This Month at Canada's History

The Feb-March Canada's History is now reaching us subscribers. Saskatchewan lawyer and writer Garrett Wilson looks at Sitting Bull's "visit" to Canada in 1876-77.  There's a profile of Pauline Vanier based on her letters.  There's new artwork on Frog Lake, Alberta and the troubles there in 1885. There's a nice bit about touring Red Bay, Labrador, plus book reviews, comments and sidebars galore.

My own column is about Colonel J.B. Maclean and the long history of his Maclean's magazine, now reaching another in a long series of crisis point with publisher's decision to suspend most print publication and emphasize digital distribution. Canada's History also does digi -- but still offers hardcopy too.

There's also a brief tribute to Rolph Huband, 1929-2016. Rolph Huband was legal counsel to the Hudson's Bay company and eventually a vice-president and corporate secretary, first in Winnipeg, later in Toronto. He was also a visionary. He conceived of having the HBC's vast archives donated to the Archives of the Province of Manitoba, where they have ever since been a keystone of the collection and the basis of a great deal of historic study of "Rupertsland."  At the same time, he oversaw the donation of the Bay's also extensive artifact collection, including the entire replica ship Nonsuch, to the Manitoba Museum, creating another invaluable historical/museological resource.

Rolph Huband OC

The Bay got a handsome tax credit for these donations. With them, Huband oversaw creation of the Hudson's Bay History Foundation. And, since it had become odd for a retail department story company to be publisher of a historical magazine, Rolph Huband spearheaded the creation (and endowing) of Canada's National History Society which became publisher of The Beaver.

For these achievements and many other he was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2003.   He died last fall and the Globe published this obituary.