Canadian History Roundup – Week of July 14, 2019

Louise Barre holding Expo 67 cake. [1963-1967]. Library and Archives Canada / Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition / e011178095.

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 last week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: ‘Water,’ ‘Will,’ and ‘Carbon.’
• In her latest post for Active History, Heather Green explained how the discovery of one file in the archives changed the shape of her dissertation.
• Also on NiCHE this week was a new post by Sean Kheraj about his current research project on the Interprovincial oil pipeline system, at one time the largest in the world.
• Charlotte Dawe has written a new piece for The Straight about the problematic history of parks in Canada, and the fact that they are so often located on stolen lands. 

Military History

• Over on Active History, Rebecca Lazarenko explained how Alberta’s often neglected French Canadian community responded to WW1. Spoiler alert: they did not respond the same way that French Canadians in Quebec did.
• The Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts has begun restoration work on the Leichter Minenwerfer mortar, which was brought to Canada after WW1 as a war trophy.

Archaeology

• The Canadian Armed Forces are planning to sweep a popular dive spot, the wreckage of WW2-era ships — the Lord Strathcona and Rose Castle from Canada, France’s PLM 27 and Britain’s Saganaga — for active artillery shells. All four were sunk by German U-Boats in 1942 off the coast of Newfoundland’s Bell Island.
• Sharon Swiderski wrote a special guest post on the Woodland Cemetery history blog about her field placement at the cemetery.
• Robyn Lacy was also back with her last report from her work at Woodland Cemetery!
• The Nova Scotia Museum posted an update on its excavations at Fort Saint-Louis.
• Joanne Hammond was back this week with a new Twitter thread, on the second year of her post-wildfire archaeology on Bonaparte Plateau.
• The ongoing archaeological excavations on Parliament Hill have revealed a former military guardhouse and a bunch of artifacts from before confederation.

History Education

• Skylee-Storm Hogan, Krista McCracken, and I were back with another blog post in our mini Beyond the Lecture series on teaching Indigenous history! In this post, we tackled the issue of appropriation vs. incorporation, and how to successfully integrate Indigenous content into Canadian history classrooms.
• Nancy Janovicek was back with the third post in Active History’s series on teaching Structures of Indifference, by Mary Jane Logan McCallum and Adele Perry. Janovicek discussed her experience teaching the book in a first year post-confederation Canadian history survey course.
• Over on the CHA Learning and Teaching blog, Katherine Crooks discussed what it was like to teach her first class!
• Carla Peck has received $2.5 million in funding from SSHRC for a new project to investigate history education in k-12 schools. Congratulations! This was one of several SSHRC grants that were handed out this week, and I am super exciting about all of the new history projects that are in progress!

Transnational History

• I’m not sure if this is new or just new to me, but check out this really cool Building Borders site, which explores visual representations of the Canada-US Border from 1860 to 1915 through interactive maps. Included on the site are downloadable datasets. The project was created by a team headed up by Benjamin Hoy, Kris Inwood, and Jon Bath.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Anthony H. Morgan wrote a great piece for The North Star this week on reclaiming the legacy of Canada’s ‘Emancipation Day,’ August 1^st.
• The Guardian spoke with some of the descendants of Italian-Canadian internees about the impact of internment and what Trudeau’s apology means to them.
• Patrick Lacroix posted part two of his mini-series on Robert Desty’s life and the incident that became a cause célèbre.
• Atlas Obscura posted an excerpt from Ann Hui’s Chop Suey Nation, about Chinese food and curling in Thunder Bay.

