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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