Canada History Week 2018: Science, Creativity and Innovation

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What is Canada History Week? Canada History Week provides Canadians throughout the country with opportunities to learn more about the people and events that have shaped the great nation that we know today. Canada is full of unique people, places and events. Canada History Week is a great time to discover them! Past themes included: • In 2014, Canada History Week had a different theme each day: Discovering our National Museums, Discovering our Historic Sites, and more; • In 2015, the theme was Sport through History which connected with the Year of Sport in Canada; • In 2016, the theme was the 100th anniversary of women’s first right to vote in Canada, and great women in Canadian history; • In 2017, the theme was “ Human Rights in Canada: Challenges and Achievements on the Path to a More Inclusive and Compassionate Society .”

Canada History Week 2018 Science, Creativity and Innovation: Our Canadian Story

The week will highlight historic achievements by Canadians in the fields of medicine, science, technology, engineering, and math. Canada History Week is one great way to highlight the importance of the past in guiding our civic and public participation. We hope you will take a bit of time this week to learn and think about the ways science and technology are transforming your everyday life.

Want to share online? Post photos, videos and messages and take part in the discussion using the hashtag #HistoryWeek2018

#HistoryWeek2018

For many years scientists believed that some kind of internal secretion of the pancreas was the key to preventing diabetes and controlling normal metabolism. No one could find it, until in the summer of 1921 a team at the University of Toronto began trying a new experimental approach suggested by Dr. Frederick Banting . By the spring of 1922, the Toronto researchers — Banting, Charles Best , J.B. Collip and their supervisor, J.J.R. Macleod , were able to announce the discovery of insulin .

11 Inventions to Celebrate There’s no doubt about it: Canada has produced some awesome inventions. Here are the stories behind our favourites.

Dr. Norman Bethune Henry Norman was influenced by his grandfather (whose profession in medicine he chose) and by his father (whose zest for hard work he shared). Even as a youngster, he stood out for his wide-ranging curiosity, his great interest in surgery, and his individualistic spirit. (Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada/MIKAN 3224432)

Dr. Irma Le Vasseur The first French-Canadian female doctor, she was also one of the very few female doctors of her era and was a pioneer in pediatric medicine . She devoted her life to sick children, founding major institutions that continued her work after her death. (Image credit: Le Vasseur during celebrations of her Golden Jubilee organized by the Cercle des femmes universitaires, 1950 (Archives de l’hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus). (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, P655,S2,SS6,D8)

Founder and first director of the Montreal Neurological Institute, Dr. Wilder Penfield established the “Montreal procedure” for the surgical treatment of epilepsy.

Defining Moments Canada is hosting a National Commemorative Contest - “Recovering Canada” for schools, museums and local heritage groups to curate the best digital research projects honouring ‘micro-histories’

Canada. Submissions to contest @canhist.ca will be judged by panel of experts, with Awards presented in May 2019. The Pandemic affected Canadians as much as did the First World War - time to ‘catch the Flu!’ (Image Credit: https:// definingmomentscanada.ca/media gallery/ )

Centenary Commemoration of the Spanish Flu Pandemic in Canada 2018-19

of the Pandemic from communities across

Ursula Franklin was a physicist, educator, feminist and social activist who pioneered the development of archaeometry, which applies modern techniques of materials analysis to archaeology.

Visit Ingenium’s Timeline of Women in STEM to learn about more remarkable women who’ve changed the world. (Image credit: Library and Archives Canada)

Harriet Brooks was a teacher and nuclear physicist. For her MA thesis, Brooks undertook research in the field of electricity and magnetism. In 1901 she received the first master’s degree awarded to a woman in physics at McGill. (Link Credit: McCord Museum)

Elizabeth “Elsie” Muriel Gregory MacGill, “Queen of the Hurricanes,” was the first female graduate of electrical engineering at the University of Toronto (1927). MacGill was also the first woman to earn her master’s degree in aeronautical engineering (1929) and become the first practising Canadian woman engineer. (Image credit: courtesy Library and Archives Canada/R4349-1)

Canadian Archive of Women in STEM The University of Ottawa Library - Archives and Special Collections is establishing a centre of expertise, for the benefit of current and future researchers, to document the history of women who have contributed to science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Canada. Explore the collection by keyword, or filter by STEM field. Discover the history of women and organizations involved in STEM in Canada.

Augusta Stowe-Gullen , Medicine

Charlotte S. Black Home Economics

Edith Zillig Agriculture

Thérèse Gouin-Décarie Psychology

CALL TO ACTION: If you have or are currently working in STEM and are interested in donating your records to the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections please contact us by email at arcs@uottawa.ca. Please refer to our “how-to guide” to help you prepare your records for donation. If your cultural institution would like to have your archives that relate to women in STEM featured in our index or would like to pursue collaboration please contact us at arcs@uottawa.ca .

