James Douglas Jr

M EDICAL M ILESTONES $5 Quebec

HeritageVOL 3, NO. 10 JULY-AUGUST 2006 News

James Douglas Jr. Anatomy of an eclectic mind Immortal Melody A tribute to Dr. James Robert Adams Beating the Barriers Canadian cardiology pioneer Maude Abbott Quebec CONTENT HeritageNews EDITOR CHARLES BURY PRODUCTION & DESIGN DAN PINESE Pesident’s Message 3 Leaving Bedlam Rod MacLeod

PUBLISHER Letters 4 THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE HERITAGE NETWORK TimeLines 5 400-257 QUEEN STREET Here’s to history’s schoolmarms Dan Pinese SHERBROOKE (LENNOXVILLE) Memory lapses Dan Pinese QUEBEC Celtic cross on Grosse-Ile Marianna O’Gallagher J1M 1K7 Ste. Agathe, Sarnac Lake rekindle tradition Joseph Graham PHONE 1-877-964-0409 Anatomy of an Eclectic Mind 10 (819) 564-9595 The life and times of James Douglas Jr. Patrick Donovan FAX Dr. E.D. Worthington 14 564-6872 An early Quebec anaesthetist Charles Bury CORRESPONDENCE Immortal Melody 16 [email protected] James Robert Adams, music and medicine Joseph Graham WEBSITE Beating the Barriers 19 WWW.QAHN.ORG The legacy of Maude Abbott Dan Pinese The Unsung Genius 20 Reginald Fessenden Terry Skeats PRESIDENT St. Columban 24 RODERICK MACLEOD An Irish settlement remembered at last Sandra Stock EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Return to Hear 26 DWANE WILKIN Reading oral history Dan Pinese HERITAGE PORTAL COORDINATOR MATHEW FARFAN Book Reviews 27 OFFICE MANAGER The Scots of Montreal KATHY TEASDALE America Steppin out

Quebec Heritage Magazine is Photo Essay 29 produced on a bi-monthly basis by the Old-fashioned day Jacqueline Hyman Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support of The Department of Canadian Heritage and HindSight 30 Quebec’s Ministere de la Culture et A Progress of Germs Dwane Wilkin des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan umbrella Event Listings organization whose mission is to help 31 advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. Canada Post Publication Mail Front Page Photograph: Protestant Insane Asylum, Douglas Hospital, Agreement Number 405610004. Verdun (about 1890). Photograph courtesy of the McCord Museum Archives.

Correction: In the May-June issue, the images used in Joseph Graham’s article, “The Levines of Trout Lake” were not credited. The images were provided by Patty Brown from her private collection. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Leaving Bedlam by Rod MacLeod

rotestants are especially bad at ciety’s down-and-outs were housed nounced, adding with significant em- dealing with mental illness. with minimal care. One can read phasis “when cure is possible.” Not a Convinced that the fault lies “modern and scientific” as an answer storage facility, but a place where those Pnot in our stars but in our- to a problem of staffing: in Protestant “suffering from the saddest kind of af- selves, we are taught to be stoic and re- culture people, especially women, did fliction” could get help, even treat- gard insanity as a kind of personal fail- not take on the task of caring for down- ment. The key word here is “afflic- ing. As evidence I need look no fur- and-outs as a vocation, and so one had tion”—truly a startling notion: patients ther than to my own family: to my to cut corners. At any rate, there were to be seen as victims rather than mother, who would not sully her lips emerged the notion of a hospital where culprits, objects of pity rather than of with the word “depressed” until it was one went to be cured of what ailed one scorn. More than simply applying sci- too late to do much about it; to a (at least insofar as medical practice ence to the care of the sick, the cousin who was so convinced he was a would allow—which wasn’t far at all, founders had overturned centuries of failure in everybody’s eyes (it did not conviction that mental illness was help that his devoutly Baptist wife kept God’s way of saying you just weren’t telling him this) that he put a gun to good enough. his head; even to the couple of times in my own life when I qually innova- have looked back over a tive was the difficult period and asked new hospital’s myself why on earth I Ewillingness to hadn’t “gone to see accommodate people someone.” I know why from all social classes. I didn’t, of course: we By this I mean the rich are all sure that it’s just a as well as the poor, not question of effort and we the other way round: will be around that corner hospitals traditionally and right as rain. Certainly catered to those who could no call to go alarming people. not afford to die at home. Yes, Given this historical intolerance having private as well as public of mental problems, one must admire wards made for a two-tiered system the men who set about creating Mon- with all its implicit unfairness: private treal’s Protestant Hospital for the In- until they tumbled onto hygiene) rather patients had their own bedrooms and sane in the 1870s. By that time, the than simply wait it out under the care dining spaces, and ate bacon and eggs city’s Protestant community had creat- of dedicated nuns. The new approach for Sunday breakfast as well as jam in- ed all kinds of institutions, including required professionalization, and thus stead of syrup with their tea. But the schools, an orphanage, a cemetery, and emerged increasingly specialized doc- presence of the rich proved that hospi- a hospital. These were intended to be tors and nurses. tal care had ceased to be an act of char- public alternatives to the ones run by But how to deal with the insane? ity and become a public responsibility. religious orders, although in most cases For people who had passed beyond the The care received, the program of the religious orders were not aware pale of sanity there had to be some- stimulating activities, and the healthy they were being exclusive and the Grey thing better than the equivalent of Bed- environment were clearly more con- Nuns even called theirs “l’Hopital lam or, in the case of wealthy families, ducive to wellness than any home, no général”—though never “The Gener- shutting someone up in a tower à la matter how comfortable. al.” Protestants tended to see their in- Rochester’s first wife. The founders of Naturally it was important to find stitutions as modern and scientific, at Montreal’s new Protestant Hospital a suitable site. In addition to a quiet least so far as Victorians understood clearly had an agenda: “The institution atmosphere with fresh air the founders these terms. A hospital had to be a de- will not be a mere asylum, but a hospi- wanted the hospital supplied with veg- parture from the old Asylum where so- tal for the cure of Patients,” they an- etables and dairy products, which

Above: The Protestant Hosptital for the Insane, now The Douglas 3 Hospital (1880). Image courtesy of the Douglas Hospital website. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

meant looking to the farmland beyond named after the doctor who was one of Protestant Insane Asylum the limits of the town. Having ac- the hospital’s founders, was designed “probable causes of quired a 110-acre farm fronting on the by the firm of Edward and William S St. Lawrence and the Lower Lachine Maxwell. Recently it was restored to insanity” (1890 - 1910) Road the founders began the task of its original glory; in 2001 the project Men Women raising funds for construction. Even in was awarded the Orange prize by the these parts they met with resistant heritage group, Save Montreal. Having Abuse of opium 26 11 neighbours, who feared the new hospi- served for decades as a social area for Abuse of tobacco 2 0 tal would be a public nuisance, spread patients, the hall has become an out- Brain tumor 2 5 disease, and decrease property values. reach and learning centre—hence an Cerebral hemorrhage 12 8 Despite the protest, the hospital was ideal venue for QAHN. Change of life 0 53 completed in 1890, only nine years af- More than a collection of historic Disappointed affection 19 23 ter the founders were incorporated, and buildings, more than a vital community Domestic trouble 55 136 140 patients were admitted by the end institution, the Douglas stands for an Epilepsy 70 42 of that year. An east wing had to be attitude. Mental health is not about be- Excessive study 19 18 added two years later to provide spe- ing sane or insane, but about wellness, Fright 13 140 cial quarters for female patients, and and degrees thereof. Which is why Heredity 120 4 soon after a west wing was built for pa- QAHN is proud to present the Douglas Insomnia 8 11 tients with less severe problems, leav- this year with a special award for 125 Intemperance in drink 195 12 ing the main pavilion for staff quarters, years of innovation. Isolated life 3 5 kitchen and dining, and surgery. After Any of us might find ourselves Flu 18 2 1910 violent cases were accommodated “afflicted,” and all of us should spend Masturbation 56 14 in Northwest House. Over the follow- far more time than we do listening to Meningitis 3 122 ing years additional buildings were our bodies and taking whatever action Mental anxiety 143 8 added, including separate quarters for seems most appropriate, from an hour’s Monotonous work 3 17 the staff and a special pavilion for the rest or a brisk walk or a change of diet Financial difficulty 78 23 important business of recreation. or scenery to getting professional help. Religious excitement 19 2 It is in this last structure that the The alternative is to go the way of my Senility 75 6 QAHN board of directors will meet mother or my cousin or, well, God for- Syphilis 86 6 this coming September. Douglas Hall, bid. Vicious indulgences 20 5

Letters

Right on A breed apart New look for the News I have been enjoying reading Quebec I have enjoyed a first reading of the very Regular readers will have Heritage News for some time now and want interesting May-June issue of Quebec Her- noticed that this edition of the to congratulate you on its excellence. The itage News that just arrived, particularly the Quebec Heritage News has a May-June issue was exceptionally interesting article about the origins of Canadian Horse completely new look. We made to me, especially Sandra Stock’s article breeding in New France [“The Quiet Canadi- this change so the magazine will [“Farming among the Rocks”]. It was clear, an…”]. I have a friend named Kelly who be easier and more pleasant to concise, informative and interesting. She got owned a Canadian Horse, a huge stallion, as it exactly right, the history, the geography black as can be. Kelly was more of a horse read. This metamorphosis was and how the people really lived. I have never trader than a lover of horses, however, so he mainly due to the work of seen it summarized like this before. It is a does not own it any more. I intend to send QAHN executive director welcome addition to our local history, both him a copy of the article. I hope that the Dwane Wilkin, who got the urge for seniors like myself and others who are in- breed will be featured in some way in 2008 and then the money to hire sum- terested. when Quebec City celebrates its 400th an- mer intern and whiz kid Dan I would also like to commend Joe Gra- niversary. ham for his writing and his extensive re- Congratulations on a fine journal. Pinese, who performed the oper- search and knowledge of the area. ation. We hope that you enjoy it. Marianna O’Gallagher I know we do. Shirley Captain Quebec City, QC Charles Bury Milles Isles, QC Editor, Quebec Heritage News

4 JULY-AUGUST 2006

TIMELINES

Here’s to history’s schoolmarms Keeping the stories of one-room Townships’ schoolhouses alive by Dan Pinese embers of an Eastern Townships the basis of a collection of tapes, transcripts and oth- women’s club are helping to preserve er relevant material kept at the Eastern Townships an important chapter in the history of Research Centre at Bishop’s University in Mrural English education in Quebec by Lennoxville. collecting first-hand accounts from retired teachers The project was revived in January 2006 when it in the region who launched their careers in one-room was discovered that Mary Jean Woodard Bean, a new schoolhouses. lifetime member of the club, began her teaching ca- “If these stories were told to today’s generation, reer as a one-room schoolmistress near Mansonville they wouldn’t be believable,” said Beverly Taber during World War II. Smith, a member and former president of the Canadi- “It was certainly a much different experience an Federation of University Women (CFUW) Sher- than you get today,” said Bean, whose stories were brooke and District Club who is spearheading the recorded during the most recent phase of the oral history project. During wartime, many children in the Townships had to choose between learning at school and going to work on the family farm, a harsh fact of rural life that forever marked Bean’s recollections of the period. “I think my story gives a side-effect of the war that you won’t get from a textbook,” she said. Some of the women’s accounts seem extraordinary in hindsight, and preserving them is one of the principal goals of the project. All are based on first-hand, often personal and very moving experiences. “I was taking the names of the children down for the morning’s attendance, when a little girl from the back came up and told me that [another pupil] probably wouldn’t be in class today because his father hung himself the night before,” recalled Bean, who believes that group’s oral history project. her participation in the CFUW project will help to One-room schoolhouses played an important convey a broader knowledge of the past to future his- role in the lives of Quebec farming communities torians. from the early 1800s onward and were still serving The one-room schoolhouse oral history project is children in many regions of the province as late as run entirely by CFUW volunteers, who recently ac- the 1950s. Most of these women’s stories were never quired a grant through Bishop’s University to tran- written down and will probably be lost forever unless scribe the tape recordings. All the research material they are collected and transcribed soon. “Some of will be added to the existing collection at the Eastern these teachers are in their eighties and nineties now,” Townships Research Centre. Smith noted. The goal is to have completed fifty interviews The Canadian Federation of University Women Sher- with former teachers and students by September, brooke and District Club wants to continue its oral 2006. history project and is looking for teachers who The club’s interest in one-room schoolhouses taught students in one-room schools in the Eastern and the stories of women who ran them isn’t new. Townships. If you know anyone who would like to be Members of the CFUW first began interviewing for- part of this project, please call Beverly Smith at mer Townships teachers back in mid-1990s, forming (819) 826-3939 or e-mail at [email protected].

