Posts com a Tag ‘Wilfred Laurier University Press (E)’
The Life Writings of Mary Baker McQuesten, Victorian Matriarch – ANDERSON (CSS)
ANDERSON, Mary J. (Ed.). The Life Writings of Mary Baker McQuesten, Victorian Matriarch. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2004. 337p. Resenha de: CLARK, Penney. Canadian Social Studies, v.41, n.1, p., 2008.
This fascinating book traces the both ordinary and extraordinary life story of Victorian matriarch, Mary Baker McQuesten (1849-1934). It is part of the life writing series published by Wilfred Laurier University Press, which is intended to promote autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written and/or told by women and men whose political, literary, or philosophical purposes are central to their lives (ii).
Editor, Mary J. Anderson has divided the book into four parts. Pa5rt One is a biography of Mary Baker McQuesten. Part Two describes her work with the Presbyterian Missionary Societies and includes selections from her Missionary Society Addresses. Part Three situates this family story within a broader narrative of Victorian middle-class urban life in Canada. The final section, which is the most lengthy by far, is a collection of primary source materials: selections from the collection of 1000 letters extant in Mary Baker McQuestens hand, her eulogy, and excerpts from her will. There are also extensive and scholarly footnotes. The written text is accompanied by a charming collection of family photographs, including several of Whitehern, the family home in Hamilton, Ontario.
The editor deliberately sets out to make her task transparent, describing her discovery of the source materials and decisions she made as she used them to construct her account. The letters in this collection are unusual in that they seem to have been consciously written with posterity in mind. After they circulated among family members, they were collected and carefully stored. The letters and other papers, as well as the family home, were bequeathed to the city of Hamilton in 1968 by Marys last surviving child, Calvin, so that everyone may enjoythe beautiful rooms of Whitehern and eat their lunches in its pleasant garden (67). The home is now a museum and archives. The editor notes that it is a virtual time capsule because little beyond the essentials was changed after the family became impoverished in 1888. Even the garden has been maintained in its 1930s state, when Marys son Tom undertook a major landscaping project.
Whitehern was the family home for 116 years. The stately home was purchased by Dr. Calvin McQuesten, a wealthy industrialist, in 1852. The following year, Mary Baker married Calvin McQuestens son, Isaac. Isaac was a successful lawyer and received a large inheritance, which included Whitehern, at his fathers death in 1885. However, at the time of Isaacs own death three years later, of an apparent suicide, he was bankrupt. At his death, thirty-eight year old Mary and their six living children, who were between the ages of fourteen and three, went abruptly from wealth and ease to genteel poverty. Fortunately, the house had been placed in trust for Mary and she and the children were able to remain living in it. The family state of genteel poverty continued for twenty years.
As the editor points out, the most vital recurring themes in her writings are those of family finances, health, education, the Presbyterian missionary societies, and Victorian society and culture (52). She adds they also reveal the gradual development of the character of Mary Baker McQuesten from a privileged young matron into a powerful matriarch and a forceful social activist (52). Mary was very active in the public sphere, assuming executive positions in Womens Missionary Societies and traveling throughout Ontario and the western provinces to establish auxiliaries or to inspect missions. She was also a member of the National Council of Women and was instrumental in the establishment of a local chapter of the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA).
Marys six children did not marry. The two eldest daughters, Mary and Hilda, lived out their days caring for home and family. Older son, Calvin, spent most of his working life as a semi-volunteer chaplain at the Hamilton Mountain Sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis. He suffered from what seems to have been an inherited family tendency toward mental depression. Daughter, Ruby, worked as a teacher long enough for her brother, Tom, to complete school with her financial assistance. She then succumbed to tuberculosis and spent much of her time in sanatoriums until her death at age thirty-two. Edna had several mental breakdowns, eventually receiving shock treatments and a partial lobotomy. Second son, Tom, blessed with energy and good health, became a successful lawyer and well respected politician, honoured for his active participation in the city beautiful movement. Among his lasting accomplishments are his substantial involvement in the relocation of McMaster University to Hamilton, the building of the Niagara Parkway and Parks system, and the rebuilding of several forts in the Niagara peninsula.
