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Founded in 1897 by C.L.M. Harris as the Hamilton Conservatory of Music (HCM), the conservatory provided higher education in music with focus in piano, strings, winds, organ and guitar, as well as art, physical culture, dance, musical kindergarten and elocution. The conservatory was originally located in the former home of Robert Steele, and in 1899, the conservatory moved to Main and Charles Streets. In 1904, the conservatory moved to its permanent home on James Street South with studio space on the first floor, a recital hall on the second floor, and a meeting room in the basement.

Under Harris' directorship, the conservatory was incorporated by the province of Ontario in 1902, and two years later was affiliated with the University of Toronto as a means to prepare students for the Bachelor in Music from the university. The affiliation ended in 1918, when the HCM began to offer a competing system of examinations. Harris was succeeded by J.E.P. Aldous, W.H. Hewlett, and Bruce Carey who oversaw the administrative functions of the conservatory and presented internationally known artists in the recital hall. After Carey resigned, Hewlett began the first principal of the conservatory.

On May 15, 1965, the conservatory received a royal charter and changed its name to the Royal Hamilton College of Music. During this process, the conservatory renamed its associate diploma (AHCM) in piano, violin, voice, speech arts and drama to ARHCM, and expanded to offer a licentiate diploma (LRHCM) and an honorary fellow's degree (FRHCM).

The conservatory expanded its program to include courses in Suzuki string method, jazz, theatre, and the visual arts. The conservatory also physically grew to offer five branches in the Hamilton area and maintained branches in Windsor, Leamington and Oakville, Ontario.

The college closed in 1980 due to financial problems.

The Royal Court Entertainers were an amateur concert party consisting of nine members: Mary Hanson, Dorothy Sommerville, Hazel Phillips, Mary Grant, Ethel Morris, Frederick Davidson, Howard Wilson Jerome, Richard Fairs, and Leslie Sommerville. From 1937-1941, they performed old fashioned choruses, humorous sketches and dances for personal parties, garden parties and group events.

The Player’s Guild of Hamilton was founded in 1875 as the Hamilton Garrick Club after founder David Garrick. After a period of decline post-World War 1, the club was re-established by Caroline Crerar in 1929 under the name ‘The Player’s Guild’. In 1951 the guild bought the property at Queens Street South and Jackson Street West and remained at the location ever since.

The Birth Control Society of Hamilton, later Planned Parenthood, was the first clinic of its kind in Canada. The clinic opened March 3, 1932 to disseminate family planning information and contraceptives. The clinic operated outside of Canadian law until 1969 when its practices were decriminalized by act of parliament.

The Otis Elevator Company was founded in the United States in 1811 by Elisha Otis. In 1902 it expanded into Canada, setting up headquarters in Hamilton forming the Canadian Otis Elevator Company. However, it was in direct competition with the Canadian Fensom Elevator Company for the limited Canadian market. Rather than competing for market shares in a small market, both companies agreed to merge in 1905 under the name, Otis-Fensom Elevator Company Limited. The company flourished in the following years, playing a significant manufacturing role in the two world wars. In 1949, the company renamed itself the Otis Elevator Company Limited. Otis Elevator is a subsidiary of the American Otis Elevator Company, which itself is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation.

The Optimist Club was first founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1919. The first Hamilton branch of the Optimist Club was founded in 1924. The Optimist Club of Hamilton is the second oldest of the chartered Optimist Clubs in Canada. As a service club, the Optimists work towards the betterment of their community with a focus on the youth. Examples of Optimist Club works include Bike-A-Thons, garden and ladies’ nights, fundraisers and tournaments. Currently, there are more than 3 chartered Optimists Clubs operating in the Hamilton area, serving their community.

Opera Hamilton was founded in 1980. Prior to its creation in 1976, Italian opera companies were invited to perform for Hamilton's Festitalia, a celebration of Italian culture. Due to the problems and costs associated with importing entire productions from Italy, Festitalia decided to produce its own operas starting in 1979. The following year Opera Hamilton was created with plans to perform two productions annually at Hamilton Place. At the end of their first season, Steven Thomas was appointed artistic director, Boris Brott was musical director, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra was the resident orchestra. Opera Hamilton also had agreements with CHCH TV to broadcast a television production of one opera each year.

