Canadian History Roundup – Week of September 17, 2017

Woman canning salmon outdoors. 1947. National Film Board of Canada. Phototheque / Library and Archives Canada / e010948781. Copyright expired. This photograph was probably taken during the production of the National Film Board of Canada’s documentary “Peoples of the Skeena,” which was filmed in 1947 and released in 1949. The caption of this record has not yet been revised through Project Naming.

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

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

• This week’s most commonly used words in #envhist, according to Jessica DeWitt, are: “Fund,” “Will,” and “House.”
• Are you working on, or thinking of working on a Heritage Fair or Heritage Fair project? The Royal BC Museum has some resources for you. Find out more about this new tool here.
• The Canadian Museum of History posted an image of this stunning Dorset mask.
• In honour of the 100^th anniversary of the introduction of income tax (yay?), Active History has put together a series of posts looking at the history of taxation.
  • The first post, by David Tough, looked at the origins of income tax, and why people were in favour of it in the first place. If only they knew….
  • Next, E. A. Heaman talked about the notion of “fairness” as it was defined in 1917, with respect to the tax system.
  • Shirley Tillotson talked about several controversies over income tax, from calls for its abolishment, to the problem of tax evasion, to tax reform.
  • Sean Graham posted a special History Slam Episode, where he talked with Tillotson about her new book, Give and Take: The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy, as well as a range of other subjects.
  • Tillotson also wrote the fourth post in this series, about how various individuals have used special provisions regarding the family in order to pay the least amount of income tax possible.
  • And David Tough capped off the series with another post about why it is important that we study the history of taxation, including a meditation on the concept of “boredom.”
• Episode 5 of the On War and Society podcast asked: “Did you fall into the Vimy Trap?” Geoffrey Hayes talked about Ian McKay and Jamie’s Swift’s book, The Vimy Trap, and critiqued some aspects of its argument.
• Celeste Henry has written a new blog post for Black Perspectives about the importance of storytelling and reconciliation, and how it can help with the work of racial healing.
• This week on the Age of Revolution is a new post by Jordan Taylor on the work of Henri-Antoine Mézière. Taylor talks about how Quebecers responded to information about the French Revolution, British efforts to skew the narrative, and Mézière’s efforts to discover the truth.
• Now that the war is over, Olivar Asselin has been sent to Paris, and writes home to his son, describing some of his experiences on the trip.
• Jessica DeWitt and Sean Kheraj are back this week talking about the best articles in #envhist from August!
• The Nova Scotia Archives has posted this amazing list of proposed prize categories for the 1765 Windsor Fair.
• Carolyn Harris has written a number of articles for The Canadian Encyclopedia this week, including one for Prince Arthur, 1^st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and another on Alexander Cambridge, Earl of Athlone.
• Historica Canada has also released some new education guides this week, including one for the Fenian Raids and another for Responsible Government.
• October is Mi’kmaq History Month. Check out this year’s poster, exploring Mi’kmaq Innovation and Legacies.
• Jessica DeWitt has published a Twitter Moment on the Columbian Exchange and Ecological Imperialism, featuring all kinds of resources on the subject.
• Continuing on his tour of important Franklin sites in the Arctic, Russell Potter profiled Port Leopold.
• Joanne Hammond has written two great Twitter essays this week.
  • First up, is one on Pesqelqlélten: many salmon moon, the Secwepemc September moon. In this essay, she explains its significance and meaning, and the Secwepemc history of fishing.
    • Hammond also wrote the latest Dig It column on the same subject this week, which you can see here.
  • Next, she discussed the “Indian land question” in BC.
• LAC pays tribute to its 1967 legacy projects, particularly the Jacob M. Lowy collection of rare Judaica.
• Matthew McRae has written a new blog post for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights about the museum’s community garden, created in collaboration with the Council for Aboriginal Human Resources Development.
• Daniel Macfarlane and Murray Clamen are hosting a conference, and future book project, on the history of the International Joint Commission.
• This week, Shawna Davis brought attention to the fact that the workbook used in Vancouver schools for a graphic novel on Susanne Moodie is in fact horrifyingly racist. I’m not really quite sure what to say, but consider this a major content warning.
