Parts of Our Heritage: What I have learned working at the Archives




Sir John A. MacDonald
From: Library and Archives Canada

I have had the pleasure of working two contract roles at Library and Archives Canada.  My first contract was in 2008.  That contract involved textual documents/correspondences from and to Sir John A. MacDonald.  Many of the letters were regarding our National policy and the building of the Grand Trunk Railway.



William Topley
From: Topley Collection
Library and Archives Canada

My second contract and the one I am currently doing is the called the "Portrait Project".  The Archives have taken on the Portrait Gallery of Canada project of digitizing over 100,000 images.  Within this portrait gallery I have handled and seen so much of Canada's past!  I started the project with glass plates.  Glass was the support material used for photographs in the late 1800's.  One of the most prominent photographers of this medium William Topley, who began Topley studios in the nation's capital. He photographed many pictures of political leaders and prominent Canadian families.  The glass plate fond that I got to handle and digitize was that of an aged Queen Victoria.

The most exciting image I got to digitize was a small collection of the original first-ever hockey and lacrosse trading cards from 1910.



Winston Churchill
From: Karsh Collection
Library and Archives Canada

To see some of the work the Digitization team has done please check out the collection at the Library and Archives website. There is all sorts of images from Topley's glass plate fonds to Yosef Karsh to Arnaud Maggs.  Canada's artists are masters at their trades in that they capture our heritage so magnificently.

  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/

Library and Archives

I know it has been a tad too long that I have blogged. In fact, I never really showed any dedication at all to this. However, I have been working two jobs, one of which is with Library and Archives Canada. This job has inspired me to write again. Moreover, it has inpired me to write about what I think is important: Canadian culture and heritage. With the anticipation of the federal budget it is difficult to know which scope heritage in Canada will take. I am nervous that it will not be very prominant in Harper's objectives for this country. ( That is a whole other can of worms, or rather snakes).

In short, I am interested in how other citizens feel about Canada's culture and heritage. Do you value our heritage? Do you think it is important to the nation's development?

The course of Canadian Literature

Golden Dog Press is a local publishing company located in the heart of Canada's national capital region. Ottawa is home to the Canada Council for the Arts which was launched from the Massey Commission in 1957. I wrote my final research essay in university on the formation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the hearings of the Massey Commission. The Massey Commission can be located via http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index-e.html. My focus for the paper was on Canadian Content, but moreover on publishing within Canada during 1952-1990. It was been a rough history for writers in Canada, especially poets. In Montreal, during the late fifties, little magazine presses began to take root at McGill University. These little presses spread like wildfire across the country starting up magazines like Contact and Civ/n. By the sixties Canadian poetry took its height with counter culture fuelling its fire. Unfortunatly the eighties onwards has seen a decrease in Canadian publications. Most writers seek south for fame and fortune. I suppose that is where I have gotten my inspiration to write, and to remain in Canada and solely focus on what this country should embrace as our heritage. We need to remember what was written in order to write in the future and to keep sacred what was written in order to preserve our heritage.

Western Canada

Kokhala Highway, Route #1

Canadian Symbolism

"...The world is getting /dark but I carry/ icons, I remember/ the summer/ I will never forget the light"

Mariam Waddington, 1969

Its funny how Canadians identify with the "Maple Leaf". Its a symbol of one of our original NHL hockey teams; its embedded all over government buildings, and as of 1967 it became the center of our national flag. But how is it Canadian, and how do Canadians identify with it so strongly? It is not like there are no maples in the Northern U.S. However, it is a distinct part of our heritage. It has become part of our history since the time of the Natives teaching local French settlers the uses of its syrup. I suppose most cultures have an image or icon or symbol they consider nationalistic. However, among the many cultures of the world Canadians rely heavily on the beauty of the red maple leaf.

Response to "Can. Lit." by Earle Birney

Can Lit.


since we'd always sky about                         Birney is commenting on past Canadian Poets,
when we had eagles they flew out                        specifically Confederation poets
leaving no shawod bigger than wren's
to trouble even our broodiest hens

to busy bridging loneliness                                            commenting on the contruction of the CPR
to be alone                                                                         and national pipeline vs. national sentiments
we hacked in railway ties
what emily etched in bone                                Emily Carr is a greater adovacate for nationalism than
                                                                                    national railway

we French and English never lost
our civil war                                                                            National struggle between cultures
endure it still                                                                                challenges national unity
a bloody civil bore

the wounded sirened off                                       Our civic war is one of our ghosts which incorporate
no Whitman wanted                                              history, poetry and internationalism.
it's only by our lack of ghost
we're haunted

(1962)

Birney, E. "Can. Lit.", The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verses, Ed. Margaret Atwood. Oxford Uni Press (Toronto: 1982). P. 116