Showing 58 results

People and organizations
Person · 1872-1958

Eleanor Hallowell Abbott Coburn was an American author and frequent contributor to Ladies Home Journal. Abbott was born in Cambridge Massachusetts and grew up in the company of famous authors such as Longfellow. She attended Radcliffe College and worked as a teacher while she began to write poetry and short stories. Her work was picked up by Harper's Magazine and she eventually published seventy five short stories and fourteen novels.
Abbott married Dr. Fordyce Coburn in 1908 and the two moved to New Hampshire. She and Dr. Coburn lived in New England until her death in 1958.

Sackville-West, Victoria
Person · 1892-1962

The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson (1892-1962) was an English author and poet, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and aristocrat. Vita as she was commonly known was born March 9, 1892 to Lionel Edward Sackville-West, the 3rd Baron Sackville, and his wife Victoria Sackville-West. In 1913 Vita married the writer and politician Harold George Nicolson (1886-1968), son of Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. Vita and Harold lived abroad for many years in Constantinople and traveled frequently. In the 1930's the couple acquired Sissinghurst Castle which had been once owned by Vita's ancestors. They settled here with their sons Nigel (1917-2004) and Benedict (1914-1978).

Although Vita and Harold remained married until her death they were in an open relationship and both had numerous extra marital affairs. The couple's relationship with the Bloomsbury Group of authors lead to Vita's most well known affair with Virginia Woolf.

Vita wrote a number of novels, namely The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, poetry, and a gardening column for The Observer. In her later years she was heavily involved in gardening creating the gardens at Sissinghurst Castle (that are now run by the National Trust) and becoming a founding member of the National Trust's garden committee. Vita died at Sissinghurst on June 2, 1962.

Mackay, Isabel Ecclestone
Person · 1875-1928

Isabel Ecclestone Mackay (nee Macpherson), author, was born in Woodstock, Ontario on November 25, 1875. Isabel was educated at the Woodstock Collegiate Institute and began writing for the Woodstock Daily Express at the age of 15. In 1895 Isabel married Peter J. Mackay and in 1909 they moved to Vancouver where Isabel wrote all of her major works.

All together she published six novels, four collections of poems and five plays as well as over 300 poems and short stories in various publications. Many of Isabel's plays were staged in Canada and the United States. Isabel was also the first president of the Canadian Women's Press Club and president of the British Columbia Section of the Canadian Authors' Association. Her play "Treasure" won the open, all Canadian I.O.D.E. contest in 1926. Isabel died August 15, 1928.

Alloway, Beulah Misener
Person · 1925-1960

Beulah Misener was a missionary to Kenya. She married the Rev. Ross Alloway in Oshawa, Ont. on June 11, 1949. In 1954 the couple left for Africa to serve as missionaries to the Kipsigis tribe for the Africa Inland Mission. They served first at Litein Station in Western Kenya, 20 miles from Kericho, moving in 1958 30 miles to Sitotwet. Two of their three children were born in Africa. On Feb. 8th, 1960, two weeks before her intended return to Canada, Beulah Alloway died of what is described in the fonds as "cerebral malaria".

Hagen, Alice Mary
Person · 1872-1972

Alice Egan was born in Halifax in 1872. She attended Mount Saint Vincent Academy and the Victoria School of Art and Design (later the Nova Scotia College of Art), as well as at the Osgood Art School in New York. One of her first commissions came when she was selected to paint twelve plates for the Lady Aberdeen State Dinner Set, presented to Lady Aberdeen by the Canadian Senate at the time of the retirement of her husband as Governor General in 1898. In 1901 Alice Egan married John Hagen, an official of the Halifax and Bermuda Cable Company, and in 1910 transferred with him to Jamaica where she continued to work and teach. Her work was widely exhibited in the Islands and for her contribution to art in Jamaica Mrs. Hagen was awarded the bronze, and later the silver Sir Anthony Musgrave Medals, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1916 the Hagens returned to Halifax, settling finally in 1932 in Mahone Bay, where Alice Hagen began a new career as a potter, teaching, exhibiting and winning awards. Forty-eight pieces of her handpainted china, glass and pottery were presented to the Nova Scotia government and are displayed at the Citadel Museum in Halifax. Alice Mary Hagen died in January, 1972.

Hind, Ella Cora
Person · 1861-1942

E. (Ella) Cora Hind was born in 1861, educated in Flesherton and Orillia, Ontario and in 1882 moved to Winnipeg where she became the first typist in western Canada. She was Financial and Agricultural editor of the Winnipeg Free Press from 1910-1930 and was a recognized world authority on grain and livestock. She was a founding member of the Canadian Women's Press Club. In 1964 Cora Hind's portrait was hung in the Hall of Fame at the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto.