  • This has prompted several discussions online, including one involving Joanne Hammond, Glen Hansman, Lindsay Gibson, and others, on the subject of Indigenous education in public schools.
  • Debbie Reese purchased the graphic novel and raised some important questions about the piece and its accompanying workbook. She directed these questions to the book’s publisher, who has removed the teacher’s guide and is reviewing its suitability.
  • Ian Mosby shared these images from his son’s classroom….
  • And apparently because it’s terrible-textbook season here, there was also an article out about the portrayal of slavery in the new Quebec history textbook, which only looks at slavery in the US, not in Quebec. Yes, it is as bad as you think it is.
•  There have also been a number of discussions this week about the issue of history education and objectivity. Check out this one by Jonathan Gold about the importance of teaching students that not all historical narratives are legitimate.
• Peter Kear has a new blog post about a class exercise he uses to teach students about how ethnicity, age, gender, locality, and class can impact how different individuals experience different moments in time.
• Daniel Livesay has reviewed the “Legacies of British Slave-Ownership” website, which contains information regarding the compensation given to slave-owners following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
• The Graphic History Collective has a new poster in their Remember|Resist|Redraw series! This latest, by Christopher Robertson with introduction by Lorene Oikawa focuses on the history of Japanese and Japanese-Canadian internment.
• I really liked this short, but sharp, post from Rachel Bryant on Settler Canada and what its “scat” can tell us.
• This week on Unwritten Histories was my regular review of the best new articles published in Canadian history from the last month! Find out which ones were my favourites!
• Lindsay Gibson shared some more #SirJAM cartoons this week, from the Begbie Contest site.
• Apparently it’s food-conservation card week. Both the University of Western Ontario Public History students and the Canadian War Museum shared images of household pledges to follow rationing rules.
• Ian Mosby and Tracey Galloway’s article on residential schools from the Canadian Medical Association Journal is now open-access!
• Adéle Clapperton-Richard has written a new blog post for Histoire Engagée about history education debates in Quebec, while exploring the usefulness of narrative in historical analysis and arguing for the adoption of an “ethnographic” approach.
• In her latest post for NICHE, Mica Jorgenson reflects upon her year as New Scholars representative, and announces the appointment of Robynne Mellor as the New Scholars rep for 2017/2018!
• Krista McCracken and Jessica Knapp are organizing a Canada-wide History Wikipedia edit-a-thon! Stay tuned to UH for more information about this. 😉
• LAC has added a new Flickr album this week containing images of streetcars. Check out the images themselves here.
• In her latest post for the ROM blog, Victoria Abel looks back on the fascination with taking one’s photograph while standing in front of Niagara Falls. Even when that photo is taken in front of a backdrop.
• Corey Slumkoski has published special “bonus coverage” of the E.R. Forbes Bibliography in the latest issue of Acadiensis on the Acadiensis blog this week. The bonus material includes a biography and review of Forbes’ contributions to the field of Canadian history.
• This week on Instantanés is a blog post featuring some of the earliest drawings made of North America by European explorers.
• The Textile Museum of Canada’s Object of the Week is this gorgeous tea cozy from 1933!
• The latest blog post on the Scholarship and Activism blog is by Nicole Yakashiro and Angela Kruger, about Kruger’s recent speech at Vancouver’s City Council meeting regarding the rezoning of Chinatown. Yakashiro interviewed Kruger about her relationship to the area, as well as the issues of passing and trespassing space and boundaries.
• Though James Padilioni Jr.’s reflection on teaching the complexities of African American history is specific to the US, many of the same principles apply equally to fraught histories here in Canada.
• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Achille Fortier, noted singer and singing teacher.
• Robyn Lacy has put together a great primer on terminology for colonial North American Christian burial spaces and monuments.
• The McGill Institute for the Study of Canada filmed Desmond Morton’s recent talk on French Canada and WW1.
• Heritage Winnipeg discussed the role that the digital media can play with respect to preserving historical buildings and sites, while also promoting heritage more generally.
