Battle of Batoche May 9 - 12, 1885

The Battle of Batoche ended the North-West Resistance – one consequence being Louis Riel’s surrender to General Middleton. Any summary has its limitations but in order to give a fuller picture than the one everyone might more likely see on the Canadian Encyclopedia website, I suggest having a look at Our Legacy

Kurt Boyer writes:

Conclusion

Impacts from the North-West Resistance were felt throughout Canada and linger on to this day. The influences from the Resistance were multifaceted and served to progress and repress multiple interests. It provided a rational to finish the railway, served as a political tool in Quebec, and materialised as a “common enemy” to placate settler dissent in Manitoba. The most severe and long lasting effects were felt by the generations of Métis and First Nations in Saskatchewan, who following the Resistance were subject to increased marginalisation which today still permeates in Saskatchewan.

And reading about a military event in someone’s own words is even better. The great scholar of western Canada, George Stanley, annotates a rare transcription of Gabriel Dumont’s own account of the Battle of Batoche as well as the earlier Duck Lake and Fish Creek battles in Canadian Historical Review 30 (1949), "Gabriel Dumont's Account of the North-West Rebellion 1885." Canadian Historical Review   

Another account from the Back to Batoche Virtual Museum of Canada is at is at here.

And then there is art, which can capture the truth and reality in other ways altogether. Here is the Regina poet Bruce Rice reading at “Regina City Council (Saskatchewan Canada) for National Poetry Month. This is part of a Mayor to Mayor challenge to have a poet read at the start of the local council meeting; 33 cities across Canada took part. The poem was written for the national retrospective of Regina artist and scupltor, Joe Fafard. It's in my [Bruce Rice’s] book, Life in the Canopy (Hagios Press 2009). The sculpture is from one of the Metis killed at the Battle of Batoche in 1885, which ended the Riel Rebellion.”  See the video and Joe Fafard's sculpture here 

Notman's Victoria Skating Carnival April 25, 1870

William Notman's first composite photograph was of the Skating Carnival at Victoria Rink held on March 1, 1870, in honour of Prince Arthur, the youngest son of Queen Victoria. It received it's first public viewing today, April 25, in 1870.

 

"Photograph | Skating Carnival, Victoria Rink, Montreal, QC, painted composite, 1870 | N-0000.116.21.1"

More information about this image 

This Victoria Rink Skating Festival was the first of Notman’s famous composite scenes. He’d take individual photos of a hundred or more people (for this skating party he took 150 individual photos) and then he’d put them into a painted composite scene – sort of a multi-media combination of photography and painting. For this scene he put an invitation notice in the newspaper for people to come in their masquerade dress and with their skates.

     Everything always looks so formal, so polite to me when I look at pictures from the past, and it gives one a skewed picture of how things really were. The skating party can’t have been so perfect – the McCord Museum cites the Montreal Gazette on April 26, 1876 [seems likely that date is supposed to be 1870] congratulating Notman for leaving out "the monstrosities and idiocies of bad taste, which never should have disfigured the Fancy Dress Assembly."

    Parties will always be parties.

 

Prince Arthur (Thunder Bay was originally called Port Arthur after Prince Arthur) later became the HRH Duke of Connaught - and the Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916. He was the first member of the Royal family to be a G. G. Prince Arthur is on the bottom left, towards the centre of the photo.

     Prince Arthur was only 20 at the time and was stationed in Montreal with the Rifle Brigade.

Maybe the big skating party held in his honour was the inspiration for his daughter Princess Patricia’s own elaborate skating parties in Ottawa when they lived in Rideau Hall 41 years later. She also had people dress up in the dress of different nations – a sort of fancy dress ball.  

     The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was named after his daughter Patricia.

You can find more on the Governors Generals here

William Notman learned all he knew about photography after he’d moved from Scotland to Montreal in 1856. He became one of the most famous photographers in the world – and he was certainly an audacious businessman. He’s the one who ended up taking all the photographs of the Fathers of Confederation (and their unmarried daughters and wives who they’d brought along) at the Confederation talks in Quebec in October, 1864. He managed to get the commission for photographing the making of the Victoria Bridge in 1859, and he became Queen Victoria’s official photographer. There’s lots more on Elaine Kalman Nave’s CBC Idea’s Podcast  here.

The McCord Museum in Montreal also has an immense collection of his work and everything else Notman. I'll get to see it all for myself this May - searching for his photographs of my lost 'daughters of Confederation. See more on the daughters of Confederation

William Notman 'Canada's most successful photographer'

On CBC Radio this eve Part One on William Notman - famous photographer of, among other things - the eighth wonder of the world, or the Victoria Bridge in Montreal (for example), and the Fathers, and daughters, of Confederation.

 From CBC Idea's website:
"He [Notman] arrived in Montreal in 1856 as a fugitive from the law. He became Canada's most successful photographer. A rare combination of canny businessman and master craftsman, William Notman embraced the wondrous new medium of photography and left us a unique record of Canada's social history. A portrait by Montreal writer Elaine Kalman Naves.  ...

