“If Ye Break Faith—We Shall Not Sleep,” Buy Victory Bonds (1914-1918) / Frank Nicolet. Library and Archives Canada, e010697283 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.
Warning: This week is really heavy on the war history, since Friday was Remembrance Day.
- The Canada’s Anglo-Celtic Connections blog spotlights the First World War Canadian Veterans Claims Cards, available though Canadiana.ca. Check the cards out yourself by going here.
- Active History has a special two part series this week all about the terms that we use to refer to Indigenous Peoples. The series is authored by Brittany Luby, Kathryn Labelle, and Alison Norman.
- Over on the Borderlands History blog, Matthew M. Montelione reviewed a recent book, Robert E. Cray’s Lovewell’s Fight: War, Death, and Memory in Borderland New England.
- Library and Archives Canada has a new Flickr album up this week, with images of the “last spike” of the CPR in 1885. Check out the images yourself here.
- They also posted another Flickr album this week, in honour of Remembrance Day. Check it out here.
- Also from LAC this week is a new blog post by Joseph Trivers about Portia White, a black Nova Scotian who was a celebrated concert singer, in honour of the 75th anniversary of her Toronto debut.
- Raymond Blake writes about Newfoundland’s decision to join Canada over at Acadiensis this week. He argues that this decision was largely motivated by changing ideas about the meaning of citizenship.
- This week on Unwritten Histories, I posted another edition of my Best New Articles series. Find out about which scholarly articles I liked best from the past month.
- The Historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) lab at the University of Saskatchewan has updated their links page! Check it out here.
- Paula Dumas, at Isles Abroad, is continuing her look at Loyalist records this week. The latest post in the series is an overview of the online resources available.
- The Junto interviews Ann Little about her new book, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright. Check it out here.
- Mica Jorgenson has posted a summary of the latest NiCHE new scholars discussion. October’s discussion dealt with the history of parks.
- Karl Bourassa remembers the late historian Jean-Pierre Kesteman over at Histoire Engagée.
- Janis Thiessen has a great new blog post about the CBC series Kim’s Convenience (which I love!). She talks about the history of the show, its origins as a play, and talks with the playwright, Ins Choi.
- Jse-Che Lam has written a new post for the Facing Canada post about her participation in the Facing History Ourselves 2016 Summer Institute. She talks about what she learned about how to teach students about reconciliation. There are some great insights in this blog post for all educators, regardless of level, including discussions of practical exercises. This is definitely a must-read.
- There is a new post this week from the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog. This latest post focuses on the life of John Saunders, who settled in New Brunswick. Saunders is important because he served on the Supreme Court of the province and ruled against the legality of slavery.
- Borealia and Acadiensis have cross-posted a new article by Jerry Bannister in the wake of the Trump election, on the importance of national histories. As Bannister notes, we need to understand what happened last Tuesday, and what makes Canada and the United States so different.
- And don’t forget to check out Elsbeth Heaman’s comment!
- Neos, the bulletin of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group has published a piece by Kristine Alexander, Amy Mack, Jan Newberry, and Erin Spring about how they are working to decolonize their research goals. The bulletin can be accessed from the link above, and is free to download.
- Again, it’s not totally Canadian, but the Victorianist blog has a new post about furs at the 1851 Great Exhibition and the Victorian obsession with their origins. Though the post doesn’t suggest it, I would also argue that these furs represented colonial domination and supremacy, a literal conquest of the land.
- Also not strictly Canadian, but definitely related, is this article about decolonizing museums in the United States. The text is from a recent Ted Talk that will soon be available online.
- Kelly Black has reposted two blog posts of hers that previously appeared in the BC Studies blog on settler colonialism, the real estate market, and the E&N rail corridor.
- On Retroactive this week is a profile of Nursing Sister Lieutenant Nora Henry Peters, an Albertan nurse who died while serving in WW2. It’s important that we remember that not all of our war dead were soldiers.
- The South Peace Regional Archives has posted a letter from a bereaved Quebec mother whose son went missing in WW2.
- In the latest blog post from the Scholarship and Activism Blog (from the Landscapes of Injustice Project) is an interview with Dr. Karen Kobayashi on working with communities.
- Katrina Pasierbek, a PhD student at Laurier, is studying WW1 tourism and commemoration. Check out this discussion with her on her research on pilgrimages to the front in the 1920s and 1930s.
- Stephen Clifford profiles Lance-Corporal Josiah Cleator, who died during a dugout fire in WW1. God this is a depressing week.
