Women in the Archives

by Carson Murphy, Archivist

I couldn’t let Women’s History Month pass without mentioning some of the women involved in making the archives what they are. It is no secret that much of history is dominated by the male narrative, but what we sometimes forget as a society is that women did record many of these stories, especially in the past couple of centuries. Women recorded the births, marriages, deaths and other family milestones in the family Bible. How many of us had a mother or grandmother who clipped the obits and birth announcements from the paper? Who (one hopes) labeled the photographs of their children as they grew? The task to collect and preserve this information is just one more responsibility unassumingly donned by women and like so many of their other contributions in the past, generally goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Unless you are an historian or genealogist – in which case you’re often very grateful!

Mae Gauvreau on the D.A. Thomas holding her Kodak
Brownie camera. Of the photographs in the 1980.1131 donation,
 it is assumed several where taken by her. PRMA1980.1131.021.

As our donation records attest, it is often women who see the importance in collecting and safeguarding their family’s history. Whether it be in photographs, albums, scrapbooks, letters, or diary entries. They recorded minutes at countless meetings, including the societies formed by and for women such as the Imperial Order of Daughters of Empire, the Alberta Women’s Institute, the Lioness Club, Women’s Auxiliary, Anglican Church Ladies, United Church Ladies, Catholic Women’s League, the Kinnettes, Order of the Eastern Star, and later the Legion and Rotary. Many of these items were created by women, and then donated to the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre by them or female descendants.

The museum itself was established by the Peace River Women’s Institute, and prominent names such as Evelyn Mercer, Muriel Oslie, Eva Northey, Evelyn Hansen, Clara Richardson, Barbara Crawford, Evelyn Seeley, Edith Cruickshank, Aurelia Vangrud, Edith Clarke, Lois Stranaghan, Jean Cameron Kelley, Anne Macmillan, Katharine Hoskin Hunt, Adele Boucher and many others continually appear again and again as donors, volunteers, advocates and supporters. They saw the value in preserving these pieces of our community’s history. To all of the women who have contributed to and inspired the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre, we are truly grateful.

Want to know more the records we hold in our archives? Drop in or give us a call or email, and I’d be happy to show you some of our archival material. We have records for several of the organizations mentioned earlier, and thousands of photographs. Or drop into the museum and see our new exhibit Silent Dreams: Their Story, an exhibit that examines the challenges faced by women from pre-fur trade to the present day. 

The "Good Ol Days" were not good for everyone...

By Carson Murphy, Archivist

June is LGTBQ Pride month, and is also the time the LGBTQ community looks back on its heritage. The topic has been getting increasing academic attention lately which is excellent! Much like the history of women, minorities and people of lower social-economic status, lesbians, gays and other members of the LGBTQ community have been largely silent in Canada’s historical narrative. Its silence however should by no means be taken as a sign it didn’t exist, or that these individuals did not play major roles in our history. Indeed, the true scope of how many historical persons may or may not be ‘closeted’ makes for an interesting discussion, although one for another time. Because homosexuality was not supposed to exist and was often practiced covertly, it becomes a challenge to piece together the different historical narratives of this community.

A group of men on a boat, from the Peace River Museum, Archives and
 Mackenzie Centre collection, PRMA1981.1194.221.

It is a history that comes with a lot of reading between the lines to piece it together. For example. When you think about the narrative of the settlement of Alberta, the story speaks of all the men that moved out here to claim their homestead, and start their farm. The narrative relates how, at least in the early days, men drastically outnumbered women. Now when you read between the lines, you see a land of opportunity – of adventure with fewer rules, fewer people, fewer parsons, and mostly other young, single men. You can’t tell me that what held the appeal for many ‘straight’ men couldn’t have had the same for ‘gay’ ones.

Two unidentified women, from the Peace River Museum,
Archives and Mackenzie Centre's new collection.

Homosexuality was something that happened at the fringes, in the background, that might cross tongues, but seldom made it to paper, and would never come up in polite conversation.  When you look for it, you find it occasionally amongst the plainly stated “good friends”, “companion” or “lodger”, as if that was all it ever was, and perhaps it was.  It seems, whether it was naivety or some form of tolerance, sometimes, in some places, LGBTQ peoples could find some relationships and companionship, provided there was no spectacle and the outward appearance of social decency wasn’t marred.

I like to focus on those glimmers in the LGBTQ history, because the bulk of it tends to be pretty sad. When you consider the number of people who had to live unhappy lives, who faced ostracism, discrimination, and incarceration for things they couldn’t change or help. Living alone fearing they were the only ones. The past certainly was not the ‘good ol days’ for everyone. It’s an interesting thing to keep in mind the next time you look at your family history – who did and didn’t get married, if they moved away, their dreams and aspirations, you never know what might emerge.

Sometimes it’s really tempting to want to time travel, and somedays it really feels like I would be more at home in another time, but then I think how my life would change. And I’m not talking about modern medicine, and hot water (although those are usually two of many reality checks which keep me happy to be here), but more personally I think of how I wouldn’t be able to go out with my significant other, or get married, or likely have family and friends who would love and support me for who I am. And that’s what keeps me happy to be in the 21^st century, although there is much left to accomplish on the road to equality, acceptance and even tolerance as the recent tragedy in Orlando has shown us.  

This post is dedicated to the anonymous men, women and everyone in between; who in the past, have faced discrimination, hatred, abuse, anxiety, fear and loneliness because of who they were and who they loved.

Two photographs of unknown people - as normal looking as you or I.
Who knows what their stories were. From a collection of photographs
recently donated to the Peace River Museum, Archives and
Mackenzie Centre.