There Were No Safety Nets, Part 3: Edmonton’s Italian Community, 1949 to the Present
The end of the Second World War in 1945 signalled an economic boom for Canada with primary and secondary industries…
Stories categorized: People
There Were No Safety Nets, Part 2: Edmonton’s Italian Community, 1921 to 1945
With the ending of the First World War, the Government of Canada amended the 1910 Immigration Act.[1] The 1919 amendment…
There Were No Safety Nets, Part 1: Edmonton’s Italian Community, 1900 to 1920
In an age in which Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees fundamental rights and immigrants, whether economic migrants or…
The Cowboys in the Sky: The Story of Edmonton’s Ironworkers
High above the rooftops, the iron giants balance and shimmy along beams, attaching one piece of strategically placed steel after…
The Weather Woman of the West: Eda Owen and the Highlands Dominion Meteorological Station
Edmonton’s history is full of remarkable women. From Beatrice Carmichael to Thelma Chalifoux, from Betty Stanhope-Cole to Felicia Graham, from…
Richard Henry Secord and Métis Scrip Speculation
When history is told, it largely reflects events, understandings and individuals who best serve the desires of the recorder. In…
Peter Erasmus & Storytelling
There’s something about a good story and a good storyteller. Stories and facts aren’t exclusive, thank goodness. We all connect…
NeWest Press: A Regional Publishing Pioneer
NeWest Press may no longer be new—it will soon commemorate its 40th anniversary—but when it began in 1977, it was…
Beatrice Carmichael – The Grand Dame of Edmonton Opera
Known to her students and close friends as Auntie Van, Beatrice Carmichael was a classically trained musician from Chicago, who…
Metis Matriarch – Thelma Chalifoux
Our mothers are more than just a physical person, just as our houses are more than just a structure to…
Mind the Gap – Working Women in Edmonton’s history
In the book Women: Her Character, Culture and Calling published in 1890 the author writes; Woman the half of humanity, and…
Jemmy Jock Bird: Interpreter with an Independent Spirit
James Bird Jr. (1798-1892), also known as “Jemmy Jock Bird,” “Jimmy Joke Bird”, “Jamey Jock Bird,” and many variations in…