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A black and white photograph of a middle-aged woman shown in profile from the shoulders up. She wears a v-cut black top with a long white pearl necklace and her hair is pulled back into a low bun.

Maud Bowman: The leader who kickstarted the Art Gallery of Alberta

Danielle Siemens

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.

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A black and white photograph of a middle-aged woman shown in profile from the shoulders up. She wears a v-cut black top with a long white pearl necklace and her hair is pulled back into a low bun.

Maud Bowman: The leader who kickstarted the Art Gallery of Alberta

Danielle Siemens

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.

A daguerrotype of an older woman, a boy, and a young man.

Lessons of loss and perseverance from Jane Klyne McDonald

Catherine C. Cole

During the early days of the Covid pandemic, I thought of my Métis great-great-great-grandmother, and the loss of three of her young children to scarlet fever in Edmonton in May 1845.

A photo of an Tom Daniels, one of the ironworkers featured in Alvin Finkel's story Waltzing with the Angels. Here he is an older man with glasses, sitting in an office.

Waltzing With the Angels: The Metis Ironworkers Who Built Edmonton’s Downtown

Alvin Finkel

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.

Roads of Misery: Following an Afro-Indigenous Family from Oklahoma to Edmonton (And Back Again) 

Dr. Russell Cobb

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.

Edmonton Streetcar 33: The Highs and Lows of a Public Transit Vehicle

Adeline Panamaroff

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. 

Leilani Muir and Eugenics in Alberta

Kristine Kowalchuk

NOTE: this article contains historical but outdated and offensive language related to mental illness and neurodiversity. Leilani Muir was born…

The Winterburn Woodland

Gian Marco Visconti

While Alberta is often understood as a prairie province, Edmonton is nestled within a geographical zone known as aspen parkland:…

When Polio Was in Edmonton

Kassandra Milette

It was late in October 1947 that the school year finally started. It is fair to say that a start…

The Dutch Immigrants’ Church

Harma-Mae Smit

If you drive through Edmonton neighbourhoods, you’ll see many churches with names that reflect the cultural background of the immigrants…

Heritage Schools: Edmonton’s Surprising 1918 Influenza Epidemic Legacy

Suzanna Wagner

Would you be surprised if I told you that Edmonton’s schools were a more prominent contributor to Edmonton’s 1918 influenza…

Teachable Moments

Bruce Cinnamon

Velva Hueston moved to Edmonton with her mother in the early 1920s, after her father died in the 1918 flu…

Shadows, Shade, and Sunshine

Oumar Salifou

In its 1966 annual report, the City of Edmonton Parks and Recreation Department described its purpose as facilitating “the development…