Canadian History Roundup – Week of February 4, 2018

Canadian woman entrant in women’s downhill skiing, Tenth Olympic Winter Games. February 1968. H.J. Leclair / Library and Archives Canada / 3241319. Copyright: Library and Archives Canada

The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.

This week’s highlights: Color our Collections 2018 at Canadian institutions, Black History month, and the history of Canada at the Olympics.

Missed last week’s roundup? Check it out here.

• The most popular words in #envhist this week, according to Jessica DeWitt were: “Environmental,” “Said,” and “B.C.”
• Can I interest you in some historical naughty pencils?
• Coll Thrush has written the latest blog post from Beyond the Spectacle, breaking down the boundaries of the metropole and the colony through a focus on beavers in Bishopsgate. Say that one ten times fast.
• Ian Jesse reviews Donald G. Wetherell’s Wildlife, Land, and People: A Century of Change in Prairie Canada for NiCHE this week.
• The latest ArchyFantasies podcast episode takes a look at CBC’s Ice Bridge documentary, talking with Jennifer Raff about the Solutrean Hypothesis and haplogroup X.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, we take a look at DNA ancestry tests from a historical perspective.
• The latest blog post from LAC looks at the history of the New Princes’s Toronto Band, which performed in London in the 1920s.
• This week, Active History premiered its series on mental health and WW1 with a new post by Kandace Bogart on shell shock. This post focuses specifically on the experiences of one soldier, Private Dennis R.
• Canada’s History posted a video of a talk I gave at the 10^th Canada’s History Forum in November! This video also includes captions, thanks to the work of Jessica Knapp!
• Troy Sebastian reminds us that while a lot of people admire Dave Barrett, he, like many other white BC politicians, refused to acknowledge Aboriginal land title, even after the Calder decision.
• The 2018 Olympics started this week, so the UBC Digitization blog shared some winter sports-related items from their collection.
• The latest episode of the Sounds Like History podcast features Mark Reid in discussion with Rachelle Chiasson-Taylor, talking about early popular Canadian children’s songs from the 1920s. I will forever be a Sharon, Lois, and Bram kinda girl.
• You should read this heartbreaking poem from grade 3 and 4 students at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School.
• Color Our Collections is back for 2018! Here were the Canadian institutions that participated, offering up colouring books for you to download and colour:
  • McGill Library Rare Books and Special Collections
  • Brock University Archives
  • University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources
  • University of Waterloo Special Collections and Archives
  • University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections
• Stephen Patterson remembers Murray Young for the Acadiensis blog.
• Danielle Lorenz has a wonderful new piece in Pyriscence on researching residential schools in Hansard Records, demonstrating that the government was well aware of what was happening, and arguing that non-Indigenous people need to step up and take responsibility for their complicity in the colonial project.
• Instantanés profiles the Mission des Mission des Pères Capucins de Sainte-Anne-de-Ristigouche fonds with a look at an 1899 report on the Ristigouche.
• Megan J. Davies takes us behind the scenes on the new exhibit, Mad City: Legacies of the MPA on Active History. This exhibit was featured in a previous roundup, and looks at Vancouver’s Mental Patients Association.
• In the first History Slam podcast of 2018, Sean Graham speaks with Jeremy Milloy about his new book, Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Violence at Work in the North American Auto Industry, 1960-1980.
• Beyond Borders kicked off a new series leading up to the “Who Pays for Canada? Taxes and Fairness” conference. The first post is an introduction by Elsbeth Heaman.
• There continue to be various editorials of varying quality posted on the Cornwallis statue. Derek Simon responds to one in particular, arguing that in order to understand the history of the Mi’kmaq and Halifax, we must discuss the history of the Peace and Friendship Treaties.
  • Adam Coombs also offers his thoughts on why Cornwallis does not deserve to be memorialized in any way.
• In the latest Historical Reminiscents Podcast, Krista McCracken talks about accessibility and ableism in heritage and public history.
• The Virtual Museum of Canada launched a brand new virtual exhibit with Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame on the role that sport has played in Canadian history.
• Also on Active History this week is the latest blog post from yours truly! In this recent post, I talk about the emotional labour of academic job applications. The comment section is particularly interesting…
• Daniel Ross has a new blog post talking about his experiences teaching digital history and the history of ethnicity and immigration in Quebec. Together, he and his students created a website on HistoryPin all about Montreal’s migration history. See the site itself here.
• Laura Ishiguro wrote a great Twitter essay on the change to the national anthem, its history of revision, and debates about nationalism and heritage.
• Do you remember the work that UBC Okanagan Library was doing to digitize local history materials? Well, the website has officially launched! Check the collection out here.
• Daniel Heidt is back on Active History with an update and conclusion on the Confederation Debates, a crowdsourced transcription project launched last year. The results are not yet available, but they will be soon.
