Canadian History Roundup – Week of November 4, 2018

Canada and the Call. J.E.H. Macdonald. 1914. Library and Archives Canada, R11274-606. Copyright expired.

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 last week in #envhist, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: “Climate,” “Environmental,” and “Nuclear.”
• Emily Simmonds was interviewed about her research on nuclear waste in Canada over on the Discard Studies blog.
• Joanna Dean reviewed Jason Colby’s Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator for NiCHE.
• Jessica DeWitt live-tweeted her reading of Daniel MacFarlane’s Negotiating a River: Canada, the US, and the Creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

WW1/Remembrance Day

(Note: this time of year, every single publication puts out local news stories about veterans, particularly those from WW1 and WW2. This is also the centenary of the end of WW1, with plenty of pieces covering this as well. Therefore, there is no humanely possible way for me to include all of them in the roundup, particularly when we are talking about the smaller newspapers and magazines. So, instead, I have tried to focus on national stories, unusual or unique stories, and anything relating to historical research.)

• Find out about the families and individuals who provided background information for many of the names of veterans that were featured in Maclean’s commemorative WW1 issue.
• Do you know about McGill Remembers, a digital archive collecting together McGill University’s War Records?
• How about the University of Victoria History department’s military oral history program, which connects students with veterans?
• The St. Catharines Museum posted part three of their “We Did Our Bit” series on WW1. In this post, they looked at a uniform belonging to Bessie Beyer, who served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.
• Beyond the Spectacle was back with part two and part three of their feature on Indigenous North Americans who served in Britain during WW1, which they amalgamated into part one.
  • They also have a Twitter essay collecting together these stories.
• The Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County profiled forty Canadian nurses of WW1 with a connection to the community.
• New entries from The Canadian Encyclopedia this week included one on the Canadian Songs of the First World War and one on Mary Riter Hamilton.
• The first people in North American to find out about Armistice were the telegraph operators in North Sydney, Nova Scotia.
• Victoria accidentally celebrated Armistice four days early.
• Find out how lost WW1 soldiers are being identified a century after their deaths.
• In honour of Aboriginal Veterans Day, Retroactive put together a blog post on Blackfoot soldiers who served in WW1.
• Joanne McCarthy O’Leary, with research support from Dalhousie University Archives and writing for Historic Nova Scotia, shared how an accidental discovery at a yard sale brought to life the story of Private Harold Benjamin Watts.
• Did you know about the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force? This article shares their story, though, as Ian Milligan pointed out on Twitter, it was based on Ben Isitt’s work on the subject.
• Unreserved honoured the contributions of Indigenous veterans from all over North America.
• Do you know about Acadia University’s Adopt-A-Soldier project? Well you should, because it was part of the October 21^st roundup. Come on CBC, what are you doing?
• Retroactive also looked at how Albertans have remembered the Great War.
• The latest co-lab challenge from LAC is the War Diary of the 1^st Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, all the way up to the day they received notice of the Armistice.
• The Canadian Centre for the Great War looked at the Liberation of Mons and the Signing of the Armistice.
• The Toronto Public Library shared some images from their collections of Victory Bond ads.
• Sara Kern wrote a fascinating article for Active History on the sounds of Armistice and armistice celebrations in Toronto.
• Our Digital World shared some newspaper articles on the Armistice that ran in Ontario newspapers in November 1918.
• The University of Toronto Archives, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, and the Soldiers’ Tower shared twelve objects representing the history of WW1 at the university.
• They have also put together a neat exhibit of the difference between the campus during the war and today, with the recent photographs taken by Nick Iwaynshyn.
• I particularly liked this article on embroidery work done by wounded veterans, including an altar frontal at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
• Mark Bourrie has written an op-ed for Maclean’s on how media censorship by the Canadian government was deadly during WW1. He argues that the suppression of information meant that many more people died because the public was unable to engage in debate about the war and the actions of the Allies; it also made it harder for veterans to connect with people who really had no idea what actually happened.
• Find out about the first Victoria Cross ever awarded to a Canadian-born soldier serving in a Canadian unit. The soldier: Lance-Corporal Fred Fisher.
• The editors of Maclean’s have written an op-ed expressing the view that the federal government is not doing enough to honour those who died in WW1.
• McGill-Queen’s University Press put together a list of new and old publications to read for Remembrance Day.
• There are new colourized images of Canadians in WW1.
• The Globe and Mail shared the story of Canada’s only Black battalion in WW1, the No. 2 Construction Battalion.
• Alexandra Geropoulous shared the story of Mabel Bruce Evans, a nursing sister in WW1.
• Bill Waiser published a new piece for The Conversation on the installation of a new memorial bench at the University of Saskatchewan, the work of the university’s Great War Commemoration Committee, and how we keep the memories of those who served alive.
• Andrew Nurse has another must-read piece on Active History, on the shifting meanings of Remembrance Day and what impact the iconography and symbolism of the day make beyond their primary audience (veterans and their families).
• Here’s why the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier holds such an important place in the minds of Canadians.
• The last Canadian soldier to die in WW1 was Private George Lawrence Price, who was killed by a sniper two minutes before the armistice.
• Tu Thanh Ha followed the stories of some of the Canadians who served during WW1.This includes the stories of Alistair, Pearl, and Laurier Fraser, James Moore, Percy Argyle, Masumi Mitsui and Tokutaro Iwamoto, the Tyo brothers, Cecil Gillespie, Humphrey Charlton, and George Goudie,
• Jamie Bradburn wrote a great piece on the Victory Bond campaign during WW1 in Ontario.
  • And Shirley Tillotson added some additional information about the financial side of the bonds, including taxes.