As a reader, I confess that I was unable to arouse as much sympathy toward Mary Baker McQuesten as the editor seemed to have. There is no doubt that she was a loving mother and an intelligent woman with indomitable courage. She contributed both within her own family circle and to the larger society. However, as I read, I puzzled about her children, who, with the possible exception of her younger son, Tom, led curiously thwarted lives. There is no doubt that only the cruel hand of fate can be blamed for a part of this outcome. However, it is intriguing to contemplate the role that Mary played in their lives. For example, given the archival information with which Anderson acquaints us, there can be no question that she intervened in the romances of daughters, Hilda and Ruby, and son, Tom. I also could not help think about her two eldest daughters and how they spent their lives running the household. In fact, it was their support in the domestic sphere that allowed their mother to engage so enthusiastically in the public domain. She apparently made a deliberate decision, upon her husbands untimely death, that this was the way it was going to be, and so it was. She ran her adult childrens lives down to the most minute details; even advising her adult son, Calvin to rub the [toilet] seat as hard as possible with paper (170) when forced to use public washrooms. On one occasion, she wrote to her son, Tom, we pray God that he will mercifully spare you as long as my life lasts adding as an afterthought, That sounds selfish does it not? (202). Perhaps it does, just a little.
Mary J. Anderson might have been bolder in her interpretations of the wealth of sources available to her. For example, she comments that the mystery of why none of the children were married must be left to the readers judgment (51-52). Since she is the one who has spent time with the primary sources, it seems reasonable to expect that she could be more insightful on this question than her readers.
The book is complemented by a website, the Whitehern Museum Archives (www.whitehern.ca). At this time, the website contains a searchable database of nearly 2000 letters (and will eventually have 3000), 200 photographs, essays, newspaper articles, and sermons; detailed timelines; analysis and commentary based on Mary J. Andersons doctoral thesis; and information about Whitehern itself.
The book, the website, and the home are treasure troves of primary source material for teachers and students interested in womens or family history, upper middle-class urban life in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Presbyterian Missionary Societies, or even medical history, in Canada. Because the editor makes her work so transparent, the book offers a helpful glimpse of how one can go about working with primary source materials to weave a coherent and well supported narrative.
Penney Clark – University of British Columbia. Vancouver, British Columbia.
[IF]Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun – LEWIS (CSS)
LEWIS, Norah L. Editor. Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2002. 224p. Resenha de: MANDZUK, David. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.2, p., 2005.
Norah Lewis’ book Freedom to Play echoes a sentiment that is heard increasingly often these days among teachers and t
To her credit, Lewis openly discusses some of the challenges in trying to reconstruct the past with a book like hers. She notes that memories can be faulty as they can be colored with time, subsequent experiences, and frequent retelling [and] contributors tend to be selective in which memories they retain (p. 4). However, the end result is still a reasonable reflection of how things were different at a time when life seemed to be simpler but perhaps was simply different than it is nowadays. As a result of reviewing the countless letters, interviews, and writings, Lewis suggests that there are nine characteristics that distinguish thehe general public. That message is that children used to be better able to make their own fun than today’s children and that the nature of what it means to be a child has drastically changed during our lifetimes. Essentially, Lewis’ book is a compendium of recollections from older Canadians, selections from writings by Canadian authors, and letters written by children during the period from 1900 tFo the mid-1950s at a time when play was very much a part of childhood. The book is sFreedom to Playtructured into six basic sections under the following headings: Go Outside and Play, Playing is Playing When Shared, Playing is Playing Games, Creating Their Own Equipment, Animals: Friends, Foe or Food and There Was Always Something to Do. Overall, Lewis provides the reader with 100 letters, excerpts from interviews, and anecdotes that illustrate how the nature of childhood has changed over time. Interspersed throughout are over 20 photographs that make that distinction even clearer. idyllic world of childhood in the days before television and electronic games became realities: parents regularly sent children out to play to get them out from under foot and to ensure young people got plenty of fresh air and exercise; children in rural and urban areas were free to play, to roam, and to explore and they felt free to do so; many of the games were physically active and were self-organized; toys and equipment were frequently limited but children created or modified whatever was needed to play the game; playing was often more important than winning and therefore, most available children were included; domestic animals played important roles as companions, and wild creatures were sources, of interest, food, and income; holidays were welcome breaks from daily chores and seasonal tasks; although the letter writers highlighted in this book belonged to organizations for children and youth, adults tended not to recall organizations such as The Pathfinders Club, The Maple Leaf Club, and The Young Canada Club to be a vital part of their childhood; and, children of pre-television times do not recall being bored as there was always something to do. On this final point, Lewis points out that children for whom life was difficult – or who were confined in detention camps, residential schools, or crowded inner city areas – tried to adapt what time and materials they had to suit their situation.
In fairness to Lewis, she does try to avoid the tendency to overly romanticize how life used to be and how children used to be treated. She admits that today’s children are probably more knowledgeable and better informed on many topics than were their grandparents (p. 23). She also admits that many of the games and activities discussed in the book such as hopscotch, snow angels, and skipping stones are still as popular today as they were in the past. However, in spite of these provisos, one still gets the impression that she feels that children were better off in the past.
