Canadian History Roundup – Weeks of April 22, April 29, and May 6, 2018

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

Are you ready for a mega-roundup? We’ve divided this roundup into weeks, each with its own section.

 

Missed the last roundup? Check it out here.

 

Week of April 15, 2018

Environmental History

• Take a look back at thirty-seven years of oil spills in Alberta, with a super depressing animated map.
• And don’t miss these ones either, featuring the deforestation of the Thompson Plateau, the tar sands development around Fort McKay, the Mount Polley mine development and tailings pond breach, the Site C dam, and last, but not least, the North.
• The most commonly used words in #envhist this past week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: Earth, Day, and Environmental
• Gordon Hak reviewed Jonathan Peyton’s Unbuilt Environments: Tracing Postwar Development in Northwest British Columbia for NiCHE this week.
• And also on NiCHE, Alan MacEachern remembered Morley K. Thomas.
• The UBC Digitization Blog featured their Harry Hawthorn Fly Fishing and Angling Collection. I’ve never really understood the appeal. But then again, I’m a knitter.

  

Military History

• A 101-year old wooden cross, with the names of 57 Canadians killed at Vimy Ridge, was returned to the St. Andrew’s Church in Toronto, after a short stint in France.
• The Toronto Public Library remembered the 1813 Battle of York.
• The Canadian Centre for the Great War profiled some of the unsung heroes of WW1, the Voluntary Aid Detachment.
• Over on the Laurier Centre, Sam Derken argued that the surrender of Louisbourg was a major psychological turning point in the Seven Years’ War.
• Continuing with their series on Canadian Victoria Cross recipients, LAC remembered Lieutenant George Burdon McKean.
• Douglas Hunter engaged in a really neat look at what happened to forty-one men who enlisted in one battalion in on city over a few days in June 1915.
• Nouvelles-Casernes, a former military barracks and military service centre in operation in 18^th century Quebec City, is currently under major renovation. Find out about the plans and current status here.

 

Archaeology

• “shipwreck hunters” (their word, not mind) and the National Museum of the Great Lakes will be excavating a wreck in Lake Erie this summer that they believe is over 200 years old.
• A group of students in Windsor are taking rubbings of headstones from historic black cemeteries in the area to create an interactive online map. I just love this.
• The Museum of Ontario Archaeology explained what “thin sectioning” is for us non-archaeologists.
• There is a new article out about how researchers should include ancient Indigenous remains in genetic studies of ancient life, not only because doing so will provide more accurate information, but because doing so will allow scientists to better connect with Indigenous communities. Notably, however, they list seven questions that researchers should ask themselves prior to the studies being conducted (like will this study do harm, and what will happen to the samples). Again, what Indigenous peoples have been telling settlers for centuries… Here’s a crazier idea: hire more Indigenous scholars.

 

History Education

• Katrina Ackerman wrote a must-read post on the importance of mentorship in academia. I could not agree more.
• In the latest Beyond the Lecture post, Sean Graham wrote about his experiences teaching a course on digital history at Carleton this past semester. His post was followed by a response and reflection from his students, Anderson, M. Bitar, M. Burgstaller, S. Ellerington, K. Grunksy, J. Lee, A. Mawko, E. Petrie, A. Rashid, K.A. Saravia, and R. Weymann. This is just awesome.
• Joanne Hammond has put together a great Twitter essay on the new Indigenous-infused BC curriculum, which was implemented without providing sufficient support for teachers or connecting them with Indigenous experts.

 

 Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Tom Parkin wrote a response to the ongoing criticism of the politics of Sikh communities in Canada, and why it is important that immigrant communities and their descendants remember historical traumas.
• The city of Vancouver has issued an apology for historic discrimination against Chinese and Chinese-Canadian residents.
  • More, including photos, here.
  • And find out about Paul Wong’s “Occupying Chinatown” art installation, depicting the experiences of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver, based on the over 700 letters his mother received over her lifetime.
• Bashir Mohamed put together a short history lesson for certain individuals about the historical treatment of immigrant groups that are now considered white (Greek and Ukrainian).
• Laura Ishiguro was interviewed by CBC about the newly-acquired collection at UBC of letters written by Japanese-Canadian teenagers during WW2.

