“Brother O’Mine,” by Margueretta M.S. Taylor

Annette Fulford, who writes the Canadian War Brides of the First World War blog, has introduced me to another blogger who shares our mutual interests: Lucy London, who writes the Female Poets of the First World War blog.

“In the Land of the Tsar,” by Rosamond Kershaw

Kershaw, Rosamond. “Five Days in the Land of the Tsar.” Canada Monthly 17.4 (February 1915), 222-226; 17.5 (March 1915), 102+

Only three years after this article, despite Tzar Nicholas’s willingness to abdicate, the Russian Imperial family was taken from their home, imprisoned in Aleksandr Palace, then removed to Siberia, where they were shot and bayoneted on the order of Vladimir Lenin on 17 July 1918. The article below notes that St. Petersburg is “now Petrograd,” a sign of the changing times already in Russia.

Ralph Gustafson’s Little Anthology of Canadian Poetry

It is indeed little, and out of fifteen poets, only two are women: Kay Smith and P.K. Page.

Gustafson, Ralph. A Little Anthology of Canadian Poetry (Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1943).

Margaret Laurence’s poem upon Clara Thomas’s retirement, 31 May 1984

Michael Peterman, “Clara Thomas and her Literary Ladies,” Peterborough Examiner (9 January 2021).

“After the Rain,” by Fredelle Bruser

Here’s the second of the three poems that were published in the Poets’ Corner in April 1939, along side Beatrice Rowley’s article about Victoria, BC. The third, entitled “Easter,” will for obvious reasons appear later this year.

Fredelle Bruser later became Fredelle Bruser Maynard.

Bruser, Fredelle. “After the Rain.” Winnipeg Free Press (8 April 1939): 6.

“Wind Waifs,” by R.H. Grenville (Beatrice Rowley)

Here’s one of the three poems that were published in the Poets’ Corner along side Beatrice Rowley’s article about Victoria, BC. R.H. Grenville was a popular author this week.

Grenville, R.H. (Beatrice Rowley). “Wind Waifs.” Winnipeg Free Press (8 April 1939): 6.

“How Lovely Victoria Could Be Improved,” by R.H. Grenville (Beatrice Rowley)

Whenever I’m searching for something specific in my files, I almost always find a completely different little tidbit to post. Looking for references to Dorothy Stacey Brown, I came across a pdf of the Young Authors’ Page of the Winnipeg Free Press, including, as always, the Poets’ Corner. I’ll post the poems over the next few days. Here, though, is an award-winning article (“First Prize” for something…) by R.H. Grenville (Beatrice Rowley), who by this time was living in Victoria, BC, of which she writes.

I have to say that someone seems to have paid attention. Now, Victoria has some of the best roads, at least for cycling, and an abundance of good art galleries (those that sell art, rather than show it). It is once again the “Garden City,” and far far more British than American. Still no public lavatories, though.

Grenville, R.H. (Beatrice Rowley). “How Lovely Victoria Could Be Improved.” Winnipeg Free Press (8 April 1939): 6.

“Warning,” by R.H. Grenville (Beatrice Rowley)

Grenville, R.H. (Beatrice Rowley) “Warning.” Saturday Evening Post (30 March 1957): 77. Retrieved from the Readers’ Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 online.

“Poppies,” by Gertrude MacGregor Moffat

Moffat, Gertrude MacGregor. “Poppies.” A Book of Verses (Toronto: Macmillan, 1924): 30.

Women of Canada (1930), revisited

Women of Canada. Montreal, QC: Women of Canada, 1930.

I posted this back in January of 2012, but I thought I would revisit the volume, to offer, as I have done with the National Reference Book, my services as a pseudo-librarian. This book is out of copyright, and it is a beautiful volume, I have TIFF files for every page, and have contemplated posting it in its entirety, but the files are too large and too many (about 300 pages). So if anyone would like information about on of the women included, please email me, and I will Dropbox the appropriate page image.

