Canadian History Roundup – Week of April 16, 2017

Marie Claire, April 22 1938. Musée du costume et du textile du Québec, 1516-31. 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 Junto honoured the Battle of Culloden with a special Sunday post by Nicola Martin, exploring the impact of the Scottish Highlands on the British Army in North America. If you don’t know what the Battle of Culloden is, go read Diana Galbaldon’s Outlander. And no, I am not watching the tv series, because my Jamie is way cuter.
• Tammy Robert reviews a history of libraries in Saskatchewan and why this new move to cut libraries is stupid.
• This week on NiCHE, is a French translation of a blog post that was published in January by Robert C. H. Sweeny. The post discusses the latest news from the “Montréal, l’avenir du passé” historical GIS project. If you’d like to read the original, click here.
• On Borealia, Ruma Chopra has a fantastic new blog post contextualizing the current refugee crisis by examining the experiences of Black Loyalists and Maroons and the Mi’kmaq and other First Nations in Nova Scotia. She ends with a pointed question: “Which refugees will be deemed fit for rescue?” A definite must-read.
• This week on the Beyond Borders blog, Phil Van Huizen and Asa McKercher have a preview of an upcoming symposium at the Wilson Institute at McMaster University, Undiplomatic History: A Symposium on Rethinking the History of Canada in the World.
• There are a couple of things that were published this week that do not deal directly with Canadian history, but which I think most of my readers will enjoy:
  • Kacy Tillman examines the writing of rape in the American Revolution over on the Age of Revolutions blog. She focuses specifically on the rhetorical use of the term “rape” by individuals on both sides of the conflict.
  • Jennifer Vannette discusses finding humour in historical research over at the AHA blog.
  • On The Daily Context, Erin Bartram explains “Why Historians Nitpick.”
• On this week’s review of the post popular publications on #envhist on Twitter, Jessica DeWitt noticed that the most common words were “Google,” “Canadian,” and “new.” I feel like my posts keep screwing up your analysis, Jessica!
• This week, one of my favourite blogs ever, Nursing Clio, had two blog posts examining “hangriness” in 18^th century North America (including Canada). (Being “hangry” is when you are so hungry that you are cranky.)
  • Rachel Herrmann took the view that employing this term in a historical context does a disservice to all of those that suffered from actual hunger.
  • Carla Cevasco took the opposing view, and argued that scarcity pushes individuals to extremes.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, I posted the latest interview in my Historian’s Histories series, with Krista McCracken! Her work is so incredible, so you should definitely check out this interview.
• As predicted, the next province with a photo album from LAC is New Brunswick! Check out the pictures themselves here. And Newfoundland and Labrador should be up next!
• The latest post from the Dartmouth Heritage Museum looks at lady ice skaters and hockey players! This includes skates owned by Nova Scotia folklorist Helen Creighton!
• Harold Bérubé has another post in his ongoing series on the 300^th anniversary of Montreal in 1942. This latest focuses on attempts to educate the public about Montreal’s history. This history very much reflects the fact that this anniversary took place during WW2.
• The BC Heritage Fairs History Blog for April is Christopher Moore’s blog!
• Adele Perry was interviewed by the At the Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research podcast about her new book, Aqueduct: Colonialism, Resources, and the Histories We Remember.
• LAC continues with its series on Vimy Ridge with a new post on the memorialization of the battle.
  • And another one on war art.
• This week Instantanés has an amazing blog post about the history of dramatic theatrical productions in Quebec through an examination of the costumes made by legendary designer, Solange Legendre.
• This week on the Acadiensis blog is a video showing Acadiensis co-editor Sasha Mullally speaking on a CBC panel discussing The Story of Us.
• The ROM’s blog has a another new post in Heather Read’s series on Canada150. This latest features a black rag doll from Nova Scotia. It’s absolutely fascinating.
• The University of Toronto is republishing a number of important historical books as part of their new “Canada 150” collection.
• Chris Dummitt has a new blog post on Active History that is a pointed critique of Canada 150, where Canadian historians fit it, and his work on a private Canada150 project, Canadian Difference, where Canadians can talk about politics.
  • And don’t forget to read Matthew Hayday’s comment on the piece, and the discussion that happened on Twitter.
• This past week, we celebrated Canadian Film Day, so The Canadian Encyclopedia created a great timeline to celebrate Canada’s film history!
  • In honour of Canadian Film Day and Canada150, TIFF has put together a catalogue of Canadian films for you to enjoy.
• The fonds of Vancouver jeweller Tony Cavelti are now available at the City of Vancouver Archives. You can also see some of these images on their Flickr account. Ooooh, sparkly.
