Lives of the First World War

The Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital opened in Toronto, Canada, in 1919, in a building that had originally housed the National Cash Register Company's factory. The factory was converted into a hospital to serve soldiers who had been wounded in WW1. Some time in the 1920s, an unusual book was put together, titled "Illustrated Souvenir: Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital" and filled with snapshots of patients and staff, and an alphabetical list of names running into the thousands. The book's introduction by Dr. Charles Stanley McVicar states "It is much more interesting, and less fatiguing, to recall past experiences by pictures, pen pictures, photographs or sketches than by a studied review of dull statistics or accurate figures. So we present this pictorial review of the activities and personalities of the D.O.H. We present it with the consciousness that it may leave out much, and that it may fail in accuracy of proportion, but it may serve to commemorate a great Canadian Institution." This community draws from the "Illustrated Souvenir" and a variety of other sources to bring together patients and staff of the hospital.

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