Canadian History Roundup – Week of November 27, 2016

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

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

• Active History kicks off the week with a blog post by Lucas Richert on the fight to legalize medical marijuana in the UK. While most of the article focuses on the UK, he does devote a considerable section to the recent history of medical marijuana in Canada.
• On Acadiensis, Sharon Myers has a fantastic blog post about oral history and silence. She encourages oral historians to problematize silences in interviews, arguing that silences are as important as stories and that silences are an important tool for narrators to craft their own histories.
• On the Age of Revolutions Blog, Bertie Mandelblatt talks about the trans-imperial rum and molasses production and trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is really the story of the commercialization of sugar and sugar-derivatives, and the battle between rum and brandy producers.
• Adèle Clapperton-Richard has a great article on Histoire Engagée, which takes a critical look at Quebec’s ministerial curriculum and textbooks for history, particularly its — at times — overly political tones and problematic generalizations.
• Check out this draft illustration of the Massacre of Saint-Joachim by Julian Peters.
• Emily Leonie, from the Things I’m Fonds of blog has posted an interview she did with an archival master’s student from the University of Texas at Austin about the daily work of archivists.
• And apparently we’re psychically connected, since this week I premiered a new series at Unwritten Histories called Historians’ Histories, where I talk with real-life historians about their work. The first post in the series features my friend, Peter Scales. If you are interested in participating in this series, please get in touch by emailing me at unwritten histories [at] gmail [dot] com or by sending me a message on Facebook or Twitter.
• Kathleen Ogilvie, talks about her experiences interning at a local archive, particularly her work with the public. I love these kinds of posts, and I think the mosquitos are adorable. 😉
• In Ann M. Little’s latest Teacher Tuesday, she focuses on Esther’s formal admission as a novice, particularly with respect to the “clothing ceremony.” The nuns used dolls to teach novices the appropriate way to dress. Little talks about one doll in particular, who even has her own little pair of purple garters. Ooh lala.
• NiCHE has a brand new episode of their Nature’s Past podcast. In this episode, Sean Kheraj interviews Jessica van Horssen about her new book, A Town Called Asbestos.
• Beth Greenhorn, writing for LAC’s blog, reports back on LAC’s first attempt at crowdsourcing transcription with the Coltman Report. By all accounts, it was a success!
• Krista McCracken has just been appointed a member of the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives – Response to the Report on the Truth and Reconciliation Task Force, which is doing super important work. Congrats!
• Kinda loving these rules for A Fancy Dress Entertainment by the Ottawa Skating and Curling Club, held on March 16^th, 1867. Dismayed, but not surprised, to see “No gentlemen to appear in female attire.”
• John Atkin tells the story of the first Chinook Street name in Vancouver: Lahb Avenue. Lahb is Chinook for “arbutus tree.”
• Find out about the latest fonds transferred from LAC to the City of Ottawa Central Archives.
• Retroactive features the Elizabeth Street School in Medicine Hat, Alberta, which was recently designated a Municipal Historic Resource. It was deemed significant largely due to its architectural style and its contribution to the educational infrastructure of the city during the boom years.
• Christopher Ryan has created a small database of the City of Ottawa building permits issued in 1950 for buildings valued at over $30,000.
  • And then added 1949 and 1948
• Take a look at this beautiful inner parka made by Marion Tuu’luq in what is now Nunavut, in 1971.
• UofTNews featured an experiential learning project developed for the course “Rice, Sugar and Spice in Southeast Asia: A Regional Food History,” taught by Nhung Tuyet Tran. In it, students recreated and then adopted the diets of people who lived in Southeast Asia in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. So cool!
• Jonathan McQuarrie has a great article on Active History about the ways in which those of us depressed by recent world events can find comfort from historical precedent. Recently I spoke with a cousin of mine, who happens to be gay, married, and living in the United States. I was telling him about how scared I was about the fallout from the election, and he told me that he survived Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, and we would certainly survive Trump.
