Exploring Alberta's Past
On behalf of everyone at RETROactive, have a safe, fun and spooky Halloween! Take a look below at how Albertans celebrated the occasion decades ago. All images courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
Editor’s note: The banner image above is courtesy of the Glenbow Library and Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary
Written by: Sara Bohuch, BA Archaeology (Simon Fraser University) , MSc Conservation Practice (Cardiff University)
At the turn of the 20th century, the government of Canada continued to look for ways to convince people to move to the country and transform the land there into profitable resources. The government tried many different strategies to achieve this over the years, and some of the more successful tactics were old-fashioned advertising campaigns. Polished ads were produced that depicted Canada (and the prairies within it) as the best sort of fresh start, with bountiful potential and the opportunity to forge your own community.
However, for many prospective immigrants, Canada was not exactly the landscape as advertised. It was not a vast empty expanse rich with resources, as many of the campaigns described. It seemed that the numerous harsh realities of making a living on the prairies were quietly glossed over by the various advertisements.
So how do you sell the Prairies in particular, over other parts of Canada?
In the early 1800’s the propaganda campaign of the “Glorious Canadian West” was accompanied by artwork and slogans depicting bustling communities and vast farmland. During the latter half of the century, the invention of the camera upgraded the medium of the message, though the imagery stayed similar. The new technology offered a way to capture the “truth” of a place and was able to communicate that truth to an increasingly wider audience quickly.
One of the most well-known providers of such promotional material for the government was the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The CPR began to use photography to document the Canadian landscape in the late 1880s and continued with its usage well into the 20th century. They used the images captured by their photographers to promote not only a certain image of the country, but also their own operations within Canada.
In the Glenbow’s Archives and Special Collections there is a series of these types of photographs, dating from the 1900s and documenting the landscape around the Albertan line. Even knowing the history and reason that these photos were taken in the first place, it is still undeniable that these early photographers were very good at what they did. The images that were captured showcased an Albertan landscape bursting with natural beauty and bountiful acres of farmland.
All images courtesy of the Glenbow Library and Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.
Click the link below to view the gallery.
Read more
Editor’s note: The banner image above shows legendary experimental musician Bruce Haack (right) with long-time collaborator and friend Ted Pandel (left) , circa 1985. Image courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta also invites you to an evening devoted to electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack at the TELUS World of Science – Edmonton, Zeidler Dome for a screening of the 2004 documentary Haack: The King of Techno followed by a lightshow performance set to Haack’s landmark album The Electric Lucifer. The event takes place on Friday, September 29. Doors at 6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. The event is free, seating is first come, first served.
Written by: Jared Majeski (Editor, RETROactive) and Braden Cannon (Private Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta [PAA])
After creating some of the most spaced-out, light years-ahead-of-its-time experimental electronic music, the renaissance of Albertan Bruce Haack continues apace. His music has been reissued by record labels around the world (including Toronto’s own Telephone Explosion Records), he was the subject of the 2004 documentary Haack: The King of Techno and now, some of his most treasured possessions have been made available at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
Bruce Haack, from the Rocky Mountain House area, was born in 1931 and displayed music talent from an early age. He attended the University of Alberta before being accepted into the Julliard School in New York City to study music. After a year, he dropped out to explore his own, unique ideas in music. He had an early interest in electronic music and began to design and build his own electronic instruments and voice modulators. Together with Ted Pandel, a pianist whom he met at Julliard, Haack supported himself with songwriting gigs for record labels and advertising firms. He eventually met Esther Nelson, a children’s dance instructor, and collaborated with her on a series of children’s records using Haack’s electronic instruments and his increasingly experimental arrangements. Haack gained further attention through appearances on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” where he would demonstrate his inventions such as a synthesizer that would emit sound through touch.
Read more
Editor’s note: The banner image above is courtesy of the Drake University archives.
Written by: RETROactive staff
An African American standout player at Drake University during the 40s and 50s, Johnny Bright was a front-runner to win the 1951 Heisman Trophy. In a game against Oklahoma A&M, Bright was knocked unconscious and ultimately forced to leave the game due to injury. Bright enjoyed a hall of fame career in the Canadian Football League and was an educator, coach and principal. A public school in Edmonton also bears his name.
After years in development, The Bright Path: The Johnny Bright Story, is now available to view free on PBS.
