Alexander Rutherford and the Alberta Poetry Year Book

Jared

Written by: Colby Parkkila, Senior Historical Interpreter, Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site

A bibliophile is described as, “a person who collects or has a great love of books.” Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first Premier of Alberta (1905 – 1910) and founder of the University of Alberta, certainly matches this description. His personal collection comprised more than 4,000 individual titles and was regarded as one of the “finest Canadiana collections in western Canada.” In addition to his expansive collection—which found its way into nearly every corner of the Rutherford family home, much to the chagrin of his wife Mattie—Rutherford’s love of literature was illustrated through his support of other literary initiatives and organizations, including the Canadian Authors Association (CAA).

Founded in Montreal on March 14, 1921, the CAA was Canada’s seminal writing association for authors and writers. Established with the goal of lobbying for authors’ rights and copyright protections, the CAA’s focus quickly broadened to include initiatives such as encouraging Canadians to read more Canadian literature via Canadian Book Week and providing financial assistance to emerging authors through the Canadian Writers’ Foundation. Among its early membership, the CAA counted many leading Canadian writers and literary advocates, including John Murray Gibbon—the organization’s first president—Emily Murphy, Ralph Connor and Bernard Keble (B.K.) Sandwell.

Library of Rutherford House, c.1920s. Source: Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site

The CAA was initially composed of a national body and 10 smaller branches, including one in Edmonton. Inaugurated on April 26, 1921, the Edmonton branch was established during an elaborate banquet at the Hotel Macdonald. Among those in attendance were prominent local authors and politicians, such as Nellie McClung, Lieutenant Governor Dr. R. G. Brett, Frank Oliver, Alberta Premier Charles Stewart and Dr. Henry Marshall Tory, President of the University of Alberta. Alexander Rutherford, although not in attendance on the night of the branch’s inauguration, joined the branch shortly thereafter, later obtaining official membership with the CAA as an Associate Member in January 1922.

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Fun in the Alpine Sun: Spring Skiing at Temple Lodge

Fun in the Alpine Sun: Spring Skiing at Temple Lodge

Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above features a travel brochure on ski resorts at Banff and Jasper, courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

Written by: Emily Guthrie-Plouffe, Government Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta

While some Albertans may balk at the lengthy transition from winter to spring, wishing for temperatures to rise and snow to disappear, there are others who gladly embrace the snow for as long as possible, especially from the sunny slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

Travel Brochure on ski resorts at Banff and Jasper, n.d. (Tourism marketing publications records, GR1970.0442/1). Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta.
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Introducing RETROactive Live: Alberta Heritage Speaker Series

Introducing RETROactive Live: Alberta Heritage Speaker Series

Jared

Written by: RETROactive staff

If you scroll all the way down to the very first RETROactive blog post from January 2011, you’ll see that it began as an initiative of the Historic Places Stewardship section to share information about historic places in Alberta. Over 800 blog posts and 15 years later, RETROactive has become a staple for heritage enthusiasts across the province. In that spirit, we are now launching RETROactive Live: the Alberta Heritage Speaker Series. Join us for free, online evening presentations on Alberta history and heritage topics later this spring.

Our first presentation will be delivered on May 4, 2026 by staff Archaeologist, Dr. Todd Kristensen. Todd will be speaking about ancient jade artifacts and the role the public played in helping to discover this aspect of Alberta’s archaeological history. Click the link below for more information and to register.

Ancient Jade Artifacts in Alberta and Beyond

Stay tuned for details on additional presentations that will be held throughout May and June!

Emerging archaeology in western Canada: The Occasional Paper Series in 2025 (Part 1)

Emerging archaeology in western Canada: The Occasional Paper Series in 2025 (Part 1)

Jared

Written by: Todd Kristensen, Archaeological Survey of Alberta and Robert Gustas

The Archaeological Survey of Alberta is pleased to kick-off Occasional Paper Series No. 44 with its first six articles, which are available for free download.

The Occasional Paper Series is an annual volume of articles that explore cultural heritage in Alberta and surrounding regions. The first volume was published in 1976 and the current volume celebrates the series’ 50-year-anniversary. This issue is dedicated to sharing synopses or components of particularly insightful graduate theses and dissertations written over the last 15 years.   

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Immigration halls of Edmonton and Strathcona

Immigration halls of Edmonton and Strathcona

Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above is a new Edmonton immigration hall completed in 1930. Source: Library and Archives Canada, Department of Public Works fonds, 1959-106 (PA-181012).