(Other) Military History

• The Canadian War Museum is at work creating a new exhibit to honour Indigenous veterans.
• Andrew Burtch has been profiled by the CBC for his amazing work mapping where all 516 Canadian soldiers who died during or as a result of the Korean War fell. The project has just been completed, and you can see the map itself here. Each pin includes information about the soldier or soldiers who died in that particular location. This is a stunning achievement.
• The Toronto Public Library also shared some images of ephemera and photographs from their collection that both featured and targeted Canadian women in WW2.
• Find out about a new exhibit by a Canadian artist on WW2 war brides, including the story of Violet (Sharples) Findlay.
• The Canadian Museum of History shared this image of a mallet that was used by Ada Sylvester at the Canadian Car and Foundry during WW2.

Archaeology

• The University of Saskatchewan’s Archaeology and Anthropology department apologized to Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world for the actions of their peers who conducted research on Indigenous communities without community engagement, consent, or political action.
• Russell Potter has some thoughts to share about the recent study by Doug Stenton on the remains of Franklin’s men, mentioned in last week’s roundup.
• Archaeologists have found 325-year-old fortifications in Quebec City. The fortifications are remarkably well-preserved despite being a wooden stockade. Just ignore the problematic comments by Legault at the end.
• Joanne Hammond posted two awesome Twitter threads this week.
  • First she responded to Jordan Peterson’s remarkably ignorant comments about economic conditions and burial goods.
  • And second, she showed how archaeologists can find ancient settlements after forest fires pass through an area.

History Education

• Daniel Samson wrote a great piece for Borealia on using Mi’kma’ki/Acadie/Nova Scotia as an example in his course on Colonial Canada to showcase just how messy and complex relations were between Indigenous peoples and settlers in the early modern period, and how he uses maps to make a familiar place seem unfamiliar to students. In the post, he also discusses how educators can teach to both local and national frames, and why we need to think about the multiple narratives that are embedded in specific locations.
• This piece by Daniel Laxer, Jean-Pierre Morin, and Alison Norman, on a history of treaty nomenclature in Ontario, is an absolute must-read. The best part? It includes links to the new tools by the same authors to help Ontarians learn more about treaty history.
  • And Jean-Pierre added some additional information here, particularly about how the nomenclature of treaties is an example of Indigenous erasure.
• Check out these new educational resources from the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education Association of Ontario.