Editor’s note: The banner image above, awarding of a Dominion Day track trophy at the Blairmore Bandstand, is courtesy of the Crowsnest Museum and Archives.
Written by: Ronald Kelland, Historic Places Research Officer
A well-known landmark in the Crowsnest Pass has recently been designated as a Provincial Historic resource and is now listed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places.
On your drive through the Crowsnest Pass, if you were to pull off Highway 3 and travel down the streets of the communities that make up the municipality you will see historic buildings that harken back to the boom periods of these coal mining towns. One structure that you may miss is a small bandstand in the community of Blairmore situated in a green space between 20th Avenue and the Canadian Pacific Railway line. It may be an unassuming structure, but the Blairmore Bandstand is one of the most significant sites in the Crowsnest Pass – a community landmark and a symbol of hard-won workers’ rights and the labour movement of the 1920s and 1930s.
The Blairmore Bandstand is typical of such structures. Built of wood, the bandstand consists of a raised, circular platform with railings and interior benches under an eight-sided, peaked roof with flagpole. Bandstands were once a common and important fixture in many Alberta communities. Associated with Victorian and Edwardian Age beliefs about the healing and restful benefits of urban green spaces, education and wholesome entertainment, bandstands were often the centrepiece of urban parks, where they were used for public events such as concerts and speeches. Being situated in publicly accessible spaces also leant their use as rallying points for social movements and protests.
Read moreEditor’s note: The following is an excerpt from author Adriana A. Davies’ new book, From Sojourners to Citizens: Alberta’s Italian History. You can purchase this book, along with her first memoir, My Theatre of Memory: A Life in Words, at Guernicaeditions.com.
Written by: Adriana A. Davies
Restaurateurs and Chefs
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Italian food was considered alien in Alberta. While local pasta manufacturers and grocers helped to introduce Italian products to the general public, it would be pioneer restaurateurs who would build the popularity of Italian cuisine. While individuals worked as cooks in commercial kitchens likely from the earliest days of immigration, Italian restaurants would not emerge as a culinary force until the post-Second World War wave of immigration.[1] Soldiers who fought in Italy acquired a taste for Italian food and looked for it in Italian neighbourhoods back home. Historian John Gilchrist observed in a 2011 article that new immigrants settle near each other and, “Quickly, entrepreneurs open shops that sell foods and materials from the homeland. And soon, a restaurant or two opens to serve the needs of the community.” He continues:
Adventurous diners from across the city venture into the cultural enclave to sample the wares. They report back to their friends and more ‘outsiders’ arrive, bumping up business. In time, entrepreneurs may move or open a second location in the city’s business centre or ‘outsider’ community, expanding the clientele, and helping connect their community to the broader population…. In Calgary, this pattern applies to the two cultural enclaves – Chinatown and Bridgeland – that date to the early 1900s and to the development of many local Chinese and Italian restaurants.[2]
Gilchrist refers specifically to Gene Cioni whose daughter Mary authored Spaghetti Western: How My Father Brought Italian Food to the West. [3] Her claim that her father brought Italian food to the west might seem extravagant but he certainly appears to have created Calgary’s first Italian restaurant at 111 – 4th Street NE on the edges of the Italian district of Riverside/Bridgeland.
Genesio Ciono was born in Antrodocco, Rieti, Lazio, the son of Sabato Cioni, a shoemaker, and his second wife, Flavia Cardellini. Sabato died in 1908 leaving his widow to care for five children. The connection to Canada occurred when 15-year-old daughter Gisa, from the first marriage, went to Calgary to marry a man she did not know – Ricardo Santopinto. Gisa’s letters painted a glowing picture of Calgary and inspired in the 37-year-old Flavia, who felt trapped in poverty, a desire to immigrate. Relatives arranged a marriage with Annibale Corradetti, a 49-year-old widower who worked for the city as a labourer. According to Mary, he was mean-spirited and stingy, and did not honour his promise to Flavia to give her money to bring her sons (Genesio and Sabatino) to Canada. A resourceful woman, she saved money from her household expenses and sent it to Italy. It was enough for only one fare and, Gene, the elder, came to Calgary in 1923. He turned 16 on shipboard. Flavia wanted Gene to become a barber and he worked at the Calgary Shoe Hospital to save money. Two years later he enrolled at the Hemphill Barber School and graduated in 1925. Tragically, his mother died of a ruptured gall bladder in 1926, and Gene blamed his stepfather for lack of attention to her health. This freed him from a trade that he had not embraced and, through his cousin and best friend Mario Grassi, he obtained a job at the Palliser Hotel as a busboy (Mario was a waiter). Soon after, he became sous-chef and learned the CPR repertoire of largely English and French specialties.