Above: The Hyatt One-Room Schoolhouse near Milby. 5 Photograph taken by Dan Pinese. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Memory lapses Canadian museums make their pitch for stable federal funding by Dan Pinese long hoped-for enquiry into the de- 1970s that’s “completely out of date and inca- clining health of Canada’s museums pable of meeting the needs of museums today.” could clear the way for a new public In particular, museums are warning of dire A funding policy when Parliament re- consequences for many Canadian heritage col- sumes sitting in September, offering a glimmer lections because the financial cost of properly of hope to struggling non-profit heritage institu- caring for artifacts continues to dwarf museum tions across the country. operating revenues. It’s estimated that more than Much will depend on whether the Conserva- $100 million worth of artifacts are donated to tive party’s minority government in Ottawa in- Canadian museums each year. However, muse- tends to heed the advice of Parliament’s all-par- ums contend that they must maintain and pre- ty Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage serve these items without a cent of federal and its own election vow to develop a new vi- funds. “As a result, the donations are actually a sion for Canada’s museums. costly operating liability,” according to the In a brief presented to the Standing Commit- CMA. tee last June, the Canadian Museums Association All federal political parties have publicly ac- (CMA), a national organization representing knowledged the crisis facing Canada’s museum 2,500 institutions across the country, argued that community including “the federal govern- the Conservatives, who “ Sometimes federal “Museums are highly ment has a legitimate during the federal role in supporting mu- election campaign last grants only cover some creative—they are real seums in the national winter deplored the interest, and in pre- precarious state of funding and we have to scroungers when it serving Canada’s her- funding promised to match what we receive comes to funding—but itage assets,” but noted address the crisis in that very few of its Canadian museums. with our own money, these other programs members receive any Any forthcoming significant support parliamentary debate so we don’t always ap- are not designed for from either federal or over Ottawa’s role in ply because we don’t museums” provincial govern- the upkeep of muse- ments. ums is certain to raise have that extra cash.” — Canadian Museum Many volunteer- questions surrounding run heritage museums, the fate of the Muse- — Heather Darch, Association including some of ums Assistance Pro- Quebec’s oldest, don’t gram (MAP), a crucial curator, Missisquoi get any stable support source of public funds Museum from the federal government, at all. dispersed to museums Heather Darch, curator of the Missisquoi and other heritage in- Museum, a historical society founded in 1899 stitutions through the Department of Canadian that later became a museum in 1964, states that Heritage. The annual MAP budget of $9 million though it is possible for smaller museums to re- hasn’t budged since 1972 while increasingly nar- ceive federal funding, there are often restrictions row eligibility criteria and onerous reporting re- that prevent local museums like Missisquoi from quirements effectively discourage or prohibit benefiting from federal assistant programs. museums from seeking federal support, accord- “Sometimes federal grants only cover some ing to museum administrators. And the pro- funding and we have to match what we receive gram’s emphasis on short-term project funding with our own money, so we don’t always apply leaves museums scrambling to meet cash short- because we don’t have that extra cash,” said falls by seeking support through a patchwork of Darch. other programs. In June, the Standing Committee adopted a “Museums are highly creative—they are real resolution urging the government to implement scroungers when it comes to funding—but these policy proposals put forth by the previous Liber- other programs are not designed for museums,” al government based largely on consultations according to the CMA. with the CMA, which has dismissed Ottawa’s The Missisquoi Museum, for example, re- current museum policy as a relic of the early ceives less than half its operating revenue from

TIMELINES 6 JULY-AUGUST 2006 the provincial government, a grant that has not session of Parliament. Of course museums will increased in the past 20 years. The museum re- be competing against other government prior- lies on volunteer-run fund-raising efforts like ites, and in light of recent expenditures on Na- apple-pie sales, craft-sales, silent auctions and tional Defence, this competition is sure to be the sale of memberships and books to cover its fierce. operating short-falls. What the CMA’s 2,500 members want is broad-ranging, multi-year support for ailing museums “in order to reposition these institutions, stabilize them, better preserve their col- Bridging the gap lections, and engage more Canadians in their activities.” The museum association is recom- From an interview with Elizabeth May that appeared in mending a six-fold increase in annual federal the spring 2006 edition of Heritage Magazine, a publi- spending on museums, from $9 million to $75 cation of the Heritage Canada Foundation. May, a re- million. cipient of the Order of Canada, was for many years the Because MAP funding has not increased, national voice for the international environmental applying for other federal subsidies intended to group, Sierra Club. She resigned earlier this year to run preserve the nation’s heritage, such as the for the leadership of the federal Green Party. Moveable Cultural Property Program and similar incentive programs to encourage museum et me tell you a story that shows how this donations, is simply regarded as a burden by country doesn’t get heritage. My family’s many of the CMA’s members. business for many years was a restaurant and museum on a schooner moored at Margaree n June, 2006, Bloc Québécois MP, Maka L Harbour on Cape Breton Island. It was a fishing Kotto, put forth a motion calling on the schooner, the Marion Elizabeth, built in 1918 by Smith federal government to implement of a new and Rhuland of Lunenburg, the same firm that built the I Canadian museum policy. The motion Bluenose. In fact, it was the last surviving Bluenose passed by the Standing Committee on Canadian schooner of that era. Even the Fisheries Museum of the Heritage urged the government to implement as Atlantic in Lunenburg doesn’t have a real schooner — it soon as possible the new museum policy dis- has the Theresa E. Connor (1938), which was built with cussed in 2005 and to respect the work and con- an engine. Our schooner had been converted into a sultations previously undertaken by the Depart- restaurant in the late 1950s and was sitting in a concrete ment. It also strongly recommended that any cradle in the Margaree River. It was a big tourist attrac- new policy be reviewed by the standing com- tion with a dinning room on the deck and the Schooner mittee before its introduction in the House. Museum in the hull. Next to it was Farley Mowat’s fa- The passage of the motion has been the re- mous boat, the Happy Adventure, the boat he wrote sult of multiple actions of the part of the Cana- about in The Boat That Wouldn’t Float. Because of all dian Museum Association (CMA), calling for an this, we called our place “Schooner Village.” examination of the state of Canada’s museums, Around 2002, the Government of Nova Scotia de- which the CMA says are under-funded and lack- cided it wanted to build a new bridge to replace the old ing a comprehensive policy from which to ob- one that went right by our schooner. The shorter dis- tain government assistance. tance to bridge the gap to Belle Cote was to go where In addition to the problems associated with the schooner was and they proceeded to expropriate it. low federal funding, the CMA also cites prob- My mother and I tried negotiating with them to ensure lems with administrative procedures, lengthy that the schooner would either be moved or kept in federal reporting systems, and assistance crite- place. But they expropriated and before we could do ria that often exclude most museums from fed- anything they had demolished the Happy Adventure and eral dollars. the Marion Elizabeth and hauled them to the local Though standing committees only have the dump. power to study and report on items relating to In the period leading up to this we had written peo- the mandate, management and operation of their ple like Sheila Copps, then Minister of Canadian Her- respective government departments, the CMA itage, asking whether they could designate the boat or hs reacted positively to the political support it intervene. They all said they had no budget to help. The is receiving from Heritage committee members. Nova Scotia government couldn’t have cared less. It In a press release, the CMA indicated that the was so frustrating. I couldn’t understand how a country passage of the June motion showed that there is could so completely misunderstand its heritage. This interest among politicians in the plight and country is so disconnected from its culture. problems facing Canadian museums. The CMA remains optimistic about the fall

7 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS It stood the test of time and memory Revisiting the Celtic cross of Grosse-Île by Marianna O’Gallagher

t is very likely that the Celtic memorial cross colleagues but mentioned almost as an afterthought on Grosse-Île is the tallest Celtic cross in the that 5,424 persons fleeing from pestilence and world. It stands on Telegraph Hill, the high- famine in Ireland had found in North America but I est part of that small island and was unveiled a grave. there on August 15, 1909, hence it will celebrate The Ancient Order of Hibernians was a society its 100th anniversary next year. of Irishmen who had a broad mandate of helping Hewn from Irish stone and sitting on a base of fellow immigrants in both Canada and the United Stanstead granite the monument came into exis- States. Their activities included economic and tence in 1897 when the Ancient Order of Hiberni- monetary help offered to immigrants in distress, as ans of Quebec seemed to suddenly wake up and re- well as insurance policies to the wider immigrant alize that it was 50 years since the worst year of population. In Quebec City towards the end of the the so-called potato famine in Ireland, a famine 1890s, the association offered Gaelic language that had driven thousands of their kin, and perhaps courses, and history lessons, sponsored a marching even themselves, out of that lush green land. The band, and a colourful regiment, the Hibernian story of the quarantine station at Grosse-Île was Knights, who, much like the Papal Zouaves, could known to many Irish Quebecers, and indeed to be seen in their proud uniforms on festive occa- French-Canadians too. Several of the executive sions. There were units in Quebec and Montreal, members of the AOH went down river to visit the and in the other provinces, as well as in the United place which had been the principal hospital island States. in 1847. They were appalled to realize that the The Ancient Order in Quebec set to work im- graveyard was completely overgrown with the wild mediately to find the money to “raise a suitable brush and they were abashed to see that the monu- monument,” as the correspondence of the day indi- ment raised by the quarantine station supervisor cates. The society was well established, and had a Dr. George Mellis Douglas, honoured his medical magazine with a wide circulation. The Quebec

TIMELINES 8 Above: Unveiling of memorial cross at Grosse Ile (1909). Image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada. JULY-AUGUST 2006

Branch then organized a contest for the monu- raise the cross on the height of land known as Tele- ment’s design and levied a tax of ten cents on all graph Hill, a hundred feet above the river. members in the United States and Canada. The Celtic cross is still visible from afar as one The results of the contest showed that there approaches Grosse-Île by boat or plane. There are was general inclination towards a Celtic cross as four panels on the plinth: one gives the date of the the proper form in which to honour their fellow unveiling; two honour the clergy who looked after Celts. The then secretary of the Order in Quebec the sick, the dying and the orphan who were vic- City was Jeremiah Gallagher from Macroom in tims of the tragedy of 1847. The fourth, in the an- County Cork, Ireland, who had received his Cana- cient Irish script, records the sentiment of the Irish dian education at the classical college of Ste. Anne of the time that their people had been driven out of de-la-Pocatière. He was licensed as a Dominion Ireland by an artificial famine. The inscription land surveyor and civil engineer. Because of the ends: “The Gaels in America raise this monument latter training—and no doubt because of his ardent in their name and to their honour. God save Ire- love of his heritage— Jeremiah was given the task land.” of putting the idea into practical form. He drew a The monument has withstood the embattling el- general design of the cross on the wall in the ements for almost a hundred years. It took a stroke kitchen of his home at 13 Conroy Street in Quebec of lightning to knock out part of the halo during the City. 1940s, but that was repaired in 1952. During World Gallagher’s son Dermot, my father, recounted War II when the St. Lawrence River endured the that as more and more money came into Quebec, stealthy presence of an occasional German U-Boat, the drawing on the wall got bigger and bigger. In there were actually some Canadian officials who the end the cross was 40 feet high. planned on dismantling the cross lest it be used as a The dimensions of the huge stone blocks hav- landmark or a beacon for those submarines. ing been set out, and the design established, these Irish visitors to the island of Grosse-Île today were published in the Order’s magazine and bids shudder at the thought. requested: and bids indeed came in from several quarries. The Fallon Brothers of Cornwall, Ontario Grosse-Île with its huge and imposing monument is were assigned the job of cutting the stone, which open to visitors all summer long. Parks Canada was later assembled on the island. The fact that manages this National Historic Park. Visitors are one of the brothers was a priest probably helped in welcomed by guides who tell the story of the is- the choice of that company. The Order had already land’s varied history and point out all the monu- received a permit from the federal government to ments, old and new (Tel: 1-888-Grosse Ile). Ste. Agathe, Saranac Lake rekindle twin tradition Resort towns have shared common health vocation for 98 years by Joseph Graham n July 27, Ste. Agathe received a dele- mann, who had built the chest hospital in Saranac gation from Saranac Lake. Laurent Pa- Lake. quette, the mayor, as well as Ms. Carol The two towns have much in common today, O St. Jean, the vice president of the having both benefited from the urbanisation that Chamber of Commerce, Terry Turcot, president of came with their health-treatment facilities and the the Heritage Committee and others were present to railroad, and having grown into important recre- greet Thomas Michaels, the mayor of Saranac ational and service centres. Both live in the shad- Lake, who came with Edward Long, the president ow of neighbouring tourist destinations, Lake of their sister cities committee and Sylvie Nelson, Placid being a similar distance from Saranac Lake the director of their Chamber of Commerce as as Mont Tremblant is from Ste. Agathe, and both well as several others. The two towns have shared having remarkably similar histories, similar archi- interests since 1908 when a Montrealer who was tecture, almost identical elevations and similar cli- cured of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake invited the mates. Both are also twinned independently with whole Ste. Agathe municipal council to visit different towns in France, Ste. Agathe with Langy- Saranac Lake for a week at his expense. Lorne sur-Marne and Saranac Lake with Entrains-sur- McGibbon, who was surprised that a Montrealer Nohain. An added bonus to the visit was that Ken- would have to go to another country to benefit neth and Noella Weissberg of Entrains-sur-Nohain from the rest cure for tuberculosis, was deter- accompanied the delegation from Saranac Lake. mined to invite this American expertise back A local delegation returned the visit on August home, and in the process, he and his committed 17 to celebrate an arts festival with their hosts in associates hired the architects Scopes and Feust- Saranac Lake, New York.