Written by: David Monteyne, Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary

As noted in a previous RETROactive blog entry, Calgary’s 1885 immigration hall was the first in Alberta, and that was because the federal government tended to build them along the CPR mainline, closely following the progress of the Dominion Land Survey. The Calgary and Edmonton Railway soon stretched north, arriving in Strathcona on the south side river in 1891.

The first immigration hall there was erected the following year, just north of the terminus. Modeled on Regina’s first hall—designed by Canada’s Department of Public Works (DPW) and built two years earlier—this wood-frame Strathcona building had a single storey, two rooms sharing a wood stove, a kitchen bump-out at the back and an ell with rooms for luggage storage and a resident caretaker. A veranda stretched across the front of the building, with entrances at either end. As the government was concerned with sex segregation on the frontier, the two rooms of this small building did not have an interior connection.

This hall proved rather inadequate, particularly for segregation and privacy among immigrants. Because the rooms shared the wood stove, it was possible to see from one into the other. A French Catholic priest who guided group migrations, complained to immigration officials that the Strathcona hall was, “absolutely unfitted to receive and lodge the families” because they would be exposed to (especially) Eastern European immigrants who knew, “nothing at all of the laws of decency.” A government inspector would agree, noting that, “the better class of immigrants do not use the building” because, “men, women and children are mixed up without any chance of privacy.”

Drawings sheet for the 1890 immigration hall in Regina, also used in Strathcona in 1892. Library and Archives Canada, Department of Public Works fonds, RG11M 79003/36/1184 (NMC: 46385).
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Overlooked Pioneers: Domestic Servants in early Alberta

Overlooked Pioneers: Domestic Servants in early Alberta

Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above featuring James Hargrave family, Medicine Hat, Alberta ca. 1887-1888, is courtesy of the Glenbow Library and Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.

Author Julia Stanski is a scholar and recent MA History grad from the University of Alberta. Her research centers on western Canadian women’s history in the Victorian and Edwardian periods.

Written by: Julia Stanski

If you think about women’s history in relation to Alberta, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the Famous Five, a group of women whose activism earned Canadian women the legal status of “persons” permitted the rights and privileges of “qualified persons,” including the possibility of being appointed to the Senate. Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney: these are names that most Albertans have seen before, in social studies textbooks and on statues and parks. But today, I want to introduce you to another woman from Alberta’s past: Lillian Adkins.

She was not a famous author or speaker. There are no statues of her. But many Albertans can trace their roots to women like her. Lillian spent roughly five years of her youth working as a domestic servant in what became Edmonton.

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2026 Heritage Awards

2026 Heritage Awards

Jared

Written by: RETROactive staff

Do you know a person or group in your community helping to support Alberta’s history and heritage? It could be a local historical society helping preserve a physical piece of local history; a researcher publishing a book or article; or a member of the community who’s shown long-term leadership and contribution to the preservation and presentation of Alberta’s history. If so, consider nominating them for a 2026 Heritage Award.

Presented by the Government of Alberta, the Heritage Awards recognize individuals, non-profit organizations, corporations, municipalities and First Nations and Metis settlements for their significant contributions to the protection, preservation and promotion of Alberta’s heritage. Heritage awards are presented every two years.

The Heritage Awards are divided into three categories:

Heritage Awareness
Recognizes research, publications or public engagement projects that have deepened our understanding and promoted greater awareness of Alberta’s heritage.

Heritage Conservation
Recognizes projects that demonstrate excellence in the protection and management of palaeontological and archaeological resources; conservation of a Provincial Historic Resource, Municipal Historic Resource or Indigenous Historic Place; or identification, protection and management of historic places

Outstanding Achievement
Recognizes an individual’s or organization’s exemplary long-term leadership and contribution to the preservation and presentation of Alberta’s history.

Take a look at the information and fill out a nomination form. And to get a sense of the scope and range of nominations across the province, check out past winners of the Heritage Awards.

The nomination period begins March 1 and closes June 1.

Long in the Tooth: Using Crown Height Measurements to Age Dogs and Wolves

Jared

Written by: Megan Bieraugle

People, dogs and wolves have had long and complex relationships, ranging from cooperation to competition. Alberta’s rich archaeological record includes many canids (mammals including dogs, wolves, coyotes and foxes), and understanding canid age at death can provide insights into their relationships with Indigenous people and how they vary geographically, temporally, and by species.

