Maud Lewis overcome great difficulties to become one of Canada’s foremost primitive painters. Her simple scenes of life around Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, invoke the beauty and joy with which she viewed the world. Emerging from her youth crippled with arthritis, Lewis escaped into her painting at the age of 30. She had never seen a…
This Heritage Minute delves into Sir John A. Macdonald’s role in the negotiations that led to Canada’s Confederation. Click the image to view the video. The Charlottetown Conference in 1864 was attended by delegates from the Province of Canada and the leaders of the Maritime colonies. Macdonald spoke about his grand vision of a future…
The Matthew, piloted by John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), sailed either to Cape Bonavista, or St. John’s, NL around 1497. Two full-sized replicas, one in Bristol, England, and the other in Bonavista, were built for the 500th anniversary of the landing.
David Thompson has been described as the greatest land geographer who ever lived. His achievements as an explorer and surveyor have earned him the reputation as one of the best pioneering geographers in Canadian history. During his career, he mapped almost half of North America between the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes all the…
The great Cree Chief, Mistahimaskwa, was the last Chief to reluctantly sign the infamous numbered treaties that confined aboriginals to reservations. He held out because he accurately foresaw the consequences of that policy. Changes brought by the railway and settlement in the west tragically destroyed the way of life of the First Peoples. Mistahimaskwa, known…
In 1918, through the efforts of social reformer Nellie McClung, Canadian women finally received the vote. In 1929, through the activism of Nellie and the “Famous Five“, women were officially declared “persons” in Canada. Led by judge Emily Murphy, the group included Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Irene Parlby. Together, the five women had many years of…
Air flight was a new development in intelligence and combat in the First World War. Pilots were daring. Many died in training and the lifespan on the front was short. These young men faced great ranges of emotion from excitement and thrill to trauma and grief. Arthur Roy Brown (1893-1944), the Canadian flying ace officially credited…
Terry Fox inspired the nation and the world through his courageous struggle against cancer and his determination to raise funds for cancer research. Not long after losing his right leg to cancer, Fox decided to run across Canada to raise awareness and money for cancer research. He ran from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Thunder Bay,…
Werner Voss (April 13, 1897 – September 23, 1917) Lieutenant Voss was a World War I German flying ace, and friend of the famous Red Baron. He was a brilliant and aggressive flyer, with a gift for mechanical engineering, often tinkering with his plane. On September 23, 1917, he fought an epic, single-handed dogfight against several Allied…
Viking sagas (stories) tell of the discovery of a place called Vinland and the settlement there. In 1960, a Viking settlement was discovered on the northeast tip of Newfoundland. Archaeologists are certain they have found the remains of the first Norse (Viking) settlement in North America, at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. Today it is a…