9 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

ANATOMY OF AN ECLECTIC MIND The life and times of James Douglas Jr. by Patrick Donovan

ames Douglas Jr. (1837-1918) grew up in a burgh. By the end of his studies, however, Dou- home full of semi-dissected corpses on glas had second thoughts: “When therefore I was Quebec City’s Côte de la Montagne. His fa- licensed to teach,” he wrote, “my faith in Christ J ther had earned the reputation of being the was stronger, but my faith in denominational fastest surgeon in town, capable of performing an Christianity was so weak that I could not sign the amputation in less than one minute. Douglas sen- Confession of Faith and therefore was never or- ior ran a medical school in the basement of dained.” Douglas junior was granted a li- his home where students reported that cense to preach but never became a full “men’s, women’s and children’s minister. This secularism remained heads galore-were ranged on with Douglas all his life. He was shelves.” Douglas had previ- primarily responsible for mak- ously worked as a ship sur- ing Queen’s into a non-de- geon and had bled natives nominational University in a failed colony on the when he served as Chan- Honduran coast. His last cellor in 1912. stop before Quebec was In the 1860s, Dou- the United States, glas junior helped his where he had worked father at the Beauport as a medical teacher. Asylum while study- before fleeing from ing toward a career in authorities after ille- medicine. He worked gally unearthing the as a librarian at the corpse of a prominent Literary and Histori- citizen for one of his cal Society of Que- anatomy classes. De- bec, and later became spite this inauspicious the youngest president start, Dr. Douglas in the history of the went on to settle in Society. There, he pre- Quebec City and to sented numerous lec- found the Beauport Lu- tures to the Society’s natic Asylum, a pioneer- members, the first on ing institute of mental Egyptian hieroglyphics health that has grown into and mummies, and later the Centre Hospitalier Robert ones on mining and geologi- Giffard. cal issues. Douglas senior transmitted When his interest in mining his thirst for adventure to his son, and geology eventually supplanted taking him on numerous expeditions to his interest in medicine, Douglas em- Egypt and the Holy Land in the mid-19th cen- barked on a third career. He describes his edu- tury. He brought back several mummies from cation in this field with characteristic humour: these journeys, selling them to museums in North The ten years 1865-1875 was a decade of America. One of these, sold in Niagara Falls, was acute anxiety . . . I started on my industrial career recently discovered to be the corpse of Ramesses I. with a general education, a license to preach, a James Douglas, Jr. initially chose a different considerable knowledge of medicine and surgery, career than his father, studying to become a min- and an acquaintance from childhood with the ister in the Presbyterian Church. He studied at crazy side of humanity. Queen’s College, Kingston and later went to Edin- In 1869, Douglas’s scientific experiments

10 Above: James Douglas, Jr (1863). Image courtesy of the McCord Museum Archives. JULY-AUGUST 2006 with the assistance of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt at Laval Patrick Donovan is Central-Eastern Quebec direc- University led him to a scientific discovery that tor for QAHN. He is a recent graduate of the Her- was to change his life. Together, they elaborated a itage Preservation program at Université de Mon- patent for the “Hunt and Douglas” process of ex- tréal and currently works at the Literary and His- tracting copper from its ore. Although Douglas had torical Society of Quebec. no formal education in chemistry, he was consid- ered competent enough to fill the Chair of Chem- istry at Morrin College from 1871 to 1874 and his evening lectures were among the most popular in the history of the College.

ouglas’s patents attracted attention in Douglas mummy the United States, and he began working for a Pennsylvanian copper company in no ordinary stiff D 1875. In 1881, he was recruited by the trading company Phelps Dodge and helped trans- n his trip to Egypt in 1860, James form it into the Fortune 500 company it is today. Douglas bought a half dozen mum- Phelps Dodge was founded in the mid-19th centu- mies. But he never knew their real story to trade American cotton for British copper, tin, ry, which was only told in 2003. That and other metals. The company used this copper to O September, a most unusual shipment from Atlanta produce thousands of miles of wire, including the Georgia arrived in Egypt. A king was coming wire used for the first transcontinental telegraph home. Three thousand years after his death, and a line. Eventually, Phelps Dodge became interested century and a half since he was taken from his in mining its own copper. The company sent James native land to sojourn at Niagara Falls, Ramesses Douglas to Arizona to investigate mining opportu- I landed at Cairo airport. nities in 1881. This eventually led to the creation Ramesses I was the founder of the 19th Dy- of the Copper Queen Mine, which became one of nasty of Egypt, father of Seti I, and grandfather the top copper-producing mines in the world. of Ramesses II, often called Ramesses the Great. James Douglas also founded the copper smelting After ruling only two years, around 1291 BC, Mexican border town of Douglas, Arizona, where Ramesses I died and was buried in his unfinished approximately 15,000 people live today. He even- tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Within four hun- tually became president of Phelps Dodge. dred years of the burial, his body had been moved Throughout this time, Douglas maintained an from his sarcophagus to a replacement coffin, and interest in Canadian history and heritage. He wrote taken for safety (and other reasons), from the several books on the subject in his lifetime, name- royal necropolis. Though the complete itinerary ly Canadian Independence, Old France in the New cannot be traced, his mummy certainly rested in World, and New England and New France-Con- temporary locations before priests and officials in trasts and Parallels in Colonial History. In addition the reign of Sheshonk II of the Twenty-Second to bailing Queen’s University out of a financial Dynasty found what they hoped would be an eter- crisis with approximately a million dollars from nal resting place for him. By 890 BC, they had his own pocket, Douglas also established the first sealed the replacement coffin into a tomb high in chair in Canadian and Colonial History there in the cliffs above Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el 1910. A man of comical disposition, he accompa- Bahri. nied the gift with a throne-like chair carved with In 1817, Giovanni Baptista Belzoni opened Canadian symbols. He also financed many li- Ramesses I's original tomb, known today as KV braries, such as the library of the Literary and His- 16. Wooden guardian figures and strange images torical Society of Quebec, where interest from his of underworld deities greeted the explorer, and donations are still used to purchase over 30 books beautiful paintings from the Book of Gates deco- per month. rated the walls of the burial chamber, but the Douglas also donated to several medical caus- king’s mummy was not there. His fate was comes, most notably the Douglas Hospital in Montreal. pletely unknown until 1881, when Emile This institution pursued the cause which had been Brugsch, acting head of the Antiquities Service, taken up by his father, a pioneer in the treatment entered the tomb in the cliffs, DB 320. An amaz- of mental health in Quebec. Douglas’ donations ing array of royal mummies, including Seti I and helped keep the hospital alive in the institution’s Ramesses II lay in replacement coffins, crowded early years. Originally called the Protestant Hospi- into a long undecorated corridor, stripped of their tal for the Insane, the institution took on the name gold. Fragments of Ramesses I’s replacement cof- of Douglas Hospital in 1965 as a tribute to James fin were found, but where was his body? Douglas, Jr. and his father. There are many chapters in the story of the

11 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS life and afterlife of Ramesses I. One is the tale of a family of local guides on the West Bank who had found the cache of royal mummies sometime Cholera was a between 1860 and 1871. After the Abd el Rassul family had explored the tomb, they began selling career for Grosse-Île the contents. boss Douglas: o avert government intervention, the family were careful to sell only a few artifacts at a time. Their agent was Adapted from a historic profile by Gaspé of Yesterday T Mustapha Aga Ayat. Mustafa was a wise author Ken Annett, first published in The Spec news- and hospitable man worthy of his own book. As paper in the early 1980s. well as serving as Vice-Consular Agent at Luxor for Britain, Belgium and Russia for over forty leeing from authorities in New York state af- years, he and his son dealt in antiquities. Around ter rousing public indignation over the dis- 1860 they sold a mummy and coffins to James section of cadavers, the young Scottish-born Douglas Jr. Douglas was buying Egyptian antiqui- Fdoctor James Douglas arranged to come to ties for his friend Sidney Barnett. Barnett and his Quebec City in 1826 where his younger brother father, Thomas, owned and operated a Museum in George Mellis Douglas soon joined him as appren- Niagara Falls. They wanted to add an Egyptian tice. Not long after petitioning and receiving his med- component to their attraction. When DB 320 was ical license from Governor Dalhousie in 1827, how- finally located and cleared by the French Service ever, it seems the younger Douglas, also a graduate of des Antiquites in 1881, only the damaged replace- the University of Edinburgh's school of medicine, ment coffin containing some loose bandages re- moved to New Carlisle on the Gaspé coast, where he mained of the burial of Ramesses I. The mummy not only practised medicine, but also served as a jus- had probably been moved into a set of more tice of the peace. In 1833 he set up a partnership with durable, attractive, and saleable coffins. Any iden- another Gaspé doctor, Robert Fitton. tifying documentation which had survived from These were the years of mass migration from Eu- Ancient times was lost. Neither Mustafa nor Dou- rope to the New World and outbreaks of disease, ag- glas would have had any way of identifying the gravated by long trans-ocean voyages and primitive mummy, nor even of suspecting that it was royal. shipboard conditions, frequently appeared in Gaspé For the next 120 years or so, the royal mum- ports. The historical record shows that English med- my became part of the story of the Niagara Falls ical practitioners were serving the district at least as Museum. This privately owned museum was a real early as 1784, when Loyalists first began to settle on cabinet of curiosities, filled with treasures and tri- the Bay of Chaleur, but professionally trained doctors fles from a dozen cultures. Along with eight other remained very scarce during early years of settle- Ancient Egyptians, mastodon and whale skele- ment. tons, two-headed calves and collections of miner- One observer, Dr. Anthony von Iffland, who als and weapons from all over the world, Ramess- came to the Gaspé to vaccinate against smallpox, has es crossed the Niagara River from Canada to New left an account of the ship, Royal Edward, which York State, and then back again as the creation of landed at the Port of Gaspé in 1818 with a number of national parks appropriated the Museum’s prime her immigrant passengers suffering from a contagious locations. The mummies were sometimes dis- fever. (Major Hugh O'Hara, one of the sons of the played inside their coffins and sometimes beside Gaspé pioneer Felix O'Hara, spared no effort to care them. for the sick, but he caught the fever himself and died During the collection’s relocations, some of within a month.) the bodies and coffins got mixed up. The final In 1832 the dreaded cholera began an epidemic stop was a former corset factory on the Canadian of new, monumental and tragic proportions to Lower side, with a wonderful view of the American Canada, one which would shape the destinies of Falls. While the mummies were in Niagara Falls, many families. Moving to meet this major public many enthusiasts and scholars looked at the hand- health threat the Government of Quebec established a some mummy with the Ramesside profile and Provincial Health Bureau and established quarantine wondered if he might be one of the missing kings stations for in-bound ships at Gaspé and at Grosse-Île of Egypt. Finally, in 1999, the whole Egyptian in the St. Lawrence just east of Quebec City. A whole collection was purchased by the Michael C. Car- new medical calling for George Douglas began with los Museum of Emory University, Atlanta. There his appointment as superintendent of the Gaspé quar- it was determined that the mummy had a royal antine station—a posting that likely brought an end to past, and Emory University decided to send it his short-lived New Carlisle medical practice. It back where it belongs. however, did not end his interest and concern for the