Of the 100 anecdotes and letters, a number are particularly reflective of a time gone by. For example, Helga Erlindson’s A Trip on a Steamer written in 1911 recalls a Victoria Day excursion on Lake Winnipeg that takes an unexpected turn when the captain of the ship drops a party of girls off on an island and does not arrive until almost 12 hours later. A letter from 1944 called Boy Scout Week reminds us of the role that Victory Gardens played during the Second World War. Finally, an anecdote called Charlie Riley’s Pasture for Gopher Shoots reminds us of the perils of gopher hunting and the money that children could make in collecting such things as gopher tails, crows’ eggs and crows’ feet.
Overall, I found reading of this book to be reasonably satisfying. The introduction sets the stage well by providing the necessary context before the reader is allowed to dive into the many letters, interviews and anecdotes and the photographs add authenticity and interest. As interesting as I found the reading, however, I do feel that the book has a number of weaknesses. The most obvious for me is the organizational structure of the book. The six headings simply do not, in my mind, provide enough of a framework for conceptually organizing the book and because the individual sections lack proper introductions, one is left with the impression that more thought could have been put into its overall organization. For this reason and others, I cannot see this book being used by teachers of Social Studies other than as a general interest collection. Therefore, if readers feel like reminiscing and are looking for an easier read, this might be the book for them. If they are looking for more of a critical analysis of how childhood is different now than it was in the past, I suggest that they look elsewhere.
David Mandzuk – Faculty of Education. University of Manitoba. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
[IF]Children in English-Canadian Society: Reframing the Twentieth-Century Consensus – SUTHERLAND (CSS)
SUTHERLAND, Neil. Children in English-Canadian Society: Reframing the Twentieth-Century Consensus. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2000. 355p. Resenha de: MANDZUK, David. Canadian Social Studies, v.36, n.1, 2002.
Neil Sutherland’s Children in English-Canadian Society, originally published in 1976 and now reissued, is a book that every teacher and parent in English-speaking Canada should read for a number of reasons. First, it traces how peoples’ attitudes towards children have changed dramatically over the last one hundred years. Second, it provides a very detailed account of reform efforts that have affected families, schools, and health and welfare agencies. Third, it reminds us of the people who had the most significant influence on these reform efforts, both at the international and the national levels.
In the early chapters, Sutherland describes how peoples’ attitudes towards children have changed over time. For instance, he describes how, in the 1870s, children were seen as sources of wealth for their families who often needed children to contribute to family economies; in short, children were valued for the work they could do, not for who they were as individuals. In Sutherland’s words, English Canadians of the time saw a child as a partially formed and potential adult [they] would have been baffled by the 20th century concerns for the emotional life of their own and of immigrant children (p.11). Soon, people become more concerned about the conditions of children working in factories, fearing that they were placed in unsafe and unhealthy conditions and did not have opportunities to become properly educated. Sutherland explains that, by the 1890s, parents came to see a child as a seed of divine life for them to nurture and tend (p.17). Therefore, in a matter of decades, children come to be valued for their own worth; moreover, parents become much more aware of the effect of the home environment on their children’s overall growth and development.
Another strength of Sutherland’s book is how he so meticulously details the types of reform efforts that shaped English-Canadians’ attitudes towards children. Some of these reform efforts such as reducing infant mortality, dealing with juvenile delinquency, and advocating for educational reform had a tremendous impact on how Canadian society was shaped for future generations. In particular, we learn about such significant changes as inoculating children at an earlier age, moving delinquent children from institutions to homes, and debating whether schooling was to become more child-centered or more practical in order to properly prepare children for the world of work.
A third and final strength of the book is that is familiarizes the reader with people who led many of these reform efforts and who ultimately had a significant impact on how English-Canadians treated their young. We learn of such international figures as Pestalozzi and his emphasis on activity-based, sensory learning that began to shape education in the elementary grades and Frederich Froebel who was among the first to recognize the importance of a child’s environment in his/her mental, moral, and physical development. We also learn of such Canadian figures as Adelaide Hoodless who argued that, in order to change social conditions, Canadian schools needed to become agents that would shape Canadian homes for future generations and James W. Robertson who reminded Canadians that the whole child goes to school body, mind, and spirit and the training of the hand, head, and heart should go on harmoniously (p. 181).
All in all, Children in English-Canadian Society is a tremendously comprehensive account of the forces and the people who influenced how Canadians viewed and treated their youngest citizens at a time in history when both the nation and the world were changing dramatically.
David Mandzuk – University of Manitoba.
[IF]The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle – WHITELEY (CSS)
WHITELEY, Marilyn Fardig (ed). The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1999. 147p. Resenha de: SENGER, Elizabeth. Canadian Social Studies, v.35, n.2, 2001.
