaltation and glorification of Mexico-Tenochtitlan transforms the Museum of Anthropology into a temple.

 

Designed in 1964 by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Jorge Campuzano, and Rafael Mijares Alcérreca, the monumental building contains exhibition halls surrounding a courtyard with a huge pond and a vast square concrete umbrella supported by a single slender pillar (known as "el paraguas", Spanish for "the umbrella"). The halls are ringed by gardens, many of which contain outdoor exhibits. The museum has 23 rooms for exhibits and covers an area of 79,700 square meters (almost 8 hectares) or 857,890 square feet (almost 20 acres).  

At the end of the 18th century, by order of the viceroy of Bucareli, the items that formed part of the collection by Lorenzo Boturini — including the sculptures of Coatlicue and the Sun Stone — were placed in the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, forming the core of the collection that would become the National Museum of Anthropology.

On August 25, 1790, the Cabinet of Curiosities of Mexico (Gabinete de Historia Natural de México) was established by botanist José Longinos Martínez. During the 19th century, the museum was visited by internationally renowned scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt. In 1825, the first Mexican president, Guadalupe Victoria, advised by the historian Lucas Alamán, established the National Mexican Museum as an autonomous institution. In 1865, the Emperor Maximilian moved the museum to Calle de Moneda 13, to the former location of the Casa de Moneda. 

 

The museum's collections include the Stone of the Sun, giant stone heads of the Olmec civilization that were found in the jungles of Tabasco and Veracruz, treasures recovered from the Maya civilization, at the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, a replica of the sarcophagal lid from Pacal's tomb at Palenque and ethnological displays of contemporary rural Mexican life. It also has a model of the location and layout of the former Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, the site of which is now occupied by the central area of modern-day Mexico City.

The permanent exhibitions on the ground floor cover all pre-Columbian civilizations located on the current territory of Mexico as well as in former Mexican territory in what is today the southwestern United States. They are classified as North, West, Maya, Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Mexico, Toltec, and Teotihuacan. The permanent expositions at the first floor show the culture of Native American population of Mexico since the Spanish colonization.

 Source

Wikipedia

Concheros Aztec Dancers in Mexico City and the Dance Meaning

 

 

 

The Concheros dance, also known as the dance of the Chichimecas, Aztecas and Mexicas, is an important traditional dance and ceremony which has been performed in Mexico since early in the colonial period. It presents syncretic features both pre-Hispanic and Christian. The dance has strong visual markers of its pre-Hispanic roots with feathered regalia, indigenous dance steps and indigenous instruments such as drums. However, the name Concheros comes from a type of lute made with an armadillo shell, showing Spanish influence. The dance in its current form was the adaptation of the old “mitote” dance to Catholicism as a means of preserving some aspects of indigenous rite.

 It remained a purely religious ceremony until the mid 20th century when political and social changes in Mexico also gave it cultural significance as a folk dance. Since the later 20th century, a sub group of the dance called Mexicas has emerged with the aim of eliminating the European influence, often with political aims. This form of the dance migrated to the United States in the mid-1970s and can be seen in states such as California in Mexican American communities.

 Although the dance tradition has been known (especially in the U.S.) as "Aztec" or "Mexica," it is neither. The roots of the conchero dances (and thus the roots of the modern "Mexica" dances tradition is deeply rooted in the Chichimeca cultures of the north. 

The Otomi, Jonaz, Chichimeca, Caxcan, and other tribes never conquered by the Mexica, are the true roots of the Danza Conchera. Whereas the Mexi'ca rituals were based on solar concepts and values, the Chichimeca were rooted in selenic and stellar cosmology. Worship and honoring of family and cultural ancestors was a large part of the Chichimeca tradition. That is why today's conchero rituals always start at midnight, and include rituals to call "down" the spirits of the ancestors to bring purity for the following day's battle (dance ritual).