Illustration credit goes here with adaption by nineSixteen Creative.

Seeing an Invisible Story IRENE AYAKO UCHIDA

Dr. Uchida introduced cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes and heredity, to Canada. In the 1960s, she alerted medical science to a possible connection between radiation and chromosomal abnormalities.

Archives of Hamilton Health Sciences and Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University

Ingenium is committed to encouraging and empowering women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. Learn more at: ingeniumcanada.org/womeninstem/

Explore stories of Women in STEM through this series of posters.

Download one or all of the posters to share in your classroom, community centre or workplace and help us profile amazing ideas and the people who developed them. Check out a collection of stories of Women in STEM – offering both historical and contemporary perspectives from Canadian women.

Telecommunications Trailblazer VEENA RAWAT

Joey Angnatok, a community leader and fisherman from Labrador adapted his boat, the MV What’s Happening into an offshore marine research vessel. For more than a decade, he and his crew have taken scientists to measure sea ice and study climate change , while also sharing the traditional knowledge of Inuit communities.

Catherine Parr Traill was a pioneer, writer and botanist who immigrated to Canada in 1832. Her most famous book, The Backwoods of Canada provides a scientific account of her first three years in Canada. (Image Credit: courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-067337)

The environmental movement seeks to protect the natural world and promote sustainable living. It had its beginnings in the conservation efforts

of the early 1900s, when conservationists aimed to slow the rapid depletion of Canadian resources in favour of more regulated

management. Check out key figures and milestones on our interactive timeline . ( Image Credit: 8399158 © Outdoorsman | Dreamstime.com)

Julia Willmothe Henderson (Henshaw) was a writer, photographer, journalist, mountaineer and botanist. Her books, Mountain wild flowers of America and Wild flowers of the North American mountains, were the first North American guides to alpine plants. They were innovative in the use of photographs rather than lithographs, and the contents were arranged according to colour of the blossoms rather than in taxonomic order (used for many plant guides), or, like Traill’s Canadian wildflowers, according to the seasons. (Image credit Wikimedia Commons)

Illustration credit goes here with adaption by nineSixteen Creative.

HOMEWARD BOUND

Mother Nature Needs Her Daughters

David Takayoshi Suzuki is a geneticist, broadcaster, and environmental activist. A Canadian of Japanese parentage, Suzuki was interned with his family during the Second World War and later became one of Canada’s most popular scientists and media personalities. (Image Credit: The Canadian Press/ ©E1 Films Canada/courtesy Everett Collection.)

Homeward Bound rallies scientists to join the climate change fight. Their all-female expeditions to the Antarctic champion collaboration, connection, and leadership in science.

Shelley Ball

Ingenium is committed to encouraging and empowering women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. Learn more at: ingeniumcanada.org/womeninstem/

Watch 10 Young Citizens videos that show how science and technology have changed the way we work, live and play.

Robert Ramsay Wright was a zoologist, and an educator. Wright became a Professor of Natural History at the University of Toronto in 1874, where he taught for 38 years. In his last years in Canada Wright publicly supported the increasingly popular but later discredited eugenics movement. By 1911 he had come to believe that the concepts which lay behind this movement represented one of the “new sciences” emerging from biology. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Elijah McCoy was an African-Canadian mechanical engineer and inventor best known for his groundbreaking innovations in industrial lubrication. (Image Credit: Moorland-Spingarn Research Centre, Howard University)

Made in Canada : 50 creative and innovative contributions Canadians made to the world.

Norma Ford Walker (née Ford) was human geneticist. She completed a PhD in zoology in 1923 at the University of Toronto, and as a faculty member became interested in human genetics. She established her reputation as an authority on multiple births with her research on the Dionne quintuplets .

FRANCOISE BARRE-SINOUSSI

10 Totally Weird and Wacky Ways to get Around : Folks in our country have come up with lots of odd, innovative, and downright zany ways to transport goods and people

Bombardier Heritage Minute

Illustration credit goes here with adaption by nineSixteen Creative.

ANN MAKOSINSKI

A Shining Light

When Makosinski imagined helping developing countries with energy needs, a bright idea was born. She invented the revolutionary Hollow Flashlight, powered by the heat from one’s hand.

Joseph-Armand Bombardier was an entrepreneur, inventor of (among other things) the snowmobile and Ski-Doo. While Bombardier’s many inventions demonstrate his mechanical skills, his ability not only to respond to transportation needs but to create them gave rise to his namesake corporation.