 

Indigenous History

• Spencer Greening is using traditional knowledge and Western ways of knowing to understand the history of land use in his home community, the Gitga’at First Nation.
• There is evidence to suggest that breast feeding played a role in genetic mutations in East Asian and Indigenous populations in North America.
• Rachel Bryant’s The Homing Place was reviewed on The Miramichi Reader. And then she spoke with the author of the review, James Fisher, here.
• Joanne Hammond has a new #rewriteBC plaque!
• Ontario Provincial Police files contain several historical documents from the Oblates of Mary Immanulate offices (from a 1995 raid), showing a clear link between the Catholic hierarchy and St. Anne’s residential school. Which rather contradicts what the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops claimed last week…
• I mentioned previously at the Université de Montréal released its official land acknowledgement a little while ago.
  • Darryl Leroux explained why it is so problematic in French (here) and in English (here).
  • Dan Rück‏ added some additional thoughts here.
• The results of a new study on the genetics of the Tsimshian have just been released. Conducted by John Lindo, with the consent of the Tsimshian residents of Prince Rupert Harbour, the study compared modern and ancient DNA to better understand their evolutionary history. I was glad to see that the researcher did this in consultation with the Tsmishian, that they got to review the findings before publication, and received co-authorship.
• Krista McCracken reported on a talk by Stacey Devlin on the Métis Nation of Ontario Root Ancestors Project. It looks amazing!
• Benjamin J. Kapron has written the latest MISHI reflection for Active History, sharing some thoughts on knowledge of the land, specifically: wisdom within the land, translating knowledge consensually, and the relationship between land and language.
• Benjamin Hoy has written a fascinating look at representations of Indigenous peoples in popular tabletop board games, and the impact that these representations have on Indigenous peoples and Indigenous histories.
• The City of Vancouver is considering transferring the land currently known as the Marpole Midden to the Musqueam. This area is part of a large former village cite known as c̓əsnaʔəm. This move is due in large part due to the activism of the Musqueam over the last decade.

 

 New France/British North America

• The UK has finally granted Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust ownership over the wrecks of the Franklin Expedition. Minus a few artifacts.
  • More here from Russell Potter.
• And speaking of the Franklin Expedition… get some Kleenex, because Canadian Geographic has a piece on the animals of the expedition.
• Russell Potter also took a look at the papers of Franklin Expedition member Harry Peglar, including those that were found in the jacket pocket of one of the bodies on King William Island.
• You can also check out his review (along with Stephen Smith) of episode six of AMC’s The Terror.
• A part of the new exhibit from the British Library on James Cook, the institution has also created a digital version, along with links to items from their digital collections as well as modern-day responses from the people of the communities Cook encountered.

 

Political History

• Patrick Lacroix shared the first of several parts from his 2015 conference presentation on the idea of King George III as a late Stuart, with a particular focus on the Quebec Act of 1774.
• The McGill-Queen’s University Press blog posted an excerpt from Chris Dummitt’s latest, Unbuttoned: A History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life.

 

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• The Archives of Nova Scotia has just premiered a new online exhibit of primary sources, this time depicting the history of the suffrage movement in Nova Scotia.
• Christabelle Sethna was interviewed by the Toronto Star about her new book, Just Watch Us, on RCMP surveillance of feminists during the Cold War. I can’t wait to read it!
• This week on the University of Waterloo Special Collections and Archives blog, they look at the evolution of undergarments for wedding dresses in the early 20^th century.
• We all knew letting women read was dangerous. Gives them “ideas.”

 

Local History

• Did you know that the Vancouver Aquarium has not always lived in Stanley Park?
• Two time capsules, one from 1907 and one from 1951, at the Edmonton YMCA were opened this week.
• Apparently nobody in Sault Ste. Marie likes one poor ship. Poor ship.
• Retroactive took a look at the history of Kirkness House in Edmonton, and its original owners, James Kirness and Sarah Steinhauer.
• Check out this unusual historical photograph of a demolition in Vancouver in 1910.
• Look back on the week of April 26^th in 1980s Whistler.
• Christopher Moore paid tribute to the work of Stephen Otto in preserving the Fort York District in Toronto.
• Do you know the musical history of Howe Sound, and it’s claim to fame?
• John Atkins discussed the work that went into the documentary City Reflections, which recreated the famous film clip by William Harbeck, traveling down a streetcar route in Vancouver in 1907. The documentary is newly available on Youtube, and you can see it here.

