Canadian History Roundup – Week of July 16, 2017

Group of girls singing, Richards Island, N.W.T. July 1956. Photo by Rosemary Gilliat Eaton. Library and Archives Canada 4731522

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

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

• As usual, we kicked off the week with another blog post from Jessica DeWitt in her series on the most used words in #envhist. This week’s words were: “press,” “university,” and “environmental.”
• This big news this week was that CP has donated its entire archival collection to the Canadian Railway Museum. Their collection includes documents, plans, and photos, and spans the years between 1847 and 2007. This is especially remarkable because, as several people noted on Twitter, they have been notoriously reluctant to let anyone see these archives previously.
• Robyn Lacy is back with her weekly update from this summer’s excavation at Ferryland. Find out about trench-laying, mysterious plastic objects, and the importance of negative results.
• As we catch up with Olivar Asselin this week, he talks about his accommodations at camp.
• Christopher Ryan explores the history of the apartment building at 95 Lawton, first built in 1955.
• Also on the blog this week, he shared some sources for historical images of Ottawa.
• Heather Read is back with another blog post in her series on Canadian material history for the ROM. This week she featured a crokinole board from Ontario, made between 1890 and 1910. Does anyone actually still know how to play this game?
• The University of Saskatchewan is launching a PhD. program in Indigenous studies.
• In the latest post from Histoire Engagée, Julien F. Roberston reviewed Yvan Lamonde’s latest book, Un coin dans la mémoire. L’hiver de notre mécontentement. The book is the conclusion to a larger series on the intellectual history of Quebec from 1760 to 1965.
• Paula Dumas is back with another instalment in her series looking at the Gilchrist-Shearer letters. This week she explores the theme of employment opportunities and experiences.
• More fun with Twitter essays this week!
  • First, in response to this article saying that renaming Ryerson University would just hide our problematic history, Adam Gaudry explained why name changes are so important in and of themselves.
  • Joanne Hammond wrote another fantastic one about the role that surveying played in the dispossession of Indigenous lands.
  • He also posted some suggestions for additional readings that can be read in concert with his new article, which was featured in this week’s Best New Articles post (see below.)
  • Bob Muckle has posted some absolutely wonderful images from his current excavations at an early 20^th century Japanese logging camp in BC, like this one of toothbrushes, this perfume bottle (!), these other amazing bottles, including an Orange Crush, and this partly melted local beer bottle.
  • Veldon Coburn and Darryl Leroux discuss how individuals (settlers) are using claims to Algonquin ancestry to try to extinguish Algonquin land title in Ontario. And then also read this continuation by Leroux.
  • The UBC Digitization Centre posted this hilariously long book title, which required a total of eighttweets!
  • Joanne Hammond also wrote this essay about how heritage management in BC is tainted by its racist and colonial underpinnings.
  • Jessie Thistle has a great Twitter essay about the sophisticated nature of Incan road engineering.
  • And Kelly Black has a must read Twitter essay all about the marginalization of BC history in BC. As someone who lives and teaches in this area, I can definitely attest to this. As she notes, this is super problematic since learning about local history is crucial when it comes to confront settler colonialism in the past and present.
• Picking up on all of the recent debates about renaming Elliot Worsforld has written this really insightful blog post about renaming as reclaiming and the long history of replacing Indigenous place names with British/European ones.
• This week LAC has posted a new Flickr album containing images of fishing. Check out the pictures themselves here.
• McGill-Queen’s University Press remembers the 100^th anniversary of the death of Tom Thomson.
• This week on Unwritten Histories, I posted another instalment in my series on Best New Articles. Find out which articles were my favourites!
• Katie Biittner has posted her review of the second of her six-week course on Archaeological Field Methods! The excavation has begun!
• The Laurier Centre has just released episode three of their ongoing podcast, “On War and Society.” This episode features an interview with Mary Chaktsiris about her work on Toronto and WW1.
• Check out this video produced of the historical tours that Krista McCracken organizes as part of her work on the history of the Shingwauk residential school.
• Éliane Laberge has a new blog post for the Canadian Museum of History this week. In this post, she explores their collection of popular music and related materials!
• Christopher Moore wrote a really beautiful and thoughtful reflection in response to Alan MacEachern’s post from last week on the Bering Land Bridge Theory.
• Carolyn Podruchny has written the latest CHESS reflection for NiCHE. In this post, she reflects on her experiences and talks about the seven lessons of decolonization. Super important post, and a must read.
• Margaret Conrad has written the latest blog post from Acadiensis this week. Conrad reviews eight different books, both academic and popular, that explore the meaning of Canadian identity.
• This week on Instantanés, BAnQ explores the 1967 visit of Charles de Gaulle to Montreal, wher,e of course, he made his famous “Vive le Québec libre!” speech. And I will never be able to think about that phrase without thinking of the scene from Bon Cop Bad Cop. You know the one.
• There is a new post from the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog this week by Bethany Langmaid that explores the fascinating paternity trial of Abel Sands.
