Canadian History Roundup – Week of June 24, 2018

Sack race on Canada Day, Iqualuit, NWT. Names unknown. Rosemary Gilliat Eaton. July 1, 1960. Library and Archives Canada

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 this past week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: “Ohio,” “Environmental,” and “Like.”
• Pete Anderson has written the latest CHESS 2018 reflection for NiCHE, on science, place, and Marquis wheat. 
• Ed MacDonald, who is a long-time friend of my husband’s family, reviewed Mark R. Leeming’s,  In Defense of Home Places: Environmental Activism in Nova Scotia for Acadiensis this week. 
• Jessica DeWitt was back this week with a look at the best in #envhist from the past month!
• Death to Gophers.
• Do you know the history of the 1948 flood in Trail, BC?

Military History

• Find out about the first Canadian airmail flight refuelling, which took place 100 years ago last week, in Deseronto.
• This week LAC looked into the development of technology by the military, with a particular focus the creation of HMCS Bras d’Or. 
• Eliza Richardson reviewed Cynthia Toman’s book, Sister Soldiers of the Great War: The Nurses of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, for the Laurier Centre this week. 
• LAC also posted Part 2 of their mini series on nursing sisters who died in service during WW1.

Archaeology

• Joanne Hammond shared some images of her recent trip to see the archaeological collections at the Royal BC Museum.
• In the latest Dig It column, Todd Paquin explains the steps involved in an archaeological review. 
• Meghan Walley explained why it’s important to look beyond modern/western and binary notions of gender when studying the history of the ancient Thule and modern Inuit.
• Ground-penetrating radar is being used to help find a lost historic graveyard in Cape Breton.
• Historical tombstones are being used for construction materials in Richmond, Quebec.

History Education

• This week on Active History, Samantha Cutrara has a must-read post about the role of discomfort in teaching and why it is important to understand where our existing knowledge comes from. 
• And also on Active History, you need to read this post by Andrew Nurse on debates and facts in history education. Just trust me.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

•  This op-ed, by Chandrima Chakradorty, on the anniversary of the Air India Bombing, is a scathing indictment on racism and the public forgetting of the bombing. Highly recommended.
• Bashir Mohamed gave us a look at the anti-Black racism featured in the Edmonton Exhibition in the 1930s in this Twitter essay.
• Willie O’Ree, the first Black player in the NHL, has finally been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
• Do you remember North Buxton Community Church I mentioned in last week’s roundup? A lawyer has stepped forward to legally challenge the eviction. 
• Retroactive remembered the life and contributions of jazz musician, Big Miller, who spend the latter part of his life transforming the Edmonton music scene.
• A park in Scarborough now bears the name of Viola Desmond.
• Bashir Mohamed also posted another great Twitter essay, on how civility discourse has been used to combat the fight for racial justice, using the example of how Black mothers in Edmonton stood up to racially segregated pools in 1924. 
• Finally, he responded to a really problematic newspaper article that I refuse to link to, that claims that Canada has no history of slavery. 
• The author of the said unnamed article should check out this new radio documentary on CBC about how slavery endured in Canada for over two hundred years. Part one aired this week, with part two to follow next week. The documentary features historians like Afua Cooper, Natasha Henry, Brett Rushforth, Charmaine Nelson, and more.
• When discussing the history of internment in Canada during WW2, most of us think about Japanese-Canadians, and, sometimes, Italian-Canadians. But few are aware that a significant number of Jews were also interned in Canada during this time, and that, unlike Japanese and Italian Canadians, they never received an apology not are there any memorials to mark the internment camps. 
• Chris Ryan discussed using the Ottawa-Hull city  stats to study the history of ethnicity and segregation in the area in the 1960s. 
• StarMetro Vancouver has put together a moving look at the history of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour in this country, through the lens of travel trunks. 

