Category Archives: Public Lecture Series

The society meets monthly from September to May to hear and to discuss individual papers about personalities, places, and events integral to the history of Nova Scotia. Lectures are free and open to the public. Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. and, until further notice, will be held via Zoom. For upcoming lectures visit here.


Life and Work on Sable Island: The Early Federal Record of Island Operations.

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Wednesday, November 20th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Halifax Public Library. Click here for the Zoom Link.

Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Parks Canada

Abstract: 
With the BNA Act, the new government of Canada took responsibility for Sable Island. A study of the federal record of the island from the time of Confederation to the 1960s provides insight into the evolution of services on the island, the changing public perceptions of the place and its importance, and how these shaped people’s lives and work. These records document administrative struggles, labour disputes, strange and ambitious projects, moments of tragedy, and deliberations that would shape the island’s fate. Parks Canada is undertaking to better understand the island’s history and the value it represents to Canadians to guide future planning for the island. This presentation will explore the records, including photos, hand-drawn sketches, and news clippings, giving a new perspective on this well-loved, yet always mysterious island.

Bluenose Bluebirds: Nova Scotia’s Military Nurses in the Great War

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Wednesday, October 16th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Halifax Public Library and online through Zoom. Here is the Zoom link.

Born and raised in Toronto, Brian Tennyson studied history at the University of Toronto (Hons BA and MA) and the Commonwealth Institute, University of London (PhD). In 1966 he made the wise decision to move to Nova Scotia to teach history at what was then Xavier Junior College in Sydney, now Cape Breton University. He has never regretted that decision. He is the author or editor of eighteen books and is presently working on the nineteenth and has published forty scholarly journal articles and forty-seven book reviews, mostly on aspects of Nova Scotian history. He was also the founder of the Centre for International Studies, which introduced international student recruitment, international exchange agreements, and managed a number of overseas development projects, all funded by $5 million by the federal government. He retired in 2023, having completed fifty-seven years of service.

Abstract: 
In 2017, Tennyson published a book entitled Nova Scotia at War, 1914-1919, the first attempt to tell the story of the province’s experience of the First World War. This led him to determine how many Nova Scotian soldiers served in the war. Tennyson included military nurses, of course, but didn’t give them the attention that he came to realize they deserved. Somewhat to his surprise, only one book, Sister Soldiers of the Great War: The Nurses of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, has been written, by Cynthia Toman and published in 2016 but she only included nurses who served in the Canadian Army Medical Nursing Service (CAMCNS). The result was that 250 of Canada’s 2,845 military nurses were Nova Scotians. Because Tennyson includes nurses who served in other military organizations such as Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), the nursing service of the British army and other similar organizations, his number is 303 and there may have been more. Tennyson’s study of Nova Scotia’s military nurses not only identifies all Nova Scotian nurses who served in the war, it includes brief biographies including as much as possible about their prewar and postwar lives.

 






The War on Tuberculosis: The Nova Scotia Sanatorium and Patient Trends

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Wednesday, September 18th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic). Due to the library strike, this lecture will be exclusively held virtually. Here is the Zoom link.

Dr. Courtney Mrazek is the W.P. Bell Postdoctoral Fellow in the Canadian Studies Department at Mount Allison University. She is a historian of health, and her research explores eugenics, public health, settler colonialism, and health policies in Atlantic Canada.

Abstract:
The early-twentieth century is a historical period that straddles several large-scale societal and cultural shifts that significantly altered medical interactions: who provided medical attention, how it was financed, and where and how caregiving and healthcare were experienced. It is also a critical time for changes in patient demographics. Examining a specific institution over the course of its operation provides a case study that magnifies these important changes over time. This lecture will look at the Nova Scotia Sanatorium (NSS), an institution that operated between 1904 to 1970, to examine and contextualize changing patient demographics in the war against tuberculosis. 





The Painter, His Muse and Their Marriage: George Harvey and Priscilla Wells in Late Victorian Halifax

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Wednesday, December 11th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Former Art Bar, Barrington Place, 1873 Granville St., Halifax. The Zoom link will be updated soon.