Conductor Daniel Lipton was appointed to the role of artistic director for the 1986-7 season. Under his leadership, the company improved many aspects of its productions and continued to build a strong audience on the foundations of Italian 19th-century opera. In addition to standard repertoire, Lipton introduced the successful 'Popera' concerts in 1987 to showcase leading operatic soloists, including many Canadians, in concert performances of popular operatic excerpts. In 1989, Lipton expanded the Opera Hamilton season to three productions.

In 1995, plans to expand and share resources with the nearby city of Kitchener led to the creation of the operatic partnership known as Opera Ontario. As Opera Ontario, the company began to mount its productions in Hamilton and repeat them in Kitchener. The company announced their claim for bankruptcy in January of 2014 and ceased operations following years of financial struggles.

Bruce William New was born in Toronto in 1944. New graduated from Downsview Collegiate and pursued a brief career in industrial accounting before going into several entrepreneurial businesses including trucking, a dealership, a sales agency and a tour company. New lives in Hamilton and Largo, Florida.

Hamilton born and raised live music photographer

Bruce “The Mole” Mowat was a prominent member of the Hamilton music scene in the 1990s. Bruce was on the pulse of obscure, new and up-and-coming artists. He was the founder of the defunct record label, Mole Records, which produced three releases, including Cyborg Revisited by Simply Saucer. He was a regular contributor to the EGO section of the Hamilton Spectator throughout the 1990s in addition to other publications in Montreal and Toronto. The focus of his pieces in the Spectator highlighted new band recommendation. He currently resides in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

James Winslow Mortimer was a Canadian comic book and comic strip artist, best known for his illustrations on the Superman comic. He was born in Hamilton on May 1, 1919. He attended the Stinson Street School and Central Collegiate. He studied art at the New York Art League and later studied anatomy under George Bridgeman in New York. In 1940, Mortimer enlisted into the Canadian Army, but was discharged after a brief training period for medical reasons. In 1943, he was employed at Otis Elevators in Hamilton where he illustrated propaganda posters for the company. After the Second War World, Mortimer moved to New York where he joined DC Comics and ghosted the Superman daily comic strip. He became the cover artist for Superman, Batman and Superboy comics. In 1955, Mortimer began his own comic strip entitled "David Crane" a story about a young minister and his wife and their difficulties in building a parish in a rural community. In 1960, he illustrated the strip "Larry Brannon" for The Toronto Star. He returned to DC Comics to illustrate. In 1983, Mortimer left comics for advertising and commercial art to work for Neal Adam's studio at Continuity Associates. Winslow Mortimer died on January 11, 1998. In 2006, Mortimer was inducted into the Joe Shuster Hall of Fame.

John Morris was an amateur photographer, first in Grimsby, (his birthplace), then in Toronto, where as a member of the Toronto Camera Club he became actively involved in salon exhibition work during the 1920s and exhibiting in such salons as the Toronto International, the Pittsburgh, and the Buffalo. In the 1930s, he worked in several Toronto professional studios; during the Second World War he was responsible for the RCAF, Ontario Command photographic operations; and after the War he settled in Hamilton where he operated his own professional studio until the early 1970s. He died in 1978.
In 1980, the bulk of his collection (approximately 3330 photographic prints and negatives dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, including glass plate negatives, salon prints and some colour negatives and slides, representing John Morris’ artistry and interests as an amateur and professional photographer) was transferred to the National Archives in Ottawa.

Margaret Gwendolyn Carley was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa on March 23, 1913. The family returned to Canada shortly after and settled in Kitchener, Ontario, where Gwen later attended the Business School. She married Albert E. Metcalfe (1901-1963) on July 27, 1937, and they had one son John David (J.D.) Metcalfe (1939-2007). Gwen began her career a museum curator at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, where she started as a receptionist in the 1950s. In May 1955, Gwen was appointed curator with no formal training as a museum specialist. In her role as curator, she advocated for a complete restoration of Dundurn Castle to the period during Allan MacNab’s tenure. The City of Hamilton chose the Dundurn Castle restoration project as their 1967 Centennial Project. While the museum was closed for restorations, Gwen she kept a photographic record of the renovation process. On June 30, 1971, Gwen retired.

Gwen was an active member of the Canadian Museums Association, serving on their council and editing their newsletter. She also served as the chairman of the museums section of the Ontario Historical Society. In June 1972, she was appointed a Fellow of the Canadian Museums Association, an honour as being the first for Hamilton.

Gwen Metcalfe died on July 6, 1997.