Indigenous History

• A federal court is hearing a court case regarding the Blood Tribe’s assertion of Indigenous Title to lands outside of the current boundaries of the reserve. As Darryl Leroux noted on Twitter, the original title of the article was extremely passive aggressive, suggesting that the Blood Tribe was “stealing” lands that rightfully belonged to Waterton Lakes National Park.
• Wolastoqyik Elders and representatives celebrated a renaming and reclaiming Indigenous Ceremony this week, changing the name of the St. John River back to Wolastoq (which means ‘beautiful river’). In more problematic headlines, the term reclaiming appeared in scare quotes.
• Find out about the work done by David Stirrup and Jacqueline Fear-Segal, along with Namgis carvers, Kevin Cranmer and Bruce Alfred, to restore, resite, and rededicate the Salford Totem Pole. Originally carved by Chief Pal’nakwalagalis Wakas Doug Cranmer (Namgis), the pole stood in Manchester from the late 1960s to 2005/6. The blog post also features an interview with Kevin Cranmer, who is the nephew of Chief Pal’nakwalagalis Wakas Doug Cranmer.
• Shelia Cote-Meek (Anishnaabe) has written an important piece on critical questions that should be asked around the use of land acknowledgements, and why they should be the beginning, not the end, of engagement with Indigenous peoples. 
• Art Rhyno shared some tips and tricks for digitizing non-Latin Indigenous scripts with OCR, using his particular work on newspapers written in Inuktitut as an example.
• The Canadian Museum of History is in the planning stages for a new exhibit, tentatively called “Indigenous Stories Beyond Borders.” They are seeking any stories or oral histories from Indigenous communities and individuals about Indigenous Peoples who travelled the world. For more information, and to find out how you can participate, go here.
• I think it’s so awesome that there is a new sign on Manitoulin Island’s Cup and Saucer trail, explaining the original story of the area. Anishinaabe peoples refer to this place as Michigiwadinong, which means ‘bluff in the shape of the spearhead.’ I also love that this article featured an interview with Alan Corbiere (Anishinaabe), and discussed when certain stories about Michigiwadinong could be told.
• You need to read this piece by Crystal Fraser (Gwichya Gwich’in, originally from Inuvik and Dachan Choo Gèhnjik, N.W.T.) on wildlife. Seriously. To my mind, this is history at its very best.
• The City of Regina Archives has unveiled a new interactive timeline featuring 150 stories from an Indigenous perspective.  See it for yourself here.
• So you may remember that I discussed the amazing work being done by Jeremy Dutcher, a Song Carrier from the Wolastoq Nation, to bring to light traditional songs from his ancestors? Well, he just won a Polaris Prize for his work! What’s more, you can now stream the entire album he created, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, on Spotify, and purchase the album here.
• Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola is revitalizing their eulachon grease traditions.
• The flags of the Musqueam Band and Okanagan Nation Alliance will now fly permanently at the UBC Point Grey and Okanagan campuses, respectively.
• Thanks to the initiative of Riley Kucheron (Biigtigong Nishaanbeg), there is now a plaque near the statue of Egerton Ryerson at his namesake university, explaining his role in establishing the residential school system.
• As most of us look on in horror at what is happening at the US/Mexico border, Cindy Blackstock reminds us that Canada has its own problematic history and present of separating children from their families. 
• The Pass System is available to watch for free on CBC for a short period of time!
• Raven Swamp and Kanerahtiio Hemlock (Kanien’kehá:ka) are revitalizing traditional Haudenosaunee farming practices, including the cultivation of strawberries) in Kahnawake’s community garden.

New France/British North America

• Myra Tawfik is back with her ongoing look at copyright legislation. This week, she focused on Province of Canada debates around import duties for unauthorized reprints of British works. 
• Rachel Bryant is back with another great blog post on the issue of fosterage, kinship, and adoption protocols among the Powhatan and British , based on her recently-published article on the subject. As she argues, child abuse has been fundamental to the preservation of political structures in Anglo-American culture.
• Leah Grandy gets all the credit for explaining what muster rolls are, with an image of a mustard roll.  I’m dying. 

Political History

• The Canadian Museum of History shared a civil uniform that belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald, who might have worn it during the London Conference.
• Patrick Lacroix shared the 1845 discussion about the possibility of the American annexation of Canada. 
• Do you know the history of the Peace Tower’s carillon? That would be the bell assembly, for those who have never heard of a carillon before. I had to look it up not too long ago…
• Jennifer Levin Bonder takes a look at the complicated trade history between Canada and the U.S., with a focus on U.S. protectionism since the 1860s. 
• Jean-Nicolas Carrier reviewed a new edited collection by Harold Bérubé and Stéphane Savard, Pouvoir et territoire au Québec depuis 1850.
• Find out a little bit about the history of car-making in Canada. 
• Andrew Jackson reviewed Christo Aivalis’ The Constant Liberal: Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour and the Canadian Social Democratic Left for the Broadbent Institute.

Social History

• CBC profiled Janis Thiessen’s Manitoba Food History Truck project!
  • Find out more about the project here.
• This seems to have been the week for alcohol-related history. I wonder why….
  • Archival Moments talked about the maligned reputation of St. Mary’s Bay Rum. 
  • The Toronto Public Library looked at Ontario’s historic breweries.
  • CBC looked at how a bootlegging legacy has inspired this brewery. 
  • And here on Unwritten Histories, Heather Green wrote a special guest post for us, on the Klondike Brewery!
• While most of us can’t attend the exhibit, this preview of a new exhibit at the Osbourne Collection of Early Children’s books, “Ready, Set, Go!: Play and Sports in Children’s Book,” looks pretty neat!
• You can see some images from another exhibit that most of us can’t see, the new Friar’s Music Museum, inside the Shoppers on Yonge Street in Toronto.
• Life is too short to grate cheese.
• Check out this neat look at Canadian dialects. My husband still makes fun of me for saying things like “close the light.”
• Kesia and I are back with our latest review of the CBC series, Back in Time for Dinner! Find out what we thought of the 1950s…
• The Whyte Museum is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and so is taking a closer look at archival documents from founders, Peter and Catharine Whyte. 
• This is a really fantastic reflection on cookbooks and “Canadian” cuisine in the first half of the twentieth century, by Julie Van Rosenddaal.

