Canadian History Roundup – Week of August 5, 2018

Two husky pups playing outside. Between June 17-October 31, 1960. Credit: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton / Library and Archives Canada / e010835981. Restrictions on use: Nil

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: “history,” “Environmental,” and “History.”
• This week on NiCHE, they have a new CHESS 2018 reflection by Catherine Paulin, on how different beings interact in an environment, and how humans, animals, and the environment act upon each other
• Matt Henry put together a great Twitter essay about the history of dam-building in Canada and the US in the 1950s and 1960s, specifically in reference to the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA).

Military History

• Jaye Edwards, one of the last surviving WW2 female pilots, talked to CBC about her experiences.
• This week marked the 100^th anniversary of the Hundred Days Offensive, the final push that ultimately ended WW1. So obviously there have been a ton of articles and blog posts on the subject. I can’t include all of them, but here are the highlights:
  • There were several basic introductions to the Hundred Days Offensive
    • LAC provided some background here.
    • Jack Granatstein wrote a new piece for Maclean’s on the final battles of the war.
    • Here is information from the South Peace Regional Archives
  • Regarding Amiens specifically
    • The Canadian Centre for the Great War explained it here.
    • The Guardian (UK) published an article on Canadian soldier, Frederick Spratlin, a stretcher-bearer who died at Amiens.
  • Sarah Glassford wins for most awesome blog post, for discussing the archival power of toilet paper, in the context of anti-German sentiment. Seriously, don’t miss this blog post.
  • LAC has several new entries in their WW1 Victoria Cross series, including:
    • Lieutenant Jean Brilliant, Corporal Herman James Good, and Corporal Harry Garnet Bedford Miner.
    • Sergeant Alexander Picton Brereton, Sergeant Frederick George Coppins, and Private John Bernard Croak.
    • Lieutenant James Edward Tait.
  • The Canadian War Museum has started a social media campaign, with one story from a soldier, nurse, or civilian for each of the 100 days. Use the hashtag #Last100Days on Twitter to read them all for yourself.
• I’m not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but LAC has announced that it has completed the digitization of all WW1 Personnel files! That is absolutely fantastic.

Archaeology

• Stephanie Halmhofer was interviewed on the Archaeological Fantasies podcast about Canadian pseudoarchaeology!
• Parks Canada has recommitted to creating and enacting federal legislation to protect historically significant wrecks (especially those with human remains) from looters and tourists.This follows a similar initiative started in 2011 that was killed by the Harper government. This new interest seems to be specifically related to the estimated 480 remains of soldiers in Canadian waters.
• Wildfires have led to new archaeological discoveries at Waterton Lakes National Park, particularly ancient and modern Indigenous camp sites.
  • More here.
• Find out about what has been found during archaeological excavation in St. John’s, particularly in relation to the impact of 1800s-era fires.
• Joanne Hammond shared some images of printing mats from the Edmonton Bulletin in 1938 that were found during the demolition of an old house.

History Education

• Sean Kheraj has kindly shared the final version of his visual syllabus for his Canadian history survey course.
• A couple of weeks ago, Erin Millions asked for suggestions for teaching Canadian child material history. She’s kindly compiled these suggestions, and what she learned from the experience, here.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Beechville has become a provincial heritage site.
• Claudine Bonner has written a fantastic blog post on Acadiensis this week on the involvement of African Nova Scotian women in the Civil Rights Movement.
• Over on the Scots in BC Blog, Stephenie “Effy” Orton has a new blog post on the life of Reverend Alexander Dunn.
• Kelly McParland has written a very thought-provoking article on how the City of Montreal has failed to honour its notable Anglophone figures like Oscar Peterson and Mordecai Richler.
• Bashir Mohamed put together another great Twitter essay in anticipation of a new blog post, on the story of Charles Daniels, a Black Edmontonian who fought back when he was denied entry at a theatre.

Indigenous History

• Find out about a new initiative between the Kitikmeot Heritage Society and an archaeologist from the University of Toronto, to collect oral tradition and histories of Inuit from Bathurst Inlet, like those of Mary Kaniak, Lena Kamoayok, and Connie Kapolak.
• There is even more great info here about the Iroquois village that was excavated in downtown Montreal.
• This week Retroactive explores beading and embroidering among the Woodland and Plains Indigenous cultures of North America after the arrival of settlers, and the importance of adornment for cultural survival.

New France/British North America

• The oldest known manuscript that may have been written by Samuel de Champlain has just been rediscovered.
• In honour of Simcoe Day, Clare Dale has put together a fantastic Twitter thread on the man himself.

