Canadian History Roundup – Week of January 8, 2017

Mount Grady, Mount Burnham, village of Nakusp, and Rothwell Bay on Upper Arrow Lake, as seen from above Rothwell Point, on January 9, 1963. Arrow Lakes Historical Society, 1999-019-6 CC by 2.0

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

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

• The week started with the launch of the new Wilson Institute blog, “Au-delà des frontières: La nouvelle histoire du Canada/Beyond Borders: The New Canadian History!” Welcome to the Canadian history blogging community! They premiered two blog posts at the same time. The first, by Maxime Dagenais, serves as an introduction to the blog, and the second, by Ian McKay, talks about the mission of the Wilson Institute and his vision of Canadian history.
• Borealia is also back this week with a new blog post by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy about Canadian concerns about American populism. Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Nova Scotia judge and author, raised many of the points we are currently debating, back in 1836.
• Acadiensis also has a new blog post this week. This latest piece is by Miriam Wright and looks at Chinese immigration and public spaces in St. John’s, Newfoundland, from 1895 to 1949. Focusing on encounters between Chinese and non-Chinese in spaces like laundries and restaurants, Wright argues that St. John’s history is much more diverse and complex than previously thought.
• NiCHE announced earlier in the week that the latest issue of Historical Geography is available, and includes several articles touching on the subject of Canadian history. Check out the TOC here.
• The @IndigenousXca Twitter account is one of the best that deals with Indigenous issues in Canada, and features a different Indigenous host every week. This past week, it has been hosted by Rob Houle (@NehiyawRob). Dawn Marie (@Cree8Dawn ) has put together a storify of some of his tweets regarding the history of treaties and their role in resistance. It’s a great discussion, and well worth a read.
• Are you wondering why so many Indigenous peoples are critical of the Canada 150 initiative? Tanya Kappo (‪@Nehiyahskwew‪ ) talks about this subject from her perspective in this Twitter essay.
• Stephanie Ann Warner has a new blog post this week, a fascinating look at the visual history of prairie pioneer envelopes. This post is based on her work with the Raye Green collection.
• This week, the Discover Blog from LAC looked at their Governor General’s Literary Award collection.
• The Ben Franklin Podcast, by Liz Covart, focused on the history of disease and the Seven Years’ War this week. Covart talked with Erica Charters about her work in this area, particularly with respect to the British and American responses to sick soldiers.
• Unwritten Histories was back this week with the latest post in my regular series on the best new articles from the past month. There were some really amazing pieces out, so definitely check that out!
• While not specifically Canadian, this blog post from Process: a blog for American history, looking at Indigenous foodstuffs and the Colonial Gaze, definitely has Canadian applications. The post, by Michael Wise, discusses the continual “discovery” of Indigenous foods, and how this reinforces problematic stereotypes of Indigenous peoples as static members of the past.
• Histoire Engagée has a new post this week — an interview of Michel Biron, a professor of literature, by Vincent Lambert. They discuss the literary legacy of the Quiet Revolution.
• Also this week from NiCHE is a review of Carly A. Dokis’s Where the Rivers Meet: Pipelines, Participatory Management, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Northwest Territories, by Cyrus M. Hester.
• This week on Active History, Richard White talks about planned and unplanned migrations in urban environments like Toronto. He discusses the relationship between city plans, urban congestion, and the reasons why people move from the city to the suburbs.
• Atlas Obscura explores some possible origins for the Canadian “eh.”
• The Toronto Archives has added some new images to their Flickr account. This new album contains images of the St. Clair and Bathurst area. Check it out here.
• The Journal of Canadian Studies has just launched their new website, and made their entire back catalogue available online! Check it out here.
• Atlas Obscura also explores the history of the Canadian servant girl who would go on to create the modern hair salon and associated industry, Martha Matilda Harper.
• Again, while this is not specifically Canadian, historians of Canada will find this post about the importance of having more readings created by women in survey classes to be of interest. Sara Damiano talks about her commitment to integrating more female-created sources in her syllabus, and the benefits that can be gained as a result.
