Canadian History Roundup – Week of April 23, 2017

Germain Beauchamp “Pause crème glacée à l’Expo 67.” 1967. BAnQ Vieux-Montréal P809,S1,DBP054. CC BY-N.C.-N.D. 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 latest issue of Canada’s History has been released!
• William Lambers has a brief history of Canada-US relations, now that someone seems to think it’s a good idea to pick on us now.
• Several weeks ago, Paula Dumas posted the first post in a series about live webcams from across the country. This week she posted Part 2, on Quebec.
• This week, Instantanés has a blog post all about Oliver Asselin, a Quebecois journalist who served during WW1. His letters reveal a great deal of fascinating information.
• NiCHE started off the week with a special blog post, featuring a discussion between Jessica DeWitt, Mica Jorgenson, John Baeten, Anastasia Day, and Laura Larsen about how environmental history can help us to better understand current events.
• Joanne Hammond knocked it out of the park again with another great Twitter essay about why teachers, politicians, and journalists have a responsibility to accurately represent Indigenous-Colonial history.
• The UBC Digitization Centre has just uploaded 195 episodes from the tv show Westland, that aired between 1984 and 2007.
• Julian Peters has posted another colourized image from his graphic novel about the Siege of Quebec.
• Also on Instantanés this week is a look at urban artist Jean-Paul Mousseau and his fonds,
• The latest blog post here at Unwritten Histories was a feature of Amanda Graham’s work on a digital history experiential learning project, A History of The Yukon in 100 Objects. If you are interested about possibly integrating digital history into your classrooms, this is a great post to learn about how to do it!
• My knowledge of the alphabet is confirmed because LAC’s latest album is for Newfoundland and Labrador! Woot! You can see the images themselves here. If my winning streak continues, Nova Scotia should be next. Glad to see my Ph.D. getting some use.
• The Canadian Committee on Women’s History needs your opinion!
• The UBC Digitizer’s Blog is also celebrating summer break this week! What is this summer break you speak of? 😉
• Bill Waiser’s latest blog post/column is out, and looks at the domestic life of the Round Prairie Métis in the early twentieth century in Saskatoon. Waiser also details the hostility they faced from white settlers.
• The Toronto Public Library has a tiny sneak peek of their Vice and Virtue exhibit!
• Russell Potter has a fascinating new blog post reflecting on the shenanigans around the search for the HMS Terror last summer. This blog post references a piece by journalist Steve Ducharme, who details the inter-agency wrangling. TL;DR: Someone’s got some s’plaining to do.
• The CHA has just posted its latest feature article from the Bulletin, a piece by Joan Sangster on her reading of None is Too Many.
• While not specifically Canadian, this blog post by Felicity Barringer discusses words for “water” in western North America, and how they reflect the tangled history of colonialism.
• Check out this super cool image of 500-year-old ceramics that were practice pieces for ancestral Wendat girls.
• Again, not specifically Canadian, but Scott Larson has a piece on the Age of Revolutions blog about “revival sexualities,” the heightened emotions during evangelical sermons, and intimate publics.
• Andrew Watson reviewed Caroline Desbien’s book, Power from the North: Territory, Identity, and the Culture of Hydroelectricity in Quebec, for NiCHE.
• Leah Grandy has another fantastic blog post over at Atlantic Loyalist Connections, part 2 of her ongoing series on the surprising things you can learn from reading church records!
• Not Canadian again, but useful for Canadian historians, is the latest blog post from the Junto, where Casey Schmitt reviews Marisa J. Fuentes’ Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive. While the book deals specifically with women who were enslaved in Barbados, it also provides an important discussion on how (especially colonial) archives shape the ways in which histories are told as well as providing important insights into the violence and pain of enslavement.
• Julie Dobbin has written a blog post for LAC on the event celebrating 15 years of Project Naming. She reflects on what the project has accomplished, and what remains to be done.
• LAC has also released their latest roundup of all of their new materials!
• In addition to the new project, Bridging the Gap, the Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony also premiered a new podcast this week, called the Lesbian Testimony Project! The first episode is out, and features a discussion with the amazing Elise Chenier! I know what I’m listening to on my Sunday run.
• Olivier Côté has written a new blog post for the Canadian Museum of History about his work developing the new “Snapshots of Canada” exhibition, and how he selected which images were included.
• Sean Graham is back with another episode of the History Slam podcast! This latest episode features a discussion with high school teacher Ashley Baine about using experiential learning on school field trips at home and abroad.
• The Virtual Museum of Canada has just premiered a new exhibit! This latest is from their Community Stories program, and is a look at the evolution of Cobourg Harbour in Ontario.