The MS St. Louis Apology

On November 7, 2018, Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of the government of Canada to the passengers of the MS St. Louis as well as the entire Jewish Canadian community.

• You can read the official statement here.
• Or you can watch the entire speech here.
• Or read the transcript of the speech here.
• CBC spoke with one survivor, Sol Messinger, about his thoughts on the apology.
• LAC put together a Twitter thread documenting the event and showing items from their collection related to it.
• Steven Schwinghamer wrote a great Twitter thread about the context of rising antisemitism in this period, and how it related to the St. Louis.
• You can find out more about the historical research that brought the events of the St. Louis to light, specifically Irving Abella and Harold Troper’s None is Too Many.
• Jennifer Andrews wrote about how novels can help us to better understand the past, particularly with respect to the St. Louis.
• Laura Madokoro wrote a great Twitter thread about why the apology fails to learn its own lessons.
• And, of course, I also shared some thoughts on why the apology rang hollow for me.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• You absolutely need to read this blog post on Histoire Engagée by Christine Chevalier-Caron and Philippe Néméh-Nombré on antisemitism in Quebec and Canada, and the myth of both as a land of welcome for Jewish immigrants. Seriously, it is fantastic and very brave.
• Michael Boudreau wrote a new piece for the Acadiensis blog on the trial and execution of George and Rufus Hamilton in Fredericton in 1949, two Black men who happened to be brothers, and how the legal system created, preserved, and reinforced racial discrimination in Canada. Content warning: Black men dying by hanging, racial discrimination.
• Elise A. Mitchell reviewed Sharon Block’s new book, Colonial Complexions: Race and Bodies in Eighteenth Century America for Black Perspectives this week. The book examines the complex notions of race in the eighteenth century, as the categories of “Black” and “white” were not yet fully developed.
• Also on Black Perspectives this week, Chris Shell spoke with Roy T. Anderson about his new film on Marcus Garvey, including how a speech he gave in Nova Scotia in October 1937 would inspire “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley.

Indigenous History

• Sharon Shorty shared her experience as an intergenerational survivor of residential schools. Many of her relatives, including her mother, Winnie Peterson (Tlingit), attended residential schools.
• And Lloyd Thrasher, of Inuvialuit and Gwich’in descent, shared his experiences as well.
• This week on the UofA Faculty of Law Blog, the team continued its look at racism against Indigenous peoples, including the following topics:
  • A discussion of the removal of Frank Oliver’s name from an Edmonton neighbourhood
  • A discussion of the Potlatch ban
  • Whether removing colonial statues is erasing history or decolonizing
  • Decolonization efforts in Edmonton
  • And the renaming and reclaiming of Indigenous spaces and names
• Christi Belcourt discussed the history of the term “Métis” and why it became the dominant name for people who previously called themselves Michif, Halfbreeds, or something else.
• The Algoma University Archives are looking for help identifying people in these photographs from Wikwemikong First Nation from 1930 to 1945.
• Find out about the awesome new project from Lianne Charlie, calling on artists to reimagine a meeting between Pierre Trudeau and Yukon First Nations leaders that took place in the early 1970s.
• Jo McCutcheon was kind enough to review the new book from Evelyn Peters, Matthew Stock, and Adrian Werner with Lawrie Barkwell, Rooster Town: The History of an Urban Métis Community, 1901-1961 for Unwritten Histories this week!

New France/British North America

• Over on the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog, Isabelle Goguen was back with part two of her look at Zimri Armstrong.
• This week Borealia posted the seventh post in their cartography and empire series. This latest entry was by Jeffers Lennox on how geographers and their readers could shape what happened after the ends of empires, as they transitioned into something new.

Political History

• Blake Brown shared a short history of gun control debates in the wake of the Brampton Centennial School shooting in 1975. Content warning: school shooting.
• This Twitter thread by Tarah Brookfield on the history of voting rights, particularly with respect to shifting ideals and access for Ontario women voters, is another must-read.
• Patrick Lacroix retraced Prosper Bender’s journey from Quebec City to Boston.