• The latest post from the Vancouver As It Was blog looks at the life and work of Sheila Buchanan, a Baptist missionary who also served as a clerk for the UBC Board of Governors and the UBC Senate, among other things.
• Jonathan David reviewed Éveil et enracinement: approaches pédagogiques innovantes du patrimoine culturel, by Marie –Claude Larouche, Joanne Burgess, and Nicolas Beaudry. This book explores different methods for teachers and professors to integrate archival collections and other heritage resources into their classrooms.
• The McCord Museum has just acquired a new collection —, the personal archives of “Grand Antonio,” Anton Barichievich, a legendary Montreal strongman.
• Liz Otero has two new blog posts on the UBC Digitizer’s blog this week. First is part 2 of her guide to searching the UBC Open Collections, while this week she reflects on how many of the concerns of the present are echoed in the past.
• This week LAC has announced the launch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Web Archive. You can view the collection yourself here, and find out more information about what this archive contains.
• Beth Roberston is leaving Active History! In her honour, they have reposted the introduction to her theme week (coordinated with Dorotea Gucciardo) on Technoscience in Canada. Thank you for your work, Beth!
• The first part of Adam Gaudry’s review of the Louis Riel opera came out today in The Theatre Times. It is a definite must-read.
• And he was also the latest guest curator for LAC’s Who Do We Think We Are series! In his blog post for LAC, he talks about the Selkirk Treaty and the Numbered Treaties.
• The Calgary Gay History Project tells the story of Alfred V. Andrews, who was sentenced to six months of hard labour in 1949 for “the charge of gross indecency,” also known as being gay.
• Stephanie Halmhofer has written a new blog post about her recent field work along the Sunshine Coast. Halmhofer was working with shíshálh Nation and the shíshálh Archaeological Research Project. In this blog post, she also talks about her work with Sexwaminglass beads specifically, and how to analyze them.
• Bill Waiser is back this week with a new blog post. In this latest post, he explores the history of Carlton Trail, formerly “Saskatchewan’s Highway.”
• This week’s new biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is of Charles Alfred Riordon, an early 20^th century paper and pulp entrepreneur.
• The Virtual Museum of Canada also premiered a new Community Stories this week. This latest looks at the history of Manoir Seigneurial Fraser, built in 1830 in Rivière-du-Loup
• The newest Canadian Encyclopedia entry is for Canada’s early newspapers.
• Both the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan and the City of Toronto Archives have released their annual reports.
• Check out this cool collaboration between the University of Toronto and the Ward Museum for a new online exhibit on the history of migration to Canada, “Finding Myself in the Archives.” The project was organized by Irina Mihalache, and you can see the exhibit itself here.
• The Archives of Montreal have posted yet another post in their series recounting the events of Expo 67. In this post, they look at what happened from July 1st to the 23rd.
• The Peel Art Gallery, Museum, and Archives recently acquired the records of Betty Odlum, an amateur photographer who extensively documented the area around Brampton and Chinguacousy during the mid-twentieth century. The fonds has been fully processed and can now be accessed by researchers. Her pictures look gorgeous.
• The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto have a new blog post this year about the 2002 World Youth Day celebrations in Toronto. They have a great collection of memorabilia from this event, and lots of cool pictures too!
• The Heritage Winnipeg blog profiles the Rubin Block this week, which is at risk of demolition. Heritage Winnipeg and other members of the community are working to try to save this building.
• This week’s #tbt from the ROM on the Dorothy Burnham exhibition, Keep We Warm One Night, is all about the fun of handling woollen textiles in the summer. 🙁
• This week from the CCGW is a new blog post all about the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, particularly as emblematic of the sheer physical struggle of fighting in WW1. Have still never seen the movie. Have you?
• The latest blog post from the Laurier Centre looks at the history of discrimination against queer soldiers in WW1. As author Kandace Bogaert argues, these individuals should be included in Trudeau’s upcoming apology to members of the Canadian Armed Forces who were discriminated against from the 1950s to the 1990s. I absolutely agree.
• Eve Lazarus looks back on the creation of Ambleside, in West Vancouver. This lovely beach apparently used to be a swamp.
• The 70^econgrès de l’Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française has released their program! This year’s theme is: “Encounters and exchanges in French America.”
• Canadian History in the News
  • The Franklin Expedition exhibit has opened at the National Maritime Museum in London. Find out about the exhibit, which will be coming back to Canada in March. Also, look for a review of the exhibit on Unwritten Histories, coming soon!
  • This week marked the 200^th anniversary of the Peguis-Selkirk Treaty, which led to the establishment of the Red River settlement. If you’d like to learn more about the history of the Peguis-Selkirk Treaty, you can check out this cool online exhibit.
  • Find out about the historical women featured in the new Canada History Hall.
  • Find out about John Alfred Poor, a Portland, Maine man who sacrificed his digits to frostbite in order to secure a deal that would establish Poor’s St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, part of the Grand Trunk Railway, connecting Montreal and Detroit, via Portland. And clearly I’ve been living in BC for a while, because I initially assumed this was about Portland, Oregon.