Mercury Mills was established in 1912 by John Penman who was an innovative knitting industry leader who moved to Hamilton from Paris, Ontario. Mercury Mills first had a plant on Park Street North. At its peak, it employed over 1,100 people at three sites in the province with the main plant built in 1916 on Cumberland Avenue between Gage and Prospect avenues.

During wartime, Mercury Mills produced materials used in military uniforms and parachutes. In later years, it faced increasing competition and eventually closed down in 1955. The building was demolished in 1983.

Isaac Baldwin, son of Dr. Calvin McQuesten, studied law and was admitted to the firm of Proudfoot & Jones. When Proudfoot was elevated to the bench, the firm became Jones & McQuesten until the partnership with Chisholm in 1882. Jones retired in 1886 and the firm became known as McQuesten & Chisholm. Isaac Baldwin was married to Mary Jane Baker (ca. 1848-1934). They lived at number 1 Bold St. until the death of Dr. Calvin in 1885, at which time Isaac and Mary and their six children moved to Whitehern. The six children were Mary Baldwin (1874-1964), Calvin (1876-1968), Hilda Belle (1877-1967), Ruby Baker (1879-1911), Thomas Baker (1882–1948) and Margarette Edna (1885-1935). None of the children married.

Isaac Baldwin, son of Dr. Calvin McQuesten, studied law and was admitted to the firm of Proudfoot & Jones. When Proudfoot was elevated to the bench, the firm became Jones & McQuesten until they formed a partnership with Chisholm in 1882. Jones retired in 1886 and the firm became known as McQuesten & Chisholm. Isaac Baldwin was married to Mary Jane Baker (ca. 1848-1934) and they had six children: Mary Baldwin (1874-1964), Calvin (1876-1968), Hilda Belle (1877-1967), Ruby Baker (1879-1911), Thomas Baker (1882–1948) and Margarette Edna (1885-1935). None of their children married. In 1885, Isaac and his family moved to Whiterhern, the McQuesten's family home.

Dr. Calvin McQuesten was born in New Hampshire in 1801. He graduated from medical school in 1830 and set up his practice in Brockport, New York in 1832. In 1835, McQuesten partnered with his cousin John Fisher, as well as Priam B. Hill and Joseph S. Jones to establish an iron foundry in Hamilton, thus becoming one of the forerunners of “heavy industry” in the city. Dr. Calvin McQuesten moved to Hamilton in 1839 to take an active role in managing the foundry, known as McQuesten and Co. In 1853, he sold a portion of the firm to his nephews, Luther and Payson Sawyer, and cousin William McQuesten. In 1856, partner John Fisher sold his portion of the foundry business and moved to Batavia, N.Y., leaving Dr. McQuesten sole owner. In 1857, Dr. McQuesten retired and handed the company over to the Sawyer brothers, including another nephew, Samuel Sawyer, an engineer for the foundry. They operated the company under the name of L. D. Sawyer and Co. In 1889, they went into partnership with H.A. Massey of Massey-Harris Co. Ltd. forming Sawyer-Massey Co.

Dr. Calvin McQuesten was on the Board of Directors of the Gore Bank, had shares in Hamilton Water Company, donated to the Wesleyan Ladies College and helped finance the construction of the MacNab Street Presbyterian Church. In 1852, he purchased a house which was first known as Willow Bank. The name was later changed to Whitehern by Isaac and Mary McQuesten. Dr. McQuesten was married three times and he had two children who survived: Calvin Brooks (1837-1912) and Isaac Baldwin (1847–1888). Calvin Brooks graduated from medical school and set up practice in New York. Isaac Baldwin studied law and joined a practice in Hamilton.

Thomas McIlwraith was born December 25, 1824 in Ayr, Scotland. As a youth, he was apprenticed as a cabinet-maker and was employed by a gas works company in Edinburgh. In 1853, he married Mary Park Forysth and immigrated to Canada, settling in Hamilton, Ontario. That same year he became the manager of the Hamilton Gas Works Company where he remained for eighteen years. He lived in a home called “Cairnbrae” on MacNab Street North with his wife and their four sons and three daughters. In 1871 he purchased a coal business and ran this operation until his retirement in 1893. McIlwraith served on the boards of directors of several banks and insurance companies, as well as serving as President of the Hamilton Mechanic’s Institute and as an alderman for St. Mary’s Ward where he resided. His prominence came from his devotion to ornithology (the study of birds). McIlwraith was a founding member of the American Ornithological Union and wrote extensively on the subject of birds, from his observations of bird species, nesting patterns and eggs. He was particularly interested in birds within the region of Hamilton and identified hundreds of species in the surrounding area. He published two books, including the Birds of Ontario (1886) and the Birds Observed in the Vicinity of Hamilton (1860). McIlwraith died at his home in January of 1903 and is buried in the Hamilton Cemetery.