  • ETA: As Elise Chenier recently corrected me, that this is simply one perspective. Many LGTBQ2SI people (and others) did not in fact survive these presidents, and my cousin’s perspective is reflective of his cis-gendered and white (ish) identity. Thank you, Elise, for your correction!
• Martin Lanthier has a fascinating blog post for LAC all about a digitized letter from a surgeon detailing the treatment of Irish immigrants with typhoid fever. You can read the full letter for yourself as well.
• This week on the UBC Digitizer’s Blog is a look at their open collection on the Klondike Gold Rush. All of the images are fascinating, but I think the postcard at the end is my favourite.
• The DCB’s latest biography is of Sir Andrew Macphail, a physician and university professor.
• If you don’t follow the Convict Voyages website, you should. This week, the blog has a new post by Bernard Allaire about the French convicts who were sent to settle New France in Jacques Cartier’s last expedition from 1541 to 1543. The article is also available in French!
• The Archives of Ontario has a new series of maps that depict the province’s changing borders from 1774 to 1912.
• Because they just have to be so awesome, the Champlain Society’s blog, Findings/Trouvailles, is celebrating “Canadian History Advent” with twelve days of blog posts about holiday celebrations in Canada! Damn, why didn’t I think of that… Here are this week’s blog posts:
  • Day One: King Cakes at the Ursuline Covent
  • Day Two: Bringing Italian Canadian families and communities together with the newspaper, Corriere.
• Pity the unmilked cows of Montreal.
• Like me, Joseph Gagné is fascinated by the everyday lives of people in the past. In this latest blog post, he talks about the small human moments he’s found while examining the correspondence of colonial officials in New France, particularly Le Chevalier de Lévis.
• The Museum of Vancouver has posted its Friday Five photos from 1977. And my husband might be curious to know it includes a photo of the lineup for the opening day of some movie called Star Wars….
• Jessica DeWitt has posted her editorial comments from the latest issue of Folklore. This month’s theme is “movement and mobility.”
• Also on Active History this week is a great article by Jessie Thistle about why the Metis should not be included in the Toronto land acknowledgement.
• The Nova Scotia Archives blog has two new holiday-themed posts this week!
  • The first one looks at Victorian Whimsy cards for the holidays. That’s where I got the image I used for this week’s roundup. You can see more of the collection here, though several will likely be making appearances in future roundups. 😉
  • And they have also prepared modernized and taste-tested versions of historical holiday treats!
• Christopher Moore is hosting this month’s History Carnival, a roundup of the best blogs and blog posts over the past month. He also included a list of some good Canadian history blogs, and had this to say of Unwritten Histories: “Unwritten Histories started quite recently, but it is becoming essential for its lists of what’s going on in CanHist online.” Please excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
• The latest Journal of Canadian Studies is out!
• So is the Canadian Journal of History!
• And Labour/Le Travail!
• The Maple Stars and Stripes Genealogy blog takes on the subject of health and sickness in New France this week.
• Stephanie Ann Warner talks us through her work as a family historian and dealing with the documents of a published author.
• Ian Mosby has a great image of a Canadian government 1969 pamphlet on head lice, with annotations from an Indian Health Services bureaucrat.
• Since it’s supposed to snow today here in the lower mainland, the Vancouver is Awesome blog has 15 historical photographs of snow in Vancouver!
• Historica Canada is highlighting their education tools this month with the hashtag #12daysoflearningtools. You can also see them on Historica Canada’s Twitter timeline here.
• Eve Lazarus profiles the Orillia, an historic building that used to stand in downtown Vancouver.
• The Historicist Blog has a new post by Jamie Bradburn looking at the implementation of Toronto’s bicycle lanes in the 1970s,  a repost from January 2013.
• Slipping in right under the deadline is a new post on the Vancouver As It Was blog about Mary Warbuton, a nurse who long to walk long distances. Like 65 miles. She went missing on one of these walks, and neither her nor her body were ever found.
• Canadian History in the News
  • A Facebook group has collected more than 40,000 photos documenting the history of Miramichi, New Brunswick.
  • PEI’s Canadian Potato Museum is trying to save a local mill. You read that correctly: PEI has a potato museum. It’s freaking real.
  • There is a new documentary from Lost Stories coming out about Ottawa’s Southway Inn. This motel was popular with Nunavummiut visiting in Ottawa from the 1950s onwards.
  • The federal government is appealing a decision that made it easier for residential schools survivors to get compensation for sexual assault. Nice move. Sigh.