 

Digital and Public History

• Afua Cooper is the new Poet Laureate of Halifax! Congrats!
• There is a new exhibit at Pier 21 called Refuge Canada, which challenges visitors to experience being a refugee and understand the historical treatment of refugees in Canada.
• A group of middle school students in Red Deer have been creating their own video games, including one based on the experiences of Ukrainian immigrants!
• The Archdiocese of Vancouver has released and digitized its collection of Catholic newspapers dating back to 1892. They are completely free and accessible to the public.
• LAC profiled its new exhibit Premiere: New Acquisition at Library and Archives Canada. Which pretty much does exactly what it says. A corresponding blog series will run as well.

 

Doing History

• Blake Butler, Jaley Kalous, and Maggie O’Riordan Ross wrote a fantastic post, with an introduction by Finis Dunaway, on the benefits of using historical photographs as primary sources, rather than just illustrations.
• There is such a backlog of material relating to the history of Francophones in Saskatchewan, that the Saskatchewan Historical Society estimates it will take a full time archivist 30 years to clear it. Except there hasn’t been a full-time bilingual archivist since 1993.
• Breaking news: scientists say same thing Indigenous peoples have been saying for centuries: relationships before research.
• The LAC blog has a helpful guide for anyone wanting to search the 1921 Census.
• Someone wrote a terrible piece in Macleans, that I refuse to link to, arguing that: “Perfection is not the proper standard to judge mortals of an earlier age. Rather, it is their courage and accomplishment is facing the severe challenges of their own eras.” Some historians and history education scholars had a few things to say about that…. And there was some more great discussion here.
• Find out all about upcoming publications in Canadian history for the month of May!

 

Miscellaneous

• And thus, the stupid painting saga comes to an end.
• The latest Flickr album from LAC features photos of laboratories. See the photos themselves here.
• The Canadian Network on Humanitarian History remembers George Cramm.
• The Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto honoured National Poetry Month with a whole blog post dedicated to poems from their collection. I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but I’ve always been rather ambivalent about poems.

 

Podcasts

• John Fea discussed the paradigm of the “Atlantic World” in the latest episode of the Way of Improvement Leads Home podcast.
• The latest episode of the History Chats podcast featured David Wilson’s talk on “Irish Nationalisms and Canadian Confederation.”
• This week on the Witness to Yesterday podcast, Patrice Dutil spoke with Arthur J. Ray about the upcoming book from the Champlain Society, “Life and Death by the Frozen Sea: The York Fort Journals of Hudson’s Bay Company Governor James Knight, 1714-1717”.

 

Better Late Than Never

• There is a legal battle brewing over the ownership of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery land.
• The Revelstone Mountaineer reviewed Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace (Chief of the Skeetchestn at Deadman’s Creek) ’s latest book, Secwépemc People, Land and Laws.

 

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Week of April 29, 2018

 

Environmental History

• The Toronto Public Library celebrated Algonquin Park’s 125^th anniversary.
• The most-commonly used words in #evnhist over the past week, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: Day, Earth, Environmental.
• Neil Nunn has an insightful piece on Engagement this week, about the decline of the Pacific Salmon, and what it can teach us about the toxic impact of the North American modernist project, from the colonial era to today.
• Heather Green has written a fantastic new piece for NiCHE on the convergence of historical mining activity and contemporary mining and Indigenous land claim conflicts, particularly with respect to the impact of the Klondike Gold Rush on the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in.
• Also on NiCHE this week is a post by Sean Kheraj on the Great Epizootic of 1872-73, tracing the spread of an unknown equine disease. Complete with depressing animated map!
• Find out about the upcoming “Environmental Humanities in the Public Realm” workshop at Memorial!

  

Military History

• Check out this really cool new online exhibit from Winnipeg’s Health Service Centre Archives and Museum on their WW1 nursing sisters!
• The Canadian War Museum has officially purchased David Currie’s Victoria Cross.
• The Army Museum at Halifax Citadel has a brand new mural commemorating the experiences of Canadian soldiers during WW2.
•  Catherine Carstairs has a fantastic piece on the depiction of WW1 in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside. Which I have to admit, is my favourite of the series.