The History of Gender and Sexuality

•  The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives profiled the wonderful donation of items by Anton Wagner, a documentary filmmaker who has chronicled queer history in Toronto since 1998. 
• The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives also put together a great blog post on the origins of Toronto’s Pride Month.  
• Denyse Baillargeon reviewed Catherine Charron’s book, Aux marges de l’emploi. Parcours de travailleuses domestiques québécoises 1950-2000, for Histoire Engagé this week. 
• The Canadian Encylopedia posted a new entry for Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, famously known as the Dionne Quintuplets’ Head Nurse from 1934 to 1935.
• Crystal Sissons reflected on the launch of the new Canadian Archive on Women in STEM, mentioned in last week’s roundup.
• I’m not totally sure if it’s new or not, but check out this online exhibit from The Canadian Encyclopedia on Pride in Canada. 
• Shawn Micallef reflected on the significance of the clock tower from St. Charles Tavern that I mentioned in last week’s roundup.

Local History

• The Blue Cabin, in North Van’s Maplewood Mudflats, has been restored. Find out about its history here.
• Food was serious business in 1920s/1930s Whistler.
• Heritage Winnipeg explored the history of City Hall(s) this week. 
• Look back on the week of June 28th in 1970s/1980s Whistler.
• The Vancouver As It Was blog uncovered the history of J. F. Langer, the man who built the Orpheum Theatre. 
• The City of Vancouver Archives has been doing inventory, and one of the collections that it has rediscovered, and made more easily available, is the Strathcona redevelopment files.
• Check out these neat pictures of the construction of the Calgary Tower. 
• Radio Canada looked back on the history of St. Jean Baptiste celebrations in the Outaouais. 
• Check out this really hilarious collection of cartoons published by a New Westminster radio station. 
• Christopher Cheung has a really important look at the history of Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver, and the damage done by urban renewal projects to marginalized communities. 
• Part of Vancouver Island’s Highway 19 has been dedicated to labour activist, Ginger Goodwin.
• If you’re in Toronto, you may want to check out the homes of some noted Torontonians. 
• Whistorical looked back on the history of Parkhurst, before it became a ghost town.
• Eve Lazarus shared the history of Vancouver’s first hospital.

Digital and Public History

•  Gail Dever shared this really neat project, the Marine History Archive digitization project, including images of people in Newfoundland from 1500 to 1850. The digitization is in progress, and will take several months. What is not clear is whether this database contains only information about non-Indigenous Newfoundlanders.  See the project itself here.
• Check out this neat blog post from the UBC Digitizers’ blog on the seven Ps of marketing, as depicted in their archival collection. 
• Also check out this really cool project from Canadian Geographic mapping Canadian memorials overseas. They are also seeking submissions!
• The Fort La Tour National Historic Site in New Brunswick has just received a major grant for redevelopment.
• There is a new online exhibit available from the Nova Scotia Archives, featuring photographs taken by A.E. Cornwall of Hantsport and the surrounding area at the turn of the last century.
• There is a new app/website available sharing stories from Historic Nova Scotia.

Doing History

•  LAC has released its 2017-2018 annual report!
• Here is the Chief Justice’ reasoning about why Supreme Court documents should be withheld from public view for fifty years.
• Christopher Moore shared some insightful thoughts about how different political administrations influence popular media depictions of history. 
• Historical teamwork for the win!
• And here too!

Miscellaneous

• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for the “father” of Quebec pharmaceutical practice, Joseph Contant,
• Apparently the Chagall painting kerfuffle isn’t over…
• The Agenda spoke with Catherine Carstairs and Marcel Martel about the history of pot regulation in Canada. 

Canada Day

• The Toronto Public Library looked back at various celebrations over the years. I am a little confused though, because it appears to be focusing on a number of symbols of Canada (like the Red Ensign), but they also included a section on Indigenous peoples that doesn’t really seem to fit.
• The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto blog looked back on the Canadian national anthem. 
• This week’s episode of the Witness to Yesterday podcast was a Canada Day special, featuring Greg Marchildon speaking with Peter Russell about his work, Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests. 

Podcasts

• In the latest Living Heritage podcast episode, the host spoke with the staff of Admiralty House Communications Museum about their work in public history, particularly around the local Pigeon Post podcast.
• In episode eight of the Know History podcast, the Notice History hosts spoke with LAC Reference Archivist Rebecca Murray about researching family history. 

That’s all for this week! I hope you have a wonderful long weekend with loved ones. I also hope that 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! I’m super excited about this one. See you then!

Liked this post? Please take a second to support Unwritten Histories on Patreon!