A rare Roman Empire exhibition is now open at Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum

_{Feature image: Bata Shoe Museum/Darren Rigo}

History has a way of feeling distant when it’s confined to textbooks and marble statues. But there is something intensely human about an object as personal as the footwear worn to perform daily needs. It carries the shape of the person who wore it, the miles they walked and the life they lived.

This season, Toronto culture lovers have a rare chance to look directly into the daily lives of people who lived two millennia ago. The Bata Shoe Museum has just opened Unearthing Vindolanda: Footwear from the Edge of the Roman Empire. Marking the first time this remarkable collection has ever been displayed in North America, the exhibition offers a uniquely intimate glimpse into an ancient world.

“Vindolanda offers one of the most extraordinary windows into everyday life in the Roman world,” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and senior curator of Bata Shoe Museum. “The remarkable preservation of footwear at the site allows us to connect directly with the people who lived on the edge of the Roman Empire, from soldiers to civilians, including women and children. Through these shoes, we can see how clothing, identity and craftsmanship shaped daily life nearly two thousand years ago.”

A Fresh Look at the Ancient Frontier

The story begins at Vindolanda, a bustling Roman military outpost located in northern England, near what would become Hadrian’s Wall. While the site was occupied by the Roman army for more than 300 years, its most fascinating treasures were preserved not in stone, but in the dirt. Thanks to oxygen-free, anaerobic soil conditions, hundreds of leather shoes left behind by the fort’s inhabitants survived entirely intact, escaping decay for nearly 2,000 years.

What makes this collection a major historical milestone isn’t just its survival, it’s who the shoes belonged to. For generations, it was assumed that these remote frontier outposts were the exclusive domain of battle-hardened male soldiers. There are more than 100 artifacts on display at the Bata Shoe Museum that completely upend that narrative. Alongside heavy military boots, the excavation unearthed elegantly crafted footwear belonging to women, teenagers and toddlers.

“It’s impossible to mention Roman shoes without thinking about Vindolanda,” says Elizabeth Greene, associate professor of classics and Canada Research Chair at Western University. “As the largest collection of footwear from anywhere in the Roman world, the collection is of vast importance for the study of dress and adornment in antiquity, manufacturing and trade, and the people now only visible to us by the shoes they once wore.”

Seeing a child’s shoe from the year 100 CE changes how we view the Roman Empire. It proves that Vindolanda wasn’t just an isolated military garrison; it was a living, breathing community where families grew up, merchants traded, and daily life thrived on the very edge of the known world.

Exhibition Extras

To complement the exhibition, the Bata Shoe Museum is rolling out a curated series of public programs that bridge the gap between ancient history and modern Toronto. Following a successful spring lineup of specialized lectures, trivia nights and hands-on workshops, the programming continues this fall. 

On Thursday, September 17, the museum will host an exclusive curator’s talk with Greene, whose extensive fieldwork at the Vindolanda excavation site has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of Roman social history.

Whether you’re a history enthusiast, a design lover, or simply looking for a compelling cultural afternoon in the city, Unearthing Vindolanda is an absolute must-visit.

Ready to plan your visit? To book your exhibition tickets, view admission hours, or register for upcoming evening programs, visit the official Bata Shoe Museum Exhibition Page.