The Dufferin County Museum and Archives will present a series of Saturday afternoon talks beginning with “From Hands Now Striving to Be Free,” featuring prisoners’ boxes from the 1837 Rebellion.

Following the failure of the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada (now Ontario) hundreds of men were thrown into Toronto’s jail and held for months without trial.

Many began to make small wooden boxes (more than 100 have been identified), for family or friends, inscribed poems and quotations – sentimental, religious, and especially political. Those men facing penitentiary sentences were anything but penitent.

Chris Raible will share the stories of several of these prisoners and discuss what the boxes reveal about the men who joined in rebellion against British rule.

Mr. Raible is the author of many books, including The Power of the Press: The Story of Early Canadian Printers and Publishers, and has two books on the political and journalistic career of William Lyon Mackenzie and many articles and reviews for The Beaver, Ontario History, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and other periodicals.

In 1995, Chris and his wife Pat created the Curiosity House bookstore in Creemore, where they continue to live in active retirement.

Darryl Withrow, as a teacher with the Toronto Board of Education, learned of these boxes four years ago and quickly realized that no one had documented these artifacts. So he and his wife decided to fill in that particular hole in history. Since then they have traveled the width of the province, seen, photographed and measured 62 boxes and in the meantime helped find a number of boxes whose whereabouts was unknown.

Mr. Withrow realized that these boxes would never be seen in a collection. They were too spread out, and gathering them in one place would be a tremendous undertaking. Because of this he asked all box owners with whom he had visited for permission to recreate one replica of their box. To date he has recreated 20 boxes and therefore have started a collection of boxes which could not be viewed together outside of these replicas. He will be on hand to show prisoners’ boxes he has made.

The first of the six presentations, “From Hands Now Striving to Be Free,” prisoners’ boxes from the 1837 Rebellion will take place on Saturday, April 24, at 2 p.m. at the Dufferin County Museum and Archives. Regular Museum admission applies, but seating is limited. Call to reserve a seat today. 1-877-941-7787.