Puebla Mexic

Puebla de Zaragoza (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpweβla]; Nahuatl languages: Cuetlaxcoapan), formally Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, formerly Puebla de los Ángeles during colonial times, or known in English simply as Puebla, is the seat of Puebla Municipality. It is the capital and largest city of the state of Puebla, and the fourth largest city in Mexico, after Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara.^[2][3] A viceregal era planned city, it is located in the southern part of Central Mexico on the main route between Mexico City and Mexico's main Atlantic port, Veracruz—about 100 km (62 mi) east southeast of Mexico City and about 220 km (140 mi) west of Veracruz.^[4]

Puebla Puebla de Zaragoza Puebla de los Ángeles, Cuetlaxcoapan

Government
• Municipal President	Eduardo Rivera Pérez
Area
• Municipality	534.32 km2 (206.30 sq mi)
• Urban	68,987 km2 (269.48 sq mi)
Elevation  (of seat)	2,135 m (7,005 ft)
Population  (2020)
• Municipality	1,692,181
• Metro	3,199,530
Demonym(s)	Poblano, Angelopolitano
Time zone	UTC−6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Postal code (of seat)	72000
Area code(s)	222, 221
ISO 3166 code	MX-PUE
GDP	1.527 billion pesos[1]
Website	(in Spanish) Official site

The city was founded in 1531 in an area called Cuetlaxcoapan, which means "where serpents change their skin", between two of the main indigenous settlements at the time, Tlaxcala and Cholula.^[5] This valley was not populated in the 16th century, as in the pre-Hispanic period this area was primarily used for the "flower wars" between a number of populations.^{[6][failed verification][7]} Due to its history and architectural styles ranging from Renaissance to Mexican Baroque, the city was named a World Heritage Site in 1987. The city is also famous for mole poblano, chiles en nogada and Talavera pottery. However, most of its economy is based on industry.^[6]

Being both the fourth largest city in Mexico and the fourth largest Metropolitan area in Mexico, it has a current population of 3,250,000 people, and the city serves as one of the main hubs for eastern Central Mexico. Many students come from all over the country to study in its many renowned and prestigious universities, such as BUAP, UDLAP, Ibero, UPAEP, Tecnológico de Monterrey and Instituto Tecnológico de Puebla, among others. The city also excels in industry, having the world's largest Volkswagen factory outside Germany located in the Municipality of Cuautlancingo and an Audi plant in San José Chiapa that is the most technologically advanced plant in the western hemisphere. As a result, many suppliers to Volkswagen and Audi assembly plants have opened factories in the metropolitan area of Puebla.

The city was founded in 1531 within the Valley of Cuetlaxcoapan as a Spanish city, not on the foundation of an existing indigenous city-state. The official date of foundation is 16 April 1531, however, this first attempt at settlement failed due to constant flooding of the site right next to the river.^[10] Several rivers flow through the Valley of Puebla, the San Francisco, Atoyac and the Alseseca. This valley was bordered by the indigenous city-states turned colonial towns of Cholula, Tlaxcala, Huejotzingo and Tepeaca, all of which had large indigenous populations. After the city's foundation, this valley became the main route between Mexico City and Veracruz, the port on the Caribbean coast and the connection to Spain.

Puebla was an important city and region in the history of New Spain, since it was in the center region of Spanish settlement, midway between the main port and the capital, had a large indigenous population, and drew many Spanish settlers. It supplied the capital with commercially grown agricultural products and became a center of local textile production.^[13] It was well connected to Mexico's North, particularly the silver-mining region around Zacatecas.

Most of the population moved away from the west bank of the San Francisco River to a higher site. A few families remained behind and renamed the original settlement Alto de San Francisco. The Spanish Crown supported the founding of Puebla as a city without encomiendas, as this system was being abused and a number of Spaniards were finding themselves landless. Puebla received its coat-of-arms in 1538, and the titles "Noble y Leal" (Noble and Loyal) in 1558, "Muy Noble y Leal Ciudad" (Very Noble and Loyal City) in 1561 and "Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad" (Very Noble and Very Loyal City) in 1576.

Aztec Dance

The Aztec Dance is meditation in motion. It brings the dancers into a meditative state, with the repetitive rhythm and movement, channeling energy to the gods. This dance represents the connection between man and god, of body and soul. It is a form of prayer and communication.