• Joanne Hammond took a look at precolonial Indigenous engineers and the bridges they constructed in BC. I am in awe. And I am afraid of heights.
• Did you know that Grace Kelly visited the Carnaval de Québec in 1969? Instantanés looks back on her visit. Poor Bonhomme de neige got upstaged.
• This week the City of Richmond archives looks back at the Brighouse Grocery. The building is still there, though now it’s a shop for orthopedic shoes. I run past this site every weekend.
• The Rossland Museum and Discovery Centre is searching for items and people from the 1968 (ski) World Cup at Red Mountain, to be featured in an upcoming exhibit.
• Also on NiCHE this week was a new blog post in the ‘Seeds 2’ series by Caitlynn Beckett on remediation at Giant Mine, Yellowknife, and how it can serve as an opportunity for communities to engage in discussion about colonial histories, relationships with the land, and environmental injustice.
• Erika Dyck was interviewed by the New Books Network podcast about her recent book with Alexa Deighton, Managing Madness: Weyburn Mental Hospital and the Transformation of Psychiatric Care in Canada.
• Stephanie Anne Warner walks us through her family history with a look at turn of the last century Victoria photographer Christopher William Hollyer, a friend of her grandfather’s family.
• Stephen Bocking weighs in on the Anthropocene debate and the importance of democracy.
• Find out about some of the latest acquisitions at the University Archives and Special Collections at the University of Saskatchewan.
• Kristin Catherwood has a roundup on developments in the field of intangible cultural heritage in Canada over the past year.
• This week Retroactive takes a look back at the Sun Greenhouse Company, a Banff vegetable farm in operation from 1927 to 1973.
• Check out Whistorical’s look back at the week of February 8^th in Whistler in years past.
• The St. Catharines Museum concludes its Walk Around Town series with walk Z and a look at daily life in St. Catharines and large Canadian projects in 1856.
• Asa McKercher has published an updated version of a previous Active History blog post on anti-NAFTA sentiment in Canada on the Canadian Eyes Only blog.
• Vancouver As It Was takes a look at (white, middle/upper class) family life in early 20^th century Canada with a look at the Springer Family album.
• Joanne Hammond also shared this beautiful Indigenous Plains side-fold dress, made sometime between 1800 and 1825.
• The Museum of Ontario Archaeology looks back at the Lawson Site Pot, discovered in 1982.
• The Osler Library of the History of Medicine profiled H. Rocke Robertson, who was instrumental in the creation of the library itself.
• Find out all about the fantastic new research project from UNB, New Brunswick Loyalist Journeys, which is now available online. Check it out here.
• Eve Lazarus’s latest blog post focuses on her introduction to Vancouver’s first forensic investigation, J.F.C.B. Vance.
• Find out about the the recent appointment of Lisa Rankin as lead investigator of the Tradition and Transition among the Labrador Inuit project. The project is a partnership between Memorial University and the Nunatsiavut Government to strength traditional Inuit knowledge, in the service of ensuring the vitality of Labrador’s Inuit culture. Warning: the article is framed oddly, around the premise that this is allowing Rankin to “further her interest in Indigenous research.”
• Carleton University and the National Gallery of Canada will be offering a new graduate diploma in curatorial studies. The new program will focus on public engagement and community engagement.
• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian biography is for Sir Frederick Oscar Warren Loomis, businessman and WW1 soldier.
• Black History Month
  • A special hockey game featuring only Black players was played this week, to honour the historic Coloured Hockey League.
    • The latest entry from The Canadian Encyclopedia is for the Coloured Hockey League.
  • The Globe and Mail profiles Art Dorrington, the first Black hockey player contracted at the professional level.
  • Hitting two themes at one time, LAC’s latest blog post profiles John Armstrong Howard, who became the first Black Canadian to compete at the Olympics in 1912.
  • The Vanalogue blog profiled Matilda “Molly” Boynton this week. Born into slavery, she moved to Vancouver in 1908, and lived there until she died at age 107. Her life story is amazing. The post also talks about photographer Deni Eagland, who took the amazing photograph of Boyton that appears at the top of the blog post.
  • Bashir Mohamed also wrote a great Twitter essay on a recent find at the City of Edmonton archives on the Klan in the 1930s, and contemporary views on Black immigration.
    • He followed up on this later in the week with another Twitter essay on minstrels in Edmonton in the 1930s. The picture at the centre of the essay is both amazing and horrifying.
  • CBC has put together a list of nonfiction works that document the Black Canadian experience, including its history. I highly recommend Afua Cooper’s The Hanging of Angélique.
  • Find out about the great work being done by Melinda Watson to commemorate Windsor’s Black history.
  • The Toronto Star remembers the first Black Canadian to become a obtain a license to practice medicine in Canada, Anderson Ruffin Abbott. Abbott received his MD at age twenty-three in 1861, and lived an absolutely fascinating life.
  • Cheryl Thompson has written a really wonderful piece for Spacing Toronto about Toronto’s own Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen restaurant, and the history of southern nostalgia in North America.