Read moreWritten by: Sara King, Government Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta
In 1915, Alberta embarked on a social experiment that would impact the lives of everyone in the province: prohibition. A century after the repeal of prohibition in 1923, the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) is pleased to present Dried Out: Prohibition in Alberta, on display until February 2024.
The exhibit explores how the temperance movement took root in Alberta. The moral and political crusade to ban alcohol would have unintended consequences, both good and bad. It spurred the push for women’s suffrage, led to the creation of the Alberta Provincial Police and prompted experiments in direct democracy. But it would also lead to people flouting the law at all levels of society, which would shape politics, policies and communities for years to come.
Read moreEditor’s note: The article below was originally published on the RAM Blog maintained by staff at the Royal Alberta Museum.
Written by: Matthias Buck, Assistant Curator, Invertebrate Zoology
As an entomologist and biologist, I get very excited about the arrival of spring. Finally, the long, dreary winter months are over and nature bursts back to life. Spring flowers, tender green leaves and of course all kinds of insects! It was the same for me this year, but the season started with a string of exciting scientific discoveries that I never anticipated.
One of my favorite aspects of my job as Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology is going on field trips to explore Alberta’s diverse ecosystems: the prairies, mountains and the boreal forest. But this spring I was reminded like never before that we are surrounded by biodiversity wherever we are, including in a big city like Edmonton—a diversity that still has a lot of unknowns and is always changing.
Written by: Jonas Vasseur, TRC Archivist Intern
The mission of the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) is to acquire, preserve and make records available to the people of Alberta. This includes material created by the provincial government, but also records from individuals, families and organizations in the province. In our Indigenous-related holdings, we hold records from as early as the 1700s and 1800s, with some record holdings spanning more than five decades—some even a century. This week’s post is an update to work that has been carried out at the PAA on access to its Indigenous-related holdings.
The PAA holds a wide variety of records that were created by and about Indigenous people and communities. Although there are many useful and interesting records, it could be difficult to know where to begin and to find connections. Archival research can be daunting, as records are organized by creator rather than subject and are arranged as they were originally maintained, not necessarily in a chronological way. Our goal has been to identify the wide variety of Indigenous content, either created by or about the Indigenous people of the province, and to present a comprehensive and easy to use subject guide to these holdings.
The PAA first released an “Aboriginal Resource Guide” document in 2006, and it listed the records identified as relevant to Indigenous communities in Alberta. This guide provided the building blocks for archival research to become more user-friendly.
Read more
Editor’s note: The banner image above is courtesy of Victoria Settlement Provincial Historic Site.
Written by: Alison Thomas
Stephen Rusnack—also known as Rusnak, or Russnack or Rousnack—was a homesteader, a soldier and a thief. He came to Pakan, Alberta in 1899, enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 and was arrested for robbery in 1921.
Rusnack’s colourful history may be just the story of one man, but it is also a part of the larger experience of immigrants to Alberta at the beginning of the 20th century. Although Rusnack’s choices (and mistakes) were uniquely his own, the situations and social pressures he faced would have been familiar to immigrants throughout the province.
The Rusnacks came to Canada from Toporvitsi, Bukovina as part of the first wave of immigration to Canada from Austrian Ukraine. Stephen was only a toddler, and wouldn’t have remembered their melancholic goodbyes, the cramped train ride to Hamburg, or getting sick on the third-class voyage to Halifax. He might have remembered those early summers, when he and his family lived together with the Poniches and Nykolaychuks while the men were off working the railways. Although they built their house early, the Rusnacks do not seem to have become part of the emerging Ukrainian middle class. The older Rusnack children did not attend much school, although by 1916 the younger ones were probably enrolled.The family was finally naturalized in 1913, after applying sometime before 1901. They were also assimilating to Anglo-Canadian culture in one major way: they had converted from Orthodoxy to Methodism.
RETROactive 