Political History

• In honour of the 176^thanniversary of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, Patrick Lacroix explores the history of Canada-US relations around the issue of intangible benefits.
• In the wake of the Danforth shooting, R. Blake Brown provided some perspective on the history of gun control, specifically handgun laws, in Canada.
• The Dictionary of Canadian Biography has updated their entry for former Quebec premier, Charles Boucher de Boucherville.
• Find out about French journalist, Léo Leymarie, who spent forty years researching a book on Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve, but never published it.

Social History

• The latest LAC Flickr album contains images of cruises! Check them out yourself here.
• The latest blog post from Instantanés pays homage to actor Marcel Chabrier.
• The latest biography from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Presbyterian minister, Ephraim Scott.
• Find out about a fascinating new multi-media project, Unmaking Influenza, on the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, from the Government of Canada and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
• Turns out that the last known sample of the Spanish Flu Vaccine is at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum. Whoopsies.
• Check out this look at Inside A Little History, an exhibit on the history of Canadian children from the Canadian Museum of History and LAC.
• One of the surviving Dionne quintuplets returned to visit the home she was born in, as the house received a plaque from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Local History

• Vancouver As It Was tried to track down what was really going on with the Black “house of ill fame.”
• Heritage Winnipeg shared the history of Mathewson House.
• Historic Nova Scotia shared the story of Cape Breton rabble-rouser, Reverend Ranna Cossit.
• This week Eve Lazarus shared the story of the BC Mills House Museum.
• The Nova Scotia Archives took us on a tour of beautiful buildings in Lunenburg, through historical photographs.
• Will the mystery of the giant peach ever be solved?

Digital and Public History

• Ok, you knew it was coming. This week, Lisa Helps, Mayor of Victoria, announced the removal of the Sir John A. Macdonald statue from outside city hall. And you can probably figure out what happened next. I’ll spare you the varied op-eds on the subject and, rather, provide some historical perspective.
  • Matthew A. Sears has a great Twitter essay on why monuments are not museums and museums are not monuments.
    • This thread was also turned into an article!
  • Charles Smith shared similar thoughts here, about why it is important to read our history, rather than rely on statues to provide it.
  • David A. Robertson provides some quotes from Macdonald that show his views on Indigenous peoples. CW: really horrific language.
  • Ian Mosby explained how Macdonald enacted genocidal policies, based on Rob Innes’s work.
  • Rachelle Fox reposted two Twitter essays she wrote on the subject last year (here and here).
  • Sean Carleton added some thoughts to his Twitter threads from last year.
  • And here is what replaced the statue.
• Members of the public can now access the online archival collection of the Monastère des Augustines in Quebec City, which has just made their online archival collection available to the public. Check the archive itself out here.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog had a new post about UBC’s Web Archiving Initiative. So sorry we missed this in our recent post, because it looks fantastic!
• I don’t normally include various “on this day in history” material, mostly because there is so much of it, but I did find the Twitter conversations around this recollection of the Wayne Gretzky trade to be quite interesting.
• Check out the latest Communities Stories from the Virtual Museum of History, on the history of the area currently known as Ste. Marie II, originally Wendake.
  • The Museum of Ontario Archaeology, one of the main parties involved in the creation of the online exhibit, provided some more details on the project here.
• The Bank of Montreal has removed their two plaques commemorating how Paul de Chomedy killed an Iroquois chief.
• Take a deep dive into some of Canada’s earliest websites! All I have to say is ‘oy.’
• This week on Unwritten Histories, we premiered a series featuring panel presentations from the latest CHA annual meeting on archival research! First up we had Michelle Desveaux on the development of a Canadian national archive.
• Check out these neat vintage images of tourism in New Brunswick!

Doing History

• Find out about the University of Toronto’s Sexual Representation Collection, an archive of modern sexuality. Kinda problematic that the title of the article refers to it as “smutty,” but this is an important collection.

Miscellaneous

• Check out this beautiful chip-carved box from New Brunswick.

Podcasts

• This week’s History Chats episode featured a talk by Jay Young on “A Public Technology: Building Toronto’s Yonge Street Subway.”

Better Late Than Never

• Jim Ellis spoke with the hosts of the CBC radio show, The Homestretch, about the history of animals in Calgary.

Hmmm.. war and monuments. Kinda depressing. Hopefully the puppies helped! Anyways, that’s all from me! Short and sweet, which works well because I’m currently at a conference! 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 Erin Spinney’s post on digital history and eighteenth century nursing. See you then!

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