• The absolutely amazing Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony, under the directorship of Elise Chenier, have just premiered their new research initiative, “Bridging the Gap”! This project allows members of the public to contribute their own testimony to the archive’s collection.
• Joanna Hammond posted an important image of Edgar Dewdney’s survey book from the 1870-80s, showing in detail the process of recording the theft of Indigenous lands.
• The South Peace Regional Archives showcased some of their new photographic acquisitions on their blog this week!
• Even the Royal BC Museum is getting in on the unicorn craze… Anyone tried the unicorn frappucino?
• The Canadian Archaeological Association has just converted their bulletin into a blog!
• UBC Digitizer’s Blog has a new post with lots of images of Canadians playing sports, because the Canucks are out of the playoffs (:P). They’ve also included a link to a 1974 broadcast of a game between BC and Alberta if you’re interested!
• The Facing Canada community blog has a new post about how to prepare your students for a visit from a residential school survivor. It’s mostly geared towards elementary and high school teachers, but there are many lessons here for university and college educators as well.
• The latest issue of BC Studies is out!
• Episode 3 of the I-CYS podcast, from the University of Lethbridge’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies is an interview with Ashley Henrickson about the emotional experiences of Canadians who were children during WW1.
• The Halifax Municipal Archives has just joined Flickr Commons, and they are also looking for help identifying some of the individuals in the images.
• Tim Cook reviewed Brock Millman’s book, Polarity, Patriotism, and Dissent in Great War Canada, 1914-1919.
• The Mlle. Canadienne blog has a new post all about the history of women’s shifts in the 18^th century, dispelling some of the myths perpetuated by television and film!
• This week, the Retroactive Blog has a post where they trace the story of a rusty revolver found near Buffalo Lake, and examine how surplus weapons from the American Civil War ended up in the hands of the Métis, the Blackfoot, and the Nehiyawak (Cree) in Alberta.
• The Dictionary of Canadian Biography’s new biography for this week belongs to Oscar Dufresne, a noted businessman who made shoes!
• The St. Catharines Museum blog has posted Walk E of “St. Catharines A-Z.”
• The Black Perspectives blog has a new post by James Padilioni Jr. about how the African Diaspora has a different perception of time, one that is circular, that is inextricable from their music, folklore, and ritual.
• Jessica DeWitt has her monthly review and discussion of the best in #envhist from the past month over on NiCHE!
• The Québec City Archives has a new blog post all about how they process private fonds, with a discussion of how they’ve handled the recent acquisition of the Kinsmen Club papers.
• The University of Manitoba is celebrating 140 years this year, and have put together a collection of 140 images of their history.
• Watch Mona Gleason talk about how historians treat education and the body with her speech at the International Standing Conference on the History of Education!
• The South Peace Regional Archives also explores the first double-murder in Beaverlodge!
• The Museum of Vancouver explored the history of 4/20 in Vancouver. Of course. If you’d like to find out where the term 4/20 actually comes from, check out this episode of the Criminal podcast! It’s absolutely fascinating.
• Alessandra Link reflects on the role that mapmaking played in the colonization of the part of North American now known as the United States, and the role that cartographic knowledge played in encounters and exchanges between setters and Indigenous peoples. While she is discussing the American example specifically, most of this also applies to Canada.
• Christopher Moore shares his experiences visiting the Glenbow Museum in Calgary!
• Eve Lazarus talks about the history of Vancouver’s Seaton Street.
• Whistorical remembered Easter weekends of yesteryear, with a special focus on the very popular Easter Parades.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia has a new entry this week, on Carbon Pricing in Canada.
• The CCGW’s latest post considers the landscapes of France and Flanders after the war, clean-up efforts, and what is hidden beneath the surface.
• Tyler Owens and Dominique Marshall have a new post this week on the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History blog showcasing some of the maps produced by Keith Spicer during his humanitarian work in the 1960s, telling the story of his travels through Europe, Africa, and Asia.
• Canadian History in the News
  • Don Pitts draws parallels between Prohibition and the legalization of pot.
  • Hockey history is being rewritten, because apparently someone has figured out who played the first NHL game. The answer: MONTREAL!
  • The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is paying tribute to Victoria’s Raging Grannies! I loved seeing these ladies on the bus.
  • The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is also celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
  • According to Marketplace, “historian” is on the list of least automatable jobs. So when the robots take over, at least they will need us to write their histories.
  • This is not even remotely historical, but have you seen the beaver that herds cattle in Saskatchewan? All hail the mighty beaver.
  • CBC recounts the experiences of Private Angus Paul Goodleaf, a Kanien’kehá:ka WW1 soldier from Kahnawake. Wounded at Vimy, he was denied the same support and benefits that white veterans received because he was Indigenous.
  • The Mahone Bay Museum in Nova Scotia is also crowdsourcing IDs for some of their historical photographs.
