Cowgirl standing and holding horse’s reigns. September 1962. Rosemary Gilliat Easton. Credit: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton / Library and Archives Canada
Copyright: Copyright has been assigned to Library and Archives Canada by the copyright holder, the Estate of Rosemary Gilliat
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: “Southern,” “South,” and “Allman.”
- Jessica DeWitt was also back this week with her look at the popular and significant publications in environmental history over the last month!
- And finally, she posted her comps notes for A Century of Parks Canada: 1911-2011, edited by Claire Campbell.
- You need to go and read this Rhizomes interview on NiCHE with Anne Dance. Seriously. She’s the best.
- The Muskrat Falls inquiry is in progress, and is currently looking at the history of hydroelectric development on the Churchill River.
- Check out what one researcher found in a file labelled simply as “B.”
Military History
- And finally, the conclusion of the Barrie Historical Archive’s series on Peggy Newman’s wartime letters.
Archaeology
- This week, Robyn Lacy is back with a new blog post on the conscious curation of decaying built heritage, or, in other words, allowing buildings to decay because ruins look cool.
- You may remember a recent Roundup mention of the upcoming book by Douglas Hunter, Beardmore, on the Viking hoax? Here is an excerpt, with pictures!
History Education
- Alban Bargain-Villéger has written a new blog post for Active History this week, reflecting as a historian on the CUPE 3903 strike (contract faculty members) at York University. It is an important read.
- Samantha Cutrara also had a new post at Active History, with an introduction to digital history in the classroom.
- Also, what is wrong with people. Seriously. Content warning: gross ignorance about residential schools. Kudos to the student in this situation though.
Transnational History
- The Canadian International History Committee published another blog post, this time by Elisabetta Kerr, accompanying the release of their digital briefing book on U.S.-U.K.-Canada atomic energy cooperation between 1953 and 1954.
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History
- This week on the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History blog post, Sandrine Murray published a new blog post on Armenian orphans who came to Canada between 1923 and 1927, known as the Georgetown Boys. The blog post focuses particularly on the use of photography in humanitarian efforts.
- The latest LAC blog post focused on a ledger which includes the names of 3,964 Japanese-Canadians, including nearly 2,000 children, who were deported to Japan in 1946, including a profile of deportee Henry Shibata.
- Bashir Mohamed’s work on Black history in Edmonton was recognized by the CBC this week.
- This story, about a popcorn wagon, is wonderful.
- A heritage home application has led to the rediscovery of a former Japanese-Canadian community in Vancouver along Columbia Street.
Indigenous History
- The Beyond the Spectacle project looked back at their first year.
- The Canadian Encyclopedia posted two new articles relating to Indigenous history this week:
- I don’t know if this qualifies as history news, but it’s super cool that Jeremy Dutcher won the Polaris Prize for his work!
- University Affairs covered Algoma University’s exhibit on Shingwauk Residential School, and spoke with Krista McCracken, Mike Cachagee (Chapleau Cree First Nation) and Susie (Kicknosway) Jones (Walpole Island).
- In more “what’s wrong with people” news, the government has officially spent 2.3 million dollars fighting the St. Anne IRS survivors. How’s that for reconciliation.
- Mary Jane Logan McCallum has written a new piece for Shekon Neechie about what it’s like sharing her name with the Senator Mary Jane McCallum, and the many racist assumptions that Indigenous women face in academia.
- The Royal BC Museum is repatriating more than 700 ancestors to First Nations communities across the country. Additional funding from the BC government will also enable First Nations communities to repatriate ancestors from museum collections around the world.
- Radio Canada looks back at the history of Project Naming.
- Mary Jane Logan McCallum and Adele Perry’s latest book, Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City, was featured in the Winnipeg Free Press!
New France/British North America
- An excerpt from Jeffers Lennox’s latest book, Homelands and Empires: Indigenous Spaces, Imperial Fictions, and Competitions for Territory in Northeastern North America, 1690-1763, was published on the Acadiensis blog this week. The excerpt focused on the role of maps and geography with respect to delineating the limits of Acadia and Nova Scotia.
- Keith Grant took us to the Uniacke Estate for a look at a colonial library and some book porn! Although that’s my description, not his. 😉
Political History
- All week long, Borealia published a series of posts on Peter Russell’s latest book, Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests.
- Elizabeth Mancke wrote the first blog post, on the difference between Constitutions (written texts) and constitutions (norms of governance), completed and incomplete conquests, and the problem with Russell’s sub-title.
- Donald Fyson critiqued Russell’s treatment of Francophone Quebebers, particularly with respect to the lack of francophone historiography.
- While I fundamentally disagree with Nicole C. O’Byrne’s post, I include it here for the sake of completeness.
- The University of Alberta Faculty of Law Faculty Blog (which I will now be referring to as the ReconciliAction YEG blog, because I need to draw the line somewhere), has published a special series on Treaty Six this week, including the following posts:
- Adam Coombs has written a new piece for Active History, on how Doug Ford’s political rhetoric has a great deal in common with William Lyon Mackenzie King’s.
- Check out some cool images showing the history of Vancouver’s elections.
- Shirley Tillotson wrote a new Twitter thread on the history of Alberta tax culture.
- This weekend marked the 141stanniversary of the signing of Treaty Seven. Sean Carleton commented on the fact that it has received zero media attention.