Jeremy Johnson-Silvers and The Ubyssey

Ingenium is committed to encouraging and empowering women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. Learn more at: ingeniumcanada.org/womeninstem/

Governor General’s History Awards Canada’s History Society is pleased to announce the 2018 recipients of the Governor General’s History Awards. The individuals and organizations being recognized deepen our understanding of the past by highlighting lesser-known stories, representing the diversity of our experiences, and encouraging meaningful, public dialogue around history. Congratulations to this year’s recipients!

For more information, visit CanadasHistory.ca/Awards

Governor General’s History Awards

Excellence in Community Programming “Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots Oral History Project” Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots, Edmonton (Alta.) “Mon vélo raconte” Société d’histoire et de généalogie de Montréal-Nord et les Artistes en arts visuels du Nord de Montréal, Montréal-Nord (Que.)

Presented by Canada’s History

Excellence in Museums: History Alive! “Footprints: A Walk Through Generations” Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute, Oujé Bougoumou (Que.)

Presented by the Canadian Museums Association with the support of Ecclesiastical Insurance

Excellence in Scholarly Research: The Sir John A. Macdonald Prize Elsbeth Heaman Tax, Order, and Good Government: A New Political History of Canada, 1867-1917 McGill University, Montreal (Que.)

Presented by the Canadian Historical Association with the support of Manulife Financial

Excellence in Teaching Eric Chassé, École Internationale Lucille-Teasdale, Brossard (Que.)

Temma Frecker, The Booker School, Port Williams (N.S.) Jean-François Gosselin, École Marcelle-Mallet, Lévis (Que.) Lisl Gunderman, Wildwood School, and Maxine Hildebrandt, Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School (Alta.) Lisa Howell, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School, Gatineau (Que.) Paul Paterson, Westmount Secondary School, Hamilton (Ont.)

Presented by Canada’s History with the support of TD Bank Group

Excellence in Popular Media: The Pierre Berton Award Bill Waiser, Saskatoon (Sask.)

Presented by Canada’s History

Partner Listing

We’re the Canada people; we offer programs that you can use to explore, learn and reflect on our history, and what it means to be Canadian.

www.historicacanada.ca

Canada’s History Society was established in 1994 through the generous support of The Hudson’s Bay Company History Foundation. Our mission is to promote greater popular interest in Canadian history, principally through publishing, education, and recognition programs. The Society’s work includes: Canada’s History magazine, Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids , CanadasHistory.ca, and the Governor General’s History Awards. The importance of understanding Canada by examining the histories of its people has been an anchoring belief of the Society in our vision of Canada where people are deeply engaged in connecting with their shared past. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada is a bilingual scholarly research and publishing project at the University of Toronto and Université Laval. It is recognized as one of the best national biographical dictionaries in the world and provides free online access at www.biographi.ca to more than 8,600 biographies of individuals who have played an important role in Canadian history.

www.canadashistory.ca

B D C Dictionnaire biographique du Canada www.biographi.ca

Dictionary of Canadian Biography

www.biographi.ca

www.biographi.ca/en

The Archives and Special Collections acquires, preserves, and provides access to archival documents in all media formats as well as rare books and other publications that support teaching and research at the University of Ottawa.

ARCHIVES ET COLLECTIONS SPÉCIALES BIBLIOTHÈQUE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ D’OTTAWA

ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA LIBRARY

Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation celebrates the innovative spirit of Canadians by telling the stories of those who dared to think differently. Inspired by the power of ingenuity, Ingenium encompasses three national institutions: the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. These three museums are places where the past meets the future, with spaces where visitors can learn and explore, play and discover. Ingenium continues to evolve — a new Collections Conservation Centre is currently under construction, designed to protect priceless Canadian heritage artifacts for the benefit of many generations to come. Beyond the physical walls of its museums, Ingenium’s engaging digital content, outreach programs and traveling exhibitions serve to educate, entertain, and engage audiences across Canada and around the world.

www.ingeniumcanada.org/about

Canadian Heritage and its portfolio organizations play a vital role in the cultural, civic and economic life of Canadians. Arts, culture and heritage represent $53.8 billion in the Canadian economy and more than 650,000 jobs in sectors such as film and video, broadcasting, music, publishing, archives, performing arts, heritage institutions, festivals and celebrations.

www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage.html

Canada History Fund The Canada History Fund supports the development of learning materials and activities that contribute to increasing Canadians’ knowledge about Canada. The fund aims to increase understanding of Canada’s history, stories, people and systems of government.

www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/canada-history-fund.html