• The Alberta Archives are soliciting donations of personal documents, especially records of everyday life.
• Emily Lonie spoke with Taryn Day, the sample librarian and archivist for Lululemon about her work and fashion archiving in BC.
• Over on NiCHE, Jessica DeWitt is back with her recommendations about the best new work on environmental history from December 2016!
• Remember how last week the Discover Blog introduced the guest curator series? Well, they launched the first post this week! Curator Meaghan Scanlon talks about Samuel de Champlain’s 1613 map and the Jesuit Relations.
• This week, the Retroactive blog takes a look at the history of Ukrainian-Canadian Christmas celebrations.
• The latest new entry from the DCB looks at Honoré Mercier. Montrealers know him as a metro stop, but he was better known in life as a politician and educator.
• This past week, the University of Manitoba screened Colonization Road. Check out Adele Perry’s thoughts on the film, posted here.
• The Haunted Montreal blog is back this week with a new post about Murray Hill Park, in Westmount. It’s actually quite lovely, so don’t let the ghost stories put you off from visiting. I’ve never seen a ghost there. 😉
• Also on NiCHE this week is a post by Laura Larsen about changes in farming practices in southwestern Saskatchewan over the course of the 20^th century. Farmers switched from cereal crops to cattle raising, largely due to rising levels of nitrogen in the soil.
• Also from LAC this week is a new Flickr album. This latest contains images from the Peter Winkworth collection, containing rare artwork from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. See the images yourself here.
• The Memory Project, from Historica Canada, has launched a new educational tool on Canadian military innovations.
• The Museum of Vancouver talks about the ship, The Robert Kerr, and how it saved Vancouver during the Great Fire in 1886.
• The Archives of Montreal has posted some amazing aerial photos of the city. The images were likely taken by the Fairchild Aerial Surveys Co. de Grand-Mère between 1925 and 1935.
• Christopher Ryan looks at the built environment as a municipal archive, using examples of his explorations in Toronto and Ottawa.
• The Genealogy Gem’s podcast interviewed Claire Banton, chief of Orientation Services at LAC. While much of the focus is on how genealogists can use the archives, Banton also discusses LAC’s plans for Canada 150.
• Steve Clifford is back with part two of his three part series looking at digitized Canadian trench newspapers. This post looks specifically at newspapers from field ambulances, casualty clearing stations, and hospitals from WW1.
• Similarly, the Canadian Centre for the Great War blog is back with a look at reusing petrol cans for water. They were called Flimsies, since they were less sturdy than the more standard Jerry Can.
• I also missed their blog post last week, which looked at Samuel Benfield Steele and his contributions to the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WW1.
• A new article by Geoff Smock on the Journal of the American Revolution blog explores the connection between the Quebec Act and the American Revolution.
• In honour of Friday the 13^th, the UBC Digitizer’s blog featured photos of kitties from their collections. I’m a total cat person.
• The Canadian Museum of History blog talks about provenance and historical evidence, particular in relation to a a robe belonging to magistrate Hugh Richardson, while he preceded over the trials of Louis Riel,  (Poundmaker ou Faiseur d’enclos) and Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear ou Gros Ours).
• Whistorical takes a look at the visual history of skiing in Whistler.
• Eve Lazarus remembers the Imperial Roller Skating Rink and other former features at the beach in English Bay in Vancouver.
• Canadian History in the News
  • Remember those Hinterland Who’s Who videos? Well, it only took sixty years, but they are now available in six different Indigenous languages! The languages are as follows: Woods Cree, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Denesuline and Inuktitut.
  • BC is in the middle of a traumatic cold snap (for BC), so news outlets are remembering a time when it used to be possible to skate outdoors in the Lower Mainland.
  • Bill Waiser was interviewed by the CBC about his book, A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan before 1905, and how he used “non-traditional” sources to talk about the history of Indigenous peoples.
  • More and more amazing finds are emerging from the archaeological excavations at the North St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. The location has been a centre for food since 1803, and its excavation provides an important new insights into the history of food and the food services industries in the area.
  • Haida artist James Hart is working on a new pole of reconciliation. When completed, the pole will be raised near the Beaty Biodiversity Museum on the UBC campus. In this article in the Vancouver Courier, Hart talks about the stories he is carving into the pole.
