About Me


I am an author, photographer and historian. My photography and books focus on rail transportation and my academic work headed in the same direction. My doctoral research focused on the Ontario Northland Railway and its relationship with Indigenous communities in the James Bay region of Northern Ontario. More broadly, I am interested in Canadian and American history from the late 19th century to the present. My dissertation can be downloaded here.

Some of my previous academic work has included an undergraduate dissertation on the history of the Toronto Jewish community after 1948. My research examined the relationship between the Toronto Jewish community, Israel, and fundraising efforts. My work was profiled by the Ontario Jewish Archives here. The project - A United Jewish Appeal? Fundraising and Identity in Toronto's Jewish Community, 1948-1975 - was completed in April 2014. A copy of the completed work is now available at the Ontario Jewish Archives in Toronto. I have also conducted undergraduate and graduate research into tourism in the Canal Zone during the construction of the Panama Canal. My MA project focused on the history of model railways in Canada, the U.S., and Great Britain.

- Thomas Blampied, December 2022