On the lam from the law, William Notman remade himself in Montreal.  He saw his chance and quickly mastered the brand new art of photography. His timing couldn't have been better.  Fascination with the astonishing new medium was sweeping Europe and North America - never before had it been possible to create a permanent image without an artist's pencil or paintbrush or engraver's tools.  Eventually, William Notman would own the largest photography business in North America ... "
 
      And to the 'Daughters' of Confederation:

Mercy Coles, who I wrote about last fall at this time (here and about weekly through November 2011)  and used in my novel To the Edge of the Sea, was the charming, beautiful and unmarried 26 year old daughter of Prince Edward Island delegate and Father of Confederation George Coles. She kept a diary of her trip to Quebec for the Confederation conference of 1864 and subsequent tour of the Canadas. Their first stop after the conference was Montreal. There she writes of her visit to William Notman's studio to have her photograph taken.

Saturday October 29, 1864 continued:

“ ... Ma and I have just been to the Convent Congregation Notre Dame. Mr. McDonald (stutterer) came and took Mamma and I. I have just come from Notman’s. My photograph was not good I don’t think, so I would not take it however the man said he would send me two dozen to the Island. ...”

        The CBC link has good pictures and a link to the McCord Museum in Montreal which has a phenomenal collection of pictures, videos and information on Notman and his work, (regardless of what Mercy Coles thought of her photo).

Prize Watch: To the Edge of the Sea wins!



To the Edge of the Sea by Anne McDonald wins the Saskatchewan Book Award for First Book

 At the big gala on Saturday April 28 I'm thrilled to say that my novel, To the Edge of the Sea, set during the Confederation Conferences of 1864, with John A Macdonald and Mercy Coles, daughter of the PEI delegate and Father of Confederation George Coles, won the First Book Award. (I've blogged on Mercy's take on the conference goings on in this blog in October and Nov.)

Judges Joan Barfoot, Christine Cowley and Katherine Gordon said:
      In the mid-19th century, three young Prince Edward Islanders explore their disparate futures at home and away, in a debut novel that is lyrical and precise in its descriptions of land, sea and people, and powerful in its accounts of both personal and political histories of the province and country. 

As one of the winners I will read at the Saskatchewan Legislative Library this coming Wed May 9 at noon! Keep this in perspective all historians - the Sask Leg Library holds and uses everyday the table from the Quebec Conference in 1864 - can you imagine - there will be John A and I at the Quebec Conference table - geeky or not, I'm / we're thrilled. See more here

Lest you think I've forgotten this is a history blog I'll also point out that the Sask Legislative Building will be celebrating it's 100th birthday this year and it had a lucky start. Not only did it get the Que conference table, it narrowly missed being blown down by the F4 tornado that hit Regina June 30, 1912, known as Canada's deadliest tornado and also 'celebrating' its 100th birthday. (Both the Leg and the Tornado are being celebrated in dance, art, literary events this year and I'll be posting more on these later.)

My book was not the only winning book with a historical perspective:
Darren Prefontaine won Book of the Year for Gabriel Dumont: Li Chef Michif in Images and in Words and you can read about it here. The Gabriel Dumont Institute won the Publishing Award for this book also.

Curtis R McManus won the Non-Fiction Award for Happyland: A History of the 'Dirty Thirties' in Saskatchewan, 1914 - 1937. Read more here

and Seeing Red A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers by Mark C Anderson and Carmen L Robertson won 3 awards: City of Regina, Scholarly Writing, and First Peoples' Writing read more here

 Mark Abley in the introduction to his talk on 'Stop Tweeting and Start Reading' spoke of how Saskatchewan has developed since he's been gone - how its support of writers now includes Grain Magazine, the Wallace Stegner House for Writers, Sage Hill Writing Workshops (when I was there last in 2009 I was the only person from Saskatchewan, the rest came from across the country - Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, London, Vancouver), the St Peters Writing Colonies sponsored by the Sask Writers Guild. I've been here 12 years now - and have taken part in all of these programs. Saskatchewan's support for its writers is legendary and spans the country. You can read my interview with the Regina Leader Post here

From the Charter to Confederation: Prize Watch

My novel, TO THE EDGE OF THE SEA set during the confederation conferences of 1864 with John A Macdonald and Mercy Ann Coles, the daughter of PEI delegate George Coles, has been shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award.

The big Saskatchewan Book Awards Gala is in Regina on Saturday April 28. If you’re planning to be in or around Regina come out and celebrate – and if you read this history blog come say hello.

Mark Abley, of The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English, among many other books, will be the guest speaker on – “Stop Tweeting; Start Reading” (interesting title as I write a blog post).

[And as a favour if any of you review books for the Grade 12 Curriculum across Canada I’d love to hear from you. Canadian history and confederation are part of grade 12 history and as much of the content in the book is based on actual history it seems a good fit.]

Update, May 1:  She won! Best first book.  Congratulations, Anne