  • CBC has released their first trailer for the new adaptation of Alias Grace.
  • Earlier in the summer, the Dalhousie Student Union decided that it would not endorse this year’s Canada Day celebration, in solidarity with its Indigenous members. Unsurprisingly, they’ve come under a fair bit of attack as a result.
  • LAC is opening up their vaults to public tours! The tours will take place at the Library and Archives Preservation Centre in Gatineau, which contains 48 different vaults holding countless documents and artefacts stretching back centuries. I want to go!
  • An ancient dugout canoe has just been unearthed near the Red River in Louisiana. The canoe believed to date from between 800 to 1000 years ago, and weighs about a ton (literally!).
  • Also continuing with the Cornwallis theme, Martin Regg Cohn discusses the history of toppled statues, and how the King Edward VII statue in Queen’s Park in Toronto came to Canada.
  • A 300-year old bell in PEI has found a home.
  • The Star remembers the fascinating case of an 18 year-old woman who was arrested and put in jail for the crime of living with her boyfriend in 1939. Her crime? Being with a Chinese man. What happened to her subsequently is horrifying.
  • CBC spotlights some of the amazing items at First Nations University’s special collections.
  • This portrait of the first mayor of Ottawa has just been rediscovered!
  • You can now take a virtual tour through the history of Niagara Falls. Just try not to fall in. 😉
  • The latest Heritage Toronto plaque honoured the aviation history of Trethewey Airfield, the site of Toronto’s first flying exhibition, held in 1910.
  • And in more plaque news, the first black mailman in Toronto is being honoured with a new plaque! Albert Jackson was just a baby when his mother escaped from the US through the underground railroad. His great-grandchildren played a central role in the creation of this new plaque.
  • The Resurgo Place Museum in Moncton is using ground-penetrating radar in an attempt to verify where the bodies are (literally) buried in Elmwood Cemetary.
  • If you’re a lucky duck and live in or are visiting, Montreal, you can tour the latest archaeological excavation going on at Pointe-à-Callière this summer!
  • Also this summer, Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario has been loaned several historical aretefacts from their history, which were discovered during a 1990 excavation. The objects include harpoons, arrowheads, pottery, and carved birdstones from up to 1000 years ago.
  • You’d better be good, or Montreal’s 1935 Morality Squad is gonna get you.
  • The Huffington Post remembers The Constitution Express, an Indigenous protest movement that ran from Vancouver to Ottawa in 1980.
  • The always brilliant Charmaine Nelson has written a must-read article for The Walrus this week on the history of slavery in Canada, the continuing ignorance regarding this issue in the larger Canadian public, and its connections to anti-Black racism. However, as Alicia Elliot rightly pointed out, the vast majority of slaves in Canada were actually Indigenous, and ignorance regarding this fact is equally problematic.
  • This summer, the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI and Parks Canada are building a traditional birch bark wigwam at Port-La-Joye-For-Amherst National Historic Site. The goal of this project is to create more awareness about the Mi’kmaq history of the area.
  • The Nunatsiaq Online is reporting that the summer survey of the HMS Erebus has been downsized, and major work on the site will not begin until 2018. This is due to problems with Parks Canada’s research vessel.
  • The latest Historicist column focuses on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Toronto, and the work of Toronto architect Eden Smith. I just love Arts and Crafts homes.
  • CBC remembers the aerobics craze of the 1980s. But really, this is probably better off forgotten.
  • This week in The Globe and Mail is a new article by Simon Lewsen about downtown Yonge Street in the mid-20th century. The article features an interview with Dan Ross, and focuses specifically on the life and death of Emanuel Jaques. the profound impact his death had on this area.
  • A Toronto construction new that was working on a building facade near Queen and Parliament has accidentally uncovered bowling alley.
  • “Delta” Dawn Murphy is being honoured this week. Murphy is a former professional wrestler from Lake Babine First Nation. She is being honoured for her work on the BC All Star Wrestling group.
  • The Globe and Mail has an article this week all about Robert Armstrong, also known as Mudeater, the man who accepted the surrender of Louis Riel.
• Better Late than Never
  • Students at the University of Toronto have just created a really fascinating new augmented reality app that tells the history of Kensington Market as you walk through it!
  • The Brandon Sun has an update on Mary Jan McCallum’s work on the Brandon Sanatorium. She and Scott de Groot have now recorded 25 oral histories of former patients and one doctor.
• Calls for Papers
  • The Canadian Association of Cultural Studies has issued a CFP for its upcoming conference in March of 2018. This year’s conference will  focus on incarceration and freedom. Proposals are due October 15th.
  • Delia Gavrus and Susan Lamb are now accepting proposals for articles in a new edited collection on the history of medical education, honouring the work of Jacalyn Duffin. Proposals are due October 30th.

That’s it for this week! I’m almost starting to think we need a section just for Twitter essays. That or convince all of those awesome people to start blogs. 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 a brand new blog post! I’ll keep it a secret for now. 😉 See you then!

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