• The latest post from Retroactive is by Todd Kristensen, who explores the meaning of truth, spirituality, heritage, particularly with respect to the history of Christianity and Indigenous peoples in the area currently known as Alberta.
• The 2018 CHA Prize competition has officially opened!
• Adam Coombs looks at the history of Medicare in Canada, and how the Canadian Medical Association and the Ontario Medial Association both advocated against it in a great Twitter essay called: “Doctors are not Your Friends: A History.” I would also add that these organizations played a major role in the professionalization of the medical field, which had a significant detrimental impact on midwives. Indigenous healers, and many others.
• This week’s #TBT from the ROM is all about the last stretch.
• This past week, Gary Miedema spoke on the subject at Expo 67 as part of the Shannon Lecture Series. Dominique Marshall has helpfully gathered all of the related tweets into a Storify, so you can relive the experience!
• In their recent post on the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law Faculty blog, Team ReconciliAction YEG explain the concept of “the Doctrine of Discovery,” and how it is related to negative stereotypes about Indigenous peoples.
  • This week, Tansi Nîtôtemtik also posted information about the KAIROS Blanket Exercise.
• Éliane Laberge has written a new blog post for the Canadian Museum of History blog this week about early Canadian decorative arts, and what these pieces can tell us about Canadian history. She showcases an Ontario “harvest ring” made in the 1870, as well as several other items from the Harbinson’s collection.
• September 22nd was the 140th Anniversary of the signing of Treaty 7. Sean Carleton wrote another fabulous Twitter essay on the history of the treaty, and the fact that this anniversary was almost completely ignored by the media.
• This week the LAC blog also explored the challenges they are facing with respect to archiving web information relating to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This blog post explores important questions, like how do you archive a blog, and what kinds of documents should be included in this kind of collection.
• Russell Potter is back with his “Franklin Searcher of the Month” series. This month, he takes a look at Joseph René Bellot, the only “active-duty member of the French Navy to volunteer” for the search for Franklin.
• Christi Belcourt has written a really important meditation on the meaning of “home” to Indigenous peoples.
• The Ontario Women’s History Network will be having its Annual Conference on October 20th and 21st at the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre at Laurentian University. The theme this year is: “Indigenous Women and Education.” The program looks amazing, as usual.
• Christopher Ryan has written a new blog post on the history of the former “Chinese laundry,” the New Edinburg Laundry. It’s almost interesting enough to make me want to do laundry, though that is a very tall order.
• Scott Masters talks about his ongoing Crestwood Oral History project, where high school students get the chance to interview family relatives while also adding to our understanding of Canadian history.
• Mica Jorgenson has also posted an update on her work mapping the 1909 Porcupine Gold Rush, and the transnationalism of the Canadian mining history.
• Allan Downey initiated a really great discussion on Twitter about archaeology and reconciliation.
• The St. Catharines Museum blog takes us on Walk P, simply described as “a little of this, a little of that.”
• They also have a new blog post about their collection of fire insurance plans, which are incredibly useful sources of information.
• Though their terminology is a bit off and/or outdated, the UK National Archives has a new blog post about Indigenous soldiers who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WW1.
• The Archives of Quebec City have posted a tribute to former mayor, Jean-Paul L’Allier, which includes information about their related holdings
• Canadian History in the News
  • Don Smith has written a fantastic article about Toronto and the Act of the Gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes in the Canadas, one of several different pieces of legislation that would eventually culminate in the creation of the 1876 Indian Act. So when will statue removal become its own profession?
  • Former residents of Cassiar, BC, a former asbestos mining-town, reunited this week, twenty-five years after their town was auctioned off.
  • Andy Miller has discovered a large cache of photographs of Indigenous peoples from 1870 to 1979. He is seeking help from anyone who might be able to identify the individuals featured in the photographs.
  • Terry Ryan, a noted adviser and promoter of Inuit artwork, particularly from Cape Dorset, has died.
  • Jenny Ellison was interviewed by CTV about the acquisition of the much of Mike Wilson’s “Ultimate Leafs” collection. Wow, I feel like I know someone famous now.
  • The Calgary Gay History Project remembers the “golden age of gay bars” in the city, the 1970s.
