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  • There Were No Safety Nets, Part 3: Edmonton’s Italian Community, 1949 to the Present

    Adriana A. Davies

    The end of the Second World War in 1945 signalled an economic boom for Canada with primary and secondary industries…

  • There Were No Safety Nets, Part 2: Edmonton’s Italian Community, 1921 to 1945

    Adriana A. Davies

    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

    Adriana A. Davies

    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

    Jamie Ausmus

    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

    Bruce Cinnamon

    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

    Rob Houle

    When history is told, it largely reflects events, understandings and individuals who best serve the desires of the recorder. In…

  • Peter Erasmus & Storytelling

    Tom Long

    Comic books, like story-time, are still too often relegated to the realm of “kid’s stuff.” But why stop allowing pictures in books after Elementary school? The marriage of words and pictures can convey stories with an animation and ease other media should envy. So when Gwen L’Hirondelle told us a story of her great-grandfather, Peter Erasmus, we shared excitement at seeing it brought to life in a new way – through comics.

  • NeWest Press: A Regional Publishing Pioneer

    Tracey L. Anderson

    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

    Peggy Donnelly

    Known to her students and close friends as Auntie Van, Beatrice Carmichael was a classically trained musician from Chicago, who…

  • Metis Matriarch – Thelma Chalifoux

    Jenna 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

    Natalie Zacharewski

    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

    Lauren Markewicz

    James Bird Jr. (1798-1892), also known as “Jemmy Jock Bird,” “Jimmy Joke Bird”, “Jamey Jock Bird,” and many variations in…