• The ROM posted an image of a beautiful ceremonial dress belonging to the Blackfoot Nation of Alberta.
• Read this Twitter essay by Ian Mosby about the erasure of Indigenous peoples and places on the maps that are used by educational institutions, like museums.
• Sketchfab is a cool website that allows you to display 3-D models and VR. Joseph Gagné says that there is a lot of cool stuff about New France there, including this awesome cannon.
• LAC has posted the latest in their ongoing series on Who Do We Think We Are. The latest guest curators are Andrew Ross and Michael Smith, who talk about the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution and the Charter.
• Katrina Ackerman has another fantastic piece this week on Active History about the relationship between infertility, adoption, and abortion.
• Lindsay Chervinsky reports on her experiences presenting on a panel about Early America at the Organization of American Historians conference. Her blog should definitely be of interest to Canadian historians, particularly her discussion of how Loyalists and #vastearlyamerica fit into the larger American historiography.
• The latest biography from the DCB is of Mary Agnes Snivley, a prominent leader in the field of nursing in Canada.
• The Peel Art Gallery, Museum, and Archives blog is celebrating the 150^th anniversary of Peel County by looking back at its establishment in 1851.
• Meanwhile, the South Peace Archives spotlights its holdings on the small town of Bridgeview.
• There are two new articles out from The Canadian Encyclopedia this week. One is on beetles (the insect), while the other is on WW2’s The Battle of the Gothic Line. They have also just updated their article on the Canadian Shield.
• The Foothills Colloquium Undergraduate History Conference has just released their finalized program!
• This past week, Krista McCracken has been livetweeting from the Archives Association of Ontario Conference. Check out her Twitter timeline or use the hashtag #aao17conf to catch up on some fantastic and insightful discussions.
  • You can also see the slides from the presentation that she and Danielle Robichaud gave about reconciliation, collaborative practice, and Wikipedia!
• As if we needed more reasons to love Joanne Hammond, not only did she have another awesome Twitter Essay on the 7 key facts that are needed to decolonize your understanding of BC’s history, but she also participated in this week’s first ever Public Archaeology Twitter Conference! Her presentation examined the roles that public history and archaeology play in decolonization and social justice.
  • There were a ton of other awesome presentations, including some cool stuff on Canadian archaeology (like this one on Gander)! Check out all of the presentations using the hashtag, #PATC, and check out the schedule here! Who else thinks we need to do this for Canadian history?
• The North Vancouver Museum and Archives has just premiered a new online exhibit, called Unlocking North Vancouver.
• There is a new digital storytelling initiative from the City of Hamilton to share stories of the city’s past. They have begun by soliciting stories from Hamiltonians on four different themes: music, libraries, Gore Park, and Tim Horton’s.
• The Canadian Museum for Human Rights remembers the history of the Komagata Maru, focusing on the story of Nimrat Randhawa, a recent immigrant to Canada whose ancestor was on board.
• The CCWH remembers the over 3,000 McGill students and staff who volunteered to fight in WW1.
• It’s the 50^th anniversary of the opening of Expo 67 this week!
  • The Archives of Montreal are celebrating by reposting ephemera from their collection recounting the first three days.
  • Instantanés posted some absolutely amazing images.
  • You can also relive the experience at this digital exhibit.
• The Vintage Everyday blog posted two Canadian images this week
  • One of Lyn, Ontario in 1910
  • And another of a cowboy with his dog and his horse on Burgess Pass in 1914.
• The ROM’s biweekly excerpt from the journal of curator Dorothy Burnham is all about labeling.
• Russell Potter also has another post this week, discussing the meandering adventures of some of the spoons and forks from the Franklin Expedition.
• The Laurier Centre Blog has a new post by Katrina Pasierbek about her experiences at the Vimy Ridge Memorial earlier in April.. (For some reason, as of the publication of this Roundup, there is something wrong with the formatting of the page. Just scroll down, the article is there.)
• Andrew Parnaby reviewed Andrew Molloy and Tom Urbaniak’s new edited collection, Company Houses, Company Towns: Heritage and Conservation, for Acadiensis this week.
• Eve Lazarus takes a nostalgic look back at Vancouver’s streetcars. Not the buses on wires that we still have, the actual streetcars.
• Whistorical looks back on the origins of Brandywine Falls. There are many conflicting and scandalous accounts of where the falls got their name.
• Tim Garrity has posted part two of his two-part series on the location of the Saint Sauveur Mission on The Champlain Society’s blog, Findings/Trouvailles. This second post considers the mysterious “Norwood’s Cove Object.”
• Ben Goossen explores Mennonite fascism, focusing in particular on the work of J.J. Hildebrand, a Mennonite immigrant from the Soviet Union who settled in Winnipeg.
