The Letters of Margaret Butcher

The Letters of Margaret Butcher
Author: Margaret Butcher
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2006
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 1552381668

Margaret Butcher served as a missionary nurse and teacher at the Elizabeth Long Memorial Home, a residential school in Kitamaat, British Columbia. This collection of letters, written to family and friends, offers a compelling glimpse at her experiences among the Haisla people.

Caregiving on the Periphery

Caregiving on the Periphery
Author: Myra Rutherdale
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0773536752

Fascinating stories of the unconventional work of nurses and midwives in Canada.

Missionaries Among Miners, Migrants & Blackfoot

Missionaries Among Miners, Migrants & Blackfoot
Author: Leonard Van Tighem
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2007
Genre: Frontier and pioneer life
ISBN: 1552381897

Using valuable primary source material, most of which is previously unpublished, and some of which has been translated from the Flemish-Dutch and French, editors Mary Eggermont-Molenaar and Paul Callens introduce the Van Tighem brothers to today's reader. Missionaries Among Miners, Migrants, and Blackfoot: The Vantighem Brothers Diaries, Alberta 1875-1917, contains the transcribed diaries of brothers Leonard and Victor Van Tighem, Belgian Catholic missionaries in Alberta between 1874 and 1917. Leonard, an Oblate priest, served in a number of parishes in southern Alberta, some of which he helped establish. Victor, a member of the Belgian Van Dale congregation, served on the Peigan and Blood reserves, in the southern part of the province. Their diaries are interspersed with letters from family and friends and letters and articles by contemporary bishops and fellow priests and lay-brothers. The Van Tighems' diaries offer a fascinating glimpse of life during Alberta's early settlement and growth -- the immigration boom, the development of Lethbridge and the Peigan reserve, railroads, the mining industry, and the impact of World War I are all part of the historical backdrop of the brothers' diaries.

Bronze Inside and Out

Bronze Inside and Out
Author: Mary Strachan Scriver
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1552382273

More than any other book that I can think of, Bronze Inside and Out puts a human face on Western art - indeed, all art. It invites us to ponder the very nature of the creative process. From the foreword by Brian W. Dippie, University of Victoria Bronze Inside and Out is a literary biography of sculptor Bob Scriver, written by his wife, Mary Strachan Scriver. Bob Scriver is best known for his work in bronze and for his pivotal role in the rise of "cowboy art." Living and working on the Montana Blackfeet Reservation, Scriver created a bronze foundry, a museum, and a studio - an atelier based on classical methods, but with local Blackfeet artisans. His importance in the still-developing genre of "western art" cannot be overstated. Mary Strachan Scriver lived and worked with Boba Scriver for over a decade and was instrumental in his rise to international acclaim. Working alongside her husband, she became intimately familiar with the man, his work, and his process. Her frank, uncensored, and highly entertaining biography reveals details that give the reader a unique picture of Scriver both as man and as artist. Bronze Inside and Out also provides a fascinating look into the practice of bronze casting, cleverly structuring the story of Bob Scriver's life according to the steps in this complicated and temperamental process.

Medicine and Duty

Medicine and Duty
Author: Harold W. McGill
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2007
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 1552381935

Medicine and Duty is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st (Alberta) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. McGill attempted to have his memoir published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, but unfortunately, due to financial constraints, the company was not able to complete the publication. Decades later, editor Marjorie Norris came upon a draft of the manuscript in the Glenbow Archives and took it upon herself to resurrect McGills story. Norris's painstaking archival research and careful editing skills have brought back to light a gripping first-hand account of the 31st Battalion and, on a larger scale, of Canada's participation in World War I. A wealth of additional information, including extensive notes and excerpts from letters written "from the trenches," lends a new sense of immediacy and realism to the original memoir, and provides a fascinating, harrowing glimpse into the day-to-day life of Canadian soldiers during the Great War.

Missing Pieces

Missing Pieces
Author: Olga Verrall
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1552382206

Until age seven, Olga Barsony Verrall lived an idyllic life in Szarvas, a small town in Hungary, surrounded by her doting, observant Jewish family. After the Nazi invasion in 1944, Olga found herself, along with most of her family, interned in the Auspitz labour camp. Eventually reunited after the war. A long journey of physical and mental healing, along with the support of her family, helped Olga piece her life back together. For Olga, writing her memoir was a catharsis. For her readers, it will be an inspiration.

Give Your Other Vote to the Sister

Give Your Other Vote to the Sister
Author: Debbie Marshall
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1552382281

Give Your Other Vote to the Sister tells the story of Roberta MacAdams, the first woman elected to the Alberta legislature. In fact, she was one of the first two women elected to a legislature anywhere in the British Empire. Her triumph was extraordinary for many reasons. Not only did she run while serving as a nursing sister overseas during the Great War, but over 90 per cent of her electors were men--Alberta soldiers stationed in England and in the muddy trenches of the Western Front. Give Your Other Vote to the Sister describes MacAdams' journey overseas, her work at a large military hospital in London, and the personal sacrifices she endured during the war. It also chronicles Debbie Marshall's own journey to reclaim MacAdams' life, one that took her across Canada and to the places where MacAdams lived and worked in England and France. It was a search that would change her own perceptions about how and why so may women willingly participated in the world's first "great war."

The Way it was

The Way it was
Author: Edith Van Kleek
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2007
Genre: Rural schools
ISBN: 1552382257

The Way It Was chronicles Van Kleek's experiences as a student and teacher in one-room schools in rural Alberta. From her first year attending school in the High Prairie country in 1916, to the closure of her last rural schoolhouse in 1961, Edith Van Kleek recalls a bygone era in Canadian educational history.