• Canadian Olympic History
  • The latest LAC flickr album features Nancy Greene, Olympic alpine skiing champion who took home a gold medal in 1968. See the images themselves here.
  • Jenny Ellison makes a triumphant return to the roundup this week with her latest post on the Canadian Museum of History blog. The post takes a critical look on Barbara Ann Scott as “Canada’s Sweetheart,” centred around the cute/creepy doll from last week’s roundup.
  • In honour of the Olympics, the Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto blog looks back at their own medal metallics.
  • The Champlain Society’s Witness to Yesterday podcast has a new episode on Canada at the Winter Olympics, featuring an interview with Bruce Kidd.
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia added two new entries this week about Olympians: Denny Morrison and Mark McMorris.
  • This week Whistorical looks back the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association’s many attempts attempts by the to bring the Olympics to Vancouver. I guess you can say that they finally paid off…
  • The Canadian Museum of History posted an image of Hayley Wickenheiser’s 2010 Olympic hockey jersey. 
• Canadian History in the News
  • Steveston, BC, is actually happy that Parks Canada rejected a bid by the City of Richmond to have it nominated as a UNESCO world heritage site. This is a fascinating case about the conflicts between heritage and commerce, as well as the ways in which Steveston’s problematic history has been erased.
  • Go behind the scenes of the Western Development Museum and check out some of their holdings that are not on exhibit.
  • CBC spoke with Michael Moosberger, archivist at Dalhousie, about the founding of the institution, and its connection to the War of 1812.
    • However, just as it is remembers its origins, Dalhousie is also looking back by convening a panel to investigate Lord Dalhousie’s views on race and the African Nova Scotian population, and provide recommendations on making amends. The panel chair is Afua Cooper.
  • Veronica Puskas (Inuk, from the Kivalliq region) has just won a quilting competition for a stunning quilt based on a photograph of her mother and grandmother in the 1950s. As someone who quilts, I can tell you that this is a work of art and took a tremendous amount of skill.
  • The new City of Victoria Archives Online searched launched this week! The database already contains more than 10,000 digitized photographs, and they are hoping to expand. Since my husband and I lived in Victoria for seven years, this is super exciting. Check it out yourself here.
  • Some jerks people broke into the Bowden Pioneer Museum in Alberta and stole several historical artifacts from WW2.
  • In the latest Dig It Column, Phoebe Murphy talks about what archaeologists do in the winter. Besides hibernate. 😉
  • In this piece on the question of why Canada doesn’t have a rocket program, CBC looks back on Canadian aviation and aerospace history.
  • Luc Chartrand takes a look at noted Quebec priest Brother Marie-Victorin’s secret double life and sexual exploration, based on the discovery of a cache of his letters.
  • A UK police officer is honouring Canadian WW1 soldier, William Reginald Sanborn, who died in a plane crash 100 years ago.
  • The House of Commons passed a new motion making September 28 National British Home Child Day. Which is great, but really says a lot about which histories are most valuable to the government.
  • Canadian Geographic looks back at six memorable moments in Château Frontenac’s 125 year history.
  • Turns out that the Arrow Lakes News newspaper needs to rewrite its history!
  • These twenty pictures show what Montreal looked liked 120 years ago.
  • The Journal de Montréal goes behind the scenes to bring  you ten secrets from inside Montreal’s city hall. I’m not sure if the archives really counts as a secret though.
  • In yet another example of questionable decisions in the teaching of history, students at a high school in Ajax, Ontario were encouraged to celebrate Black History Month by wearing do-rags. And what’s worse, when one student voiced their objections, they were sent to the principal’s office.
  • University Affairs took a look at how Canadian scholars have dealt with the issue of the paranormal this week, profiling the work of several scholars including Noah Morritt, Christopher Keep, Beth Robertson, Christopher Larsen, Laura Thursday, and Matthew Hayes.
• Calls for Papers
  • The Canadian Journal of Law and Society has issued a call for special issue proposals for its 2019 summer issue. Proposals are due March 2, 2018.
  • The Canadian Nautical Research Society has issued a CFP for their upcoming June conference. This year’s theme will be: “Lower Lakes, Upper Lakes: Connecting Maritime Heritages.” Proposals are due March 1, 2018.

This has been a difficult roundup to write, in light of the recent Stanley decision.  Like so many others, I am heartsick and outraged by what happened. This is settler colonialism at work. The history of this land and the way that history is taught both played their parts in how events unfolded. Those of us who benefit from settler colonialism have an obligation to stand up and take action against this injustice. Knowing our history is only part of this. There are many ways you can help. I made a list of them over on Twitter.

This is a pretty quiet week as far as the roundup goes, but I hope you enjoyed it anyways. If you did, please consider sharing the roundup on the social media platform of your choice. Don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for a brand new post in our Inconvenient Pasts series. See you then.

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