Oral history is a very special genre of research and writing, and The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle is a wonderful example of a Canadian oral history rich in tradition and cultural images. Fardig Whiteley has collected and selectively edited the firsthand musings of a Nova Scotia woman of the late 19th century. Annie Leake Tuttle comes alive in these pages and we come to know her through her personal struggles. This work is additionally important because it focuses on women’s experiences. This segment of society has been sadly neglected in the traditional recording of history.
Fardig Whiteley has skillfully selected and edited a variety of pieces from the collection of writing left by this extraordinary, ordinary woman. The story of Annie Leake Tuttle is the story of countless women who lived, dreamed and died in Canada during the late nineteenth century. She was, by contemporary standards, an average, unexceptional woman who lived and sought meaning in her life in relatively unremarkable ways, yet her story is all the more powerful because of its conventionality.
Reading through these pages one can clearly identify with a woman who understood her own failings and sought to discover her strengths. She overcame a number of obstacles in pursuing her desire to teach and in her search for spiritual meaning. She never stopped learning about herself and the world in which she lived; in her life is a lesson for all people who believe they do unremarkable things. The fact that she left such a detailed account of her life and times is a major accomplishment in itself and a great legacy to those of us who come after her. Whether we be teachers, or not, women, or not, she has a powerful message to deliver to us all.
The book is relatively short and flows easily from Tuttle’s early musings to the last letters she wrote late in life. It offers an insightful and important glimpse into the life of ordinary people – she talks at length about friends and family and their adventures, as well as her own. Annie wrote these accounts in order to leave a record for her nieces and nephews. Her intimate, conversational, self effacing style comes across as sincere and informative. As I read through her letters and journal entries, I felt a very personal connection to this woman. This is a characteristic that is sadly lacking in many academic works of history and, because of this, The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle would be an excellent resource in any Canadian history classroom. It could be used as a required reading piece to help students at the high school or secondary level to understand the deeper, more personal aspects of historical study, especially oral histories.
This book is laid out as Annie intended. She identified chapters of her life, labeled them with intriguing titles, and noted the years covered by each chapter. The flow of the book is logical and easy to follow and Fardig Whiteley inserts commentary which serves to enhance and clarify the text. A map at the beginning of the book orients the reader to the area in Nova Scotia where most of the action took place. A number of family portraits and photographs which illustrate the countryside and the home in which Tuttle spent the last years of her life are also included. These pictures are thoughtfully selected and help the readers orient themselves in time, just as the map facilitates a geographical orientation. A small family tree and basic chronology of Annie Leake Tuttle’s life – again, meaningful personal touches which make Annie’s story more real – are included at the end of the book.
Finally, Fardig Whiteley includes a brief commentary on the primary sources used to compile the book and an extensive bibliography for those who wish to pursue the fascinating topic of oral histories in general, and Annie’s story in particular. This book is one of the Books in the Life Writing Series and the list of other available titles is thoughtfully included at the end. The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle would be a wonderful addition to any historian’s collection; it is a piece which brings ordinary history alive and helps us to make a personal connection to our past.
Elizabeth Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary.
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The Tramp Room – PATTERSON (CSS)
PATTERSON, Nancy-Lou. The Tramp Room. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1999. 149p. Resenha de: INNIS, Ken Mac. Canadian Social Studies, v.35, n.1, 2000.
Patterson’s fictional historical novel, The Tramp Room, deals with the daily life of Mennonites in the Kitchener area of Ontario, circa 1850. The strength of the book lies in her informative descriptions of daily life of the times, such as making sausages and linen. Another strength, and a real example for our society today, is how Patterson explains that everything was effectively utilized. The section entitled the “Spinning Room” is a good example of how every scrap of material was used for either patching clothes or in making quilts. The author certainly knows her history and is able to recreate an effective feel for life at the time. I was particularly taken with her ability to show how much time it took to produce everything from cloth to candles. The novel provides an excellent view into the daily life of pioneer women.
The Tramp Room would be most valuable to elementary students and teachers from grades 3 to 6. I would use it by reading selected chapters to reinforce a social studies concept about the past. It could also be useful as a resource to direct students to during project work. I would not, however, read the whole book to the class as I found it difficult to get in to the story. As well, the premise of the girl falling asleep and waking up in Joseph Schneider Haus in the 19th Century is one that is overdone and does not work well in this novel. The best parts of the story are those in which Patterson describes the daily and seasonal routines of life on the farm.
I found it refreshing to read a novel that emphasized kindness (the Mennonites’ willingness to take in the tramp boy) and the harmony of working together as a family with the environment. The Tramp Room would be a good addition to any elementary school library.
Ken Mac Innis – Sir Charles Tupper School. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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