The original post

No poem today, but a list of women included in this remarkable biographical collection. If anyone is working on early Canadian women artists, or musicians, you must read through this text; I am sure you will glean some fascinating new names and biographical information. The collection does not appear to be based on level or quality of production, but rather on who felt like getting a page together in honour of a woman they thought should be included.  Some of the pages’ sponsors are explicitly named, but most aren’t.

A few of the women are “famous” for being the wives of famous or affluent men, but for the most part these women have contributed significantly to the building of Canadian society: some authors, artists, and musicians, but also a number of women who sat on boards or were active campaigners for social justice and change.

I have marked those authors who we are to include with an asterisk*, and identified the two (yes, only two!) that we already have included in our database at Simon Fraser University.  But the wealth of information was something I could not put back on the shelf unrevealed, so I have marked the names of all of the women, as they appear in the book. This way, too, when one of them shows up on our radar in the future, we will know she is here…

Enjoy!

Women of Canada: Contents

Willingdon, Viscountess (née Lady Marie Adelaide Brassey)

Aikens, Lady (née Mary French Colby)

Aikens, Mrs. W.H.B (née Augusta Wood Hawkesworth)

Allan, Lady (née Margaret Ethel MacKenzie)

Allan, Mrs. Andrew (née Charlotte Elizabeth Torre)

Anderson, Mrs. H.B. (née Florence Northway)

Ashdown, Mrs. James Henry (née Crowson)

Atkinson, Mrs. J.E. (née Elmina Elliott; “Madge Merton”)*

Austin, Mrs. A.W. (née Mary Richmond Kerr)

Aylmer, The Honourable Mrs. Henry (née Louisa Blanche Fanny Howe)

Bagg, Mrs. R. Stanley (née Clara Smithers, but see for Catherine Bagg—daughter?)

Baillie, Lady (née Edith Julia White)

Bates, Miss Mona*

Beal, Mrs. Norman R. (née Mary Elizabeth Gould)

Beaudoin, Madame Charles (née Mary Lanahan)

Beck, Lady (née Ottaway)

Bell, Mrs. Leslie Gordon* (née Florence E. Seymour)

Bennett, Miss Mildred

Bell, Mrs. R.D. (née Marguerite Phyliss Wainwright)

Birge, Mrs. C.A. (née Mabel Irene Sturt)

Black, Mrs. J.H. (née Elizabeth Morrow)

Black, Mrs. William* (née Margaret Edgar Wright)

Boomer, Mrs. Harriet A.* (née Mills)

Boothe, Mrs. Charles (née Margaret Florence Boyle)

Boswell, Mrs. Vesey (first marriage to Mr. Hugh Browne; née Elizabeth Margaret Bowen)

Bowen, Mrs. A.C.H. (née Minnie Henrietta Bethune Hallowell)

Bracken, Mrs. John (née Alice Wylie Bruce)

Bowman, Mrs. A.A. (née Lily Louise Dyer Morey)—included

Brown, Mrs. T. Albert (née Jane M. Bickell)

Brown, Lady McLaren (née Eleanor Grahame Crerar)

Bruce, Mrs. John (née Helen Roswell Tiers)

Bullock, Mrs. T.H. (née Jeannette Chestnut Wood)

Bundy, Mrs. John Wesley (née Henrietta Thompson)

Burden, Mrs. C.E. (née Margaret Beattie Eaton)

Burland, Mrs. Jeffrey H. (née Isabel May Megarry)

Campbell, Mrs. Austin (née Alicia Carveth)*

Campbell, Mrs. W.R. (née Gladyes Emily Leishman)

Carroll, Mrs. Henry George (née Amazelie Boulanger)

Cape, Mrs. E.G.M. (née Lilian Elizabeth Guest Smith)

Chambers, Mrs. W.D. (née Evelyn Brown)

Chaplin, Mrs. R.S. (née Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir)

Charlton, Miss Elsie*

Christie, Mrs. R.J. (née Emma Louise Lee)

Clemes, Mrs. W.H. (née Mary Bertha Williams)

Codere, Madam Louis Edward* (née Josephine Doherty)

Codère, Madam Louis-F. (née Annette Desnoyers)