  • Eve Lazarus has posted an excerpt from one of her books, At Home with History: The Secrets of Great Vancouver’s Heritage Houses, on the murder of poet Pat Lowther. Content warning: graphic descriptions of homicide.
  • Check out this gorgeous astronomical clock, used by Samuel Johannes Holland to determine the longitudes of PEI, Cape Breton, and the lower St. Lawrence Valley.
  • Can you figure out what this decorative wooden egg was used for?
  • This week Policy Options published a special series on the Indian Act:
    • Douglas Sanderson talked about how the Indian Act allows provinces and the federal government to tax First Nations communities, but does not require them to invest this money back into the communities it was taken from.
    • Russell Diablo wrote about various efforts on the part of the Canadian government to repeal the Indian Act, how — in most cases — these are simply attempts at recolonizing Indigenous peoples, and the need to look beyond a solution based on the constitution.
    • Heather Dorries wrote about how the revision or repeal of the Indian Act would benefit urban Indigenous peoples, particularly with respect to issues of status.
    • Naiomi Metallic argued that administrative changes, like splitting INAC into two ministries, will not solve the problems inherent in the Indian Act, and the need to move towards a system of Indigenous self-government.
    • Sébastien Grammond, Christiane Guay, and Nadine Vollant, discussed how reconciliation is not achievable unless Indigenous youth are prioritized, and existing systems for protection services are overhauled.
  • A beautiful blue silk wedding dress from 1870 has just been donated to the Royal Alberta Museum.
  • Wiarton Willie is dead. Long live Wiarton Willie.
  • You need to read this piece by Daniel Heath Justice on the “Settlers with Opinions.” Go right now. This roundup will still be here when you get back.
  • Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization, has given the first Cultural Repatriation Award to Chicago’s Field Museum and the Nunatsiavut government in Labrador, for their work repatriating the bodies of Inuit that were stolen for scientific research.
  • Kate Bird has published a new book on the history of protests and riots in Vancouver. Accompanying the book is a new exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver, and you can see some of the images featured in both here.
  • In honour of the upcoming highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktut, Bernard Anderson spoke with CBC about how he escaped residential school by walking a similar route. He was accompanied by two of his friends, Lawrence Jack Elanik and Dennis Dick, but both of them died during the two-week journey, and Anderson himself nearly died as well. Anderson and Elanik were 11, while Dick was 13.
  • Eric Davies is trying to map the oldest trees in Toronto, and learn about the special abilities that have allowed them to survive this long.
  • Jeff Outhit wrote a piece for TheRecord.com about Mennonite conscientious objectors during WW1, in relation to a new exhibit at the University of Waterloo on Mennonite involvement during the war.
  • Scroll down to read Ben Goosen’s letter to the editor about the need for the Canadian Mennonite community to acknowledge its history with Nazism.
  • There is a new Heritage Minute coming in early 2018, and it will feature Lucy Maud Montgomery.
  • Kent Monkman will soon be unveiling a new artwork, depicting the Iroquois and the Dutch negotiating the Two Row Wampum Treaty, or Guswenta.
  • Canadian Art magazine has an overview of what we’ve learned about Canadian museums from this year’s #AskACurator day. I was a little disappointed to see that it didn’t include Kesia Kvill’s question to all museums about how they are working to better understand the history of marginalized communities though.
  • Florence Genaille shared her experiences being experimented upon at the sanatorium in Brandon, Manitoba. She was sent there for treatment for tuberculosis, a disease which she had never contracted. The article also mentions Mary Jane McCallum’s work on this issue.
  • Find out about the history of Winnipeg’s famous, but also mysterious, Jeanne’s Cake
  • Erik Moshe interviewed Richard White for the History News Network this past week. Yes, The Middle Ground’s Richard White.
  • New excavations in the area near Annapolis Royal have revealed evidence of more than 6,000 years of Mi’kmaq occupation. Find out about what the archaeologists have found, and what the finds tell us about Mi’kmaq history.
  • Building off of Ryan McMahon’s Colonization Road, Jon Thompson explores the Colonization Roads of northwestern Ontario, and how debates over renaming these roads have resulted in some discussion of colonialism in this part of Canada.