Social History
- Another new article from The Canadian Encyclopedia discussed the history of E.Coli infections in Canada.
The History of Gender and Sexuality
- All I have to say is why. Whyyyyy???
- Active History posted a translated version of Histoire Engagée’s interview with the founders of Women Also Know History.
- A letter from the first suffragette to be jailed in the campaign for the vote has been discovered in the BC Archives.
Local History
- If you’re familiar with the history of the Winnipeg General Strike, then you likely know about the famous image of the overturned street car. This week on Heritage Winnipeg was a new post reflecting on the upcoming 100thanniversary of the event, and the role that streetcars played in Winnipeg history.
- Suzanne Morton (my former undergrad supervisor!), has written a new piece for Historic Nova Scotia on Seely Hall and the Seely family business: sailing.
- The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto commemorated the upcoming 100th anniversary of the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary in Scarborough.
- Eve Lazarus took us back to Moodyville this week.
- Time capsule alert! What’s pretty neat about this piece is that the reporter actually went to the archives to figure out the identity of the person who left it!
- Whistorical looked back at the contributions of Verner Lundstrom to the Whistler community.
- The celebratory tone regarding the history of settlement in this piece is kinda problematic, but there is some interesting railway history in the story of a mistaken train car identity.
- In this week’s roundup contribution from Mr. Unwritten Histories, MonteCristo Magazine looked at downtown Vancouver’s historic tunnels. I’ll give you one guess what they were used for.
Digital and Public History
- The Historic Sites and National Monuments Board of Canada has recognized Nlaka’pamux basket making (from Nlaka’pamux Nation in BC) for its national historic significance this week.
- Margaret Laurence’s childhood home also received a plaque from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada this week.
- There is a brand new atlas available on Canada’s Arctic that incorporates Inuit Traditional Knowledge. The project was reviewed by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, though no Inuit communities or organizations appear to have been involved in the creation of the atlas.
- However, Canadian Geographic’s Indigenous Peoples Atlas, which is now available, was created in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis Nation, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, and Indspire.
- A new monument honouring Polish immigrants has just been unveiled in Halifax at Pier 21.
- Vancouver and British Columbia are working to have Vancouver’s Chinatown designated as a World Heritage Site.
- I am not really sure what to make of this news from the Royal Canadian Mint.
- The latest Veteran Affairs’ Remembrance Day campaigns do not seem to be connecting with focus group audiences. Based on the article alone, they seem pretty problematic to me.
- The UBC Digitizer’s blog profiled some of their Canadian content this week!
- Christopher Moore previewed the latest issue of Canada’s History.
- Atlas Obscura spoke with Janis Thiessen about the Manitoba Food History project.
- In 1991, a St. John’s man bought a secondhand camera and developed the film left inside. Twenty-seven years later, social media helped him connect with the people who took the pictures. Turns out the camera had been stolen in the 1970s.
- Find out about the new Maude Abbott Medical Museum in Montreal. This collection used to be the McGill Medical Museum, which was closed to the public.
- The latest Co-Lab challenge from LAC is of photographs of Japanese-Canadians during internment.
Doing History
- Back issues of Saskatchewan History, going back to 1948, are now available online.
- This week on his blog, Patrick Lacroix talked about his experiences working in diocesan archives.
- Bashir Mohamed published a fantastic blog post this week about what it is like to be a Black researcher and historian and why we need to think more carefully about the political implications of our work.
- And there is more in a Twitter thread here.
- And on a related note, while not specifically about Canada, @jmdrake made some important points about why Black experiences are often not represented in archives, specifically in reference to the Maroons, the intentionality behind it, and the trauma resulting from a breakdown in intergenerational knowledge.
- The 1909, 1910, 1911, and 1927 issues of the Cowichan Leader are now accessible and text searchable through Vancouver Island University’s library.
- This week saw the return of Best New Articles, with a look at my favourite pieces from scholarly articles on Canadian history, published in June and July.
- And Stephanie put together her monthly list of upcoming publications in Canadian history for October 2018!
Miscellaneous
- Krista McCracken wrote a fantastic piece for Active History with advice on how historians can work with media outlets and why it is so important that we do.
- The latest biography from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for Quebec tenor Rodolphe Plamondon.
- Check out Glenn Gould’s scarf, hat, and gloves.
- Who knew that the Citroën was such an important part of Canadian history.
Podcasts
- The latest Living Heritage podcast featured an interview with Megan Stuckless on the relationship between heritage and environmental conservation.
- Witness to Yesterday is back this week with a new podcast episode. In it, host Patrice Dutil spoke with Chris Dummitt about the career of Mackenzie King’s diary, which has a fascinating history of its own!
- The latest Juno Beach and Beyond podcast featured an interview with veteran Tom Hennessy as he reunites with the plane he flew during WW2.
Calls for Papers
- BC Studies has issued a CFP for their 2019 conference! The theme this year is “Intersections: Peoples and Places in British Columbia,” and proposals are due December 1st.
- The CFP for this year’s McGill-Queen’s Graduate History Conference has also been issued. This year’s conference will focus on how history and the past are produced, transmitted, interpreted, and experienced. Proposals are due December 31st.
- Kate Rousmaniere and Jason Ellis will be editing a special issue of the History Education Quarterly, on “disability and the history of education.” Proposals are due December 1st.
That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed the latest Canadian history 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 new entry in our series on Ordinary Women. There will be pirates. See you then!
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