• Zoe Todd has another important blog post about how universities are failing to live up to their goals of Indigenizing the academy through an examination of Indigenous knowledge as unceded territory. I highly recommend the piece. As she argues, promises to “honour Indigenous knowledge” are not enough. Rather,  “bigger conversations [must] take place regarding the role of Universities in honouring their reciprocal responsibilities to those peoples whose territories they occupy, whose resources heat and light their buildings, whose oil and gas revenues pad the pensions of the very professors who make up the academy that is built on often unacknowledged Indigenous lands and labour.”
• Canadian History in the News
  • According to the federal government, the Trans Canada Trail is set to be completed this year, but those who actually use the trail say otherwise.
  • So apparently Poundmaker’s pipe has been sitting in the British Museum since the early 20^th century. According to the CBC, 22 museums around the world “own” some of Poundmaker’s belongings. I really hope that they will be willing to repatriate (them).
  • While excavating a site in the UK that had been used for training soldiers in WW1, archaeologists unearthed a ton of really cool stuff, including a jar of Canadian cheese!
  • CBC has a piece about the Stó:lō boys that were kidnapped to be used as mine labourers in California, with the permission of American government officials. On August 19^th, a memorial pole will be raised at the Telte-Yet campsite on the Fraser river in their honour. This story is one of those being profiled for Ronald Rudin’s Lost Stories project.
  • In honour of the new movie about her life, CTV has a new article about the life of artist Maud Lewis.
  • Atlas Obscura has a funny little article about the “face in the window” at St. Paul’s Church in Halifax. This is supposedly an image of the deacon’s head preserved forever from the intense heat of the Halifax Explosion. Hmm.
  • If you ignore the really stupid introduction, this article from Tristin Hopper has some interesting and scandalous vignettes from Canadian history.
  • The Toronto Life Blog has an article with 10 historical images that show a different side of the city’s history. I think the water fountain is my favourite.
  • There is some fascinating evidence based on DNA analysis from the Franklin Expedition sailors that suggest there may have been European women on board. This could be an amplification error, or evidence of female sailors in disguise. Dun dun dunnnnn….
  • There has been a lot of discussion around the discovery of bones in California that suggest human activity more than 100,000 years earlier than previously believed. However, several archaeologists, like Bob Muckle, are extremely sceptical. You can see the 3-d models and judge for yourself. Just keep in mind what @RedIndianGirl says: “WELL WHAT HAVE WE BEEN TELLNG YOU ALL THESE YEARS?????”
    • Also check out this blog post by Mary Anne Davis about the problems in media reports on archaeological discoveries.
  • Rosanna Deerchild interviewed Tasha Hubbard about her new film, Birth of a Family, and her own experiences as a survivor of the Sixties Scoop.
    • She also wrote about her experiences in Maclean’s this week, in a piece that is both hard and necessary to read.
  • There’s also been news media coverage of the Expo anniversary
    • Like this piece from The Toronto Star.
    • Christine Sismondo takes a look back at the Canadian foods that can be traced back to Expo 67.
    • And the CBC takes a look at the architects who designed Katimavik, the Canadian Pavilion. It turns out that the iconic inverted pyramid was actually designed by British immigrants and was inspired by an ashtray. Gotta love the sixties…
  • Wanuskewin Heritage Park Elder Jake Sanderson speaks about why the park is so important.
  • There is a brand new website devoted to the photography of Yousuf Karsh, a Canadian photographer to the stars. Check out the website itself here.
  • Parks Canada is going back to the site of the HMS Terror. Brace yourselves, people!
  • A mysterious unopened safe has been discovered at a restaurant in Saskatoon.
  • Andrea is a nerd alert: check out this adorable CBC story about the women who continue the WW1 tradition of knitting socks for soldiers. Using a pattern from WW1! Omg, I’m dying of the adorableness.
  • The E’se’get Archaeology Project is revealing new insights into the history of the Mi’kmaq on Nova Scotia. Archaeologists are currently excavating a shell midden in Port Joli.
  • Meanwhile, the Mi’kmaq Confederacy is considering possible Indigenous names for the Port-La-Joye-Fort Amherst National Historic Site in PEI.
    • Why you may ask? Here’s why.
  • Doug Cuthand has a must-read article about why Indigenous artefacts belong with Indigenous peoples, particularly with respect to different understandings of preservation.
  • On April 26th, CBC hosted a live roundtable on “treaties, reconciliation, and Indigenous history in Canada.” You can replay it here, and also see a list of recommended readings.
  • On the 35th anniversary of the signing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Mike Committo has a new piece about how the Charter fits into our national narrative of Canadian history.
