One hot summer Sunday in 1910, Edmontonians lined up for ice cream in a tiny downtown park called Happyland. A scandal ensued. Our latest ECAMP story is a comic tale about those wicked delights, and why Edmonton police and City Council threatened to “out-Toronto Toronto.”
This addition to our labour history series was written by Elizabeth Cytko and illustrated by Toryn Suddaby.
Previously, ECAMP presented a story from an A-Channel employee who decided to cross the picket line during the 2003-4 strike. Adrian Pearce – a cameraman who helped lead the strike – submitted this response. Read what the strike was like for workers who held the line for 166 days.
The Alberta Penitentiary operated on Edmonton’s River Lot 20 from 1906 – 1920, where Clarke Stadium is today. It was the first federal prison in Alberta. One constant in prisoners’ lives was unpaid hard labour, from mining coal to farming potatoes.
In the early 1920s, a resolute woman named Maud Bowman set out to start the Edmonton Museum of Arts – today’s Art Gallery of Alberta. Bowman was a somewhat unconventional model of a female museum leader. Her work is even more remarkable given the sexism she faced.
The people who did the most dangerous jobs constructing the skyscrapers in downtown Edmonton in the 1960s and 1970s were almost all Metis ironworkers. That included the CN Tower.
As the train pulled into the station at North Portal, Saskatchewan, Sarah Atkins had no idea if she would be admitted into Canada. Her daughter and son-in-law, Naoma Atkins Hooks and Sam Hooks, had made it across the border and on to Edmonton.
Relying only on volunteer labour, the need to fabricate many of the mechanical and structural parts from scratch, as well as [funding grants from] which did not come on a constant schedule, this rebuild of Edmonton streetcar No.33 took over a decade to complete.
NOTE: this article contains historical but outdated and offensive language related to mental illness and neurodiversity. Leilani Muir was born…
While Alberta is often understood as a prairie province, Edmonton is nestled within a geographical zone known as aspen parkland:…
It was late in October 1947 that the school year finally started. It is fair to say that a start…
If you drive through Edmonton neighbourhoods, you’ll see many churches with names that reflect the cultural background of the immigrants…
Would you be surprised if I told you that Edmonton’s schools were a more prominent contributor to Edmonton’s 1918 influenza…
