A man and woman standing behind field of yellow flowers and tulips in Beacon Hill Park. Victoria, British Columbia. 1961. Gar Lunney. Library and Archives Canada. Copyright: Expired
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
Missed last week’s roundup? Check it out here.
Environmental History
- The most commonly-used words in #envhist last week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: ‘Students,’ ‘Cards,’ and ‘Virginia.’
- I feel like this is a reupload, but Global News looked back at the six worst floods in Canadian history.
- Speaking of floods, check out this these images of historical floods along the St. Lawrence.
- In the latest post in NiCHE’s ongoing series on environmental history education and field trips, Sean Kheraj shared his experiences teaching a course on Toronto history.
- Instantanés profiled “Lumber King,” James Maclaren this week.
- Speaking of lumber, check out Joanne Hammond’s look at the impact of industrial logging on the Bonaparte Plateau from 1984 to 2016.
- This week Jessica DeWitt also released her comps notes for Christine Bold’s book, Selling the Wild West: Popular Western Fiction, 1860 to 1960.
- In the latest NiCHE Rhizomes piece, Tina Adcock spoke with Matt Minarchek about his work beyond the professoriate.
- Turns out Benjamin Franklin was the first Westerner to chart the Gulf Stream?
- The Mountain Legacy Project has released the first historic mountain images from the Northwest Territories, starting with the 1937 Harry Snyder Canadian Expedition to the Nahanni.
Military History
- As part of Active History’s ongoing series, Canada’s First World War, Sarah Glassford spoke with Jonathan Vance on the role of scholars and collectors in preserving the legacy of WW1.
History Education
- The kids are alright.
- This week on the CHA Learning and Teaching blog, Danielle Kinsey spoke to Dominique Brégent-Heald about history education at university.
- This is a really cool conversation about hope and teaching students about environmental history.
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History
- Katie Knowles reviewed Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie M. Harris’s new edited collection Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas.
- Recordings made by Helen Creighton of Black Nova Scotian music made decades ago has been remastered and are being rereleased on CD.
- Flare magazine published an excerpt from Ann Hui’s book, Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants.
- Cheryl Thompson published an important piece on the Conversation in response to that horrific Ancestry advertisement I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, on romanticized versions of Canadian history that exclude our history with slavery and emphasize white saviour figures, while ignoring the work done by Black Canadian freedom fighters.
Indigenous History
- This week Joanne Hammond looked back at life on the Interior Plateau 6,000 years ago.
- The Times Colonist published an excerpt of Xenaksiala Elder Cecil Paul’s newly published book of stories, Stories from the Magic Canoe of Wa’xaid.
- The BC Court of Appeals has ruled that the Sinixt are not, in fact, extinct. This ruling comes sixty years after the Canadian government declared them extinct. This is part of a long series of court battles, and next the case will probably head to the Supreme Court or the Federal Government may begin negotiating with the Sinixt. Anyone want to take bets on which one is most likely?
- The Chief Poundmaker art exhibit has just opened. Find out more about it, and the work that members of Poundmaker Cree Nation, including headman (councilor) Milton Tootoosis, have put into its creation.
- I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that the Northwest Territories’ RCMP historical missing and murdered person unit is not staffed. Content warming: RCMP, missing and murdered Indigenous women, girl, and two-spirit folks.
New France/British North America
- Sarah M.S. Pearsall wrote a new piece for The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, about some of the amazing Indigenous and settler women who lived in the early modern Americas.
- Stacey Seward reviewed Mark Bourrie’s latest book, Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson for Canadian Geographic.
- There is a new entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia on the Mad Trapper of Rat River.
Political History
- Veronica Strong-Boag has written a new post for Active History on the relationship between feminism and liberalism in Canadian politics.
- Mark Leier spoke with the Georgia Straight about the history of secret ballots and unions.
Winnipeg General Strike (There will be lots of new Winnipeg General Strike material in the upcoming weeks!)
- The Archives of Manitoba have digitized some records from the Robert Boyd Russell fonds on the strike.
- They also released a new archival research guide on the strike.
- Scott Billeck published a new piece in the Winnipeg Sun on the key roles that women played in the Winnipeg General Strike.
The History of Gender and Sexuality
- There is also a new Canadian Encyclopedia history on scientist Rose Johnston!
- Over on the Tofino Clayoquot Heritage Museum blog, Stephanie Ann Warner published a new blog post about nursing sister Lilly Garrard.