12 JULY-AUGUST 2006 many friends he had made there. These apparently in- The careers of the Douglas off-spring took quite cluded several of the most prominent and powerful different paths. The eldest son, Campbell Mellis Dou- Gaspesian families of the time. glas, graduated as a doctor, joined the medical staff of In 1836 Dr. Poole, superintendent of the infamous the British Army and was posted to the Far East where Grosse-Île quarantine station, he won the Victoria Cross for resigned from his post, leav- singular bravery in an action ing George Douglas to take in the Andaman Islands. He his place. Here the young rose to be Lieut. Colonel in Douglas doctor from Edin- the Medical Service and on re- burgh would serve for the tirement practised medicine in next twenty-eight years. Canada. The Riel Rebellion The tragic story of the brought him out of retirement cholera epidemics and the and he served again with the history of the Grosse-Île Army until 1902 with the rank quarantine station where of Brigadier Surgeon. George Douglas served has Another son, Archibald, been recorded in great detail chose a naval career, rising to in books and scholarly arti- become Admiral Sir Archibald cles and continues to interest Douglas of the British Navy. contemporary historians. His brother, Charles, chose Somewhat overlooked is the mechanical engineering as his toll it took on the doctor's career. own health. On June 1, 1864, George Prescott Douglas, Douglas travelled to his coun- son of Dr. Douglas's second try home on Île-aux-Reaux marriage, was brought up in and there the following day England by his mother's fami- he ended his own life. His re- ly and later emigrated to South mains rest near those of his Africa, where he died in 1903. elder brother James in the Justyn Douglas followed Mount Hermon Cemetery at Sillery. his father's profession as a doctor but practised in Eng- It seems appropriate to add some brief, personal land. Daughter Agnes, married and lived in England. notes regarding Dr. Douglas. His first wife, Charlotte The Douglas family name continues to be perpet- Saxton Campbell, daughter of a prominent Quebec uated in Quebec: the Douglas Hospital in Verdun, of City notary, bore five children before her early death course, bears the name of this prominent family as in 1852 at the age of 32 years. He subsequently remar- does Douglas Hall at McGill University in Montreal ried in England with Susan Cleghorn but she died in and the Douglas Fund of the Literary and Historical 1860 leaving a son only two weeks old. Society of Quebec.

Above: George Mellis Douglas (1861). Image courtesy of the McCord Museum archives.

morrinULTURAL ENTRE C C HERITAGE SITE Your portal to the heritage of English-speakers in Quebec City

Celebrate the Morrin Centre Inauguration and the Celtic Festival from September 1st to 3rd

Visit our charming Victorian An impressive heritage site that has library, home of Canada’s oldest housed two prisons and a learned society. Scottish college.

MORRIN CENTRE 44, CHAUSSÉE DES ÉCOSSAIS, QUÉBEC, (QUÉBEC) G1R 4H3, TEL: (418) 694-9147, EMAIL [email protected]

13 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

DR. E.D. WORTHINGTON An early Quebec anaesthetist by A.J. Holland

lthough it is impossible to capacity in both Fenian raids. In tised there for over half a century. He say with any certainty who 1842 Worthington temporarily re- received an M. A. from the Universi- gave the first ether anaes- signed his army commission, and ty of Bishop's College and, in 1868, A thetic in Lower Canada went to Scotland, where he received the C.M.M.D. from McGill Universi- (Quebec), it is well documented that a doctorate in medicine from St. An- ty. For some years he was one of the Dr. James Douglas in Quebec Governors of the College of city, Dr. Horace Nelson of Physicians and Surgeons of Montreal, and Dr. E.D. Wor- Lower Canada and helped in- thington of Sherbrooke had all stigate the organization of the independently and more or less Canadian Medical Association. simultaneously reported the He thought that he had successful administration of performed the first capital op- ether anaesthesia. erations under ether (March Worthington’s life reads 14, 1847) and chloroform like a Boy's Own Annual ad- (January 24, 1848) in Canada venture tale. Luckily he, unlike and it seems from his descrip- so many of his contemporaries, tions that he was both surgeon was a prolific writer and some and anaesthetist. The descrip- of his essays were collected af- tions of his anaesthetics are ter his death into a small book clear and succinct. They are entitled “Reminiscences of Stu- also remarkable because they dent Life and Practice.” He show Worthington’s apprecia- was born in Ireland, in Balli- tion of the need for a valve nahill, on December 1, 1820, system to prevent re-breathing, and at the age of two came and for his awareness of the with his parents to Quebec side-effects of the drugs he City. There were no medical was using. It is interesting that schools in Canada so in 1834 he did not always produce un- the young Worthington was in- consciousness in his patients, dentured for 7 years with Dr. but rather a “twilight” state James Douglas. At that time with insensibility to pain com- the apprentices lived in the bined with a retained ability to house of their mentor and respond to commands. He gave anatomical dissections were a (literally) hair-raising de- done in the house. Dr. Wor- scription of an ether confla- thington later describes his par- gration during the course of an ticipation in grave digging to anaesthetic—probably one of obtain specimens. His appren- the earliest recorded descrip- ticeship was eventually reduced to drew’s and licentiates from Glasgow tions of this complication. five years in order that he could ac- and finally from the University of cept an appointment as assistant sur- Edinburgh, which was initially reluc- orthington was the first geon to H.M. 56th Foot, and subse- tant to give him a licentiate because to use chloroform in quently to H.M. 68th Light Infantry. of his poor knowledge of Latin. He Canada. On January 24, His interest and involvement with the returned to Canada in 1843 and re- W 1848 he anaesthetized a army began in 1837 when he served ceived the license of the Montreal lady for the reduction of a dislocated as a private in the Quebec regiment Medical Board. hip. This anaesthetic was only par- of Volunteer Light Infantry. He also Almost immediately Wortrhing- tially successful, but on the following saw active service in a professional ton located in Sherbrooke and prac- day he anaesthetized a child, with

14 Above: Doctor E. D. Worthington (1863). Image courtesy of the McCord Museum archives. JULY-AUGUST 2006 complete success, for removal of a case was one of extensive disease of valve, the objection to inhaling car- tumour from the hand. Nor was his the ankle joint, involving the lower bonic gas again into the lungs was medicine all practised in an urban en- bones of the foot, and lower end of done away with, by simply allowing vironment. Many times he travelled the shaft of the tibia and fibula, the the patient, after a full inspiration 30 miles on horseback, to operate in result of an accident received seven from the bag, to expire through the a log cabin. From the outset, Dr. nose, for three or four times, Worthington appreciated the val- when the nostrils were kept ue of anaesthesia. His popularity closed, and the beating confined and reputation for humaneness to the bladder. From this time were due not only to his personal about six full inspirations suf- qualities but also to his use of ficed to produce a complete ef- anaesthesia for surgical proce- fect; the eyes turned up under the dures. upper lid and became fixed; his Although a surgeon by train- wrist was pinched, and he was ing and inclination, E.D.Worhing- asked if he felt pain; he laughed, ton could also truly be called a pi- and said, “Oh no, I just feel—no oneer anaesthetist. At his death on pain at all.” The operation was February 25, 1895 The Medical then commenced, and terminated Age wrote: “His whole life was without his evincing, in any way, intimately interwoven with the that he was at all conscious of the medical history of Canada, and least feeling of pain. He retained was an integral part of the history his consciousness, talked ration- of the province of Quebec. It is ally, and made some very witty the lot of few men to be so noble, remarks in answer to questions so distinguished, so loved, and so put to him, converting the scene missed.” from one of a most painful to one of an excessively ludicrous char- Source: A.J. Holland, MB acter. Both during the operation, FFARCS, Winnipeg, Canadian and afterwards, he expressed Journal of Anaesthesia, March himself as knowing perfectly 1990 well what he was doing, and the different stages of the proceed- ing, but at no time did he feel Pass the bottle pain. Indeed, after it was over he kindly volunteered to have half a dozen legs taken off, always pro- Dr. E.D. Worthington wrote the vided he was plentifully supplied following lines only six days after his or eight years ago. The patient, a man with the gas. Alternate inhalations of pioneering operation in the Eastern aged 30, was quite willing, indeed gas with atmospheric air sufficed to Townships. anxious, upon a fair representation of keep up the effect, except at one time the facts, to try any means that prom- when he had a presentiment of pain, Case of the Amputation of a Leg ised to lessen the dreadful pain of an and gave the word to “pass the bot- operation. A large ox bladder, with a tle”, which he afterwards seemed to *** stop cock attached, a mouth-piece, cherish as a bosom friend. The effect Patient Under the Influence of made of thick leather, covered with terminated as the dressings were Sulphuric Ether Vapour black silk and well padded around completed, leaving no visible argu- the edges, with a connecting long ments against the use of ether, and s experiments are being brass tube that had done service as an many quieting ones of its advantage. daily made to test the effi- umbrella handle in many a shower, As far as this case goes, it is most ciency of the inhalation of formed an apparatus that, though convincing, and I offer it as one tend- A the vapour of ether, as a rude looking, and bearing marks of ing to show that, nonwithstanding means of preventing pain in surgical having been got up in haste, present- particular idiosyncrasies, in its gener- operations, will you allow me to con- ed withal a very businesslike, and, al application the discovery is one tribute one to the list of successful for the country, tolerably professional that cannot fail to be of infinite ad- cases. appearance. A couple of ounces of vantage in the hands of the surgeon, On Thursday, the 11th (March ether were poured into the bladder, and if to the surgeon, why not to the 1847 - ed.), I performed amputation which was then filled with air from a physician and the accoucheur? below the knee, assisted by Drs. An- bellows. Not having time or ingenu- drews and Rogers, of Eaton. The ity sufficient to construct a double —Sherbrooke, March 20, 1847

Above: An early double-valve delivery system for 15 carbonic gas. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

IMMORTAL MELODY Jazzman James Robert Adams found the cure for aging in music and science by Joseph Graham

“Dr. Adams, I have known you for some time, ready smile and a provocative question. He lived and I know that your title is doctor, but I know lit- in a large home that had been built by his great-un- tle about your career.” cle Horsley Townsend, and he called the place “Uncle Horsley’s.” It took me years to discover was driving the car, and I had just pointed it that Uncle Horsley was more than just the name of south on the Laurentian Autoroute, headed to a sound studio, because Dr. Adams never volun- a rendezvous in Mon- teered any information that I treal, an hour away. I he did not see as pertinent had worked for Dr. Adams to the conversation, and for a few years, looking af- most of the time, any con- ter some of his real estate, versation was held like a and while I had enjoyed meeting with him as chair- many interesting discus- man. I often joined him for sions on all manner of sub- lunch, and the pattern never jects, I did not know what varied. I waited as he went he had done as a doctor. He through an agenda that owned and flew a float- seemed quite clear to him, plane, played the piano and and I always knew that I the bass, had a sound studio would be expected to report in his house, was a very as the department head of good cartoonist and was several different depart- elderly and not in good ments, including informa- health. He owned large tion on the market and tracts of valuable land, news of my children. In married late in life and had fairness to him, there was a daughter who was in always a category for Japan. ‘varia,’ during which I “Do you want the story could bring up anything of my life?” he asked. that I wished. Should I do “I would be very inter- so, however, I had better be ested.” ready to have it scrutinized, “Would you like the short version or the long challenged and dismissed if I could not explain one?” myself. One topic that generally heated our blood “We have a long road ahead of us. Would you was economics, because here we were very far have time to tell me the long one?” apart. Rob was as close to an American Republican “Alright,” he began. “When I was a young as a Canadian could be, and could argue his posi- man, I thought that aging may not be inevitable, tions skilfully, even if he failed to convince me to but could be a disease, and I determined to find the change mine. The one thing we agreed upon was cure. I studied really hard and worked for many the coming crash, which we are happily still await- years, but one day I noticed that I was aging, so I ing. quit.” The large house, an old and seedy mansion fin- I drove on in silence for a moment before I re- ished outside in pink stucco, was as intriguing as alized that he had finished telling me the long ver- its occupant. Never sure which door to use, I en- sion of his career. We had not covered two kilome- tered by a door in the very centre of the large front tres. façade, leading to an unimposing, narrow corridor James Robert Adams was a big man, and when graced by a large string bass. To the right was the I knew him, he had a snowy head of hair, wore door to the inner sanctum, the sound studio, always black-framed, strong glasses and always had a closed, and to the left was a living room. Dr.