  • There is a great deal of debate going on about public and private finding of the Bluenose II in Nova Scotia.
  • And speaking of money, the Saint Boniface Museum may be forced to cancel its celebration of Louis Riel Day this year because of a budget shortfall.
  • The hockey rink that once served as a social centre for the Canadian armed forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan will soon go on display at the Canadian War Museum.
  • Look back on the transformation of Calgary from 1886 to 2017.
  • I missed this last week, but find out why sections of the Toronto Transit System’s St. Patrick station have been sealed off since 1975. Trigger warning: this involves the death of a teenage girl.
  • This is possibly morbid, but Le Devoir has an article this week about the history of the death mask of Henri Bourassa.
  • The Current interviewed Dan Malleck about the history of prescription drugs in Canada, particularly in relation to the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
  • There are more details about Lt. Col. John McCrae’s transformation into comic book superhero. He will apparently be leading a team of seven people into a secret mission at Vimy Ridge.
  • Two new buildings have just been added to Prince George’s Heritage Register.
  • Check out this adorable video from The Globe and Mail of ice sailors competing near Hamilton in 1948.
  • CBC has begun work to preserve and catalogue their collection of Indigenous language programming from the North. The material goes back to the 1950s and 1960s, and will be an invaluable record of the history and life of Indigenous peoples in the North.
  • The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada has just premiered a new exhibition on the history of bush planes and bush pilots.
  • Anthony Morgan has a great new article about Viola Desmond, and why it’s important to recognize that she fought racism, but was not able to overcome it.
  • There is another great article from CBC, looking at the work of author Paul Seesequasis, who is trying to find out the oral histories behind images of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The images and their stories will be released as a book in 2018. I can’t wait!
  • The Museum of Ontario Archaeology has just launched a new virtual reality exhibit that takes visitors through a tour of a 16^th century Iroquoian Longhouse. Omg, so cool!
  • There is even more evidence that humans have lived in North American for longer than previously thought. The butchering markings on a horse’s jaw, found in a cave in Yukon, has been dated to the last ice age, 24,000 years ago.
  • Museum staff in Ottawa reopened the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Canadian War Museum Saturday after a week spent cleaning.
  • Kristen Gunther is looking for the owners of a 70-year-old family photo album. The images appear to feature mostly Indigenous peoples, and some of the photos were taken at the Kamloops Residential School.
  • Do you remember that 1,600 year old roasting pit that was discovered this past summer at Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump? Well, archaeologists are getting ready to open it up!
  • Check out these really neat promotional images from the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1881 to 2017. More problematically, they feature depictions of Indigenous peoples as tourist attractions.
  • David A. Robertson has just released a new book designed to teach kindergarteners about residential schools.
  • Actor Peter Keleghan explores the immigrant experience in a new documentary on CBC.
  • A woman in Toronto discovered 100 year-old newspapers while renovating her home. Some of the articles contained fascinating advice, like how to get watermelon stains out of your clothes.
  • In keeping with the Canadian origins of American businesses theme, check out this feature on the creator of the Fuller Brush.
  • CHEK news goes behind the scenes at the Royal BC museum to talk about textile conservation, using a 100-year-old bedsheet as an example.
  • David Wencer looks back at the history of the Toronto School of Medicine and medical school rivalries this week for the Historicist.
  • CBC’s “Out in the Open” discusses the complexities involved in the costs of apologizing for residential schools, as well as the impact this has on residential school survivors who receive compensation.

Well that was much shorter than last week… I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Canadian history roundup. If you did, please consider sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever you connect with others. And don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for another brand new blog post. I can’t say too much yet, but I’m really excited about this one! See you then!

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