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 “Keystone.”
- Anna Soper shared this wonderful map documenting the life and career of 19th century southwest Ontario botanist, Kate Crooks.
- It’s almost time for the annual American Society for Environmental History (though depending on when you are reading this, if could also be ongoing or finished). Tina Adcock has produced a roundup of all of the papers on Canadian history or by Canadian scholars.These sound so cool!
Military History
- Veterans Affairs Canada, VIA Rail (and I just accidentally typed VIA fail… Freudian slip…), Parks Canada, and a number of Canadian organizations have collectively launched a cross-country train trip in honour of the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.The train, named “The Canadian” is on its way from Vancouver to Halifax, where a ceremony will mark the completion of its journey on June 6th. The train will stop in nine locations for commemorative ceremonies.
- An important collection of documents related to the Vietnam War turned up in a Goodwill in Port Colborne.
- Defining Canada’s new website on Juno 75 is now available, with new material to come!
Archaeology
- A new report is showing that the wreck of the HMS Erebus has deteriorated significantly in the past six months due to climate change atypical ice conditions. Investigations remain going.
- You may remember that I mentioned last week that the Saskatchewan Aviation Museum was working to raise the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed in Peter Pond Lake. Well, it’s up! CBC spoke with the daughter of the plane’s pilot, Ray Gran, on the occasion, and reported that on the very last day of the recovery effort, Gran’s wedding ring was found, balanced on the edge of a wing. Nope, I’m not crying at all. Nope.
- CBC really seems to be on a terrible-headline streak lately. This piece, which explored the mystery around the Utopia Medallion, pulled out the old “it had to be aliens because Indigenous peoples weren’t sophisticated enough” nonsense in the headline, and the article even suggests that it was an Ancient Egyptian piece. If you need an explanation about why these tropes are racist and harmful to Indigenous peoples, check out this great piece and this one.
History Education
- This week the CHA launched a new Teaching and Learning Blog, organized and operated by Danielle Kinsey, Jo McCutcheon, and Carly Ciufo. You can check out the introduction here, and the first post (the text from a talk by Andrew Parnaby) here.
- Pam Palmater (Mi’kmaq from the Eel River Bar First Nation) released a new video with TVO Indigenous on why dealing with Indigenous topics causes so much emotional discomfort. As a settler history prof, I’ve experienced similar responses, and this is a super important issue. I really think everyone involved in education needs to watch this. This is the first in a multiple part series on the subject, and the two other videos that have been released so far are:
- Eddy Robinson (Anishinaabe/Muskegowuk Cree) on what non-Indigenous peoples need to know, and why asking “How can I help?” is not actually helpful.
- And Cindy Blackstone (Gitxsan First Nation)on how we can fight systemic racism in Canada.
- In advance of the American Society for Environmental History conference mentioned above, Tina Adcock invited all environmental historians to join her in a five-day challenge in support of diversity in #envhist. I would argue that though Tina is focusing on environmental history, much of what she says can apply to all historians.
- In this introductory thread, she explained the work of the Syllabus Project, how her challenge is in support of the project, and why this is such important work.
- On day one, she put together a list of resources on how she brings Indigenous voices into her classroom, including a lovely shoutout to the piece I wrote with Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan on inviting Indigenous speakers!
- On day two, she added a whole bunch of literature by her NiCHE colleagues to the Syllabus Project.
- Ok, how can I sign up for this course?
- In this think piece for the Wilson Institute, Brent Brenyo explored the relationship between history, citizenship, and politics in Ontario classrooms from the 1960s to the present.
- This week on Active History, Andrew Nurse discusses what we can or should do when a course goes wrong.
- Winona Wheeler (Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty No. 5 territory, and of Cree/Assiniboine/Saulteaux/English/Irish descent)’s students at the University of Saskatchewan are working to develop an oral history inventory for the descendants of Big Bear.
- The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity has launched a new educational initiative at seven different school across the country on the queer and trans histories in Canada.This initiative is an anticipation of the opening of the first dedicated 2SLGTBQTIA+ museum.
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History
- There is a new Canadian Encyclopedia entry for one of the few Black fur traders whose names are recorded, Joseph Lewis.
- This week, Patrick Lacroix took a look at British North Americans who enlisted to fight in the Mexican-American War of 1846.
- In honour of Sikh Heritage Month in Manitoba, two women and four men created an iconic image from Sikh history in Canada.
- Find out about an awesome new project, Legacies in Motion, which is dedicated to unearthing stories of Black LGTBQ+ activism in the 1980s and 1990s.
- This piece, by Christopher Cheung, is a beautiful reflection on the Chinese tradition of Qinming, the day of honouring the dead.
- Craig Burley put together a great Twitter thread on the complicated history of the Italian-Canadian community, and how individuals and organizations from different communities worked together to end legal discrimination on the basis of race and religion.
Indigenous History
- In honour of the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of Nunavut, Michael Kusugak (Inuit) wrote an important and thoughtful reflection on Inuit history, land, and territory.
- Sixties Scoop survivor Lana Parenteau is sharing her story to help connect with other survivors.
- Bowdoin College Arctic Museum is sending a few pieces from their Inuit embroidery collection back to Labrador in an effort to learn more about this artform from an Inuit perspective. The project is the result of a partnership between the Nunatsiavut government, Memorial University, and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum. I do hope that eventually these items will be repatriated. The link above has some images, and the work is just stunning.
New France/British North America
- This week Canadian Geographic looked back atJens Munk’s attempt to find the Northwest Passage, 200 years before Franklin. Unfortunately, the piece does not mention Munk’s encounters with local Inuit, which are documented in Munk’s own account.