 

History Education

• There are several must-read pieces on the state of history in higher education this week, including:
  • Deidre Mccorkindale’s piece on race and racism at Canadian universities, with a particular focus on the new book, The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities, by Frances Henry, Enakshi Dua, Carl E. James, Audrey Kobayashi, Peter Li, Howard Ramos, and Malinda S. Smith.
  • Mary-Anne Shantz’s piece on the psychological impact of precarious academic work. I feel very much the same way.
  • Zoe Todd’s examination of the (failure of) Indigenization of Canadian academia, and the persistence of white possessiveness. As she notes, decolonization must happen first. She also refers to The Equity Myth.
• And no less important is this piece by Sanchia deSouza, Joel Dickau, Edward Dunsworth, William Fysh, Benjamin Lukas, Kari North, Maris Rowe-Mcculloch, Lindsay C. Sidders, Hana Suckstorff, Nathaniel Thomas, Erica Toffoli, and Spirit-Rose Waite, examining the issue of how to teach sexual violence in history. This blog post comes out of a five-day workshop on the same subject.
• This week Instantanés looked back on the establishment of Jonquière Cégep. And Jonquière is still one of the few French words that I cannot pronounce in English for the life of me.
• Can you solve the mystery of the Dalhousie ark?

 

 

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Bashir Mohamed wrote another fantastic Twitter essay this week about the treatment of Black people in the early Alberta justice system, focusing on the story of Thomas Rife. Rife was accused of assaulting a young white girl in 1907.
• April 30^th marked Journey to Freedom Day, in honour of the Vietnamese Boat People. The Toronto Public Library featured some of their collection relating to the history of Vietnamese-Canadians on the occasion.

 

Indigenous History

• Joanne Hammond has put together a list of recommended readings by Secwepemc, Nlaka’pamux, and Stat’imc history, including a discussion on the use of old-school anthropological sources.
• The Government of Ontario has finally released an absolutely amazing resource providing information on the treaties and reserves of Ontario. The goal is to allow individuals to learn more about the Indigenous history and treaty history of their area.
• Sarena Johnston (Caldwell First Nation, with Lenni Lenape, Red River Métis, and Celtic ancestry) and Megan Davies are back on the Toronto Public Library blog, along with guest blogger Morris Prosser (St’át’imc Community of Tsal’alh), reflecting on Anishinaabeg traditions with respect to springtime (seegwun), what prospective allies can do in times of resurgence, and springtime in St’át’imc territory.
• Canadian MPs have voted overwhelmingly to call on the Pope to apologize for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.
• Bill Casey has drafted a private-member’s bill for the government to create protocols and resources for the repatriation of Indigenous artifacts from public collections.
• Joanne Hammond has written a great Twitter essay about how easy it would be the calculate reparations due for the settler dispossession of Indigenous lands. I am relieved to finally find a purpose for bureaucratic paperwork.
• She also live-tweeted the National Energy Board hearing for KinderMorgan in Kamloops. In this hearing, Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc representatives spoke about their history. Her aside are awesome.
• Lindsay Gibson has a fantastic Twitter essay on the importance of education before territory acknowledgement. With a great addendum from Joanne Hammond.
• Canadian Geographic profiled the Native Land website and app.
• I’m not really sure if I should include this. A new genetic study of ancient Indigenous peoples shows that the founding population consisted of 250 individuals who migrated from Siberia. I’m disturbed that this study buys into the Bering Land Straight theory, which is no longer scholarly consensus and, more importantly, ignores the Indigenous perspective that Indigenous peoples have lived on Turtle Island since Time Immemorial.
• Craig and Marc Kielburger have written an op-ed, arguing that all residential school sites should be memorialized. But again, Indigenous peoples have already been saying this.
• Paul Seesequasis has written a great piece for The Walrus on his work with the Indigenous Archival Photo Project, and how crowdsourcing has been invaluable for Indigenous resurgence and reclaiming.
• Charlie Hall explains the thinking behind creating an interactive digital map showing the presence of Indigenous peoples from North America in Britain over the past 500 years.
• Several thousand pieces of Cape Dorset artwork by Inuit artists, dating back to 1959 are being digitized.
• In the latest post from the Champlain Society’s Findings blog is by Gordon N. Sayre, and it examined “The Algonquin Manuscript.”

 

New France/British North America

• Jordan E. Taylor has a fascinating piece on the Junto about social networks and “fake followers” during the American Revolution.
• Patrick Lacroix is back with part 2 of his look at the Quebec Act and King George III as a Late Stuart.
• Russell Potter has put together a comprehensive list of documentaries of the Franklin Expedition. Image warning: there is an image of some of the exhumed bodies in the post.
• And of course, Russell Potter and Stephen Smith were back with their review of episode eight of The Terror.
• The Atlantic Loyalist Collections blog posted part two of their look at their Benedict Arnold holdings.