Social History

• The latest Flickr album from LAC is for restaurants. See the images themselves here.
• I officially endorse this plan to make a documentary about Mr. Dressup. #MrDressUpForEver
• This neat video looks at a new book by Don Wright, Catherine Gidney, and Michael Dawson on the history of Canadian symbols.
• This new piece on The Conversation by Catherine Carstairs and Melissa Micu looks at the history of orthodontics in Canada. Who else was traumatized by braces?

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• Waterloo University recently played host to a special symposium to honour Wendy Mitchinson. Jane Nicholas, Susan Roy, and Julia Roberts reflected on the symposium for the Canadian Committee on Women’s History blog. I wish I could have been there, since I’ve always loved Wendy Mitchinson’s work.
• Mandy Byron has written a new piece for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in honour of the forty-seventh anniversary of the publication of The Body Politic.
• The latest entry from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for maternal feminist and writer, Ellen Gertrude Cornish Knights.

Local History

• Do you know the history of the Battle of the Little Big Puck, an annual tradition connecting Nekaneet First Nation and the town of Maple Creek for around forty years?
• This week Heritage Winnipeg honoured the First Scandinavian Mission Church.
• A new artifact from a 1963 plane crash in Yukon is now on display at the Yukon Transportation Museum. Find out about the story of the artifact here.
• Find out how Whistler has welcomed visitors for the skiing season over the past twenty years.
• Eve Lazarus was back with part six of her trip along the Spirit Trail. This week we travel from Pemberton Avenue to the Capilano River.

Digital and Public History

• There is a brand new online exhibit documenting the experiences of Japanese-Canadians who were interned in Greenwood, British Columbia. Many of the internees came from where I live now, Richmond.
• Work has just begun to organize and catalogue a massive new collection of material recently donated to the Yukon Archives by the Council of Yukon First Nations. CBC spoke with Grand Chief Peter Johnston about the project.
• A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Lauren Markewicz’ Twitter thread about her experiences at the new Royal Alberta Museum. She has expanded the thread into a blog post!
• Stéphane Lévesque has published the first of a multi-part series looking at the implications of debates over monuments for public education and historical consciousness. In the first post, he examines why debates about monuments are happening now, the idea of monuments as sites of memory, and how historians should start thinking about monuments, using Lindsay Gibson’s model of competences of historical consciousness.I found the piece to be very thoughtful, but be forewarned that it is theory-heavy.
• This week the UBC Digitizer’s blog compiled some tips about using their Open Collections to do genealogical research.
• Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver Archives discussed how deteriorating negatives can be safely digitized. This is the first in a new series on the 2018 Steffens-Colmer Studio and Don Coltman Company Photographs Digitization Project.
• Shirley Tillotson did some investigation and found out that members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, as well as parliamentarians and their staff, do have access to Project Muse.
• David Meren published a Twitter thread by Suzanne Morton on the history of the names of men’s sport teams at McGill, and how words and their meanings can change.
• This new piece from CBC explored how discussion about Sir John A. Macdonald have changed over the past few years. The piece includes an interview with David Garneau (Métis) on a recent performance piece and protest.

Doing History

• LAC has posted a short guide to using their Railway index to access railway plans and profiles from across Canada from 1866 to 1936.

Podcasts

• The On War and Society podcast published a new episode, part two of their look at why military families matter, both past and present.
• Museum Chat Live published part four of their series on the fallen workers on the Welland Canal. In honour of Remembrance Day, this episode focused on workers who served in WW1.
• The Secret Life of Canada podcast’s latest episode was a tribute to Private Buckam Singh, one of the first Sikh Canadian soldiers.
• The latest episode from the Witness to Yesterday podcast is an Armistice Day special. In it, Patrice Dutil spoke with David MaKenzie about the significance of WW1 in Canadian history, society, and politics.
• The latest episode of the Juno Beach and Beyond podcast focuses on the WW2 war dead from Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute. The research comes from this week’s guest, Dave Alexander.

Well, with Remembrance Day, the Armistice Centenary and the MS St. Louis apology, you knew this one was going to be a doozie. But even though it was long, 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, on a very timely subject! See you then!

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