  • The Chicago Tribune has a new article about the Franklin Expedition. It doesn’t really say anything new, but I thought I’d mention it just in case.
  • The new plan for the addition to Chateau Laurier was just announced, and it’s just as unpopular.
  • Canadian Geographic profiles six sites that are still on the list for UNESCO World Heritage status.
  • CBC’s Wallis Snowdon has an article about the research being done Rebecca Jade and Chris Chang-Yen Phillips on the long history of the KKK in Edmonton. They’ve also detailed their work with a podcast, which you can listen to here.
  • UVic has proposed a new joint Indigenous and Canadian Common law degree. Yes!
  • Great Lakes Magazine, interviews Colonel Amos Wright, the American engineer who turned off the American side of Niagara Falls in the 1960s, to “improve” its appearance.
  • The Quebec government will spend more than $6 million this year to restore and repair religious and cultural heritage buildings in Montreal.
  • HBC has made a $500,000 donation to the Manitoba Museum’s endowment. The money will be used to upgrade the buildings and construct a new gallery.
  • The Times Colonist has a helpful timeline of Africville’s history. Seems a bit incongruous for a Victoria newspaper, but hey, why not?
  • Rabble speaks with Alexis Shotwell and Gary Kinsman about their work with the AIDS Activist History Project, and about radical activism in Canada during the 80s and 90s.
  • Two high school history teachers are being celebrated for their approach to the subject. Using social history as a guide, they examined the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada from a critical perspective.
  • One hundred years of the Prince George Citizen have now been digitized and are available from the Prince George Public Library. I hope the database will soon be available at other locations!
  • If you live in the lower mainland, you know that we’ve been waiting for the new Evergreen Skytrain line. The Vancouver Sun is now revealing the fascinating history that was revealed during the construction of the new line!
  • The Museum of Jewish Montreal have recreated a Jewish beer recipe from 220 years ago. This Jewish girl goes oy vey. The recipe comes from the Hart Family, the first Jewish family to settle in Quebec after the British Conquest.
  • In more alcohol related news, a New Brunswick distillery has created a brandy in honour of the siege of the Acadian fortress, Fort La Tour, in 1645. The heroine of the siege? Madam La Tour, who held the fort with 40 soldiers for three days against a rival governor before eventually surrendering. Another kickass Canadian woman from history? Heck yeah!
  • And because sometimes a coincidence is awesome, check out this story about a Canadian Jewish woman, Bobbie Rosenfeld, who made history as one of Canada’s best athletes. She is one of the banknote contenders as well.
  • Find out about the treatment of relief workers during the Depression in Ontario at the Sir Adam Beck School.
  • Katherine Dewar looks at how PEI nursing sisters during WW1 handled their own stress and illness. Spoiler alert: nurses, like moms, didn’t get sick days.
  • A WW1 memorial plaque commissioned by the Canadian Bank of Commerce, likely from just after WW1, has been unearthed by a local who was landscaping in their backyard. It has been returned and rededicated at the local branch in Guelph.
  • Also in Guelph, the new official territorial acknowledgement of the city was unveiled at a recent city council meeting.
  • The Pier 21 museum has a new exhibit about the treatment of Italian Canadians who were interned in WW2. Around 600 individuals were sent to three internment camps and stayed there for up to five years.
  • Google Earth has created a time-lapse of the tar-sands from 1984 to 2016. Warning: it’s super depressing.
  • A collection of around 150,000 rare vintage posters from Vancouver’s cultural history are in need of a new home!
  • CHEK News talks about the more than 215,000 objects that are housed at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
  • They’ve also posted a second video about the Royal Colwood Gold and Country Club. Fun fact: I’m allergic to golf. 😛
  • Craig and Marc Kielburger have an opinion piece in the Camrose Canadian on food and reconciliation, featuring discussion with David Wolfman (Xaxli’p First Nation) and Jessie Thistle (Metis-Cree).

That’s all for this week! Can you believe it’s already December? This Tuesday we’ll have another brand new blog post in honour of December 6th. And I’m also excited to announce that Unwritten Histories now has an official Instagram account! Starting on Monday, I’ll be posting Canadian historical images and photographs along with background information! The first image has already been posted! Don’t forget to follow Unwritten Histories on Instagram to keep receiving notifications for these images!

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