16 Above: James Robert Adams. Image courtesy of the Adams family archives. JULY-AUGUST 2006

Adams was usually in the living room, and Seabee, his tiny white bichon frisé, a poodle-like ball of energy, wasted no time in an- nouncing my presence and often did not stop until the aroma of food filled the room. As the years went by, and his health failed, Dr. Adams lay on his long sofa with reading beside him and a portable computer in easy reach. Prior to my arrival, the St. Hubert chicken delivery car would have dropped off our lunch, unless I could convince him to let me pick something up from the Chinese restaurant where he had played his last gig.

ob, as I came to call him once our relationship had relaxed, was a R lifelong victim of al- pha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, an illness that is the It is hard for me to imagine Rob seeking a life result of a genetic defect. While it relates to a de- in commerce, and perhaps when he was 18 and en- ficiency of a protein in the liver, its manifestations rolled in McGill to study commerce in 1942, he are emphysema-like symptoms in the lungs, and in was obliging his father or simply trying to find his more serious cases, cirrhosis of the liver. Coupled way. The economics courses must have had an im- with indications of tuberculosis, his young life pact because he had very strongly held views on was a struggle. While he was very active between self-reliance and the need to reduce the size of bouts of illness, he spent a good deal of time in government. There was a war on, though, and he bed, and in another time, he may not have sur- soon quit the university and enlisted in the RCAF, vived childhood. Even as an older man, anyone in part because he wanted to fly. With his poor who knew him also knew that if you had a cold, or eyesight, he was limited to working on the planes even thought you might, you were not to visit. For as a mechanic, but he made the best of his time, many years, Rob filled the role of piano player at and according to his daughter Alexandra, his a hotel or a restaurant, and it is a wonder, in those epiphany came during this period. Like other days of notorious Quebec smoking, that he could members of the staff, they rotated through the spend any time at all in that environment. kitchen, and when he drew KP duty, he had time to let his mind wander, peeling spuds. He wondered why different animals lived for different lengths of time. Hamsters lived for only three years, dogs for 12, and humans for 80 years. He determined to find what controlled this process and see if therein lay the key to longevity. When the war ended, he returned to McGill and enrolled in medicine. While Rob was a fully qualified medical doctor, he declined to practice and dedicated himself instead to research. Graduating in 1954, he interned at the Royal Victoria Hospital, returning af- terward to his lab, where he re- furbished the McGill animal cages, insisting that the animals

Above: (Right) Robert Adams on the float of the Cessna. (Left) Rod 17 Adams in his Seabee. Images courtesy of the Adams family archives. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS kept for experiments be treated humanely. He vidual human memory may survive the death of the worked at McGill and in the United States, study- body. It led to many stimulating debates and ing aging at the United States National Institutes of friendly disagreements, and was published by Stir- Health in Baltimore. His area of research, histol- ling House in 1998. A second book soon followed, ogy, the study of organic tissue, earned him a doc- called Prospects for Immortality (Baywood Pub- torate on a topic relating to thyroid function in lishing 2002). Rob was invited to do an author’s 1972, and throughout this period, he kept up a ca- tour to promote the book, but his health would not reer in music and indulged his passion for flying. permit it. In the book, he describes his saved con- Rob played piano with some of Montreal’s sciousness hypothesis, which suggests that it could jazz greats and formed a sextet in 1950 with Gerry be possible that this aspect of our essence survives Macdonald (clarinet), Bud Hayward (accordion), in a quantum world. For a man who had given up Mimi Catudahl (lead vocals) Johnny Asselin (bass the fight to cure a disease he called aging to expe- and vocals) and Phil Parizeau (guitar). He was a part of many trios during that decade, including one with Phil Parizeau and Gordie Fleming and another with Claire and Art Roberts. He did a stint with Gordie Fleming in Cannes as well as working with him in a duo in Montreal and the Laurentians. He even played bass on a Karen Young recording of a song he com- posed called You Got Your Nerve. Along with his own music he captured the sounds of groups such as the Quar- tones, with Gerry Macdonald and Gordie Fleming in his studio for Choice Records, and though a lot of the work may have been informal, it is likely that Justin Time and other labels credit Rob Adams rience the process itself, this was the next logical as sound engineer. step. Rob Adams’s mission to solve the enigma of s I came to know Rob at his house for aging may not have saved his body, but he learned discussion and debate, I was impressed how to keep his spirit young and happily shared that this man, then in his early seventies his knowledge. In spite of his status as a medical A and quite financially independent, had doctor, his doctorate in histology, his Seabee flying taken on a gig at a local hotel. This turned to sur- boat, his Cessna 150, his art and cartoons, com- prise when I learned that some of his old friends mercial jingles, the sound studio, real estate man- had dropped in to see him there after hours, and agement and books, Rob’s primary interest was his they had jammed through the night, forcing man- music. Still, when it came his turn to die, his scien- agement to terminate his contract. It did not stop tific curiosity never wavered, and as the disease Rob from finding another gig in short order. that had plagued him since childhood attacked his Rob wanted me to buy a half-share in his Cess- liver, he declined to resort to pain-killing medica- na in the early 1990s, and while I was taken with tion that might dull his awareness of the transition his stories and took flying lessons, the responsibil- that he was facing. He passed away in his home in ity and cost involved fell to other obligations. Still, the Laurentians in the autumn of 2005. He was 81 we did fly together, leaving from his private dock years old. on the lake, and I could have mistakenly assumed that flying was his first passion. While he remem- References include the personal records of Dr. bered fondly his Seabee, a small flying boat, his James Robert Adams. Special thanks to his daugh- interests were so wide-ranging that it did not sur- ter, Alexandra Adams for additional information prise me one day when he gave me a manuscript and for the use of her father’s illustrations and the for a book he had written. It was titled Surviving family photos from the Adams family archives. Death and it dealt with his theories on how indi-

IMMORTAL MELODY 18 Above: Uncle Horsley’s (1951). Image courtesy of the Adams family archives. JULY-AUGUST 2006

BEATING THE BARRIERS Heart specialist Maude Abbott paved the way for Canada’s women doctors by Dan Pinese

orn Maude Elizabeth Sey- Montreal, she also worked at the Royal In 1910, McGill granted her an Honoris mour Babin, the early life of Victoria Hospital, exploring the field of Causa medical degree, hired her as a Maude Abbott, was difficult. pathology, which eventual produced a lecturer of Pathology in 1912, and in BShortly after her birth on paper on her studies of heart murmurs. 1923 appointed her to the position of March 18, 1869, she was abandoned by This paper, which had to be read by a Assistant Professor of Medical Re- her father and lost her mother to pul- male doctor in front of the Medico- search, a position she held until until monary tuberculosis seven her retirement in 1936. That same months later. year, McGill granted her with a Orphaned before her first second degree, this time an hon- birthday, Maude and her sister, ourary doctorate. In 1938, the Alice, were taken to live with her Federation of Medical Women, maternal grandmother in St. An- which she co-founded in 1924, es- drews, Quebec. There, Maude tablished the Maude Abbott and her sister were legally adopt- Memorial Scholarship Fund. ed and given the surname Abbott. On September 2, 1940 at the In St. Andrews, Abbott at- age of 71, Dr. Abbott died of a tended school and won the only cerebral hemorrhage, leaving be- female scholarship offered to hind invaluable contributions to McGill. At McGill, she complet- the medical fields of pathology ed an Arts degree in 1890, win- and cardiology. The great Mexi- ning the Lord Stanley Gold can painter, Diego Rivera paid Medal and becoming the class tribute to her achievements in valedictorian for her efforts. 1943, placing a portrait of her in a However, despite all these mural at the National Institute of academic acclaims and awards, Cardiology of Mexico City, where Abbott was denied acceptance to she is regarded as one of the 50 McGill’s male-only medical pro- most important heart specialists in gram. She petitioned and even world history. raised money for the university to Abbott has been heralded as offer medical courses to women one of Canada’s greatest female but all this effort was for no re- role models. In her career she ward. managed to join at least eighteen Resilient, despite the sexist formerly male-only organizations, barriers of her time, Abbott was and was honoured posthumously the only woman in her class when by the Canadian Medical hall of she enrolled at Bishop’s Medical Col- Chirurgical Society in Montreal, was so Fame for her ground-breaking work. lege in 1890. Though she continued at- well received it caused the society to re- Many of the improvements in the tempts to apply to McGill, even in her think its policy and admit Abbott as its life expectancy of so-called “blue ba- third year of studies, Abbott prospered first female member. She was also the bies” and infants with similar disorders intellectually at Bishop’s, earning many first women to have her work presented are based directly on Dr. Maude Abbot’s accolades, including the Practical before a medical society in Britain and research into congenital heart disease. Anatomy Prize in 1892, graduated with published in the Journal of Pathology honours and was awarded the Chancel- and Bacteriology. Information for this article was gath- lor’s Prize in 1894. In her lifetime, Dr. Abbott produced ered from Elizabeth Hearn Milner’s The following autumn, Abbot over 140 papers and books—including book, Bishop’s Medical Faculty (1871- opened a practice in Montreal, where 48 articles on cardiovascular disease— 1905) and the Library and Archives of she treated women and children. In and was the focus of countless lectures. Canada.

Above: Maude Abbott. Image courtesy of the McGill University 19 archives. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

THE UNSUNG GENIUS Reginald Fessenden by Terry Skeats

he year 2006 marks the world the wireless telephone, the phremagog in the Eastern Townships, 100th anniversary of three heterodyne radio receiver, an echo- Lower Canada on October 6 1866. significant events in the sounding device for the detection of His mother and father, though not T history of wireless commu- submarines, a turboelectric drive for well-off by any means, instilled in nication, none of which would have ships, the first television set in North the young boy a lively desire for taken place without the ef- knowledge which lasted him forts of the Eastern Town- all his life. That desire led ships-born inventor and sci- him into both conflict and entist Reginald Aubrey Fes- collaboration with some of senden. the foremost minds of the On January 2, 1906, Fes- day: Lord Kelvin, Thomas senden and his crew were the Edison, Marconi, and others. first to successfully transmit But an inability to handle the Morse messages two-way business arrangements for across the Atlantic between his many inventions, and a Brant Rock, Massachusetts stubborn insistence on the and Machrihanish, Scotland. correctness (often justified) In November of the same of his view of how things year, Fessenden succeeded in should be done embroiled transmitting the human voice Fessenden in a series of cor- across the Atlantic for the porate and patent disputes, first time, and on Christmas ordeals which cost him time, Eve, 1906 made the first ra- money and ultimately his dio broadcasts ever. The rest, health. as the cliché says, is history. In 1871 the family If the name Reginald moved first to Fergus, On- Aubrey Fessenden isn’t fa- tario and then to Chippewa, miliar it should be, much as near Niagara Falls. Scholas- the names Marconi, Edison tic ability won Fessenden an and Bell are for many. The astonishing array of awards list of Fessenden’s achieve- at DeVeaux Military College ments in the early develop- near Buffalo, and at Trinity ment of wireless communica- College School in Port Hope, tions, and his contributions Ontario. But it was not until to improving safety at sea, he was offered a mathemati- long ago earned him a place cal scholarship at his father’s in the first ranks of inventors. But in America, the radio compass, and a old school, Bishop’s College (now spite of his efforts in these fields, he reusable aluminum teabag; in all, Bishop’s University) in Lennoxville, remains largely unknown in his na- more than 500 patents and inven- Quebec that his interests turned to tive country and province. tions. He was the first to transmit hu- science, and in particular to electrici- In his unfinished autobiography, man speech without wires, the first ty: it was at Bishop’s that he claimed Fessenden defined an inventor as to make a successful transatlantic to have made his first invention. Un- “one who can see the applicability of voice transmission, and the first to fortunately, his work at Bishop’s pre- means in supplying demand five broadcast Morse code two-way be- sented few challenges to his facile years before it is obvious to those tween Europe and North America. mind, and at the end of nine months skilled in the art.” His own fertile Fessenden was born in the recto- at the school, in 1885, he moved on imagination, unbounded curiosity, ry of his father’s church in the vil- to accept the position of principal at and capacity for knowledge gave the lage of East Bolton, near Lake Mem- the Whitney Institute in Bermuda.