Hewlett, Annie Elizabeth May
Person · 1887-1974

Annie Elizabeth MayHewlett (1887-1974) was a writer in Saskatchewan. She was born Annie Elizabeth May Brown in Sutton-on Hill, Yorkshire, England, on February 25, 1887. At the age of 12 she established a newspaper that continued to circulate in her district for years after she immigrated to Canada. She attended teachers college in London and taught school prior to her sailing for Canada in the spring of 1911. That summer, she taught painting at Banff, and in December of that year, she married Arthur Hewlett. Early in 1912, Arthur and Annie Hewlett moved to Cannington Manor in southeast Saskatchewan. During the depression years, Annie wrote a column called "Down on the farm" for the Saskatchewan Farmer. In 1970, at the age of 83, she published her first book, A too short yesterday, and in 1972-1973 a serial, "The gate," appeared in the Western Producer. Exhibitions of her watercolour paintings were held at the Regina Public Library, as well as one in Laguna Beach, California. She was the first president of the Saskatchewan Homemakers' Association for farm wives, and a member of the Canadian Women's Press Club.

Taylor, Catherine, 1874-1967
Person · 1874-1967

Catherine Taylor (1874-1967) was a nurse in the US and England. She was born on June 11, 1874 in Clinton, Ontario. She graduated from St. Luke's Hospital, N.Y. and was head nurse in the Private Pavilion at that Hospital. In 1917 she went to England, and was given charge of a hospital at Shipston-on-Stour near Stratford-on-Avon for the British Red Cross. She assisted in opening a hospital in Liverpool for the American Army and converted the Guest Mansion in London into a showplace Navy hospital in 23 days. In 1918 she returned to the United States and assisted in combatting the influenza epidemic. In 1920 the American Red Cross sent her to New Mexico to initiate public health programs in the schools there. Later, in California, she taught health and hygiene, organized summer camps for underprivileged children and qualified as a state audiometrist. In 1951 she moved to Ontario, California. She died February 1967 in Barrie, Ontario.

Smith, Damaris Isabella
Person · 1831-1913

Damaris Isabella McGee Smith was an author and teacher. She was born Sept. 27, 1831 at Somerville, New Brunswick. She moved to Ontario when she was 18 and taught school in the Lee neighborhood [of Hamilton?]. She married Sylvester Smith, son of a United Empire Loyalist, in 1853. She wrote "Pioneer Wife" which describes the condition of life in the early days of settlement in the area. She died Nov. 18, 1913 and was buried in the Stoney Creek cemetery..

Smith, Mauritana
Person · 1856-1946

Mauritana Smith Coon was the daughter of Damaris Isabella Smith and sister of Elizabeth Smith Shortt, who was one of the first three female medical doctors in Canada. Mauritana was born on August 9, 1856, to a loyalist family in Winona, near Hamilton, Ontario. She was educated by a governess, in the Winona School and at the St. Catharines Collegiate Institute. She taught in the Lee neighborhood and at Hamilton Beach, and the Waterford Public School. She married Hervey A. Coon in 1887. She died June 18, 1946.

Shortt, Elizabeth Smith
Person · 1859-1949

Elizabeth Smith was born Jan. 18, 1859 at 'Mountain Hall', Vinemount. She was educated by a governess in the home, at Winona School and at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute. She attended Queen's University, Kingston and received her degree in medicine at the Royal Medical College in 1884 (one of the first 3 women M.D.'s in Canada). She also received a diploma from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

For two years Dr. Elizabeth Smith practised in Hamilton. She was married Dec. 3, 1886 to Adam Shortt. They moved to Kingston where Elizabeth lectured at Queen's on Medical Jurisprudence and Sanitary Science. She worked for the first Y.W.C.A. in Canada and served as its president, and was a sponsor of the Kingston Musical Club and presided over it for seven years.

In September 1908 she and her husband, Dr. Adam Shortt, moved to Ottawa where she became very active in the local, provincial, and National Council of Women affairs. In connection with these organizations she wrote pamphlets on social aspects of tuberculosis, housing, inspection of markets, clean-up weeks, fly control, pasteurization of milk, care of mentally deficient, child welfare, and mother's pensions'. In 1911 she was the first Convener of the Public Health and Mental Hygiene Committee of the National Council of Women. She was also Convener of the Committee on Immigration in the Council and was instrumental in organizing a hostel for women immigrants in Ottawa. She was largely responsible in convening a committee to petition the Provincial Government to establish Mother's Allowances in Ontario, and when this was accomplished in 1920, she was appointed vice-chairman of the Provincial Board of Mother's Allowances and acted in that capacity for seven years. She died in Ottawa Jan. 14, 1949.

Muriel Shortt and Roger Clark married in 1917 and settled into fruit farming in Vineland. Her portion of the fonds contains details of the struggle to become established in this field.

Lorraine Shortt, a graduate of Queen's, chose a field in the public service - social work, and the collection traces her successful career in this area.

Ethel Carol Longfellow (b. 1881) and Anne Sewall Longfellow (b. 1883) were born in Byfield, Massachusetts to Horace and Hannah Longfellow on the family farm. The two sisters attended Smith College, both graduating in the class in 1906. After college both Anne and Ethel moved to Boston and worked in the stenographic and secretarial fields.

