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  • Senior portrait of a young white woman with dark hair wearing a high-collared dress. Text read “Miss G. Misener.” It is the senior photo of Geneva Misener from Queen’s University.

    “More than a prize scholar or bookworm”: The Leadership and Legacy of Dr. Geneva Misener

    Pamela Young

    Dr. Geneva Misener, the first woman professor at the University of Alberta, was a trailblazing educator and feminist who advanced women’s rights, education, and sport in early Alberta.

    Despite her momentous accomplishments during her lifetime, Misener’s legacy has largely been forgotten in Edmonton.

    In this addition to our ECAMP labour history series, Pamela Young crafts a personal letter to Misener recounting her experience searching to learn more details about Misener’s life. Young traces Misener’s career from her senior year at Queen’s University to her PhD program at the University of Chicago to her appointment to the Classics department at the University of Alberta. In 1943, Misener lost her position at the U of A, turning to other forms of educating and community engagement. Young expresses her sadness that Misener’s career is not better remembered in Edmonton.

  • : A three-storey brick cell block is connected to a workshop and another large industrial building with two tall chimneys. There is a large hole in the side of one of the buildings suggesting it had started to be dismantled and/or suffered structural damage. A tilled farm field that would have been worked by prisoners is in the foreground.

    Hard Times in the Alberta Penitentiary, 1906-1920

    Matt Ormandy

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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…

  • Wong Bark Ging 黃柏振 : A History of My Father’s Market Gardens

    Ging Wei Wong 黃景煒

    One hundred years ago my father stepped onto Canadian soil for the first time. It wasn’t until he passed away…

  • Tokens of Remembrance: Indigenous Faces in Edmonton’s Beaux Arts Architecture, 1907-1930

    Cole Hawkins

    Disclaimer: Due to the importance around the legal designation of Indian status, this article sometimes uses the term “Indian” to…

  • Early Market Gardens in Edmonton

    Katherine Koller

    Surrounded by rows of towering tomato, cucumber and pepper plants in a greenhouse near Edmonton, I marvelled at tapas from…

  • In Dark Times, Go to the Garden: Part 2

    Jenna Chalifoux

    With the last blast of winter gusto already forgotten and double-digit weather on the horizon, now’s the time to start…

  • History of the Edmonton Branch of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild, 1911-1966

    Brandi Goddard

    Craftwork, as a hobby, has seen a resurgence of popularity recently. Knitting for example, has become a social act with…

  • Alfred Carrothers: Early Edmonton’s Crooked Confidence Man

    Dr. Aidan Forth

    The owner of any historic home will wonder about the generations that have lived within its walls. When I recently…

  • Woodward’s & the $1.49 Day Tradition

    Lawrence Herzog

    As a kid, I remember the downtown Woodward’s store as a treasure trove of sights, sounds, and smells. It was the…