  • David Wencer remembers the arrival of anaesthesia in Toronto during the mid 19th century. It’s an absolutely fascinating history.
  • Kelly Egan has an evocative and thoughtful piece on the reburial of coffins in Beechwood Cemetery. These coffins, including the remains of 23 individuals, were found on the site of the former Barracks Hill cemetery, the resting place of 19th century Ottawa’s poorest  inhabitants, mostly Irish canal workers and their families.
  • Two of Quebec City’s Old Port’s Museums are set to close this summer, le Musée de la Place-Royale and le centre d’interprétation dans la Maison Jean-Baptiste-Chevalier. This is apparently the result of a failure of both museums to maintain revenue the face of declining ticket sales. Joseph Gagné is encouraging all historians to contact their political representatives and the Minister of Culture and Community to stop this.
  • TVO reposted an excerpt from John Borrow’s essay, “Canada’s Colonial Constitution,” from the book, The Right Relationships: Reimagining the Implementation of Historical Treaties. The excerpt looks how Canadian law set up Aboriginal treaties to oppress First Nations.
  • Urooba Jamal walks us through 500 years of Indigenous Resistance against colonialism in Canada, with added descriptions of settler colonialism and the particular role that Indigenous women have played in Indigenous resistance.
  • One of the few organizations that is actually stepping up to the plate and doing the work of decolonization and reconciliation is the Anglican Church of Canada. This piece, from their website, looks at a new project they are funding from the EagleSpeaker Community Connection Society in Calgary, a graphic-novel inspired website/e-book on the subject of language restoration. The website is based on interviews with more than 200 survivors of residential schools, as well as their families, from the Blackfoot Confederacy. The website focuses on “language restoration as an intergenerational impact of residential schools.”
  • The Seabird Island First Nation (Stó:lō) are connecting the past and the future in present with their work to establish one of Canada’s largest craft-beer hop fields. The Stó:lō have a long history as hop-pickers in the Fraser Valley, but this time they are taking control of the farms themselves.
  • Sophia Smith has written an editorial for NowToronto calling on Ryerson to do more to live up to its ideals of progressive thinking and diversity by addressing the issue of Indigenous rights on campus, removing the status of Ryerson and making Indigenous Studies courses mandatory.
• Better Late Than Never
  • The Missionaries Sisters of the Immaculate Conception have just opened up a museum documenting their history.
  • The Vancouver As It Was blog takes a look at the history of the building on the north-west corner of Georgia and Richards, and especially its postwar transition from automotive dealer to a restaurant.
  • I’m not sure if this is new to me or just new, but apparently Harvard is in the midst of digitizing all of their materials relating to 17^th and 18^th century North America. There are already a ton of images available, and more will be added on an ongoing basis!
  • Katherine Cook posted a really cool image of some children’s toys from archaeological excavation at Craigflower Schoolhouse, in Victoria.
  • Remember that Japanese-Canadian logging camp that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? Here is some more coverage.
  • I’m not sure if this is the same development project as the one I mentioned earlier or a different one, but the legend of a Canadian serviceman who died at Dunsfold Aerodome has reemerged now that the area is facing the prospect of development.
  • The Provincial Archives of Alberta has just received a new collection of documents from a female homesteader who lived there during the 1920s.
  • Halifax schools may be required to start each day with a territorial acknowledgement.
  • The Mary Travers Museum is closing. Travers is more well known as La Bolduc.
  • I’m not sure why I keep missing Stephanie Bellissimo’s blog posts, but apparently I do. If you follow her on Twitter, and you should, you know she’s been posting wonderful pictures of a quilt she’s been working on for a display at the Atikokan Centennial Museum. See more pictures and go behind-the-scenes with this blog post!
• Calls for Papers
  • The journal Public: Art/Culture/Ideas is seeking paper proposals for a special issue on archives as a contested sites, mediums, and artworks.
  • The University of Maine/University of New Brunswick International Graduate Student Conference is seeking paper proposals for its upcoming meeting in October.
  • Today is the last day to submit an abstract for the upcoming conference in Winnipeg of the American Society for Ethnohistory!

Of course I had to use a picture of two adorable children at Expo. My mom was twelve when she visited. And here’s a fun tidbit about Expo: The main hub for Expo was the Place D’Accueil, which means, more or less “welcome place.” English-speaking tourists were told to tell their taxi drivers to take them to the “plastic eye,” because it’s (apparently) very difficult for English-speakers to make the “euil” sound. Pretty cool, huh? I hope you enjoyed this Expo-themed roundup. If you did, please consider sharing this post on the social media platform of your choice. And don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for a special guest post! See you then!

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