The ritual dance was first performed on June 25, 1531, on the Cerro de Sangremal in the state of Querétaro, Mexico, said Iztli. Today, people call the tradition Conquest dance, Aztec dance or Chichimec dance, and the dancers Concheros. An Aztec dance song has different movements, which dancers classify by names.

The importance of dancing during Día de los Muertos is to pay homage to our ancestors. We dance to bring their spirits back to honor their lives. Dancing is the happiness and the gifts that we share and celebrate those who have passed on.

The Aztec Dance has been referred to as a form of prayer and a total way of life and communication. It is one of the few native dance rituals that permits the participation of women.

Elora Falls Ontario Canada

The Elora Gorge is one of the most spectacular natural areas in the Grand River valley.

Enjoy the mesmerizing nature and views of Elora during a hike around Elora Gorge Conservation Area. The area is full of breathtaking viewpoints where you can see the whole town.

Also, you can finish your walk on Elora Gorge Lookout —many spots to take pictures as well. The area is equipped with picnic tables, maps and parking spots.

Parkwood Estate Oshawa Robert Samuel McLaughlin former House

Heritage Oshawa owned Parkwood until the late 1980's. The National Historic Site company then bought over Parkwood and made it official. Marking Parkwood with the title of National Historic Site, it became a place where the public could come tour the 55-room mansion, home to Col. McLaughlin who created General Motors.

What has been filmed at Parkwood Estate?

Over the years, we have welcomed a long list of prominent film crews and actors to Parkwood, including X-Men, Mrs. America, Umbrealla Academy, Nightmare Alley, Hemlock Grove and Anne with an E, to name a few!

What did Sam McLaughlin do?

Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, CC ED CD (September 8, 1871 – January 6, 1972) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada.

Is Parkwood Estate free?

Free walk through the Gardens - Parkwood National Historic Site.

The residence was designed by Darling and Pearson, a noted Toronto architectural firm, with construction starting in 1916. In 1989, Parkwood was officially designated a National Historic Site, and tours are now given year-round.
Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, CC ED CD was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada. Wikipedia

Born: September 8, 1871, Clarington

Died: January 6, 1972, Oshawa

Award: Order of Canada

Children: Isabel McLaughlin, Eleanor McLaughlin Mann, more

His mansion, Parkwood Estate, begun in 1916, was designed by the Toronto architectural firm of Darling and Pearson. In 1989, the Parkwood estate was officially designated a National Historic Site by the federal government, on the recommendation of the national Historic Sites and Monuments Board.

Parkwood's architectural, landscape and interior designs are based on those of the 1920s and 1930s. The national Historic Sites and Monuments Board describes it as “a rare surviving example of the type of estate developed in Canada during the inter-war years, and is rarer still by its essentially intact condition, furnished and run to illustrate as it was lived within.”

Parkwood was the family home of the McLaughlins from 1917 until 1972. The federal government designated it a National Historic Site in 1989, and it was opened it to the public. R.S. McLaughlin was named a National Historic Person that same year.

The interiors at Parkwood represent early 20th century design and contain housewares, books, photographs and memorabilia, artwork, and trophies, all displayed in their original settings. Murals include works by Canadian artists Frederick Challener and Frederick Haines. Decorations include carved wood and plaster architectural finishes, as well as novelties such as hidden panels and stairways.

The 55 room mansion has 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²) of space, including the basement and third-floor servants' rooms.

The McLaughlin family had an avid interest in horticulture and landscaping, as evidenced by their eleven greenhouses and staff of 24 gardeners. McLaughlin sought out the best talent available to create the numerous gardens of his estate - Harries and Hall in the 1910s, the husband and wife team Howard and Lorrie Dunington-Grubb in the 1920s, and award winning architect John Lyle in the 1930s.

The Parkwood gardens have references to the great gardens of England and Europe, but with a 20th-century spirit. Much of the landscape design draws inspiration from the English Arts & Crafts gardening movement. This style called for a high degree of formality near the house, dissolving into less formal presentation with distance from the house, including a broad expanse of immaculate lawn.