- This week on the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog, Leah Grandy posted the first in a two-part series on the names and naming practices of privateer and prize ships from 1777 to 1814.
Political History
- In their ongoing series on the Winnipeg General Strike, the Heritage Winnipeg blog looked back at the Western Labour Conference, held in Calgary in 1919.
- David Webster has written a new post for the Canadian International History Committee blog, on a colonial dispute involving Indonesia, the Netherlands, and Canada, that almost prevented the formation of NATO.
Social History
- My mother’s banana cake recipe is the best, and yes, I will fight you on that. But this also sounds super cool.
- This week on the Histoire Engagée blog, Étienne Lapointe reviewed Jenny Ellison and Jennifer Anderson’s recent edited collection, Hockey: Challenging Canada’s Game/ Au-delà du mythe national.
- This week the UBC Digitizer’s blog shared some images of cycling, including images of Clara Wilson’s 19th century cycling trips across Canada.
- In this latest piece, Daniel Samson explored how James Barry processed and understood the concept of death.
- David Liverman and Osvaldo Croci spoke with CBC on the history of cricket in Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Anyone up for historic scones? There is even a recipe!
The History of Gender and Sexuality
- Susan O’Donnell wrote a great reflection on her experience attending the Anti-69 Is Canada Really a “Just Society?” conference, including summaries of presentations by Tom Hopper and Karen Pearlston.
Local History
- The Radium Franklin tugboat, which towed barges on the Great Bear River, has been donated to the Hay River Museum Society.
- There were two new image collections posted by the Toronto Public Library this week, including:
- This week Whistorical looked back at the history of choirs in Whistler.
- In honour of International Women’s Day, the St. Catharines Museum blog’s latest post examined representations of teenage female athletes by looking at the St. Catharines High School yearbooks.
- The Civic Museum of Regina is auctioning off items that don’t have a clear connection to the city’s history. Now is your chance to pick up some cool vintage finds!
- Ok, this is just too funny.
- The City of Vancouver Archives just announced that property tax assessment maps are now available for researchers. Unfortunately, due to their size and condition, digitization is not possible, so you will actually need to go to the archive to consult these documents.
- Check out some of the cool items in McGill Library’s Expo 67 Collection.
Digital and Public History
- All this month, Our Digital World will be sharing mystery items from their members’ collections. Find out about the project here, or follow the hashtag #MysteryMonth to see the images yourself. Maybe you can help to solve a historical mystery!
- The Manitoba Historical Society is looking for information on all of the grain elevators in the province, past and present.
- Sadee Mitchell is sharing the history of Yellowknife Bay.
- The federal government announced that the new Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough is receiving $10 million in funding. A lot of the promotional material around this is emphasizing the funding as being part of “reconciliation.” However, I also noticed that this announcement came at the same time as news that the National Indigenous Theatre was denied federal funding.
- Everyone needs to read this piece by the queen of social media, Jessica DeWitt.
- The Timmins Public Library has announced the digitization of nearly the complete run of The Porcupine Advance (1912-1950).
- Check out some of the new images just added to Ingenium’s digital archives!
- The Nova Scotia Museum has announced the launch of a brand new virtual exhibit, “Remembering the Forgotten Dead: Nova Scotia and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1920.”
- I can’t tell if this is cool or littering.
- Work has resumed at the Place Fort La Tour historical recreation in Saint John.
Doing History
- This project, by Cristina Wood, telling the history of the Ottawa River through song (a process called sonification) is absolutely wonderful and so cool.
- Do you know about the Homestead Aerial Photo collection, which includes around 1.5 million aerial photographs of prairie farms?
- This week on the Acadiensis blog, Henry Svec honoured the work of the late artist, writer, and folklorist, Mary MacDonald.
- Check out the latest newsletter from BAnQ, including an interview with Camille Robert.
- This week LAC explained why archivists don’t always use gloves.
- The Black Canadian Studies Association has published their preliminary program for Congress 2019.
- Find out about some of the amazing work going at the Algoma University Archives/ Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre Archives, including this project to digitize the letter books of the first two presidents of Shingwauk Residential School, which include information on student experiences. Content warning: residential schools.
- Find out about some of the amazing documents you can find at the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University.
- This week Unwritten Histories celebrated its third anniversary, and I took the occasion to reflect on what my ideal academy would look like.
- And Stephanie was back with a look at upcoming publications in Canadian history for the months of April and May!
Miscellaneous
- The latest biography from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Quebec engineer and business owner, Julian Cleveland Smith.
- New images from the famous John Lennon and Yoko Ono Bed-In for Piece photoshoot in Montreal have surfaced. (Ed. note: “Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout Ragism, Bagism, Shagism……ism, ism, ism…”)
Podcasts
- This week on the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Liz Covart spoke with Christopher Hodson about his recent book, The Acadian Diaspora: An Eighteenth-Century History.
- The latest episode of the Secret Life of Canada podcast was a shout out to Bernelda Wheeler (Muscowpetung First Nation), one of the hosts of “Our Native Land.”
- This week the Living Heritage Podcast looked at folk cures. I refuse to take any responsibility if you decide to attempt any of these. You’re on your own.
- Eve Lazarus posted part two of her new podcast, Blood, Sweat, and Fear. This latest episode is about an assassination ring associated with a house on East Cordova Street in Vancouver. Content warning: violence, descriptions of murder.
Calls for Papers
- The Canadian Nautical Research Society is now accepting submissions for the 2019 Jacques Cartier MA Award.
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