20 Above: Reginald Fessenden, courtesy of the Canadian Communications Foundation. JULY-AUGUST 2006

There he met Helen Trott, the woman Owens of the University of Nebraska wireless, and led to the formation of who six years later became his wife had been given the post, and where the Marconi Wireless Telegraph and closest confidante for 42 years. could the university return Fes- Company of America to promote the Bermuda also proved to be too senden’s application? It was not the system. What few know is that it was tranquil for Fessenden, and in 1886 last time that Canada was to lose the Fessenden who had suggested the he left his teaching post for New benefit of Fessenden’s genius. idea of reporting the races to the York and the Edison Laboratories. For years, Fessenden had been New York Herald newspaper, but de- After pestering Edison with notes intrigued by Alexander Graham clined to undertake the project him- and letters for several weeks, he Bell’s success in long-distance com- self, recommending Marconi instead! eventually won a job as assistant munication by wire (Fessenden’s fa- In December 1901, Marconi tester to the inventor, locating under- ther had taken him to a demonstra- transmitted the letter S in Morse ground faults in electrical mains laid tion of the new telephone by Bell in from Poldhu, Cornwall to Signal Hill as part of Edison’s great electrifica- Brantford, Ontario when Fessenden near St. John’s, Newfoundland, and tion project in the city. His work was ten years old). But Fessenden the Atlantic was at last bridged by proved so satisfactory that just be- wondered if there might not be a way radio. Needing funds to continue his fore Christmas 1886, he was of- work, Fessenden formed the Na- fered a position to assist Edison tional Electric Signaling Compa- himself at the Llewellyn Park ny (NESCO) in 1902 with the Laboratories. For the 20-year old aid of two Pittsburgh million- Fessenden, it was a perfect op- aires, Hay Walker and Thomas portunity, and the following year Given. Yet of the more than he was appointed Edison’s chief $1,000,000 spent during the chemist, a post he held until company’s lifetime to develop 1889. and promote Fessenden’s wire- Fessenden’s dispute with less system, not one cent was Lord Kelvin was indicative of the ever paid to Fessenden for his inventor’s refusal to give in when patents, which in fact constituted he felt himself to be right. The the company’s sole assets. problem under investigation was With financial backing se- to explain the reason for the elas- cured through NESCO, Fes- ticity of rubber. Kelvin and oth- senden built two new stations, ers believed that the phenomenon one at Brant Rock, south of was gravitational, Fessenden that it to eliminate the wires and transmit Boston near Plymouth, Massachu- was electrical. Fessenden’s research voice directly between stations. With setts, the other at Machrihanish on ultimately proved correct, much to a contract from the U.S. Weather Bu- the west coast of Scotland. On the Lord Kelvin’s consternation and an- reau in his pocket, he built a wireless night of January 2 1906, he bettered noyance; in addition the research station on Cobb Island in the Po- Marconi by completing the first two- forecast the discovery of a new ele- tomac River and began beaming way transatlantic Morse code trans- ment, later called beryllium. weather reports in Morse code to missions. Washington, 60 miles to the north. But if Morse could be sent, then The success of these experiments why not voice? Throughout the fall led, on December 23, 1900, to the of 1906, using the Brant Rock and first transmission of the human voice Machrihanish stations, Fessenden n 1892, after a two-year stint as by wireless, a distance of one mile tried unsuccessfully to establish a an electrical engineer at the between two radio towers located on voice link with the Scottish station. Westinghouse works in Newark, the island. The text of the conversa- Finally in November, he received a I New Jersey, Fessenden returned tion was prosaic, to say the least: private communiqué from one of the to teaching, first at Purdue Universi- Fessenden asked his assistant Abra- Scottish operators telling him that a ty in Indiana, and then at the Western ham Thiessen, if it were snowing at few nights earlier, the operator had University of Pennsylvania (now the Thiessen’s location. It was. heard the voice of Adam Stein, the University of Pittsburgh). While at While these experiments were Brant Rock-Plymouth operator. Fur- the latter in 1899, he learned that going on, Fessenden was engaged in ther investigation confirmed the date there was a vacancy in the electrical an inventor’s race with another radio and the text of the transmission. The engineering department at McGill pioneer. In September of the previ- first transatlantic broadcast of the University in Montreal. Fessenden ous year, Marconi had equipped two human voice was history, and it had wanted to return to Canada and con- U.S. ships to send wireless reports of been an accident! tinue his work, and in June 1899 ap- the America’s Cup races to the New Before more tests could be done, plied for the position. Two months York newspapers. The success of the however, the Machrihanish tower later, the reply came: a Professor venture created worldwide interest in crashed to the ground in a violent

Above: Fessenden’s busy lab at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Image 21 courtesy of the North Carolina Division of Archives and History. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS storm when several of the supporting Submarine Signal Company of health necessitated more time in cables pulled loose from their bases Boston to hire him as a consulting Bermuda. He died at Wistowe his (the two towers were over four hun- engineer, and in early 1914 he was home there, on July 22 1932, and is dred feet high, hollow, and about off the Grand Banks of Newfound- buried in the cemetery at St. Ann’s three feet in diameter like a giant land testing the Fessenden Oscillator, Church nearby. On the stone, in stovepipe). Not one to surrender in an echo device for detecting unseen Egyptian hieroglyphics, are the the face of adversity, Fessenden objects. By the end of the war, an words “I am yesterday, and I know chose Christmas and New Year’s improved version of the Oscillator tomorrow.” His epitaph, on the same Eves to conduct the world’s first was standard equipment for subma- stone, is peculiarly fitting: “By his commercial radio broadcasts. Outfit- rine hunting, and today’s sonar can genius distant lands converse, and ting ships of the U.S. Navy and the count the Oscillator as its direct an- men sail unafraid upon the deep.” United Fruit Company with his re- cestor. ceiving units, he entertained the With the war over, a number of crews with a program which included his legal disputes were resolved in Handel’s Largo (played on an old 1928 when Fessenden accepted a set- phonograph, the invention of his for- tlement of almost $1,000,000 from fter Fessenden’s death, his mer employer Edison), a violin solo the Radio Trust of America (a mo- wife ensured that his work by Fessenden, and the Biblical text nopoly which numbered amongst its and memory would not “Glory to God in the highest and on members RCA and Westinghouse) quickly be forgotten. In earth peace to men of good will.” for his patent rights. Though costly A 1937, she gave the sum of $500, to The broadcasts were a success, in time and money, the disputes did be repeated annually for four years, and the commercial possibilities not deter him from applying himself to Reg’s alma mater Bishop’s Col- seemed far-reaching, but Marconi, a to new and more complex problems. lege, the amount to be much shrewder business- used for bursaries for stu- man than Fessenden, had dents who excelled in already obtained exclu- mathematics. sive rights to wireless In 1940, Mrs. Fes- transmission within the senden published her ac- British Empire, in effect count of Fessenden’s life, shutting out NESCO com- Fessenden—Builder of pletely. Worse still, in Tomorrows. One reviewer 1911 Fessenden disputed called it “a loving testi- with his backers over the mony to a great personal- establishment of a Cana- ity”, but also a book in dian-British subsidiary of which the “human equa- NESCO (The Fessenden tion frequently disappears Wireless Telegraph Com- from the discussion, and pany of Canada), to be we see (Fessenden) only controlled solely by Fes- as a magnificent and senden and his British benevolent mind, intent and Canadian associates, upon breaking down the to the exclusion of Given barriers between men, and Walker. Fessenden was fired as In 1919 he designed the first televi- opening up new avenues of wealth NESCO’s general manager, and in a sion set in North America, in 1921 and resources.” Another reviewer suit for damages the following year, the Fathometer (a depth-gauging de- noted that Mrs. Fessenden “brought won a judgement of over $400,000. vice based on the principle of the to her (writing) task an extremely in- The company couldn’t pay, and wartime Oscillator), in 1922 and telligent appreciation of the scientif- swiftly went into receivership. Un- 1923 the amplified violin and piano, ic work that her husband did as well fortunately, the real benefactor was and his reusable aluminum tea bag. as of his personality and character.” Marconi’s company; with NESCO The 1920s also brought honours: the Helen Fessenden died in Bermuda on gone, it had no real competitor in the Medal of Honour of the Institute of April 17 1941 of a heart attack; she field. Radio Engineers, the John Scott was 75 years old. Surviving were her World War I brought Fessenden’s Medal from the City of Philadelphia, son, Lieutenant-Colonel Reginald inventing energies to the fore once and the Scientific American Medal Kennelly Fessenden, her brother again. The sinking of the White Star for improving the safety of ships at W.J.H. Trott, and a sister. She was liner Titanic on April 15 1912 had sea. buried in Bermuda near her husband. set him on the trail of a device to By 1930, the years of hard work In March 1943, the United States protect ships from obstacles such as and the constant battles to protect his government honoured Fessenden’s icebergs and reefs. He persuaded the patents had taken their toll; failing contributions to the development of

UNSUNG GENIUS 22 Above: Reginald Fessenden in his music room at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Division of Archives and History. JULY-AUGUST 2006 radio and to safety at sea when it was won by a student at Bishop’s christened the destroyer-escort USS University, Fessenden’s old school, Fessenden in Texas. in 1999. In June 1945, tragedy struck the A $500 cash prize is awarded to family when the Fessendens’ only a graduate student “at a Canadian ac- child, Reginald Kennelly, was ademic institution conducting re- drowned. On the afternoon of June search in underwater acoustics or in 22, he had put out to sea from his a branch of science closely connect- TThhee home in Bermuda in a 26-foot yawl ed to underwater acoustics.” The with only ten gallons of fuel. The prize, named the Fessenden Student seas became rough due to strong Prize In Underwater Acoustics, was winds, and when he did not return, it initiated by the Organizing Commit- GGaatteewwaayy was assumed that the boat had either tee of the 12th ICA Associated Sym- struck a reef and sunk, or had cap- posium On Underwater Acoustics, on sized. Two weeks later, on July 6, the the grounds that “attaching Fes- ttooYYoouurr yawl was discovered 65 miles off- senden’s name to the prize is a fitting shore, but Fessenden’s body was tribute to his contributions to under- never found. water acoustics.” On November 19 1966, the In 1992, the Government of HHiissttoorryy Massachusetts Broadcasters Associa- Canada inducted 16 scientists into tion and the Broadcast History Pro- the newly opened Canadian Science ject, together with members of the and Engineering Hall of Fame in Ot- Marshfield, Massachusetts Historical tawa. In addition to the likes of Sir Commission unveiled a plaque at Frederick Banting, Alexander Gra- Blackman’s Point (Brant Rock) com- ham Bell, Sir Sanford Fleming, memorating the Christmas Eve 1906 Wilder Penfield, John Polanyi and broadcast made by Fessenden and his Joseph Armand Bombardier, Bish- station crew. In 1994, the Marshfield op’s University numbered two for- Historical Commission managed to mer students amongst the inductees: have the Brant Rock site listed on the Maude Abbott, who was refused ad- state’s historical record, and was at- mission to McGill University’s med- tempting to get it added to the Na- ical school, but qualified at Bishop’s tional Register of Historic Sites. and the University of Edinburgh. She joined the McGill faculty in 1899, but though there for 37 years, never became a full professor. Fessenden, OnlineAccess to Her- the other Bishop’s student, was in- itage Magazines n 1979 the Association of Uni- ducted for his work in the early de- versities and Colleges of Cana- velopment of radio. Canada Post also da established the Fessenden- honoured Fessenden a few years ago Quebec Tourism Infor- I Trott Scholarships program in with his likeness and a picture of his mation memory of Professor and Mrs. Fes- coherer on a stamp in its Science In- senden. Funding for the Scholarships novation series. comes from the Fessenden-Trott Guided Trail Maps Trust, established in Mrs. Fes- Terry Skeats has been working on a senden’s will. Four scholarships, biography of Reginald Aubrey Fes- worth $9,000 annually, are awarded senden since 1979, using materials Heritage Organization to Canadian citizens or permanent obtained from the National Archives Information residents completing the first year of in Ottawa, the State Archives in an undergraduate university program. Raleigh, North Carolina, The Na- www.quebecheritageweb.com The awards are granted on a four- tional Museum of American History year cycle by region: one year they in Washington, D.C., and a variety of are offered to students from Quebec, other sources including the Thomas Quebec and in subsequent years to students Edison and Wright Brothers from the Atlantic Provinces, Ontario archives. He expects it to be pub- Anglophone

and the West. The field of study is lished later this year to commemo- Heritage open, and the awards are good for rate theJa centenary of the above Network three years or until a first degree is events. obtained, whichever is shortest. It