Wyle, Florence
Person · 1881-1968

Florence Wyle was a Canadian sculptor. She was born in Trenton, Illinois, and studied medicine at the University of Illinois and then art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she later taught classes. She then worked in New York where she shared a studio with Frances Loring. Loring and Wyle moved to Toronto in 1912, and in 1920 bought an old church and converted it into a studio. Loring and Wyle were both active in Canadian art movements and were founding members of the Sculptors Society of Canada in 1928. Their work can be seen at the National Gallery in Ottawa, Art Gallery of Toronto, and in the streets of Toronto on such buildings as the Toronto General Hospital and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, and on memorials in small towns in Ontario, New Brunswick and Maine.

Loring, Frances
Person · 1887-1968

Frances Loring was a Canadian sculptor. She was born in Wardner, Idaho in 1887. She studied art in Europe as well as Chicago, Boston, and New York. In New York, she shared a studio with Florence Wyle. Loring and Wyle moved to Toronto in 1912, and in 1920 bought an old church and converted it into a studio. Loring and Wyle were both active in Canadian art movements and were founding members of the Sculptors Society of Canada in 1928. Their work can be seen at the National Gallery in Ottawa, Art Gallery of Toronto, and in the streets of Toronto on such buildings as the Toronto General Hospital and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, and on memorials in small towns in Ontario, New Brunswick and Maine. She died in 1968.

Murphy, Emily Ferguson
Person · 1868-1933

Emily Ferguson Murphy was born in Cookstown, Ontario in 1868 and educated at Bishop Strachan School, Toronto. She married Rev. Arthur Murphy in 1887. In 1916 she was appointed by the Alberta Government as the first woman Magistrate in the British Empire. It was she who inaugurated and brought to a successful issue the movement that resulted in the Privy Council, in 1929, declaring that women were "persons" under the British North America Act, and therefore had a right to be appointed to the Senate of Canada. She was the first President of the Federated Women's Institute of Canada. Prime mover in the establishment of the Victorian Order of Nurses in Edmonton 1910, she was the first woman member of the hospital board in the City of Edmonton. In 1911 she organized the Women's Canadian Club in Edmonton and was elected as their first President. Under the pen name "Janey Canuck" she was well known as a writer. In 1913 she was elected National President of the Canadian Women's Press Club. In 1915 she was decorated by His Majesty the King as Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem

Long, Elizabeth
Person · 1891-1978

Elizabeth Dundas Long was a Canadian journalist and broadcaster who was head of the Women's Talks Department at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on October 10, 1891, Long was educated at the University of Manitoba where she received her Master of Arts in English Poetry. In 1920 she began working as Reporter of Women's Activities for the Winnipeg Tribune and in 1922 became Editor of the Social and Women's Department at the Winnipeg Free Press. Long worked there until 1926 when she became Associate Editor of the Free Press Prairie Farmer. In 1938 Long joined the CBC, the first woman to be hired by the corporation in an executive capacity, as head of women's interests. She later worked as special advisor to the CBC on women's interests until her retirement in 1956. During this time, and in her retirement years, she held many positions such as Vice President of the International Council of Women. Long died in 1978.

Galt, John
Person · 1779-1839

John Galt was a novelist, political and social commentator, and founder of the city of Guelph, Ontario.

Hunt, Alice Riggs
Person · 1884-1974

Alice Riggs Hunt, journalist and activist, was born in New York City June 14, 1884. She was educated at private schools in New York City, one being Graham's School for Girls from 1895-1898. In 1907-1908 she attended Columbia University as a student in the School of Journalism. Later she attended the Drake Business School. She was organizer, speaker and writer on both New York Campaigns for Women's Suffrage and in several other states. She contributed to the New York Evening Post, New York Tribune, New York Evening Mail, New York Call, London Daily Herald, La Vie Ouvriere (Paris), The Workers' Dreadnought, London, Bulletin of the Peoples, Council of America, and Bulletin of the American Woman Suffrage Association. She attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, attached to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace as special correspondent for the New York Evening Post. She attended the International Congress of Women in Zurich, 1919, as part of the American delegation. She was a member of Colonial Dames of America, Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America and Huguenot Society of New York. She died August 21, 1974 in Calgary, Alberta.

Walter, John
Person · 1892-1978

John Walter, Jr. was a Canadian politician and businessman. The eldest of four children, he was born April 10, 1892 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to John and Caroline (nee Drier). He attended elementary school in Milwaukee and Detroit, Michigan before attending high school at the Crane Technical High School in Chicago, Illinois. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1912 and worked alongside his father and brother as a manufacturer with the family company, John Walter & Sons. He married Olga Klehn, of Kitchener, on August 9, 1922. They lived for a time at 32 Fairview Avenue in Kitchener, Ontario.

In the 1930s Walter served first as Vice-President and later President of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C.C.F) party's Kitchener branch. He ran against and lost in the 1935 federal election to William Daum Euler. In addition to his affiliation with the C.C.F., Walter served as a Kitchener public school board trustee for nine years during the 1920s and 30s.

Walter died on April 17, 1978.