The society meets monthly from September to May inclusive to hear and to discuss individual papers about personalities, places and events integral to the history of Nova Scotia at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Society lectures are open to the public and are completely free. Lectures are followed by refreshments.
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Wednesday, 17 September
The Capture and Occupation of Downeast Maine, 1814-1815/1818”
G. Frederick Young, Saint Mary’s University
Abstract:
In the summer of 1814, the British were free to go on the offensive against the young American republic. One of the objectives was to ‘correct the border’ between the Maritime Provinces and the State of Maine stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 1783, and restore the ‘historic natural frontier’ at the Penobscot. This necessitated a joint naval-military expedition that was organized here in Halifax and which intended to eliminate the American armed outposts at Eastport, Machias and Castine.
Click here for a bio of Dr. Frederick Young.
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October 15
“’A Tense and Courageous Performance’: The Leadership of The Honorable Allan J. MacEachen in the Creation and Passage of Bill C-227, the Medical Care Act, 1966”
Ross Langley, Dalhousie University
Abstract:
In the long, tortuous, complex and important history of the development of comprehensive health insurance in Canada, few events were as critical as the creation and passage through Parliament of a medicare bill by a minority government. On July 12, the Honorable Allan J. MacEachen introduced Bill C-227 the Medical Care Act. Over the next six months intense Parliamentary debate followed. Skillfully piloting the Bill, masterfully parrying attacks and maintaining its integrity, he won acclaim, forging parliamentary unity as it passed by a vote of 177 to 2; ensuring Medicare would be considered “undoubtedly the single greatest public policy story of the past 50 years”.
Click here for a bio of Dr. Ross Langley.
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November 19
“The Monuments Women: Captain Edith Standen and the Restitution of Looted Art”
Kirrily Freeman, Saint Mary’s University
Note: This lecture will be given at Royal Artillery Park, 1575 Queen Street.
Abstract:
Edith Appleton Standen was born in Halifax in 1902. Educated at Oxford, she joined the US Women’s Army Corps in 1942, and went to Germany with the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Division of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in 1945. With the MFA&A, Standen joined the group of “Monuments Men” charged with safeguarding and returning the European masterpieces looted by the Nazis, and in 1946 she became Director of one of the largest art restitution centres in Germany.
Click here for a bio of Dr. Kirrily Freeman.
The 27th Annual Phyllis R. Blakeley Memorial Lecture is a joint lecture with the Royal Society of Canada and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The Phyllis R. Blakeley lecture is named in memory of the late Provincial Archivist of Nova Scotia who was remembered for her contributions to local history, as a writer in her own right, and also as an archivist, a facilitator of research and a mentor, reader and advisor to many historians.
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December 10
“Putting the War of 1812 to Rest”
Deborah Trask, Nova Scotia Museum
Abstract:
A review of the human scale of the War of 1812 in Nova Scotia, as evidenced in the burial places.