A graduate of Dalhousie University, Lois Yorke is the former Provincial Archivist and Director of the Nova Scotia Archives. She has spent over forty years as an archivist, editor, researcher and consultant in cultural heritage. Her long-standing involvement in women’s history has produced various articles on ‘interesting’ women from Nova Scotia’s past. Priscilla Wells is the most recent, and was discovered by accident while working on a much larger project – the first biography to explore fully the life and times of Anna Harriette Leonowens, ‘The English Governess at the Siamese Court’ – possibly the most interesting woman of them all.

Abstract: 
George Harvey lingers in our cultural history today only as a footnote, faintly remembered as the first headmaster of Halifax’s new Victoria School of Art and Design (now NSCAD University) in 1887. His wife Priscilla is remembered not at all. Their lives were lived at the intersections of Victorian art, literature and music in bohemian London, while in Halifax they were well-known and liked – but afterwards, the erasure of their memory was complete and deliberate. This illustrated presentation will revisit their world, reclaim their lives, and give them the voices they so richly deserve

The History of the Port at Pugwash

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Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Halifax Public Library. To join the lecture virtually, click the Zoom link here.

Stephen Leahey was raised in Pugwash. His early education was in a one-room schoolhouse. He graduated from the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Queen’s University, and attended William’s College in Massachusetts. An Honourary Citizen of Winnipeg and a Lieutenant in the 78th Fraser Highlanders, he has received/holds an Honourary Doctor of Laws from Saint Mary’s University. Reading widely and being naturally curious led him to relating the history of his village in two books which he has donated to the Cumberland County Museum. Neither a scholar nor an academic, in his research and treatment Leahey relies extensively on the work of others who have undertaken the basic research and writing. His books are designed/intended to be sold locally by the museum.

Abstract: The configuration of the Port of Pugwash, a seagoing harbour at the end of a long bay on the Northumberland Strait, easily shields its presence. This feature was exploited first by Nicolas Deny for a trading post, then by French aristocrats from Trois-Rivières to funnel agricultural products from their marsh-based seigneuries to Fort Louisbourg, and finally by the British in London who tapped it for their masts and naval stores. With rare exceptions, London prohibited settlement near the harbour, specifically between River Philip and Tatamagouche, until the Westchester Refugees arrived in 1784.





Black Roots and white roots intertwined in Nova Scotia’s Tree of History

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Wednesday, March 20th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Halifax Public Library. Here is the Zoom link.

Karen Hudson is a dedicated educator and principal at Auburn Drive High School. She has chaired, co-founded, and participated on boards including the Freedom School, Africentric Learning Institute, Connecting to Africa, and the Indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq committee at Dalhousie Law School. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Nova Scotia Teachers Award, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and the Nova Scotia Family Volunteer Award. She is also featured in John Morrison’s book The IT Factor: Discover and Unleash Your Own Unique Leadership Potential. Karen is an alum of MSVU (2005) and in 2019 she was recognized Nationally as an Outstanding Principal by the Learning Partnership.

Kathrin Winkler is a retired teacher, peace activist, artist, mother, and grandmother. Nova Scotia’s rich and hidden histories reveal critical areas for repair necessary for moving forward to justice. For her, art is a practice and the imagination is the territory that sprouts change. She is a Nova Scotia VOW member; a Thousand Harbours Zen sangha member and she loves swimming in the ocean.

Abstract: Marcus Garvey famously wrote: “A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and
culture is like a tree without roots.” 15 Ships left Halifax harbour on January 15, 1792 and the ripples that caused the conditions leading to this epic journey are evident to this day, yet still not fully known. The #1792Project’s aim to share the history of the 1,196 Black Loyalists by creating unique personal connections, continues in a letter-writing campaign. We will share the perspectives of students and community participants and how we hope to continue keeping the history of the 15 Ships to Sierra Leone alive.

The Inequalities of Integration: A History of Space and Race at Graham Creighton High School

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Wednesday, February 21st, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia (10 Cherry Brook Road). Here is the Zoom link to virtually attend this lecture.