Indigenous History

• Heather Hagerman (Métis) and the McMurray Métis are creating a cookbook with traditional Métis recipes from the Wood Buffalo region Elders in order to preserve these traditions and pass them on to future generations.
• You may remember how I mentioned a few weeks ago that Áísínai’pi was granted UNESCO World Heritage status. The Narwhal spoke with the man who worked for over twenty years to showcase this amazing site, Blackfoot Elder Martin Heavy Head, council member with the Kainai Nation.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia has posted a new entry for Inuk soldier, John Shiwak (Sikoak), who also has the distinction of being one of the best snipers during WW1.
• The Anglican Church of Canada has apologized for the spiritual harm they inflicted on Indigenous peoples, particularly through their residential schools. Content warning: residential schools.
• Settlements between nine First Nations in Treaty 6 and Treaty 4 territory and the federal government have reached an settlement to make amends for the $5-per-person annual payments promised in the treaties that were withheld during the Northwest Resistance.  The affected communities include Poundmaker Cree Nation, Sweetgrass First Nation, Thunderchild First Nation, One Arrow First Nation, Little Pine First Nation, the Chakastapasyn Sector of James Smith Cree Nation, Onion Lake Cree Nation, Red Pheasant Cree Nation and the Mosquito, Grizzly Bear’s Head, Lean Man First Nation. Content warning: using the term “rebellion.”
• CBC spoke with some of the members of four Inuit families, including Simon Nattaq, Deborah Tagornak, and Jack Anawak, about their recent trip south to visit the burial sites of their lost loved ones who died after being taken to a sanitarium for medical treatment. Content warning: lost loved ones, unmarked graves, Indigenous folks who were removed from their communities for medical treatment.
• President of Métis-Nation Saskatchewan, Glen McCallum and the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding addressing the treatment of Indigenous children at the Ile-a-la-Crosse boarding school, which is seen as a precursor to further discussions with both the federal and Saskatchewan government. Content warning: discussion of treatment of Indigenous children at boarding school.
• A Kwakwaka’wakw sun mask that was seized during the road on the Cranmer Potlatch is finally being returned to its home community and the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, B.C. Unfortunately, the article is being a paywall, so if you want to read it, you will need to have a subscription to the Globe and Mail. 

New France/British North America

• Harrison Dressier has published a new piece for the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog, sharing the story of Irish loyalist Charles Cooke’s experiences at the Battle of Trenton.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, we also had the second post in our summer series on Acadian history. This post, written by Anne Marie Lane Jonah, looked at the overlapping histories of the Isthmus of Chigenecto, particularly with respect to the Acadian village of Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence.

Political History

• Things I did not know we needed: Canadian prime ministers with bangs. I dies.
• The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Governor General Victor Cavendish.

Social History

• This week the BC Food History blog looked at the first patent granted to a woman in Canada, Ruth Adams, inventor of the “reverse cooking stove.”
• Sophie Hicks was back this week on Active History with the second post in her series on society, community, family, and food. This latest post is an experimental examination of pemmican!
• Meanwhile, LAC posted their latest Flickr album, containing images of bakeries. See the images themselves here. Now I’m getting hungry.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia posted a new entry this week on the history of the term “Canuck.”
• The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto made a fascinating discovering in their collection this week: a top hat!

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Moon Landing

• Of course, several news outlets had special stories for the occasion.
  • CBC shared archival footage of the landing, and how its legacy lives on.
  • They also looked at the technology that was used for the Apollo missions.
  • And they spoke with Merle Massie about Saskatchewan’s contribution to the landing, and her brush with fame!
  • Global News explained how the loss of the Avro Arrow played a tremendous role in the development of NASA.
  • The Star discussed how Torontonians reacted to the moon landing.
  • And CTV also got in on the action, speaking with surviving Apollo 11 astronaut, Michael Collins. 
• The Archives of the City of Montreal also got in on the action, sharing the story of the visit of the Apollo 11 astronauts to Montreal in 1969.
• Canadian software engineer Ben Feist restored 11,000 hours of audio from the Apollo 11 mission control, as part of the restoration of the roof itself.

Local History

• The Vancouver Is Awesome blog looked at the Judd Farm in Squamish, BC, and its history on film.
• CBC spoke with the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador about the history of their new building.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog shared some really cool advertisements from BC Historical Newspapers.
• Ron Kelland was this week’s guest author on Retroactive, profiling the municipal heritage resources in Lacombe, Alberta.
• Heritage Winnipeg took us on a historical walking tour through the Warehouse District.
• The Vancouver As It Was blot looked at the history of the McIntoch sisters, and the story of their compelling photographs. 