  • The remains of some of Ottawa’s earliest European inhabitants were unearthed in 2013 as part of light rail construction.  These remains, including Burial 8, containing the only intact human skeleton, will be reburied between October 25th and October 1st.
    • But before that, the remains will be available for public visitation at the Canadian Museum of History. You can find out more about this, as well as additional information about what these remains have taught us about early European history in this area, by going here.
  • An amazing “porcupine” stone drain from 1831 was found during the excavation of Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market. Debates are ongoing about how “best” (i.e., cheaply) to protect and display it.
  • Content warning: science: Sarah Zhang explored French-Canadian genealogy for The Atlantic this week, exploring how history has helped to solve a medical mystery known as “the mother’s curse,” when a mutation in mitochondrial DNA affects only men, but not women. There is no way for this mutated gene to be “bred out” by natural selection (insert discussion of Y and X chromosomes here), which means that it is often passed on from generation to generation. One of these diseases, Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, which causes vision loss among young men, is prevalent in individuals with French-Canadian ancestry, and all of these individuals can trace their families back to a single fille du roi. This revelation is allowing scientists to better understand how the “mother’s curse hypothesis” works.
  • Priscilla Settee spoke with CBC about the Indigenization program at the University of Saskatchewan.
  • The area around Beechville, Nova Scotia, once a settlement for formerly enslaved Black refugees who came to Nova Scotia between 1813 and 1815, is being recognized for its historic significance. Plans are ongoing, in connection with the African-Nova Scotian community, regarding how best to preserve and commemorate the site, which also includes a cemetery.
  • Photographs taken as part of two City of Vancouver photographic surveys (from 1978 and 1985/1986) are being digitized, and will soon be ready for public access!
  • The RCMP have signed an agreement to return a number of artifacts belonging to Louis Riel to the Métis people. This includes a book of poetry, a crucifix, and a hunting knife.
  • Find out a little bit about the history of the pawpaw, a fruit native to North America. I always used to confuse it with persimmon for some reason.
  • Christo Aivalis has a great article reflecting on the history of Pierre Trudeau and Canadian-American relations.
  • If you happen to be near the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, you too can see the first draft of The Handmaid’s Tale.
  • Check out this really cool exhibit on Toronto’s history, created by Duane Linklater (Omaskeko Cree). The exhibit features casts of figures from several notable Toronto buildings. What is it with physical descriptions of individuals in news stories, though?
  • Did you know that Canada has its own apple history? I’m still partial to Grannie Smiths myself.
  • CBC spoke with Zacharias Kunuk about his film, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, as well as Natar Ungalaaq, who is actually a fast runner.
• Better Late than Never
  • More advice for anyone who is struggling to decipher handwritten documents from 17^th and 18^th British North America.
  • Buzzfeed has found some interesting photos of a shirtless Tim Horton. Warning: he does not appear to have ever eaten a doughnut.
  • Michael Engelhard explored the history of polar bears during the Renaissance, particularly with respect to their representation on maps from the era.
  • Earlier this month, plaques commemorating the HMS Erebus and the Terror as “national historic sites” were unveiled at the Umiyaqtutt Festival in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.
  • The City of Burnaby has made its index of Council minutes and reports searchable online. More than 85% of these documents are fully digitized and available for viewing, and the rest will soon be completed.
• Calls for Papers
  • The Law and Society Association and the Canadian Law and Society Association have announced their 2018 joint meeting. They have also issued a call for papers and panels, and submissions are due October 18^th.
  • The Michigan Historical Review has issued a CFP for an upcoming special issue entitled “’Pure Michigan’: Environmental Histories of the Great Lakes State.” Proposals are due December 1st.
  • The Canadian Journal of History is seeking paper submissions dealing with any aspect of gender and popular politics since 1945. There is no deadline, as this is an open call.
  • The British Group in Early American History and the British American Nineteenth Century Historians are jointly hosting a postgraduate and early-career conference in March of 2018 in London. Paper and panel proposals are due November 24th.

That’s it 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, featuring the return of Historian’s Histories! I’ll see you then!

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