 

Political History

• A building that may have been the birthplace of Sir John A. Macdonald in Glasgow has been demolished.
  • Randy Boswell argues that this is a scandal.
• This is a really neat piece by Jeanne M. Mikita, about a letter she wrote to Pierre Trudeau in 1970 about industrial polluters, and the response she received.
• Jamie Bradburn took a brave look at the shenanigans of the 1867 Ontario provincial election. La plus ça change…
• Bradley Miller wrote a great look at the evidence used in the recent Comeau case, regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages across provincial borders.

 

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• Nancy Nicol has donated her papers to the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, documenting the history of the lesbian and gay rights movement from 1969 to 2009.

 

Local History

• The Quebec City police force turned 175 this year. They don’t look a day over 170.
• Look back on the week of May 3, in 1980s Whistler.
• I really love historical discoveries like this one.
• Find out about the story of Whistler Junction, the village that never was.
• Eve Lazarus shared the story of Ladysmith’s Traveller’s Hotel, swastikas and all.
• Did you know there is a connection between Star Wars and Newfoundland?
• The Toronto Public Library shared some images from its collection depicting fires in Ontario.

 

Digital and Public History

• Find out about the St. Catharines Museum History InSite photographic installation, recreating historical photographs in modern streetscapes.
• All over the country, Canadians participated in Jane’s Walks, promoting local history and culture, including:
  • Calgary
• There were also a number of heritage fairs that were held across the country this week, including in:
  • PEI
  • Yukon
• I’m not sure whether I should laugh, cry, or groan in response to this piece.
• The Musée de la Gaspésie has now digitized around 4,000 images, all of which are available for free online.
• There is a new exhibit at the McCord Museum celebrating the history of Jewish Montreal. The real question: can you get a bagel at the exhibit?

 

Doing History

• The Maple, Stars, and Stripes podcast is back with part two of their look at the Drouin Collection.
• This week on the LAC blog is a new guide to researching post-Confederation Land Patents.
• This piece by Krista McCracken on building bridges across the disciplines is a must-read, particularly with respect to historians and archivists. 

 

Miscellaneous

• The Canadian Museum of History shared an image of this beautiful flower brick in the shape of a tortoise. I’m not really sure what a flower brick is, but it is certainly pretty!
• Join the Toronto Public Library on their tour of the 1939 Royal Tour.
• This week on the Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto was a look at the idea of vocations. 
• Anyone up for some comic book history?

 

Podcasts

• This week on the Historical Reminiscents podcast, Krista McCracken talked about Canadian history on Twitter, and graciously mentions my own guide!
• In the latest episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Liz Covart spoke with David Silverman about his recent book, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America.
• The latest LAC podcast has been released, on the mysteries of the Lowy Room and the Jacob M. Lowy Collection of Hebraica and Judaica. 
  • And don’t miss the accompanying Flickr album!
• This week’s History Chats episode features Penny Bryden’s talk, “Putting Flesh on the Bones: The Meaning of the BNA Act in Confederation Era Canada.”
• This week on the Witness to Yesterday podcast, Greg Marchildon spoke with Greg Kealey about the history of RCMP spies before CSIS!

 

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Week of May 6, 2018

 

 Environmental History

• This week’s most commonly used words in #envhist, according to Jessica DeWitt, were: Nitrogen, Feathers, Water. 
• Stephanie Bellissimo is back with a new blog post on the history of school gardening (teaching children how to garden).  The funny thing: I remember learning to plant flowers when I attended camp as a child. But I think that was more about free labour than education….
• Mark McLaughlin reviewed Mark R. Leeming’s In Defence of Home Places: Environmental Activism in Nova Scotia for NiCHE this week.
• The Canadian Encylopedia launched a new entry for Qausuittuq National Park.
• Jessica DeWitt was back with her monthly review of the her favourite pieces on environmental history from the past (two) months!
• She has also put together a massive Twitter moment with all of the presentations from the recent Environmental Humanities and the Public Realm Workshop.

 

Archaeology

• Retroactive is back with an update to their 2017 Archaeological Survey, complete with neat infographic!
• Bob Muckle was honoured for his work unearthing Japanese-Canadian logging camps in BC.