Coghlin, Mrs. Bernard W.P. (née Louise Jean Dawes)

Colby, Mrs. C.C. (née Child)

Colquohon, Mrs. Evelyn E.* (née Gourlay)

Colville, Mrs. A.B. (née Kemp)

Conant, Mrs. G.D. (née Verna Rowena Smith)

Cowan, Mrs. F.W. (née Lily McMillan)

Crawford-Brown, Mrs. T. (née Eallien Necora Melvin-Jones)

Crombie, Mrs. E. (née Elizabeth Jane Pendleton)

Crowe, Mrs. G.R. (née Mary Elizabeth Alexander)

Cummings, Mrs. Willoughby (née Emily Shortt)*

Davies, Mrs. Dalton (née Chaplin)

Dawes, Mrs. Norman J. (née Claggett)

Dignam, Mrs. J.S. (née Mary Ella Williams)

Dixon, Mrs. Wellington (née Isabel Greenshields)

Doolittle, Mrs. P.E. (née Emily Ester Pearson)

Drummond, Lady

Drummond, Mrs. H.C.* (née Helen Frances Mitcheson Bagg)

Dunnington-Grubb, Mrs. H.B.* (née Lorrie Alfreda  Dunnington)

Dunlap, Mrs. D.A. (née Jessie Donalda Bell)

Dupuis, Madam J. Bachand (née Bachand)

Eaton, Lady* (née Florence McCrae)

Eaton, Mrs. R.Y. (née Hazel Margaret Ireland)

Eaton, Mrs. Timothy (née Margaret Wilson Beattie)

Eaton, Mrs. W.F. (née Gertrude Nora Cook)

Edwards, Mrs. A.T. (née Fanny Laura Derby)

Edwards, Mrs. George (née Alice Catharine Edwards)

Elliott, Mrs. Dawson Kerr (née Mary Alice McCreary)

Etherington, Mrs. Frederick (née Richardson)

Fairbairn, Mrs. Rhys D. (Ida Dregge Aikins)

Ferguson, Mrs. George Howard (née Ellen Cumming)

Ferguson-Burke, Mrs. A.J. (née Annie J. Ferguson; Mrs. William Robert Burke)

Finniss, Mrs. C.M. de R. (née Turner)

Flavelle, Lady (née Clara Ellsworth)

Fleming, Mrs. Sandford (née Gertrude Dickinson Mackintosh)

Forbes, Mrs. Kenneth K. (née Jean Mary de Coetlogan Edgell)

Forget, Lady (née Blanche McDonald)

Forster, Mrs. J.W.L. (née Emma Frances Aikens)

Foster, Mrs. Ellen Green (née Ellen Green)

Frame, Miss Margaret*

Fraser, Mrs. J.B. (née Beatrice Bertha Curran)

Freiman, Mrs. Archibald J. (née Lillian Bilsky)*

Fuller, Mrs. James Gibbs (née Alice Nunns; Mrs. John Edward Keough (d. 1895)

Furber, Mrs. Montague (née Beatrice Alma Ashley Vernon)

Gage, Lady (née Ina Grafton Burnside)

Gartshore, Mrs. W.M. (née Catherine McClary)

Gerin-Lajoie, Madam Marie* (née Marie Lacoste)

Gibson, Lady (née Elizabeth Malloch)

Godfrey, Mrs. Forbes (née Mary Melissa Carson)

Goffatt, Mrs. W.C. (née Fannie Alice Gill)

Gooderham, Mrs. A.E. (née Mary Reford Duncanson)

Gordon, Lady (née Edith Ann Brooks)

Gouin, Lady (née Alice Amos)

Greening, Mrs. O.S. (née Jane Herald)

Griffith, Mrs. J.H. (née Katharine Ada Bagg)

Guerin, Miss Bellelle*

Gullen, Dr. Augusta Stowe*

Gundy, Mrs. J.H. (née Serena Lake Clarke)

Hamber, Mrs. E.W. (née Aldyen Irene Hendry)

Harte, Mrs. Edwin (née Gwendolyn Anne McGregor)