The perimeters included denser woodland borders and the use of cedar hedges to sub-divide the landscape into formal garden spaces, recreation areas, and farming space for the production of cut flowers, fruits, and vegetables. The hedges served to prevent the viewing of the entire landscape all at once and were complemented by garden gates beckoning visitors to proceed through a sequence of garden views and experiences.

Shortly after the family took residence in 1917, landscape designers Harries & Hall were engaged to design a fitting setting for the mansion. This was achieved by linking each principal room of the house to a terrace or garden area just outside and finally out into the beautiful wooded park. The site was further refined during the early 1920s by H.B. and L.A. Dunington-Grubb. The husband and wife design team created spectacular outdoor “garden rooms” including the Italian Garden, Sundial Garden, Summer House and the Sunken Garden. They also refined the South Terrace and designed the intricate lattice fencing for the tennis court and Italian Garden. The Dunington-Grubbs were influential in the development of their profession, were the founding members of the Society of Landscape Architects as well as Sheridan Nurseries. Sheridan Nurseries is still thriving today and remain generous supporters of the Parkwood Foundation.

The last of the major additions to the gardens occurred between 1935–1936, with the commission of architect John Lyle to create the Formal Garden. Lyle was awarded the Bronze Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada for its design. The two-acre garden is in an art moderne style.^[3]

Then and now, the gardens are linked by theme and function to the Parkwood greenhouse complex. Three greenhouses are still used for the production of period and specialty plant materials. The greenhouses display palms, orchids, and tropical plants and are home to the Japanese Garden and the Greenhouse Tea Room. Today, the gardens of Parkwood have been restored to represent how they appeared in the 1930s.

McLaughlin was born near Bowmanville in the hamlet of Enniskillen, Ontario, the son of Robert McLaughlin and Mary Smith.^[1] As a young man, he worked for a short time in a local hardware store, then in 1887 became an apprentice in the upholstery shop of his father's company, McLaughlin Carriage Works,^[2] which had opened in 1867 and at one time was the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn buggies and sleighs in the British Empire.^{[citation needed]} In 1890, McLaughlin took a job at H. H. Babcock, an upholstery company in Watertown, New York.^[3]

In 1892, McLaughlin and his brother George become junior partners in their father's company. In 1898, he married Adelaide Mowbray.^[1]

With engines from William C. Durant of Buick, he produced the McLaughlin-Buick Model F, establishing The McLaughlin Motor Car Company, incorporated on November 20, 1907. In 1908, its first full year of operation, it produced 154 cars. In 1910, he became a director of General Motors. He sold his Chevrolet company stock in 1918, becoming president of General Motors of Canada, which continued to sell cars under the McLaughlin-Buick brand until 1942.

He retired in 1945, but remained chairman of the board until his death. He remained on the board of General Motors until the early 1960s, and was coincidentally replaced by Royal Bank of Canada president Earle McLaughlin, his first cousin once removed.

His older brother, chemist John J. McLaughlin (1865–1914), founded the Canada Dry company.^[4] After his brother's death in 1914, McLaughlin became president of this company briefly until it was sold around 1923.

McLaughlin was appointed as honorary lieutenant-colonel of the 34th Ontario Regiment in 1921. He held this position until 1931, at which time he was appointed as honorary colonel of the same unit, later designated as The Ontario Regiment (RCAC), a reserve armoured regiment based in Oshawa. Affectionately known as "Colonel Sam", McLaughlin served as honorary colonel until 1967, thereby becoming the longest continuously-serving colonel in the history of the Canadian Forces.

In 1967, McLaughlin was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada.

In 1951, he established the McLaughlin Foundation which, from 1953 to 2003, donated nearly $200 million to the University of Toronto and other causes, including the McLaughlin Planetarium at the Royal Ontario Museum.

McLaughlin was a major contributor to Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario. The university's Mechanical Engineering Department is housed in McLaughlin Hall, which was his donation in 1948. McLaughlin Hall in Queen's University's John Deutsch University Centre is also named for him. His wife, Adelaide McLaughlin, was honoured in 1957 by Queen's, which named the women's residence Adelaide Hall for her.

