Halifax's Northwest Arm: An Illustrated History

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

From mansions to mills, prisons to churches, the landscape, settlement,
and architecture of the Arm—that lanky inlet from Halifax
Harbour—are all captured in this illustrated history.

The dominant characteristic of the book is the generous quantity of
reproductions of paintings, sketches, and early photos for the area. The
text accompanying this mass of illustrations is organized into short
chunks, making the history lessons quite painless and the book suitable
for dipping into at random, should reading an entire history book seem
too dull a task to contemplate. Although clear and well paced, the style
lacks enthusiasm or enough personality to draw the reader in. The result
is a practical history, not very exciting but thorough and strong with
solid research.

At various points in its history, the shores of the Arm were home to
the first zoological gardens in North America, chocolate (cocoa) and
snuff mills, forts, farms, military prisons, shanties, and luxury
estates. The period covered is from the first European settlement to the
present.