  • This week on the Quill and Quire is a new article looking at recent publications on PTSD among Canadian soldiers, including Adam Montgomery’s new book, The Invisible Injured: Psychological Trauma in the Canadian Military from the First World War to Afghanistan, who was also interviewed for the piece.
  • Discussions are ongoing about the fate of the Dominion Public Building in Toronto.
  • Bison are returning to Banff! Check out this amazing video of them arriving, and the work done by more than 50 Indigenous communities to facilitate this.
  • A new survey reveals that an inclusive curriculum that reflects the diverse nature of the student population helps to keep Indigenous and racialized students in school!
  • Montreal just got a new Jewish history museum! The new Museum of Jewish Montreal is, according to The Times of Israel, one of the few to focus on the experiences of the local community, rather than the Holocaust, and originated as an online museum.
  • Check out some of the amazing photos and illustrations of Vancouver’s art deco buildings.
  • McGraw-Hill education has just donated more than 3,000 historical books and 2,000 documents dating back to 1860 to Ryerson University. It looks like a diverse and unique collection!
  • BAnQ has just acquired the collection of noted Québecois actress and activist, Janette Bertrand.
    • And they’ve also just received a grant of 3 million dollars to purchase the fonds of the Poissant family, fishermen for more than 400 years.
    • And apparently this is the week where BAnQ went on a shopping spree, because they’ve also just acquired a new collection, 100 years of Le Devoir issues, from 1910 to 2009! And even better, you can look at them all online!
  • CTV News Montreal interviewed a series of historians about the conscription crisis in Quebec during WW1. Fun fact: this was the new channel I grew up watching. I’m pretty sure Mitsumi Takahashi doesn’t age.
  • Buzzfeed posted 11 iconic images from Canadian photographer, Douglas Kirkland, and the stories behind them.
  • The first female infantry officer in Canada has just written a memoir.
  • The Canadian Museum of History has just received a massive new donation for their new Canadian History Hall.
  • Apparently Sir John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier received some additional grooming before being permitted to appear on the new $10 bill.
  • A 500-year-old pemmican production camp belonging to the ancestors of the Blackfoot has just been discovered in Montana.
  • A burial ground near the Fortress of Louisbourg is under threat from coastal erosion, so this summer students from UNB will be excavating their remains in hopes of preserving them.
  • The Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeological Society wants to remind everyone that you need to document your location when you find artefacts. This comes after a recent examination of a private collection that failed to record this information properly. Better yet, leave it for archaeologists.
    • They also released a report with their findings about the collection.
  • Somebody’s in trouble…. The parliamentary standing committee on Canadian heritage wants to “talk” to the CBC about The Story of Us. ::snicker::
  • Take a moment to remember the history of St. John’s Ward in Toronto and the diverse nature of its communities.
  • Get a tiny preview of the new exhibit from LAC and the Canadian Museum of History, “Moments from 150 Years Ago.”
  • Baby bison!
  • Tracey Bear and Chris Anderson, two of the great professors behind UofA’s Indigenous Canada online course (that I’m taking!) have an editorial in The Globe and Mail reflecting on the impact of the TRC’s final report and Calls to Action, three years after their release. As they argue, education and knowledge of our history is essential.
  • The Sto:lo are fighting to preserve many of their most important sacred sites from developers. These sites, known as transformer sites, where their ancestors were turned to stone, are home to living spirits called Shxweli, and serve as cautionary tales.
• Better Late than Never
  • Nathan Vanderklippe explains how early 20^th century Canadian Methodist missionaries have shaped the relationship between Canada and mainland China.
  • So apparently the Scarborough chain of office (for the mayor) had been missing since 1994. But don’t worry, they found it!
  • Last week the Gitwangak community lost its 135-year-old totem pole, known as the Supernatural Halibut pole, to arson.
  • Ebony paid tribute to Jackie Robinson last week on the 70^th anniversary of his return to Major League Baseball with a gallery of images.
• Calls for Papers
  • Daniel Macfarlane and William Knight will be co-editing a special issue of Scientia Canadiensis, to be published in 2018, on the relationship between environment and technology in North America.
  • Next April, Mount Allison and the Université de Moncton will be hosting a conference on Canadian women writers from the 1960s to the 1980s, in both English and French. They are currently seeking proposals for presentations.

It was a bit of a quiet week for Canadian history, relatively speaking. But I guess that makes sense since we’re in the midst of marking season, the craziest time of the year. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed this week’s roundup and aren’t too burnt out by marking (if that’s what you’re doing). If you did enjoy this post, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice! And don’t forget to check in on Tuesday for a brand new blog post! I’ll keep it a secret for now. 😉 See you then!

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