In 1947 McLaughlin and his wife donated land for a Boy Scout camp on the outskirts of Oshawa. The camp was named "Camp Samac".^[1]

McLaughlin donated $1 million to the 1968 library building at the University of Guelph, which bears his name.^[7]

He provided partial funding to build a college at York University in Toronto. Opened in 1968, it was named McLaughlin College in his honour.

McLaughlin Hall at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario, which he unveiled in 1971 at age 99, is named after him in recognition of his contributions to the school.

He endowed the Regimental Foundation of The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) and quietly paid the salaries of some of the regiment's soldiers during times of severely curtailed government funding.

McLaughlin House at the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific also bears his name.

He gave generously to the art community. Among other gifts, he gave Lawren Harris`s Pic Island, Arthur Lismer`s Bright Land, and Emily Carr`s Old Tree at Dusk to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg.

In his youth, McLaughlin competed in cycling and yachting, and he was an equestrian show jumping champion at competitions in Canada and the United States. His love of horses led to the establishment of Parkwood Stable, a thoroughbred horse racing and breeding farm located a few miles north of Oshawa, Ontario.

McLaughlin's horses won numerous races in Canada and in the U.S.; his horses won important races including the 1942 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park. A three-time winner of Canada's most prestigious race, the Queen's Plate, in 1934 his future Hall of Fame colt Horometer won both the Queen's Plate and the Breeders' Stakes. In 1950, the nearly eighty-year-old McLaughlin retired from racing, selling his Parkwood Stable to E. P. Taylor, under whom it would become known as Windfields Farm.

A long-time director of the Ontario Jockey Club, McLaughlin was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1963 and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1977.

McLAUGHLIN, ROBERT, manufacturer, office holder, and politician; b. 16 Nov. 1836 in Cavan Township, Upper Canada, eldest son of John McLaughlin and Eliza Rusk; m. first 5 Feb. 1864 Mary Smith (d. 1877), and they had two daughters and three sons, including John James* and Robert Samuel*; m. secondly 17 Jan. 1878 Sarah Jane Parr (d. 1899) in Oshawa, Ont.; m. thirdly 17 Dec. 1901 Eleanor McCulloch, née Smith (d. 1930), in East Whitby Township, Ont.; d. 23 Nov. 1921 in Oshawa.

Born on a farm near Millbrook of Irish Presbyterian immigrants, Robert McLaughlin moved with his family in 1837 to a lot near Tyrone, in Darlington Township, where he attended the local log school. His father wanted him to farm, but he preferred woodworking; his production of axe-handles and whiffletrees led him, guided by old issues of the Coachmakers’ Illustrated Monthly Magazine (Columbus, Ohio), to make his first cutters in 1863–64. In 1869 he moved to the village of Enniskillen, where he built a carriage works, which, in 1871 at least, he operated in partnership with Daniel Kernick. A participant as a youth in daily readings of the Bible with his family, in Enniskillen he taught Sunday school in the Presbyterian church.

Attentive to his accounts and the quality of his materials, McLaughlin achieved modest prosperity, though competing with cheap, machine-made American imports in the 1870s was “an uphill fight,” according to Industrial Canada (Toronto). By mid 1877 he had concluded that moving to a larger centre would be necessary for continued growth, and to provide a fresh start for his family. In March 1877 his wife had died of consumption, leaving him with five children, whose life worsened when their busy father married the tyrannical Sarah Jane Parr, apparently an employee in their household. It is impossible to say how long it took Robert to admit her harmful impact.