Harris, Mrs. Sam (née Currie)

Hawkins, Mrs. W.C. (née Mary Elizabeth Chambers)

Hearst, Lady (née Isabella Jane Dunkin)

Hendrie, Mrs. (née Mary Murray)

Henry, Mrs. George S. (née Anna Ketha Pickett)

Hodgins, Mrs. W.E. (née Eleanor Jaffray Ritchie)

Hodgson, Mrs. William Cassils (née Madelene Joleaud de St. Maurice)

Howard, Mrs. Benjamin Cate (née Salls)

Howard, Mrs. Charles Benjamin (née May Campbell)

Huestis, Mrs. A.M.

Hughes, Mrs. James L. (née Adalaide Augusta Marean)

Hume, Mrs. George L. (née Elizabeth Sarah Smith)

Jones, Mrs. Sarah A. (née Oakes)

Joseph, Mrs. Henry (née Ethel Walkem)

Justin, Mrs. B.F. (first marriage to Gerrard Noble; née Mary Louise Brick)

Kemp, Lady (first marriage to Norman Copping; née Virginia Norton)

Kennedy, Mrs. Robert A. (née Victoria Jane Dent)

Kiely, Mrs. P.G. (née Elizabeth Bethune McDougall)

Langmuir, Mrs. John William (née Esther Lee Comstock)

Lawler, Miss Elizabeth Gertrude*

Learmont, Mrs. Joseph B. (née Charlotte Smithers)

Leonard, Mrs. Ibbotson (née Sarah Brinton)

Lovering, Mrs. W.J. (née Henrietta Allicen Bury)

Macaulay, Mrs. T.B. (née Palin)

MacDonald, Miss Eldred

MacDonald, Mrs. Donald Walter (née Edith Myra Kerr)*

MacKinnon, Mrs. George Douglas (née Mary Louise Bowman)

Macklem, Mrs. F.P. (née Heloise Keating)

MacLaren, Mrs. J.P. (née Edith Constance Elwood)

MacLean, Mrs. J.B. (née Anna Perkins Denison Slade)

MacTier, Mrs. A.D. (née Ethel Louise Waddell)

Mann, Lady (née Jane Emily Williams)

McBride, Mrs. Samuel (née Frances Jane Whitcombe)

McDougald, Mrs. A.W. (née Annie Bethune)*

McKenzie, Mrs. M.E. (née Florence Barbara Edwards)

McKinney, Mrs. J. (née Louise Crummy)

McLaughlin, Mrs. R.S. (née Adelaide Louise Mowbray)

McMarton, Mrs. John (née Mary Catherine McDougald)

Mercer, Mrs. Frederick (née Margaret Isabellah Ferguson)

Meredith, Lady (née Isobel Brenda Allan)

Meredith, Mrs. Charles (née Elspeth H. Angus; sister-in-law of the above)

Merritt, Miss Emily Lena

Millichamp, Mrs. R.W. (née Paterson)

Mills, Mrs. C.N. (née Helen Beatrice Thomas)

Miner, Mrs. W.H. (née Mabel Elizabeth Chambers)

Mitchell, Mrs. Nelson (née Marion Sophia Roberts)

Molson, Mrs. J. Dinham (née Mary Cronyn Wilson)

Mulock, Mrs. William P. (née Kathleen Eleanor Johnston)

Nanton, Lady (née Ethel Constance Clark)

Neill, Mrs. C.E. (née Mary Louise Crerar)

Niven, Mrs. J.S. (née Mary MacBeth)

Northover, Mrs. C.A. (née Gertrude Constance Fraser)

Norquay, Mrs. John (née Elizabeth Setter)

O’Flynn, Mrs. H.H. (née Edith Mulock)*

Ogilvie, Mrs. D.W. (first marriage to C. St. L. Mackintosh; née Eileen Mary White)

O’Neill, Mrs. G.H. (née Bertha Fadehla Drake)

Pantazzi, Madam Ethel* (née Ethel Greening)