- The Dictionary of Canadian Biography has a new entry for Carl Albert Martin, a Moravian educator.
- The Dictionary of Cape Breton English has launched!
- The UBC Digitization Centre is highlighting some of their WW1 and WW2 collection, including some cool posters.
- Ben Bradley has posted this really neat menu from 1970s Banff!
- The Literary Review of Canada has published their list of the most influential 25 Canadian books of the past 25 years. What do you think of the list?
- Are you an undergraduate in history or know someone who is? The CHA wants to hear from you.
- Read this absolutely amazing article by Jesse Thistle about his experiences as a guest speaker in an Indigenous history class. This is why Indigenous history must be part of Canadian history, and why we need to continue our work as historians.
- Claire L. Halstead looks at 21st century memorials to WW1 on Active History. She considers how these memorials and commemorations differ from those created in the aftermath of both wars, particularly with respect to their impermanence, place, and imagination. I really loved her discussion of ghostliness in particular.
- Emily Leonie talks about the Lest We Forget Program from LAC. She talks about the digitization process, interviews the co-creator (Dr. Ashleigh Androsoff), and discusses how it is used in classrooms.
- The Yale University Press Blog has a new blog post by Coll Thrush about his latest book, Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire.
- McGill-Queen’s University Press has a recommended reading list for Remembrance Day.
- Laura Brown talks about Harold Anthony Oaks on the LAC Discover Blog. Oaks was one of the Canadian pilots that served with the British during WW1. He was one of the few who survived the war, and eventually became a bush pilot.
- Also from Active History this week is a blog post by Sarah Glassford about the controversy over the latest WW1 memorial in Malpeque, PEI. The controversy stems from disputes over the suitability of its location and its message.
- The Canadian History Bits blog tells the story of two WW1 veterans, Harcus Strachan and Martha Morkin.
- The Canadian Centre for the Great War blog looks at the relationship between poppies and remembrance in our historical memory.
- Chris Anderson’s talk from last week at Western, “Who is Indigenous,” is now available on Youtube.
- Stephen Bocking has posted yet another series of excerpts from his latest edited collection, this time on the theme of “Indigenous dimensions of northern environmental history.”
- The UK to Canada Geneology Blog spotlights the Charles Ursenbach fonds at the Glenbow Archives in Calgary. This fonds is a collection of interviews done with pioneers in the 1970s.
- Watch Tim Cook speak on Remembrance Day.
- UBC is offering a free online course on reconciliation through Indigenous education!
- Waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy, from the Anishnaabewiziwin blog, about the importance of using a gendered lens when doing Indigenous history to ensure that heterosexist and androcentric biases are not reproduced.
- Check out this blog post by Christopher Heaney, on why early histories of North America must take into account the impact of Peru.
- Canadian History in the News
- I missed this last week, but Mary Jane Logan McCallum has a new article in Briarpatch magazine about Indigenous nurses in Canada from the 1960s to the 1970s, who advocated for desegregated health care and their Indigenous patients.
- CBC takes a look back at Kim Campbell’s term as the first female Prime Minister.
- There are new leads in a Hollywood cold case from 1969 that involved the death of a Montreal woman.
- A survivor’s totem pole has been raised in honour of survivors from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
- Read more about this here.
- A Canadian missionary who smuggled two boys out of Laos in 1977 to their parents reunites with the boys nearly forty years later.
- There is a new museum exhibit by the Acadian Archives that features maps from the 1730s and 1740s.
- The Truro Daily talks with Brian Tennyson, the editor of Merry Hell: The story of the 25th Battalion (Nova Scotia Regiment) Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919. This text was originally written by WW1 veteran Robert Clements.
- Turns out that Hillary Clinton has French Canadian ancestry.
- APTN talks about Métis identity and interviews Adam Gaudry.
- New archaeological evidence has emerged about the people who lived around the Upper Great Lakes around 9,000 years ago.
- A dummy used to entertain the troops during WW2 has just been donated to the Canadian War Museum, along with a wooden cross.
- Workers have made some interesting discoveries while renovating the Old Town Hall in Cape Breton. They found a secret jail, a lineup wall, and two nylon stockings in the ceiling of the council chambers. I wonder how those got up there…..
- A new dive team is set to start investigating the HMS Terror early next year.
- A new documentary series is premiering that looks at how both world wars were fought in Canada. Some of the topics covered include training camps, the ranches that supplied horses, and secret assembly points.