By January 1878 the McLaughlins had relocated to Oshawa, on Lake Ontario and near the Grand Trunk Railway. Local competitors, even relatives, doubted Robert’s chances of success, but his sale of some land and a loan from the local Western Bank of Canada, whose president was also one of his iron suppliers, allowed him to build the Oshawa Carriage Works, a three-storey brick factory. Expansion of the company, which became known as McLaughlin Carriage about 1884, was facilitated by careful costing, new designs (some influenced by Carriage Monthly, a Philadelphia journal), and aggressive marketing, especially of the gear (the front-end turning and coupling mechanism) McLaughlin had first patented in 1880. His letter-books for the late 1870s and the 1880s show the square-dealing McLaughlin in his element: selling, coordinating orders of wood and hardware, resolving disputes, hiring and firing, protecting his patents (and buying others), refining carriage mechanisms, tabulating the credit ratings of potential retailers across Canada, and pushing and humouring agents in the field. “Don’t stay to talk to doubtful marks, go for the good ones,” he advised a company traveller who was working Ontario in 1886. In areas where he had no agents, he quietly placed one of his “best buggies” to attract interest. Only rarely do personal matters intrude in this correspondence, in occasional letters to his ageing father and one in January 1885 to his eldest son John, a pharmacy student in Toronto, admonishing him to wear underclothes, for better health.

The continued growth in the 1890s of the mostly wholesale business of McLaughlin Carriage is all the more impressive given that the trade in Ontario experienced some decline in this decade, McLaughlin’s pieces were not the cheapest, and Robert Lindsay Torrance (head of J. B Armstrong and Company) of Guelph, Robert Gray of Chatham, and James Brockett Tudhope of Orillia all offered serious competition. Using a catchy motto (“One grade only, and that the best”), warranties, and easily recognized trademarks, McLaughlin promoted his works in his catalogues as “the best equipped and most extensive Factory in the Dominion.” An attempted partnership in 1889 involving his son John had not worked out, but McLaughlin made his other boys junior partners in 1892: George William, who had entered the works as an apprentice in 1885, was quiet and steady; Sam, who began in upholstery in 1887 and moved up to design, was outgoing and restless. In December 1896 (by which time their stepmother had left, evidently under pressure from the whole family), George was sent to Saint John to open the firm’s first branch and find retailers in the Maritimes. By 1899 McLaughlin had an annual output of 2,500 cutters and sleighs and an equal number of carriages, in a wide array of models. Thin rubber tires began appearing on models in 1901 and two years later fenders and bicycle-style wire wheels with pneumatic tires were offered. Around 1908 his catalogues became bilingual.

In Oshawa the abstemious McLaughlin had established a daunting presence: he was a member of the town’s first board of health (1884) and its first board of water commissioners (1904), a school trustee and municipal councillor, mayor in 1899, a supporter of the Salvation Army, first president of the local Young Men’s Christian Association, a freemason and a Templar, and an elder in St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Behind a front of modesty lay a calculating businessman. As is evidenced by his caustic letters in the local press, he did not treat critics lightly, nor did he tolerate lax or intemperate workers. To move his vehicles more efficiently to the Grand Trunk’s main line, he invested in the construction in 1895 of the Oshawa Railway, which local ratepayers strenuously opposed. After fire destroyed his works in December 1899, numerous towns jostled to land his business; McLaughlin accepted space in Gananoque, near two of his main suppliers, Gananoque Spring and Axle and George Gillies’s forgery. McLaughlin’s professed loyalty to Oshawa and its unabashed offer of a $50,000 loan to finance rebuilding, which McLaughlin (though heavily insured) took after resigning as mayor, brought the business back. He also seized the opportunity to renegotiate his freight rates with the Grand Trunk. By November 1900 a new factory had been completed. Additional buildings would be needed over the following decade, the cornerstone for one being laid in October 1902 by the Liberal minister of public works, Joseph-Israël Tarte*.