23 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

ST. COLUMBAN An Irish settlement remembered at last by Sandra Stock

t.Columban is located just forests for farming were Irish emigrants ban although that name does not ap- north of St. Jérôme above the who started arriving in 1821. They had pear. North River and climbs up into been encouraged to come here by Fa- Also, these settlers—the Whelans, Sthe Laurentian foothills. It is ther Patrick Phelan, who later became a the Murphys, the Keyes, the Mearas south of Mille Isles and Lakefield but bishop, and were mainly from the and others—were Roman Catholic and not really close to any large town. Al- Kilkenny region of Ireland. The settle- many of them were listed as Gaelic though this municipality experienced ment and the parish was named St. speaking on the first census of 1831. some expansion after the building of Columban, after the famous Celtic mis- However, by the next census, everyone Mirabel Airport, and now has a quickly sionary saint The first chapel was built was listed as English speaking. Like the growing population of commuters, in 1837 and the present church in Scottish Highland settlers of the Har- there has been a most unusual history 1861.This was possibly the first organ- rington area, knowledge of the old of settlement, growth, and extreme de- ized group of Irish rural pioneers in Gaelic languages quickly faded away. cline. Canada, certainly it must have been the The St. Columban settlers were This district began as the “Aug- first group in Quebec. On the Joseph part of the large first wave of Irish emi- mentation to the Seigneurie du Lac des Bouchette map of Montreal and Re- grants who came to Lower Canada after Deux-Montagnes” and the first record- gions of 1831, we see ‘Irish Settlement’ the Napoleonic Wars. Most of these ed land grant was to Hilaire Joubert in written just under Côte St. Nicholas and Irish tended to be skilled labourers and 1819. However, the first settlers to ac- also “St. Patrice” indicated just beside merchants who gravitated to Montreal tually occupy the land and clear the this. This is the location of St. Colum- or Quebec City, and most of these were

24 Above: Mgr. Bruchéshi visiting St. Columban on June 13, 1906. Image courtesy of the municipality of Saint Colomban . JULY-AUGUST 2006

of Protestant denominations. So the St. of St.Columban, have been most inter- Columban settlement was truly unique ested lately in promoting their local Joseph Graham in many ways. history and its Irish roots. The 1861 church is now well maintained with y 1850 there was a popula- beautiful new stained-glass windows Naming tion of about one thousand and many indications of its Irish histo- and most of the land was ry quite evident. the Bfarmed. Also, there were There have also been several oth- granite quarries that were worked into er very significant developments in re- Laurentians the 1930s and also a lumber mill on gard to Irish heritage. The sad state of the North River. In 1937, when St. the cemetery, where many of the Columban Parish cel- tombstones of the pi- ebrated its centennial, oneer families had The Gazette reported been damaged and a history there were “55 fami- then many placed in lies, with a popula- a pile in the woods of place names tion of 250 persons… behind the church, ‘up north’ Though one hundred came to the attention years old the parish of a group of descen- has shown little ad- dants of local settlers vance with the pas- who have established sage of years. The the St. Columban residents are few and Cemetery Restora- widely separated” tion Project. They Another interest- plan to create a me- ing bit from this 1937 morial that will once article is, “For many again celebrate the years French-Canadi- memories of those ans at this section early pioneers. This came here to learn group is led by Fer- English.” This in- gus Keyes of Mon- cluded Bishop Bour- treal and can be get of Montreal who reached at www.st- spent two winters in columbanirish.com St. Columban to learn English. Also, a local historian, Claude Bour- There had been an ongoing exo- guignon, has written an excellent dus of the descendants of these Irish book, Saint Colomban, une époque settlers for many years and agriculture irandaise du piedmont des Laurentides was beginning to die out as a way of and can be contacted at claude- life. The land was rocky, although not bouguignonvideotron.ca. as rough as the higher Laurentians, The cemetery project, and the re- and the growing season is short. Other newed general interest in St. Colum- Stories covering kinds of more profitable work, and ban’s Irish history, is a fine example of centuries of better access to education, drew the heritage awareness of a small rural peoples and second and third generations of St. community with Anglophone roots nations far and Columban to leave for Montreal, Ot- and a special story to tell. Without . tawa and even farther away to the such initiatives, St.Columban and so wide United States and the Canadian West. many other former pioneer settlements As the population diminished and would soon pass from memory. Over 80 illustrations the area became no longer predomi- nately Irish and English speaking, the Sources: Janice Kennedy, The Ottawa To order, call: small village core with its church and Citizen, The Resurrection of St.Colum- (819) 326-4963 school started showing signs of neg- ban, March 19, 2006; The Gazette, lect. The former schoolhouse, built (author unknown); Preparing for Cen- around 1860 and active until 1925, tennial in 1937 from www.st.colum- Published By does remain and is now a restaurant, ban-irish website; Municipalité de sporting a plaque commemorating its Saint-Colomban website; Fergus Les Editions former academic function. The present Keyes, St.Columban Cemetery residents and municipal administration Restoration Project. Main Street Inc. 14

Above: The Phelan family infront of their St. Columban home. 25 Image courtesy of the municipality of Saint Colomban. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

RETURN TO HEAR Reading oral history by Dan Pinese

ractising oral history is simple. historic English-speaking community’s is largely derived from official docu- All you need is a voice recorder sense of identity by documenting area res- ments.” and someone to interview, prefer- idents’ impressions of how their life has For example, one of the many sub- Pably someone who’s lived a long changed. jects interviewed by LAHMS was a war time and who still remembers the past. “The area has changed so much and bride, originally from Colchester, Eng- You play back the recording, write down these conversations reflect the changes,” land, who settled in Lennoxville after the stories, then file away the transcripts says Rider, flipping through a thick paper World War II. Though her recollections of for future historians. Straightforward, folder holding more than 20 interview starting a new life in her adopted country right? transcripts, each one carrying a different contains many surprising anecdoteS and Wrong. person’s unique story. some unique historical insights, details It turns out that grappling with some- “I think it will help future generations such as the names of the other passengers one’s spoken recollections can be as chal- remember our community, our identity as who accompanied her to Canada and the lenging for historians as it is rewarding. a community.” exact date that her ship landed at Halifax, That’s because conventional history Belief that compiling individual sto- or precisely how her luggage was trans- strives for objectivity by stressing ported to the Eastern Townships, facts such as dates, names and are forgotten. places, whereas oral history de- “It didn’t occur to me that we pends on subjective accounts and were living history,” she remarked views of the past as recalled by in- at one point during the interview. dividual storytellers. “Had I done as I do now, I would “Oral history can alter the have kept a diary and made notes way we see the past or support it,” and all . . . You know, it was over according to Jean Manore, profes- sixty years ago, so I had no idea sor of history at Bishop’s Universi- that it was ever going to be of any ty in Lennoxville, where a local importance to anyone else.” heritage group has been conduct- Essentially, oral history must ing interviews with elderly resi- be read as a written account of the dents for the last four years. ries can somehow illustrate a communi- past that contradicts what is traditionally Although some theoretical debate ty’s identity is a common characteristic of meant by the term “written history.” It is- still persists in academic circles over the oral history practitioners. Oral history has n’t laden with objective facts that “en- role of story-gathering in the practice of been described as a bottom-up approach shrine” the past, rather it is an attempt to history, the potential for personal narrative to understanding the staggering and fre- make history more meaningful by embed- to broaden society’s historical perspective quently disconnected flow of events from ding personal accounts in the official is widely accepted. the past. Often the act of telling and record. By focussing on ordinary, even “If oral history is being used to recording stories proves a learning experi- ‘marginal’ living witnesses, oral history record the history of marginal groups in ence for everyone involved. reveals aspects of the past we never knew our society and if people learning of that “Most people who live ordinary existed. history accept it, then there is no doubt lives,” says professor Manore, “will often that their view of history will change as a say when aproached, ‘Oh, my life isn’t Funding for LAHMS’s oral history project result,” Manore says. worth recording’ or isn’t ‘interesting.’ was provided by the Borough of It is precisely this individual, person- Yet, when they offer their insights and ex- Lennoxville and the Bélanger-Gardener alized dimension of Quebec’s English- periences on the events of their lives or Foundation. Researchers wishing to view speaking history that the Lennoxville-As- the events they experienced ? say, World the transcripts and other archived materi- cot Historical and Museum Society War II ? it becomes clear that what they al should contact LAHMS by email at (LAHMS) has been seeking to develop have to say is worthwhile and very inter- [email protected]. A guide to conducting since launching its own oral history proj- esting because it adds to the historical oral history is available on the Quebec ect in 2002. The goal, says LAHMS memory itself in terms of quantity and Anglophone Heritage Website, at archivist Lu Rider, is to help preserve this adds a human dimension to a history that www.qahn.org/oralhistory.aspx.

26 JULY-AUGUST 2006 The BOOK REVIEWS by Charles Bury Eastern Townships

A photographer’s tribute by Robert E. Paulette, M.D. The Scots of A beautiful collection Montreal, of over 80 colour prints illustrating this historic a Pictorial Album rural region of Quebec Edited by Nancy Marrelli and Simon Dardick. Véhicule Press. 156 pages. $29.95.

couple of years ago the hate relationship that continues to McCord Museum mounted this day. Along with the traders and an exhibit called The businessmen the highly educated A Scots, Died-in-the-Wool Scots brought Quebec City and Mon- Montrealers. As a born and bred treal their new elites, including doc- Montrealer with some of that Scottish tors, lawyers, teachers, preachers and blood, I looked forward to it, though the rest. perhaps a bit more than I should As the history of war is told have. The exhibit was a popular suc- mainly by the winners, so the history cess but I personally found it sparse of immigrants is inevitably told by and gloomy. Surprisingly few arti- and about those who climbed the lad- facts were on display considering the der highest. So what we have here are cultural wealth of the community, and mainly the photographic and artistic those objects were extremely difficult souvenirs of the rich and their to view in any detail under the rather favourite endeavours. Devoted as gloomy lighting — a condition appar- they were to taking care of business, ently favoured these days by many the Scots were also community mind- exhibit designers. But now comes this ed, supplying their new cities with great little book to make up for it. public institutions of the highest or- On sale for only $25 at: Produced by many of the same people der. The Scots of Montreal tells the who put together the McCord show, it story of this unique bourgeoisie. It is Richmond County Museum picks up where the exhibit left off. a joy to look through, if only for its The Scots of Montreal is a picture glimpses of the lavish self-glory the Missisquoi Museum book full of rarely-seen sketches, newly-wealthy Scots bestowed on paintings and photos in both colour themselves, from their fabulous man- Colby-Curtis Museum and black and white. The pictures sions in the Square Mile to their ships and their captions tell the stories of and factories, their churches, their Brome County Museum some of the Scots of all backgrounds hospitals and their gold plated chil- who flocked to the former New dren. Sadly missing is any indication Compton County Museum France in the century following the of the large majority of Scottish im- Seven Years War. Quebec was in need migrants who lived ordinary lives but Makes a Perfect Gift! of an enterprising merchant class, couldn't afford to pose for the something that Scotland had in profu- painters and photographers. Perhaps For mail order, please call: sion. French and Gaelic minds came that is another exhibit, and another (819) 569-3592 together, forming a complex love- book.

27 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

America: The Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Dawn of a New Power By Denis Vaugeois. Translated by Jane Brierley. Véhicule Press. 275 pages. $28.

hen Meriwether Lewis whose land they were travelling. Vau- Moncton, 633 pages, $49.95) describes and William Clark made geois gives the literature a thorough go- perhaps the longest-running drama in their pioneering journey ing over, but the records are brief and North American history, and a tragedy to Wfrom the Mississippi Riv- vague and he ends up being repetitive to boot: the story of Acadia and Acadians. er to the Pacific Ocean through what is make his point, and spending more It's important to separate the two tales, now the western United States in 1804- space that really needed on the study of because most Acadians never lived in 06, it is a little-known fact that most of Lewis and Clark rather than their story. Acadia, and don't today. This book is a those involved were not Americans. In The editors have also used a somewhat serious, detailed academic examination this volume Quebec historian Denis bizarre system of sidebars and footnotes of those Acadians who did live there, Vaugeois explains the key role of the which make the book hard to follow. from the first French settlements at many French-Canadians who were the While disappointing in this respect, Sainte Croix Island and Port Royal until expedition's paddlers, navigators, America is important reading for anyone their supposedly-final expulsion a centu- guides, interpreters, negotiators, hunters interested in the French-Canadian dias- ry and a half later. It includes about 150 and more. Lewis and Clark's 'canayens' pora. pages of footnotes, a fairly good index were children of the voyageur culture, Speaking of the French-Canadian and a couple of maps, but not a single il- which had spread west from Montreal to diaspora, From Migrant to Acadian, A lustration. Surprisingly, the text suffers explore and exploit so much of North North American Border People 1604- from more burps and typos than a book America in the quest for furs. Including 1755 (N.E.S. Griffiths, McGill Queens by McGill Queens University Press many métis, they acted as key go-be- University Press and the Canadian Insti- should contain. From Migrant to Acadi- tweens in the explorers' relations with tute for Research on Public Policy and an is an important book but I doubt I'll the many aboriginal nations through Public Administration, Université de ever finish it.