Patterson, Dr. Margaret (née Norris)*

Perley, Lady (née White)

Perron, Mrs. Joseph Leonide (née Berthe Brunet)

Pettes, Mrs. Nathaniel (née Narcissa Farrand)

Phin, Mrs. W.E. (née Bertha Scarfe)

Pillow, Mrs. Howard Winthrop (née Lucile E. Fairbank)

Pitblado, Mrs. John (née Mary Lydia Inglis)

Price, Mrs. C.B. (née Marjorie Meredith Holden Trenholme)

Price, Mrs. William H. (née Alice Gentles)

Richardson, Mrs. James (née Muriel Sprague)

Robb, Mrs. James A. (first marriage to Albert Kenneth Wattie; née Mary Elizabeth Fletcher)

Robb, Mrs. W.D. (née Catharine Haggart Black)

Robins, Mrs. F.B. (first marriage to Charles Reed; née Jessie McDonald Skitt)

Roddick, Lady (née Amy Redpath)—included

Roell, Madam Adrian (Lady) (née Kathleen Myra Kerr MacDonald

Rogers, Mrs. Robert Arthur (née Edith McTavish)

Rogers, Mrs. Robert (née Aurelia Regina Widmeyer)

Ross, Mrs. William Donald (née MacKay)

Ross, Mrs. Philip Dansken (née Mary Beasley Littlejohn)

Routledge, Mrs. George Albert (first marriage to James Bunyan Morgan; née Emily May Vanderburgh)

Ryde, Mrs. W.O. (née Edith Sarah Dawes)

Samuel, Mrs. Norman (née Constance Montgomery Wilson)

Sanford, Mrs. W.E. (née Vaux)*

Sangster, Mrs. Andrew (née Maud Giff)

Scott, Mrs. John (née MacMaster)

Sewell, Mrs. Colin C. (née Webster)

Shortt, Mrs. Adam (née Elizabeth McGee Smith)*

Shuter, Mrs. J.G.R. (née Marjorie Anna Heney)

Smith, Mrs. E. Atherton (née Nan MacPherson Robinson)*

Smith, Mrs. E.D. (née Christina Ann Armstrong)

Smith, Mrs. Julian Cleveland (née Bertha Louise Alexander

Smythe, Mrs. R.G. (née Agnes Mary Lind)

Spence, Mrs. James (née Margaret Hackland)

Starr, Mrs. F.N.G. (née Anne Callander Mackay)

Stewart, Mrs. John A. (née Jessie Mable Henderson)

Stewart, Mrs. J.W. (née Elizabeth Jane Moran)

Stewart, Mrs. McLeod (née Linnie Emma Powell)

Taschereau, Madam L.A. (née Adine Dionne)

Sweezy, Mrs. R.O. (née Harriet Whitcombe Watson)

Tate, Miss Gertrude

Tory, Mrs. J.C. (née Caroline Emma Whitman)

Tooke, Mrs. Benjamin (née Kirk)

Tulleken, Lady Van Hoogenhouck (née Frances Lillian Dignam)

Turnbull, Mrs. John (née Castle)

Waagen, Mrs. Carsten B. (née Mary Elizabeth Hickson)*

Warren, Mrs. Harry Dorman

Watson, Mrs. Robert (née Isabel Brown)

Webster, Mrs. Lorne C. (née Taylor)

Webster, Mrs. William Robert (née Mary Ellen Jane Shorey)

Weller, Mrs. William (née Evelyn Louise Gowan)*

Whelen, Mrs. Peter (née Lydia M. Hume)

White, Miss Eva Matheson

Wilkinson, Mrs. William Lackie (née Caroline Eleanor Carter)*

Williams, Helen Ernestine*

Williams-Taylor, Lady (née Jane Henshaw)*

Wilson, Mrs. E.W. (née Sara Etta Lamb Bricker)

Wilson, Mrs. John Armistead (née Henrietta Lætetia Tuzo)

Wilson, Madam Joseph Marcelin (née Alexina Geoffrion)

Wright, Mrs. Gordon (née Sara Alice Rowell)