 

History Education

• We had a new two-part post in the Beyond the Lecture series, letters from graduates from the Digital Historian project, reflecting on their experiences:
  • Riley Tilson’s reflection is here.
  • And Avery Bettonvil’s reflection is here.
• And also from Beyond the Lecture was a post by Adam Chapnick on why academic historians to pay more attention to becoming the best teachers they can be. 
• Over on Histoire Engagée, Marise  Bachond reflected on the political economy of academia, and what it is like to be a professor during a strike or a lockout. 
• And Lindsay Gibson and Carla Peck reviewed how the subject of history is taught in Alberta’s public schools. 
• In news that I am sure you will find shocking, the Calgary Centre for Newcomers is having problems accessing resources to include education on Indigenous history in their curriculum. 

 

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History

• Justin Trudeau announced that he will apology for the Canadian government’s response to the MS. St. Louis, which sought asylum for Jewish refugees from Germany in 1939. The ship was turned away, and several on board would go on to die during the Holocaust.
• The Library of Congress has released additional information about their newly acquired Harriet Tubman photograph.

 

Indigenous History

•  Joanne Hammond was back with a Twitter essay on the balsamroot plant, and how it was used by Indigenous peoples in the area for millennia. 
• Ian Mosby wrote a must-read piece responding to more idiotic comments from certain people about residential schools, with a detailed consideration of the experiences of Tomson Highway.
  • Robert Jago added some thoughts here, relating to a certain senator. And some additional thoughts here.
• The E. Jane Murdy Collection at the Algoma University Archives, containing images of elders, events, and traditional skills in Indigenous communities across Ontario, is now available online!
• The latest Graphic History Collective Remember|Resist\Redraw poster has been released! Produced by Good Hill, with Sean Carleton, it commemorates the Tsilhquot’in War of 1864.
• Over at The Tyee, Katie Hyslop has started a new series looking at how the Canadian government created the Indigenous child welfare crisis, with a look back at government policies with respect to Indigenous families and children. This first part focuses on residential schools and the Sixties Scoop.
• Rachel Bryant was interviewed by CBC regarding her book, The Homing Place. 
• One of the latest biographies from the DCB is for Patrick Allen Wilie, a Carrier (Dakelh) boy from the Nautley Reserve, who was sent to Lejac Residential School, and died while attempting to run away in January 1937.
• This week the Canadian Museum of History shared this image of Beothuk tools.
• The Museum of Ontario Archaeology took a look at E. Pauline Johnson this week, considering her life and work within the Haudenosaunee diplomatic tradition. 
• A federal judge has approved the $875 million settlement for survivors of the Sixties Scoop.
  • Survivors are not happy with the outcome.
• The Canadian government has also announced that it will be providing $30 million in compensation to the Innu for the License 160 and Merchantable Timber Management and Lands claims, regarding logging leases between 1918 and 1967. 
• The Bigstone Cree are in talks with the Royal Alberta Museum regarding the repatriation of several objects.
• Sarah Rogers spoke with Carol Payne and Christina Williamson about Project Naming, and how it is helping to subvert the colonial gaze.
• The Ontario Court of Appeals has dismissed a motion by the survivors of St. Anne’s residential school to overturn a lower court’s ruling that would not allow transcripts from a 2003 civil case to be used for compensation cases. This is likely the last battle in their fight to force Ottawa to provide them the documents needed for accurate compensation claims.
• John Pambrun, an Indigenous man from Lestock, Saskatchewan, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government for the experiments on and inadequate medical career of children in residential schools as well as Indigenous patients at hospitals and sanatoriums. 
• The new Indigenous Peoples Glossary has been released!

 

New France/British North America

• Patrick Lacroix is back with part three of his multi-part look at the Quebec Act, and King George III as a Late Stuart. 
• Join Stephen Smith and Russell Potter as they review episode 8 of The Terror. 
• The Osgoode Society profiled the British North American Legislative Database on their blog this week! Which is even more awesome because our own Stephanie Pettigrew is the Project Coordinator! For more on the database, and how it works check out her post about it, here.

 

Political History

• CBC spoke with Randy Boswell about the demolition of the possible birthplace of Sir John A. Macdonald.
• Leonid Sirota responded to Bradley Miller’s Borealia post on the Comeau Decision, particularly with respect to the issue of historical analysis and its use.
• Also new on the DCB this week was a biography for Nova Scotia businessman and politician, John Stanfield. 

