British Columbia – The Vacation Land That Has Everything. Morris Norman Collection. c. 1947. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R1300-1137. 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
- Last week’s most commonly used words in #envhist, according to Jessica DeWitt were: “Canada,” “EPA,” and “Climate.”
- Daniel Macfarlane explored terraforming (and terror-forming) in the past, present, and future over on NiCHE.
- Sinead Earley reviewed Robert Griffin and Richard A. Rajala’s The Sustaniability Dilemma: Essays on British Columbia Forest and Environmental History for NiCHE this week.
- Jessica DeWitt shared her comps notes on Liza Piper’s The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada.
- Kesia Kvill wrote the latest CHESS reflection for NiCHE this week, on the important role of Caragana flowers in the colonization and settlement of the Prairies. Also, best title ever.
Military History
- A BC filmmaker is traveling across the country to interview WW2 veterans for a documentary film project.
- This is an adorable photo of a Canadian WW1 solider kissing his daughter goodbye. Just do yourself a favour and don’t read the comments.
- A group of Canadians are trekking across Sicily to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of Canada’s participation in the battle for Sicily, known as Operation Husky.
- Visitors to Fort Beauséjour-Fort Cumberland (in Aulac, near Sackville, NB) can experience what it was like to sleep in an 18th century French wedge tent.
Archaeology
- Get a short update on the work being done this summer at Fort Saint-Louis in Nova Scotia.
History of Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
- Tessa Carolynn McGibbon has written the latest post for the Scots in BC History blog, profiling labour activist and owner of a most impressive moustache, William Bennett.
- LAC explored the history of the Jewish community in Montreal by looking at the first Hebrew book on the “discovery” of the Americas, Metsia’at ha-Arets ha-Hadashah. Unfortunately, the blog post did not include scare quotes around the term ‘discovery,’ so be careful. I’m also a little leery here about the impact of the book since Hebrew was considered a sacred language and few could read it. But I guess the scholars could?
- There is a new entry from The Canadian Encyclopedia on Hide Hyodo Shimizu, an activist for Japanese-Canadian rights and educator of children in Japanese-Canadian internment camps.
- Bashir Mohamed took us with him to the archives!
- Tina Adcock shared some of her great-grandfather’s collection of Ukrainian-language literature from the 1920s to the 1960s.
- Oh look, TV has discovered that there were Black, Indigenous, and non-Black People of Colour in the past too.
Indigenous History
- A federal judge has ruled that the survivors of government-funded day schools can file a class-action lawsuit for compensation. Indigenous children who were not part of the residential school system had to attended these schools, which were just as horrific.
- Krista McCracken wrote a really fantastic blog post about maple syrup and colonization, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and the need to include Indigenous voices without appropriating Indigenous Knowledge. Highly recommended.
- Get an update on the hearing regarding treaty annuities in the Robinson Huron and Robinson Superior Treaties.
- Paul Seesequasis explained the bison massacres that took place near Regina in the late 1800s,as a method to drive the local Cree and Blackfoot communities into starvation as part of Western settlement.
- Muskowekwan First Nation is searching for the unmarked graves at the Muskowekwan IRS, so that the building can be transformed into a wellness centre.
- This week marked the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Oka Crisis.
- CBC spoke with a number of individuals from Kanesatake and Kahnawake about how the confrontation impacted the community.
- Sean Carleton spoke with Ellen Gabriel (Katsi’tsakwas) about the legacy of Oka.
- The Boston 1775 blog profiled the Native Northwest Portal, a database that collects primary source materials related to Indigenous peoples in New England.
- The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo will be asking the Alberta government for a public inquiry into the forced evictions of First Nations and Métis peoples from Moccasin Flats in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as part of urban development.
- More here.
- Alvin Fiddler and Ry Morin wrote a great open letter to Doug Ford on why the history of residential schools is so important.
- On the issue of the cancelling of the Truth and Reconciliation Curriculum Writing program in Ontario: while it’s not strictly historical, I do think it’s important. So I’m going to recommend you check out this Twitter essay by Sarah York-Bertram about why the program is so important.
- CBC spoke with Indigenous youth from Millbrook First Nation in Nova Scotia about the history of jingle dress dancing and the importance of regalia.
- Alisa Lombard and Aubrey Charette explain why the specific claims resolution process is so important, and why it is more about justice than charity.This is in response to a piece written by Tom Flanagan, who still doesn’t understand this.
- This is a great piece by Maura Hanrahan on the ways in which settlers romanticize the histories of Indigenous groups who were driven into extinction, like the Beothuk, while ignoring and denigrating existing Indigenous groups like the Mi’Kmaq.
New France/British North America
- Claire Campbell reviewed Chet Van Duzer and Lauren Beck’s book, Canada Before Confederation: Maps at the Exhibition, for the Acadiensis blog this week.