The previous year the now widowed McLaughlin was living on Colborne Street with a servant and his 34-year-old daughter Mary Jane. Though he had never indulged his daughters, and Mary Jane had run away from home in her youth, they adored their father. His remarriage in 1901 was welcomed by the family, who liked Eleanor McCulloch and whatever comfort she restored to McLaughlin’s life. In his sixties he showed no sign of slowing down or of giving way to the new, automotive form of transportation. Boosted as the largest carriage maker in the British empire – its output would reach more than 14,000 units in 1904 – the McLaughlin Carriage Company Limited was provincially incorporated on 7 Aug 1901. In February 1903, when 263 carriage workers struck for union recognition and a wage increase, a comfortably positioned McLaughlin opened his books to show that they were the highest paid employees in Oshawa, and the strike petered out. Automobiles were initially treated with disdain. Company calendars for 1903–6 depict high-stepping horses and carriages overtaking crashed motor cars and injured drivers. Sam nevertheless caught the fever: in 1904–5 he excitedly explored the prospect of making automobiles in Oshawa, and his purchase in Toronto in 1906 of an American-made, two-cylinder Buick focused his search. A business plan worked out by Sam and George was, to their surprise, approved by the elder McLaughlin, who, Sam later explained, now thought automobiles would be a worthwhile sideline. Robert McLaughlin most likely had a hand in drafting the contract offered three Detroit tradesmen in February 1907 to come as foremen to build “elegant and marketable” autos using American chassis. This arrangement collapsed, as did another that summer to bring in an American engineer to make parts and import others for a prototype. Sam, who with George had already borrowed heavily and started advertising, quickly struck a deal for the purchase of chassis from the Buick Motor Company of Michigan, which was eager to capitalize on the McLaughlins’ situation and the Canadian tariff breaks on imported parts. This branch-plant deal was formally accepted on 3 Oct 1907 by Robert McLaughlin as president of McLaughlin Carriage. On 20. November the McLaughlin Motor Car Company Limited was provincially incorporated with Sam as president and George as vice-president, though their father held the controlling interest. Starting with a payroll of three under the management of E. W Drew, the new company assembled 154 McLaughlin-Buicks in 1908; their debut at the Toronto automobile show in March of that year received only modest recognition. The McLaughlins made the bodies, which reflected a carriage-craft origin, especially in their folding tops and finely finished mahogany panelling and windshield frames. The McLaughlin-Buicks fell into a medium-price sector, closer to Oldsmobiles than to the cheap Fords being assembled in Walkerville (Windsor), Ont. [see Gordon Morton McGregor]. In a market where all domestic producers offered some statement of Canadian origin, McLaughlin Sr did not hesitate to let his carriage company’s reputation enter the early advertising for McLaughlin-Buicks.

With carriage and automobile production gradually climbing, McLaughlin properly credited his sons, but he still put in long hours at work. In addition, in 1907 he had joined the Western Bank as a director. The Governor, as he was called, rarely took vacations and generally remained aloof publicly, preferring to fraternize (and spit tobacco) on his shop floors. Only the family knew the extent of his warmth, gentle humour, and kindly gestures. His recreations were limited to his grandchildren, his dog, landscape painting, and his player-piano (Scottish tunes were his favourites); if he did not like the programmed sound of pieces, he would remove and alter the music rolls. In his art, amateurish and repetitive though it was, the one-time carriage painter could still display a workmanlike handling of colours. A Liberal in politics and a member of the executive council of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, he followed national developments in the realm of trade. He had been described in the Canadian album in 1893 as “a Reformer who is not afraid of competition from manufacturers south of the Boundary Line, and believes in gradual tariff reform, looking toward free trade.” Over time he reversed himself. After years of benefiting from Canada’s protective tariffs, on carriages and then automobiles, he felt strongly about the shift of the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier* in 1910–11 towards reciprocal trade with the United States. Canadian auto makers were split on the issue; McLaughlin, like most, was convinced that his firm would suffer.

In June 1910 he politely asked Laurier to maintain existing tariffs. He shared with him two letters he had written to the editor of the Toronto Globe, James Alexander Macdonald, in opposition to reciprocity. The first was a detailed argument for continuing the tariff structure. Not wishing to tangle openly with the “free traders,” he told Macdonald in his covering letter that he did not want to publish what he had written, but he did want to make a case. The government’s announcement of talks with the Americans, he claimed, had cost him a half-million dollar investment in Oshawa by an unnamed but “very wealthy Auto Car Company” in the United States. Even if it was true about the withdrawal – the loquacious Sam would never mention it – it failed to move the prime minister, who, inundated with grievances from other industrialists, merely thanked McLaughlin for his opinion. In January 1911 McLaughlin was part of the delegation of “representative manufacturers” who waited upon the government, again to no effect. In September he attacked Laurier’s free-trade policy on the front page of the Globe and threatened to leave the party. In the event, the Liberals went down to defeat days later, reciprocity died, and McLaughlin and other members of the CMA resumed a more relaxed consideration of industrial concerns. In November McLaughlin became its Ontario vice-president.