 

The History of Gender and Sexuality

• This week Instantanés looks at the fascinating life and papers of Yvette Mercier-Gouin, noted Québécoise actress.
• Benoit Marsan reviewed his recent visit to the new exhibit on Léa Roback, VIVA LÉA! Indignée, battante, humaniste : Léa Roback.
• Are you coming to the Canadian Committee on Women’s History Annual Reception and Book Launch?
• The Calgary Gay History blog paid tribute to Leah Klippert, Everett Klippert’s sister, who bought on his behalf when he could not.

 

Local History

•  One woman is on a quest to find the oldest stamped sidewalk pavement in Vancouver. Good luck to you, madam.
• Claire Hennig looks back on the fraught history of real-estate in Vancouver. Starting with the expropriation of Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land.
• Can you solve this photographic mystery?
• Or this one?
• Look back on the week of May 10 in 1980s Whistler.
• With regard to his local Jane’s Walk, Christopher Moore has also put together a short reading list for those interested in the literary history of Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood.
• Eve Lazarus showed us that the “pedestrian scramble” is old news in Canada. 
• I always think it’s fascinating when branded buildings are reused, like this Keg in Whistler.
• The Toronto Public Library remembered the 1968 Bloor-Danforth Subway Extension.

 

Digital and Public History

•  Do you remember my previous mention of the LAC co-lab initiative, regarding transcription and labelling of digitized images? Well, they have already posted several free labour challenges available for you to choose from!
• Find out about the winners of the Documentary Heritage Communities Program 2018-2019 competition, which provides funding for archives and libraries to develop new projects.
• Daniel Ross looked back on the history of Active History, particularly over the last year. And the post graciously mentions several of my pieces!
• There are some new additions to this interactive collection of fire insurance maps for Montreal.
• The Virtual Museum of Canada has released a new online exhibit, examining Canadian Art as Historical Art over the past 150  years. 

 

Doing History

•  You must read this post by Krista McCracken arguing that Western Institutions must respect Indigenous protocols and ownership principles with respect to intellectual property and community ownership, in relation to the new collection released by the Newberry Library.
  • Then go and read this Twitter essay on the subject, with additional links to resources.
  • And this response from the Newberry Library.
• The UBC Digitizer’s blog took us behind the scenes today, showing us how archival collections are created.
• Emily Lonie wrote about her experiences at the recent GLAM Sector Symposium in BC. 
• In honour of Archive Day, the Québec Religious Heritage Council Archives Committee have put together and published a guide to the archives of religious communities across Quebec!
• CBC and Radio-Canada might be destroying their history, but at least Radio-Canada has just announced that it will be donating their complete collection of commercial music sheets to Carleton University’s MacOdrum Library. 
• The City of Vancouver Archives has just released more legacy open data sets to the public!
• LAC has released a new guide to using the Journals of the Province of Canada (1841-1866). 
• Check out this neat look at sixty-seven  years of US and Canadian housing size data. 

 

Miscellaneous

• Christopher Moore’s blog will now be cross-posted on the Champlain Society blog!
• Unwritten Histories was back this week with a special blog post from Stephanie Pettigrew, recapping her recent experience at the Atlanta Canada Studies Conference!
• I’m not really sure how to classify UFO History, but Matthew Hayes’ work has been in the news this week!
  • Check out his interview here!
• The New York Times reviewed Janis Thiessen’s Snacks!
• Yukon Gold Rush sourdough starter, anyone?
• There traffic counts from 1925 Mississauga is kinda adorable. 
• The Canadian Society for the History of Medicine has released their Congress programme.

 

Podcasts

• In the latest Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Liz Covart spoke with Joyce Goodfriend about her book, Who Should Rule At Home? Confronting the Elite in British New York City.
• The latest History Chats podcast features Michel Hogue’s talk on “Setting the Plains on Fire: How Indigenous Geo-Politics and the U.S.-Dakota War Shaped Canada’s Westward Expansion.” 
• This week on the Witness to Yesterday podcast, Patrice Dutil spoke with Carla Peck on how Canadian history is taught in elementary schools.

 

Calls for Papers

• Études Canadiennes/Canadian Studies has issued a CFP for their December 2018 issue, which will examine the American attitude towards  Canada as a a refuge or the embodiment of the American Dream. Proposals are due June 1st, 2018.

 

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Believe it or not, this is actually shorter than some of the one-week roundups I’ve written in the past. Which is a good thing, since I’m exhausted. Long story short, my husband is still in the hospital, recovering from complications from his recent surgery. However, I am excited to say that CHA Reads 2018 starts on Monday, so we have a really exciting week planned for you all. 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 Monday for CHA Reads! See you then!