Digital and Public History

• Université Sainte-Anne’s Centre acadien is launching a new “Acadian heritage, culture and history” project, digitizing fifty historical texts for use on a range of online platforms.
• Uno Langmann has donated an additional 2,500 historical photographs of BC to UBC.
• The City of Vancouver Archives set up a photo identification booth at Pride this year in hopes of naming some of the individuals in photographs from the BC Gay and Lesbian Archives.They are also in the process of setting up an online system to allow people to help make more photo identifications.
• Timiskaming First Nation has signed an agreement with Parks Canada to co-manage Obadjiwan-Fort Témiscamingue National Historic Site. CBC spoke with Timiskaming First Nation Chief Wayne McKenzie about this agreement.
• The Manitoba Metis Federation announced that the federal government will be providing a multi-million dollar grant to build a Métis National Heritage Centre.
• The Rooms in St. John is reviewing one of their permanent exhibits on the Paleo-Eskimo and Beothuk, following calls for change from Chief Mi’sel Joe of the Miawpukek First Nation. Designed in the early 2000s, the panels use language to describe Indigenous peoples that is no longer considered acceptable. In the interim, a new label for the exhibit will be developed to explain the language. Content warning: problematic terms for Indigenous peoples.
• Gail Dever is reporting that BAnQ has digitized 1,200 postcards from a collection of more than 7,000 featuring images of Montreal from the late 19^thcentury to the 1960s.
• This week on the Global Maritime History blog, Arlene Spencer reviewed the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
• The University of Toronto Libraries Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library profiled their collection of 20^thcentury Canadian feminist periodicals.
• The Beyond Borders blog posted a recording of the recent panel discussion at McMaster, “The Statue Wars: Is the global movement to tear down problematic memorials erasing history?” The panel included Vanessa Watts (Mohawk (Bear Clan, Six Nations) and Anishinaabe), James Dashuk, and Christopher Moore, and was moderated by Steven Paikin.
• There is a brand new online walking tour for Walkerville,  part of Windsor, Ontario.

Doing History

• This week the LAC blog looked at its collections relating to artist David Martin Heath.
• SFU has posted a new formal citation guide for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, developed by NorQuest College Library, in both MLA and APA formats. Now we just need one in Chicago Manual Style, which everyone knows is the best citation style, period.
• NiCHE posted the third post in their series on “2020 Visions for Environmental History” this week. This latest post is by Arielle Helmick, who discussed the idea of sustainability in academia as a whole.
• On the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC blog, archives processing assistant Maddy Martin described their experience working there!
• LAC has become the seventy-seventh institutional member of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.
• Kara Isozaki discussed her work processing the Murray and Marvelle Koffman Fonds at the Ontario Jewish Archives.

Miscellaneous

• Sixty descendants of the Pauline family gathered in Victoria last weekend to reenact a family photograph taken around 1890. Gillian Leitch came up with the idea, and she is the great-great-granddaughter of Frederick and May Pauline, who immigrated to Victoria from England in the 1880s.

Podcasts

• Eve Lazarus was back with episode 10 of the Blood, Sweat, and Fear podcast, looking at the death of Ruth Cooperman. Content warning: images of crime scenes, drug use, poisoning.

Calls for Papers

• Alex Souchen and Matthew S. Wiseman have issued a CFP for chapter proposals for an edited volume on the military-industrial complex in Canada. Proposals are due October 1.
• Would you like to participate in commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women? Check out this invitation.

I’m not sure why, but the Globe and Mail has been putting a lot more articles under a paywall lately. I always debate whether or not I should include them in the roundup, since the paywall means that they are inaccessible to many people. What do you think? In any case, 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 the third post in our ongoing summer series on Acadian history. This week’s post is by Christopher Hodson, discussing his research on deported Acadians. See you then!

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