Stefanie Slaunwhite is a Ph.D. Candidate at University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. Her current research examines the histories of medicine, education and disability at the Dr. W.F. Robert’s Hospital-School in Saint John, New Brunswick, from 1965-85. Her presentation for the RNSHS is based on her article published in 2022 with Acadiensis, entitled “To hell with the people in Preston: The Inequalities of Integration at Graham Creighton High School, Cherry Brook, Nova Scotia, 1964-1979.” 

Abstract: Graham Creighton High School was a pilot project for integration in the relatively isolated Eastern Shore Area of the County of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The school in Cherry Brook opened as an integrated institution in 1964. It served as the space for students from the surrounding Black and adjacent white communities to be brought together in adherence to the local school board’s integration policy. But while integration was the board’s policy, it was often not implemented in practice.

Labour, Enslavement and Indigenous Space: Liverpool, Nova Scotia in the Atlantic World, 1759-1812

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Wednesday, January 24th, 2024, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Halifax Public Library. You can watch it virtual on Zoom here. 

Amber Laurie is the Acting Curator of Marine History for the Nova Scotia Museum and a PhD student at Dalhousie University. Her MA thesis research examines labour, enslavement, and Indigenous space in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, from 1759-1812. Although her research focuses on the early modern period, the concept of freedom, however it is defined and experienced, is what unites her interest in history across centuries.

Abstract: This thesis reconceptualizes the Planter and Loyalist periods around Liverpool, Nova Scotia, from 1759 to 1812. Rather than privileging the American Revolutionary War, it emphasises Indigenous space and Black people to study this shared place. Drawing on the diaries of Simeon Perkins and Mi’kmaw concepts, Msit No’kmaq and Siawa’sik, it explores how the space was re-formed with the arrival of the Planters. It also examines the development of enslavement and abolition in Liverpool through biographies to show how power imbalances informed lived experiences. This thesis argues that by de-emphasising the American Revolutionary War and loyalism narratives in the Northeast, it reveals the region was marked by power imbalances and labour relations continually being formed and re-formed. It suggests that the American Revolutionary War was not the defining moment of slaveholding in Nova Scotia, but part of a multi-phased process that grew incrementally and was sustained by settlers throughout this period.

A “second Captain Dreyfus affair”: Joseph Bernstein’s Halifax experience

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Wednesday, December 13th, 2023, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), Halifax Public Library (Unfortunately there will be no Zoom option tonight – we apologize for this inconvenience). 

Judith Fingard is a retired Dalhousie University history professor and a Fellow of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society as well as the Royal Society of Canada. For her publications, see her website: judithfingard.com

Abstract: In 1892 Joseph Bernstein arrived in Halifax where he shared with other members of the small Jewish community a typical pattern of commercial employment until 1899 when he became an immigration interpreter at Pier 2, the Deep Water Terminus. His stable work life came to an abrupt halt in 1908 when he was dismissed from the government service. At first he blamed this turn of events on the vindictiveness of five Jewish families involved in a dispute over the suitability of a marriage partner for the third Bernstein daughter. When he delved deeper he decided that antisemitism had determined his fate. Bernstein’s identification with Alfred Dreyfus may have been inspired by cinematic depictions of the injustice endured by that French soldier.

An Architect’s View on Nova Scotian History: Part II

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Join us Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 7 p.m. via Zoom or in person at the Halifax Public Library, Spring Garden Road.

 

Syd Dumaresq will lead us through a lively discussion of the connections between our colourful history, our wonderful Architectural heritage and the people and stories behind the scenes, with particular emphasis on the Architects.

 

Syd is a fourth-generation Architect with a keen interest in history. Syd is delighted to be practicing Architecture with his son Dean. Syd and Sandy, his wife and business partner, live in Chester and are the proud parents of five children and nine grandchildren.

 

Syd’s other passions are community, the environment and sailing. Syd is Chair of the Friends of Nature Conservation Society, sits on the Chester Village Planning Advisory Committee and is secretary to the board of the Mahone Islands Conservation Association (MICA).