Thomas G. McIlwraith was born December 25, 1824 in Ayr, Scotland. As a youth, he was apprenticed as a cabinet-maker and was employed by a gas works company in Edinburgh. In 1853, he married Mary Park Forysth and immigrated to Canada, settling in Hamilton, Ontario. That same year he became the manager of the Hamilton Gas Works Company where he remained for eighteen years. He lived in a home called “Cairnbrae” on MacNab Street North with his wife and their four sons and three daughters. In 1871 he purchased a coal business and ran this operation until his retirement in 1893. McIlwraith served on the boards of directors of several banks and insurance companies, as well as serving as President of the Hamilton Mechanic’s Institute and as an alderman for St. Mary’s Ward where he resided. His prominence came from his devotion to ornithology (the study of birds). McIlwraith was a founding member of the American Ornithological Union and wrote extensively on the subject of birds, from his observations of bird species, nesting patterns and eggs. He was particularly interested in birds within the region of Hamilton and identified hundreds of species in the surrounding area. He published two books, including the "Birds of Ontario" (1886) and the "Birds Observed in the Vicinity of Hamilton" (1860). McIlwraith died at his home in January of 1903 and is buried in the Hamilton Cemetery.

Thomas McIlwraith was born December 25, 1824 in Ayr, Scotland. As a youth, he was apprenticed as a cabinet-maker and was employed by a gas works company in Edinburgh. In 1853, he married Mary Park Forysth and immigrated to Canada, settling in Hamilton, Ontario. That same year he became the manager of the Hamilton Gas Works Company where he remained for eighteen years. He lived in a home called “Cairnbrae” on MacNab Street North with his wife and their four sons and three daughters. In 1871 he purchased a coal business and ran this operation until his retirement in 1893. McIlwraith served on the boards of directors of several banks and insurance companies, as well as serving as President of the Hamilton Mechanic’s Institute and as an alderman for St. Mary’s Ward where he resided. His prominence came from his devotion to ornithology (the study of birds). McIlwraith was a founding member of the American Ornithological Union and wrote extensively on the subject of birds, from his observations of bird species, nesting patterns and eggs. He was particularly interested in birds within the region of Hamilton and identified hundreds of species in the surrounding area. He published two books, including the Birds of Ontario (1886) and the Birds Observed in the Vicinity of Hamilton (1860). McIlwraith died at his home in January of 1903 and is buried in the Hamilton Cemetery.

The McAfee family members were United Empire Loyalists who lived in the Hamilton area (formerly known as Head-of-the-Lake), during the War of 1812. The region at the time was agricultural and consisted of various townships including Ancaster, Barton, Binbrook, Glanford and Saltfleet. Most residents were farmers, innkeepers, or labourers in trades such as pottery. These early colonial townships protected themselves with local militias made up of able-bodied men ages 16 to 60 from the nearby communities, who were required to serve as part-time soldiers if needed. These men would assemble for an annual muster call in preparation for a possible future military campaign. With war looming against the Americans in 1812, brothers Angus (1780-1832), Daniel (1791-1878) and Samuel (1793-1870) McAfee enlisted in the 5th Lincoln Militia. The two flank companies of this regiment were commanded by Captain Samuel Hatt and Captain James Durand, and also included Lieutenant Robert Land, son and namesake of one of Hamilton’s first settlers. The brothers saw action in various skirmishes and fought with Major General Isaac Brock during the Siege of Detroit. All three brothers survived the war and returned home. Daniel and Samuel took over a pottery business, and Angus became an innkeeper in Barton Township.

Graeme MacKay was born in 1968, and grew up in Dundas, Ontario where he attended Parkside High School. MacKay graduated from the University of Ottawa, majoring in History and Political Science. During his undergrad, MacKay became the graphics editor for the student newspaper, "The Fulcrum". In 1997, MacKay began his professional career at the Hamilton Spectator as a full-time editorial cartoonist. MacKay was President of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists from 2008 to 2010.