For example, assessments of dog age at death could be informative about how past people cared for their working animals as they aged beyond their prime years. In cases where dogs appear to have been kept primarily for use as food resources, ageing data could reveal how such populations were being managed, with individuals perhaps being slaughtered around 1–2 years of life once they reached full adult body size. Relationships with wolves also might be more fully understood with age-at-death information, particularly in North America, where they are often found in mass bison kill assemblages. Ageing data might reveal if whole packs were killed while scavenging human prey or if primarily young and inexperienced individuals met their fates in such settings. Finally, age-at-death information can be important for assessing aspects of canid life histories, including animals’ rates of tooth loss and fracture and their relationship to diet, but also experiences of degenerative joint disease and trauma. Despite their importance, methods for ageing archaeological dog and wolf remains are relatively limited.

Crown height measurements for each of M1, P4, and M1. A (lingual view of M1) shows measurements M1-1, M1-2, and M1-3. B (buccal view of M1) shows measurements M1-4, M1-5, and M1-6. C (buccal view of P4) shows measurement P4-1. D (lingual view of P4) shows measurements P4-2 and P4-3. Source: Megan Bieraugle.
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Curiosity, Craft and Conviction: Frank L. Beebe and the Art of Seeing Nature

Curiosity, Craft and Conviction: Frank L. Beebe and the Art of Seeing Nature

Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above is courtesy of the Royal Alberta Museum.

Written by: Devon Owen Moar

At first glance, the illustration appears simple: a bird, carefully rendered, set within its landscape. There is no dramatic gesture or overt narrative—there is only close attention. Feather by feather, stroke by stroke, the image invites the viewer to slow down and really look.  It is both an artwork and a record, capturing not just the likeness of its subject, but a way of seeing that is central to the natural sciences and natural history museums.

This work, now part of the Royal Alberta Museum’s collection, was created by Frank L. Beebe, a self-taught naturalist, illustrator and falconer whose career bridged art and science. Beebe’s illustrations were never meant to be decorative alone; they were tools for understanding, shaped by careful observation and extensive field experience.

Before photography became the dominant way of documenting the natural world, scientific illustrators played a vital role in how knowledge was recorded and shared. People like Beebe translated hours of study into images that could educate, inform and endure. This kind of work helped shape how museums studied and presented the natural world.

This single illustration offers a point of entry into Beebe’s broader world, rooted in western Canadian landscapes and museum and illustrative practices, and reminds us of the important, and often unsung, role illustrators play in connecting science, art and public understanding.

Framed painting of a male Sooty Grouse by Frank L. Beebe. Source: Royal Alberta Museum, H25.28.1.

The work that prompted this research is a framed painting depicting a male Sooty Grouse.  It is signed in the bottom right corner by the artist, Frank L. Beebe. The grouse is shown mid-display, its body fully puffed with its yellow throat air sacs inflated and tail held upright—a striking posture associated with courtship. Beebe situates the bird within a carefully rendered landscape: a moss-covered rock forms the backdrop, while long grasses, white and yellow flowers (likely avalanche lilies) and a fallen leaf help situate the foreground.

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From the Famous to the Forgotten: Preserving Black History at the Provincial Archives of Alberta

Jared

Editor’s note: Learn more about the history and heritage of Black Albertans from the Royal Alberta Museum.

Written by: Michael Gourlie, Government Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta

Since the 1960s, the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) has acquired kilometres of records, millions of photographs and thousands of hours of audiovisual recordings about the lives and activities of Albertans. While Alberta’s Black community is underrepresented among these archival holdings, it faces a similar challenge to other groups.  For every famous individual whose life is documented in detail in numerous sources, there are dozens of other individuals who remain nameless and forgotten until someone researches their stories.

Among the famous individuals found in the PAA’s holdings is John Dee (Johnny) Bright. Born in Indiana in 1930, he attended Drake University on a track and field scholarship, which led to a remarkable collegiate football career marked by several National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) records as well as a national profile.  His senior year in 1951 was also notable when he was the target of a racially motivated assault on the playing field during a game with Oklahoma A&M University (now Oklahoma State University), an incident documented in a Pulitzer Prize winning series of photographs. While some on-field rules changed because of the incident, the opposing team and its university administration denied any wrongdoing for decades and only apologized for the incident in 2005.

File OS.1843: Johnny Bright, 1954. (Frank Oliver Studios fonds, PR1992.0261/1096, OS.1843). Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta.

He graduated from Drake University in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science in Education, specializing in physical education. He was the first pick chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1952 draft, but fearing his treatment in the National Football League, he chose to emigrate to Canada and play for the Calgary Stampeders. He was traded to Edmonton in 1954, where he primarily played offense. Bright set several Canadian Football League (CFL) records, helped the team win the Grey Cup in 1954, 1955 and 1956, and was named Edmonton Athlete of the Year in 1959.

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