- The Halifax Women’s History Society blog has just started a new series about women they’ve learned about while doing research. First up is a profile of Katherine “Kay” MacDonald.
Local History
- Find out about the work that the Davis family is doing preserving heritage homes in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver.
- This week the UBC Digitizer’s blog profiled some beautiful BC beaches!
- This week Whistorical remembered the contributions of newspaper editor, Jane Burrows.
- Did you know there is a secret city from the 1700s underneath Halifax?
- Heritage Winnipeg profiled Crescentwood, “Winnipeg’s Best Residential District (?)”I do not know what that means, but my local Winnipeg expert (Jessica Knapp), said it’s super pretty.
- Historic Nova Scotia posted two new pieces this week!
- One by the Nova Scotia Museum on the Prat Sisters, free-spirited artists.
- And another by Chris Gertridge and the Wolfville Historical Society on Armistice Day in Wolfville.
- Check out some cool pictures from Science World at the 1986 Expo.
- The Toronto Public Library featured images this week of the interior of historical general stores.
- Can you solve the mystery behind these photographs from 1949 and 1951 across Newfoundland and Cape Breton?
- Who knew that bad things happen when you build a city on a lake?
- Someone stole the 705-pound bell that used to hang at the Moravian church in Mill Woods.
- Work is almost finished on the beautiful stained-glass windows of Sault Ste. Marie’s Bishop Fauquier Memorial Chapel!
- Frédéric Giuliano posted a haunting portrait of life at Pointe Saint-Charles on the McGill Library blog this week.
Digital and Public History
- Check out some adorable students from PEI’s annual heritage fair.
- James McLeod wrote a great piece about the problem with Newfie jokes, in the wake of last week’s Simpsons episode.
- This year is the 100th anniversary of the first transatlantic flight! Find out how folks in St. John’s will be celebrating.
- This week on Histoire Engagée, Christine-Chevalier-Caron interviewed Alexis Martin about his work and the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Nouveau théâtre experimental.
- This week in the Ottawa Citizen, Randy Bowell looked back at the 1922 fire at Notre-Dame cathedral-basilica in Quebec City, and how the cathedral-basilica was rebuilt and restored.
- A group of awesome Indigenous grade four students atȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ Tribal School successfully petitioned the BC government to add the term ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ to the official name of John Dean Provincial Park. ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ is a W̱SÁNEĆword meaning ‘a place of refuge,’ as the mountain in the park provided a place of safety for the W̱SÁNEĆ people during a flood.
- Check out the new Virtual Museum exhibit on the Almonte Train Wreck of 1942, by the North Lanark Historical Society.
- The Hamilton Music Archives was just launched by the Hamilton Public Library and the Hamilton Music Advisory Team.
- Work is underway to create a new Somali-Canadian heritage museum in Edmonton.
Doing History
- There is a new permanent home for the Glengarry County Archives.
- Check out this update on my favourite library, the Osler Library of the History of Medicine!
- I cannot decide if this is awesome or kinda morbid.
- The final program of the CHA 2019 is out!
- If you do research on Indigenous folks, or want to, you need to read
- Eve Tuck (Unangax̂) Twitter thread
- And Max Liboiron’s live-tweeting of Tuck’s recent talk on the same subject.
- If you work with the census, you should check out LAC’s latest blog post about the instructions to commissioners and enumerators in the 1926 census.
- CBC spoke with Graham Lowes about his work at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights creating an education guide with the Montreal Holocaust Museum on “othering”
- This week Patrick Lacroix reported from this year’s Rassemblement, an annual meeting of scholars and community members at the Franco-American Centre at the University of Maine.
- This week on Unwritten Histories, I shared my favourite scholarly articles on Canadian history from the last two months!
Miscellaneous
- The latest entry from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for priest Joseph-Avila Roch.
Podcasts
- Patrick Lacroix was interviewed on the Maple Stars and Stripes podcast about early French-Canadian immigrants and the Mexican American War.
- And here are the accompanying documents!
Calls for Papers
- Marie-Andrée Bergeron, Josette Brun, and Camille Robert are organizing a conference to be held at UQAM in November 2018 entitled, Toujours debouttes! Perspectives sur le renouveau féministe au Québec.They have issued a CFP for papers and panels, due August 1.
That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed this week’s Canadian history roundup. If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice! And don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for a brand new blog post! See you then!
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