- This week on Unwritten Histories, I spoke with Karen Ryan about the Franklin Expedition exhibit now on at the Canadian Museum of History!
Political History
- Erin Corber wrote a fantastic blog post on why more scholars need to write to elected representatives, asking them to stand up and speak out, with some samples as inspiration! This is a must-read for all historians!
- Patrick Lacroix explored Henry David Thoreau’s work as a potential window into American attitudes towards the mass migration of French-Canadians as well as the meaning of l’américanité.
- The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for BC politician and lawyer, William John Bowser.
- The Washington Post profiled 24 Sussex Drive, its history, and general decrepit-ness.
Social History
- The man who drew the prototypes for cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and Snow White grew up in this home in Manitoba.
- After listening to Daniel Francis’ recent talk on the subject, this Vancouver Sun writer went on the hunt for more about the history of squatter shacks in Vancouver.
- Find out about the textile craft traditions unique to St. Lunaire-Griquet in Newfoundland.
- LAC has a new Flickr album devoted entirely to breakfast! I heartily approve! See the images for yourself here.
- Check out some vintage BC Tel commercials!
- Kesia and I were back this week reviewing Back in Time for Dinner: 1970s style!
History of Gender and Sexuality
- The Virtual Museum of Canada just launched a brand new online exhibit, “Charity and the Society Girls of Toronto – The Story of the Cradle Club of Women’s College Hospital.” I think the title is pretty self-explanatory…
- The Canadian Encyclopedia also premiered a new entry for cyclist Kelly-Ann Way.
Local History
- Check out these neat photographs taken around and within Forteau, Labrador, particularly those of Dennison Cottage, which provided emergency medical care to those in need.
- And also this collection of postcards from Belleville, Ontario.
- Heritage Winnipeg profiled the International Harvester Building this week. The building was home to a company that sold agricultural machinery in the early 1900s to settlers.
- The latest blog post from the City of Richmond Archives explored the industries along the North Arm of the Fraser that lobbied for a dredge to increase the flow of traffic and goods in 1918.
- This week, Eve Lazarus remembered the murder of Rhona Duncan, who died in 1976 in North Vancouver. Content warning: rape, violence against women, unsolved mysteries.
- I never know if I should include reposts: Retroactive shared a post originally published in 2012 on the Big Four (founders of what became the Calgary Stampede) and Alberta place names.
- While many of us know about the Sea to Sky highway, do you know about what it replaced?
Digital/Public History
- The British Library’s American Collections blog discussed their ongoing work on the ‘Picturing Canada’ project, which involved the digitization and release into the public domain of images from the Canadian Colonial Copyright Collection. And there are kittens! Briefly, but still.
- Do you remember that I mentioned the new project from the Canadian Museum of History, “Indigenous Stories Beyond Borders”? Here is some more information about the project, and what curators are looking for specifically.
- Check out this fantastic Twitter essay from Matthew Sears on the Classical origins of Canadian war memorials.
- In another must-read from Active History this week, check out Stacey N. Gilkinson’s advice to historians who will be working in archives this summer.
- Stephanie Halmhofer is doing an online survey on Canadian paranormal beliefs and social media. Participate! I did!
- This week on the UBC Digitizer’s blog, Paula Arasaki explains how to properly handle and preserve family photographs and documents.
- A whole bunch of cool people gathered in Ottawa this week to discuss historical commemoration. Shirley Tillotson kindly compiled this list of discussion questions from Stéphane Lévesque’s presentation.
Research Methods
- Find out about the great information you can find within digitized city directories in Ontario.
- This is a really fascinating discussion between a number of fine academics about daily wages and expenses in the mid-19th century.
Miscellaneous
- The Royal Ontario Museum looked back on their 1970 exhibit, ‘The Origins of Chintz.’
- The Toronto Public Library remembered sculler Edward (Ned) Hanlan.
- The Alberta Aviation Museum celebrated the 100thanniversary of the first airmail flight in Western Canada.
- Is it wrong that I’m in love with this set of post office boxes? If it is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Podcasts
- The latest episode of the Living Heritage Podcast featured Terra Barrett, talking about her work on a Virutal Museums of Canada project on Grand Falls-Windsor, collecting oral histories, and how to collect and digitize photographs.
- In the latest episode of the Witness to Yesterday podcast, Greg Marchildon spoke with Deborah McPhail about her recent book, Contours of the Nation: Making Obesity and Imagining Canada, 1945-1970.
Better Late than Never
- Check out the new app that allows you to explore Ottawa’s history from Confederation to the present.
- It is both funny and depressing to learn about organizations that have been investigated by the RCMP…
Calls for Papers
- Atlantic Studies: Global Currents has issued a CFP for an upcoming special issue on early African-American print and editorship in an Atlantic context. Abstracts are due October 31.
This one was short but sweet! I hope you enjoyed this week’s 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! We’ll be talking about one of my biggest pet peeves. See you then!
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