Between 1912 and 1915 he carefully gauged both the decline of carriage sales and Sam’s ongoing pains to attract the attention and respect of kingpins in the fast-moving American auto industry. To allow for the production of the highly marketable Chevrolet, an addition lined up by Sam (possibly without his father’s knowledge), McLaughlin agreed in 1915 to dispose of the carriage company’s business, again to the mild surprise of his sons. Recognizing the opportunity for clear transitions, McLaughlin was probably relieved too: he was determined not to see his sons shackled, Carriage Factories Limited (Tudhope’s firm in Orillia) was a willing buyer, and, as is evident from his explanation to his carriage agents in November 1915, he was not blind to the inroads made by the gasoline engine. McLaughlin Carriage nonetheless continued as the holding company and McLaughlin Sr remained its nominal president. Though he was not a natural car man (despite his admitted “mechanical turn”), he still had some practical involvement, as buyer of the wood that went into the auto bodies. When his sons pressured him about 1916 to give up this role, he became irritated – he was the head, he knew woods inside out, and he still knew how to marshal support in the “Manchester of Canada,” as Oshawa styled itself. In August 1916, when his works were being expanded for the assembly of Chevrolets, he signed an agreement on behalf of McLaughlin Carriage whereby the city agreed to fix the company’s assessment and facilitate better railway shipping.

Automobiles apparently did not excite the unimpressionable McLaughlin. When Sam took him for a ride in a model with raised windows, a granddaughter recalled, the Governor’s habit of turning aside to spit tobacco juice produced a mess unnoticed by the bespectacled gentleman with the white beard. In November 1918 McLaughlin Carriage, McLaughlin Motor Car, and the Chevrolet Motor Car Company of Canada Limited were formally taken over by General Motors, though how McLaughlin, then nearing. 82 and out of the negotiations, felt about the loss of his business is uncertain. He retained an office – he painted there as well as at home – and would have been aware of GM’s methodical replacement of executives, expansion of the Oshawa works, and construction of a motor plant in Walkerville. Birthday banquets in 1919 and 1920 kept him in touch with carriage-making old-timers. In November 1919 he was genuinely pleased to reminisce with a Globe reporter, who unwittingly brought out McLaughlin’s commitment to ongoing learning, a factor perhaps in his industrial evolution. One of his last public appearances in Oshawa was at the opening on 25 Sept. 1920 of Lakeview Park, which he donated to the city.

McLaughlin had not seemed ill for long before he died in November 1921 of colon cancer. From his deathbed he consoled his fearful grandchildren and bid farewell to veteran carriagemen. Press coverage of his passing ranged from the banner headlines of the Oshawa Reformer to the brief notice in Automotive Industries (New York), date line Detroit. Dignitaries from across Canada descended on Oshawa for the funeral, factories and stores closed, and a line of McLaughlin-Buicks conveyed the floral tributes from St Andrew’s Church to Union Cemetery. McLaughlin left an estate valued at $496,288, much of it in shares in GM, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Canada, and the Robert Simpson Company. Under the terms of his will he compensated his daughters for their small share in the sale to GM, and bequests were made to the Muskoka Cottage Sanatorium near Gravenhurst, the Queen Mary Hospital for consumptive children at Weston (Toronto), the Oshawa General Hospital, and the Children’s Shelter of Ontario County, also in Oshawa. After 1921 McLaughlin underwent a kind of corporate sanctification, hastened by George and Sam’s gifts as raconteurs and by Oshawa’s continued reverence.

David Robe

Link

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mclaughlin_robert_15E.html