- There is a new book out that tells the story of Aloha Wanderwell, the first woman to drive all the way around the world. Hailing from Vancouver Island, Wanderwell achieved this record at the age of sixteen. Damn, what have I been doing with my life?
- Hakai Magazine has a new article out looking at the technology developed by Pacific Northwest Coast peoples to hunt whales from 350 B.C.E. to 1150 C.E.
- And on a similar theme, NPR talks about some of the latest finds about hunting methods and preferences among the Paleo-Inuit.
- PEI has voted for mixed member proportional representation!
- A newly discovered mastodon skeleton found in Michigan may have been butchered. This mastodon lived in North America from 11,000 to 13,000 B.C.E.
- This past week was Treaty Recognition Week in Ontario!
- Here is some of the coverage from CBC, and here is a list of resources if you’d like to learn more!
- This week on the Colour Code podast is an episode on the relationship between Acadia and Lousiana through the lens of food.
- Metro News has an article about the growing interest in archaeology in Vancouver, and how excavations are revealing the amazing and complex history of this area dating back thousands of years.
- There is a new playground in Ontario that has been built in honour of the 150th anniversary of Confederation. And it’s…. something… Sigh.
- The Saskatchewan government and the chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations have signed an agreement regarding the entry of conservation officers onto reserves.
- November 8 was National Aboriginal Veterans Day!
- The Royal Ontario Museum has apologized for its racist “Into the Heart of Africa” museum exhibit, 27 years later, and is planning a new exhibit on African-Canadians soon!
- The McGill archives has acquired documents and artefacts belonging to Montreal artist John A. Schweitzer.
- Find out about the redevelopment going on at Green Gables! Fun fact, both of my sisters-in-law have worked there!
- Global News profiles the Canadian Letters and Images Project.
- Two elderly women, Joan Snyder and Joy McKee, whose father served in WW2, have just been informed by the television series War Junk that something belonging to their father has been found near the German-Dutch border.
- The City of Winnipeg Archives is in danger because of repeated flooding and problems with temporary storage solutions.
- Hear one opinion on the new William Notman exhibit at the McCord Museum. Notman was a noted photographer in Montreal whose entire archive was donated to the McCord Museum , providing an invaluable source of information about daily life in Montreal in the 19th century
- CBC speaks will Bill Waiser about his latest book, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award.
- I’m a bit late with this one, but check out this great article about the Black history of the Bloor and Bathhurst neighbourhood in Toronto.
- Also from Hakkai magazine this week, a reminder that our oceans are filled with the debris of war.
- The CBC spoke with Shawn Selway about the transportation of Inuit patients with TB to Hamilton after WW2. Selway has a new book on the subject, Nobody Here Will Harm You, based largely on interviews with nurses from the Hamilton sanatorium.
- The Canadian Centre for the Great War also has a new exhibit in Montreal, featuring 20 letters from Canadian WW1 soldiers. This article takes a look at a few of them.
- Havard Gould, from the CBC, writes about the mysterious disappearance of Bob Hamilton, a WW1 soldier who disappeared during a transfer between medical facilities. The case made headlines here in Canada for years afterwards. Hamilton’s canoe, however, endures and has become a powerful reminder of the war.
- The Vimy Ridge Foundation has released some amazing colourized images from WW1. I love it when they colourize old photos.
- And in more WW1 news, the Canadian Great War Project is getting an overhaul from UVic. The original Project was created by amateur historians, and is an online database.
- The Daily Hive has also posted some images of Vancouver from WW1 and WW2.
- The UBC Museum of Anthropology has just received a $7 million dollar Indigenous art collection. This collection includes over 200 pieces.
- Yves Engler, at the Huffington Post, takes a hard look at the problematic history of the Royal Canadian Legion, which is the organization that sells the poppies for Remembrance Day.
- A man in Northern England found a WW2 dog tag belonging to someone named Gaston Clermont with family in Montreal. He’s hoping to return the item to Clermont’s relatives.
- Global News talks with the archivists at LAC about the process of digitizing WW1 service files.
- This week on the Historicist, David Wencer looks at the establishment of the Sunnybrook Military Hospital.
- Find out how Toronto’s heritage plaques get made.
- A new plaque dedicated to the service of Japanese-Canadian WWI veterans has just been unveiled in Stanley Park in Vancouver.
- Find out about a recent exhibition on the No. 2 Construction Battalion of Nova Scotia, Canada’s first all-black battalion, established in 1916.
That’s all for this week. I think most of us are just glad it’s over. Sigh. Anyways, we’re back on Tuesday with another original blog post, with something a little bit different this time. See you then!
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