Stepping Out: The Golden Age of Montreal Night Clubs, 1925-1955 By Nancy Marrelli. Véhicule Press. 144 pages. $27.95 hat do Lili St. Cyr, Edith ing times brought exciting entertainment cordia University. Stepping Out, the lat- Piaf, Sophie Tucker, Pearl and from the 1920s to the 50s Montreal est work by chief archivist Nancy Mar- Bailey, Billie Holiday, was a night-club city to the world, with a relli, takes full advantage of the rich WGratien Gélinas, Oscar depth and variety of live performances Concordia collection (it began as an ex- Peterson, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington paralleled only in cities like Paris, New hibition there) to bring us a lively, lav- and Robert Charlebois have in common? Orleans, San Francisco and Shanghai. ishly illustrated survey of the Golden They were all headliners in the world fa- In those days Montreal showbiz Age, which indeed it was. mous nightclubs of Montreal during one centered on the playbills of about 40 to As TV took over the public’s urge of the city's many “wide-open” eras — 50 downtown nightclubs, cabarets, for entertainment, the never-pure night the one that was almost stamped out by lounges, dancehalls and theatres. It was club business went into decline, aided by Maurice Duplessis and Jean Drapeau. a world without television and customers the puritanical public attitudes of Pre- In the heady days following World lined up every night outside the clubs to mier Maurice Duplessis and Mayor Jean War One, Canadians began feeling the wait for their chance to see and hear their Drapeau. But Montreal show-biz would new power and freedom of the full na- idols. Fortunately for future generations soon rise from the ashes in another form, tionhood their troops had won on the the club scene was thoroughly docu- the multi-venue festival — jazz, comedy, battlefields of Europe. Montreal was the mented by the competitive Montreal lifestyle, etc. The Out Games were the cultural, economic and social heart of press of the day, and many of the photos most recent example. Once again, the Canada as well as its esthetic soul. Excit- and stories have been preserved at Con- city is wide open.

28 JULY-AUGUST 2006

OLD-FASHIONED DAY photos by Jacqueline Hyman

Rainer Lowry drives his wagon through Eaton Corner.

Old-fashioned day at the Compton County Historical Museum in Eaton Corner drew visitors from all over the Townships in early August.

Audrey Lemaistre of Dunham spins homegrown wool on her Event organizer Serena Wintle stands between Mildred Lowry spinning wheel. (left) and Alberta Everett crochets lace.

29 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

HINDSIGHT

A Progress of Germs by Dwane Wilkin

“The Most High hath created medicines nose and treat internal disorders and pain end of the 1800s. (My great aunt, born out of the earth, and a wise man shall not herbally bespoke an extensive botanical about the time that microscopes were first abhor them” knowledge that today’s scientists are only introduced to medical students at McGill — Ecclesiasticus just beginning to fully appreciate. So, if in the mid-1870s, had her appendix out on the history of medicine in Canada must the kitchen table in the family farmhouse.) eal struggles for progress are have a starting point, let it be the year English Canada’s pre-eminent 19th- fought in the realm of ideas. No 1535, on an ice-bound ship somewhere in century doctor and medical teacher was better proof exists than in the the St. Lawrence near present-day Montre- William Osler, who introduced anatomy field of medicine, no heritage is al, where local Hurons cured Jacques and bedside teaching to the curricula at R Cartier’s scurvy-ridden crew with a tonic McGill, thereby revolutionizing medical more telling of how our forbears saw the world than the story of their healing arts. made from the twigs and bark of a fir training in North America. Teaching of The past abounds in bodily suffering tree—thus anticipating by more than two anatomy required a ready source of cadav- of seeming infinite variety, so ways to centuries its “discovery” and treatment by ers, however, and less affluent members of ward off disease, cure ills and heal injuries the Scottish naval surgeon James Lind. Quebec’s medical braintrust were fre- are found in every human culture known European medicine was still in the quently reduced to robbing graves to pay to history. But the astonishingly high stan- hands of barber surgeons and apothecaries their tuition. dard of living we enjoy in Western soci- when the first French settlements appeared Fantastic dividends both in better eties today chiefly grew out of an intellec- in Canada and their treatment methods did public health and higher life expectancy tual fight against ecclesiastical doctrine, not far extend beyond blood-letting, purg- have been the legacy of 20th-century med- rooted in the lingering superstitions of the ing and inducements to vomit. Little won- icine, and not a few of these were the fruit Middle Ages. Sickness and health, like der disease killed three-quarters of the of innovation in Canada and Quebec. famine and fortune, had long been viewed colony at Île-St-Croix during the winter of Wilder Penfield, an American-born brain as whims of the gods whose favours only 1603. When Samuel de Champlain and surgeon made Canada his home in the priests might win. And indeed, the evi- Sieur de Monts moved their enterprise to 1930s and helped established Montreal as dence from literature, mythology and his- Port-Royal the followng year, their Order a leading centre for neurological research. tory suggests the offices of healer and of Good Cheer was perhaps made a little Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin priest have not been long divided. cheerier by the presence of a Parisian and Armand Frappier, a pioneer in the Medicine in Quebec arguably pre- druggist named Louis Hébert. It was field of immunology from the 1930s dates the arrival of French settlers by cen- Hébert's interest in Native medicine that through the 1950s, both made enormous turies, in the customs and practices of Na- had lured him to Canada in the first place, contributions to the general health and tive peoples. Not a few of their herbal and he eventually settled at Quebec in well-being of Quebecers, Canadians and remedies were derived from plants con- 1613. More interested in plants than furs, the world. Of course, these are merely a taining natural antibiotic, analgesic and as- Hébert and his wife Marie Rollet earned few celebrated figures from history; vol- tringent chemical compounds, and were their place in Canadian history not merely umes could easily be filled on the role of no doubt quite effective. Salicylic acid, as the first habitants of New France to set midwifery and the contributions of nursing found in willow-tree bark, the active ingre- down roots, but also as the first to care for which, incidentally, was the profession my dient in aspirin, was known to Hippocrates the sick. mother proudly served for nearly three and Native healers alike, though neither decades. could have known how it worked. The lo- requently it is the gaps in medical Vast improvements in nursing training cal pharmacopeia contained well more knowledge that stand out most. over the last century have greatly elevated than a 100 different plant species. When the cholera plagues came both the quality of hospital care and the Even as flat-earth theories were being Fto Quebec on 19th-century immi- status of women in Quebec society. put to rest in Europe 500 years ago, con- grant ships from Europe, thousands of Complain as we might about long cepts of disease and healing remained people were sent to their graves at Quebec wait-times and the wasteful bungling of stubbornly primitive. A shaman’s cure fa- City and Montreal. Doctors debated bureaucrats who increasingly outnumber miliar to 16th-century Iroquois or Algo- whether the disease was contagious and caregivers in our modern health system, nquin villagers would not have seemed ordered more bleeding. Germ theory and there is no such thing as good old days in strange in the medicine chest of a French principles of hygiene were long resisted by the history of medicine. We may have lost or English serf: in fact, European settlers the medical establishment and neither pub- house calls and doctors willing to be paid regarded Indians as masters at treating all lic sanitation efforts nor antiseptic surgical in livestock, but at least we have germs kinds of ailments. And their ability to diag- procedures would appear in Canada till the and not just miracles. 30 JULY-AUGUST 2006

EVENT LISTINGS

Stanbridge East, May 28-Oct Sherbrooke: "The Rendez-vous amine issues like preservation strate- 8, 10-5 pm: Howard, 5th edition." gies, Historic places online and new The Missiquoi Museum: The Mis- The Parc du Domaine-Howard redis- media in heritage planning. sisquoi Main Street: Frelighsburg: covers its traditional festive side on Information: (613) 237-1066, The Missisquoi museum presents an this special day highlighting horticul- www.heritagecanada.org. exhibition in celebration of Frelighs- tural and ornithological activities. Al- burg’s 200th anniversary. The exhibit so, craftspeople, artists, sculptors and Montreal, Aug 15-Sept 9: highlights United Empire Loyalist ob- photographers will be on site creating New Classical Theatre Festival: jects and community life in the 19th their works of art for all visitors to be- Montreal’s New Theatre Company and and 20th centuries. hold. The domain will open its doors Gravy Bath productions team up to Information: (450) 248-3153, for visits in the afternoon, and tea will launch what may be the city’s most [email protected] be served, English-style. There will be eclectic collection of original live dra- entertainment for children, so the ma this season. whole family is welcome. The festival line-up includes: Magog, until August 26: Information: (819) 821-1919 — Au-delà de la ville, at Studio Hy- [email protected]. Galerie des Artistes du Canton, 30 dro-Québec from August 15 to August Place du Commerce: 26 “Memphré’s Legend,” an exhibition in Quebec City, Sept 17: — Gayanashagowa, a love story writ- homage to the late Jacques Boisvert, Morrin Centre: Les Plaines d’Abra- ten by Anthony Kokx inspired by is open to the public until August 26. ham: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, per- Potton Heritage Association presents Marie Cantin, from the Commission formed from August 15 to August 26 various documents and photos on the des Champs Bataille Nationaux, will — Gross Indecency: The Three Trials geomorphology and the fish of Lake introduce the history of the Plains of of Oscar Wilde, at the Mainline The- Memphrémagog. All welcome. Ad- Abraham and Patrick Donovan will atre, August 22 to September 2; mission is free. discuss the creation of the park. The — Last Call, written by Holly Information: 819-868-1881. evening will feature music from the O’Brien, on stage at La Balustrade, 78th Fraser Highlanders. August 23 to September 2; Stanstead, June 8-Sept 8: Information: (418) 694-9147, — Hamlet (solo), starring Raoul The Colby-Curtis Museum: Orson [email protected]. Bhaneja and directed by Robert Ross, Wheeler Exhibition: presented at Théâtre Ste-Catherine This exhibition will feature 20 busts Quebec City, Sept 22, 8 p.m.: from August 29 to September 9 and; and many architectural models by Morin Centre: A Tribute to Leonard — The Cremator, by Ladislav Fuks, Eastern Townships sculptor, Orson Cohen: on stage at the Théâtre Calixa-Laval- Wheeler. Music from Clement-Jacques Trem- lée, August 30 to September 9. Information: (819) 876-7322 blay and Randall Spear and a literary Information: www.newclassicalthe- presentation from Monique Laforce atrefestival.com. Quebec City, Sept 2-3: will present and examine the works of Morin Centre: Celtic Festival: Leonard Cohn. Tickets: $6 for stu- Festivities will include whiskey tast- dents and members, $10 for non-mem- Does your group have a ing, music, dancing and information bers. heritage or cultural event booths. Featuring live performances Information: (418) 694-9147, you’d like to by Agincourt, Paddy Keenan, Duo [email protected] advertise on this page? Crepuscule and the 78th Fraser High- Ottawa, Oct 12-14: landers. Email us at [email protected] Heritage Canada Foundation: Head- Information: (418) 694-9147, with all the details. [email protected]. lines, Hotlinks and Historical Places: Heritage in an Electronic Age: Free for QAHN members. Sherbrooke, Sept 9, 11 pm: A conference concerned with preserving, protecting and promoting historic Parc du Domaine-Howard, Portland places and communities. It will ex- Boulevard, Jacques-Cartier borough,

31 CULTURAL CALENDAR

The Abstract Edge Recent Work by Robert Davidson Until October 15, 2006 Paintings and sculptures by a leading contemporary Haida artist, whose works transform our understanding of Northwest Coast Aboriginal art and cultural practice. A travelling exhibition produced by the UBC Museum of Anthropology in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada.

Haida Art Mapping an Ancient Language Until October 22, 2006 A selection of remarkable objects from the McCord’s collection of historic Haida art, including carved feast bowls and painted masks, rattles and bentwood boxes. The exhibition was created with the assistance of contemporary Haida artist, Robert Davidson.

Nuvisavik: “The Place Where We Weave” Inuit Tapestries from Arctic Canada November 4, 2006 to March 25, 2007 Woven tapestries and drawings demonstrate how Inuit women adapted a foreign technique — Aubusson weaving — to their own social and artistic needs. A travelling exhibition produced by the Canadian Museum of Civilization

The McCord is open from Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m on weekends, holiday weekends and Mondays during the summer months. Entrance fees (including taxes) are $12 general admission, $9 for seniors, $6 for students, $4 for children between the ages of 6 and 12, and $22 for families. Museum admission is free of charge to Friends of the McCord and children aged five and under. The museum offers free entry to all visitors the first Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

690 SHERBROOKE STREET WEST, MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA H3A 1E9 Tel: (514) 398-7100 Fax: (514) 398-5045 E-mail: [email protected] www.mccord-museum.qc.ca