Between 1908 and 1928, The Grain Growers’ Guide was the official weekly newspaper of the United Grain Growers Association. The Guide provided its readers with commentary on politics, co-operative association, animal husbandry and the newest agricultural techniques of particular interest to prairie farmers. In its first year, the paper began a woman’s page with editorial comment on suffrage, equal rights, dower law and homesteading. Later the page added a forum for readers and featured household hints, new ideas from the developing domestic science, views on motherhood and marriage, and women’s occupation and income. there were separate pages devoted to the women’s department of the Grain Growers’ Associations, and to a charity group that operated out of Winnipeg. The Guide eventually produced a “household number” which devoted much of its content to domestic matters, but the woman’s page was a constant throughout its publication. Reproduced in this volume are a selection of letters and editorials which reflect the topics of interest to both the editorial staff and readers of The Grain Growers’ Guide. On the Cover: From a “Country Homemakers” column in a 1922 edition of The Grain Growers’ Guide. PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS OF THE MANITOBA RECORD SOCIETY I. MANITOBA: THE BIRTH OF A PROVINCE. 1965. Edited by W. L. Morton. Available only in paperback edition. II. THE DAFOE-SIFTON CORRESPONDENCE 1919-1927. 1966. Edited by Ramsay Cook. III. THE JAMES WICKES TAYLOR CORRESPONDENCE 1859-1870. 1968. Edited by Hartwell Bowsfield. IV. THE DIARY OF THE REVEREND HENRY BUDD 1870-1875. 1974. Edited by Katherine Pettipas. V. GATEWAY CITY: DOCUMENTS ON THE CITY OF WINNIPEG 1875-1913. 1979. Edited by Alan Artibise. VI. PHILLIPS IN PRINT: SELECTED WRITINGS ON CANADIAN ART AND NATURE OF WALTER J. PHILLIPS. 1982. Edited by Maria Tippet and Douglas Cole. VII. THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF LORD SELKIRK 1799-1809 1984. Edited by J.M. Bumsted. Volume I in THE WRITINGS AND PAPERS OF THOMAS DOUGLAS, FIFTH EARL OF SELKIRK and Volume VII of the Society’s publication series. VIII. THE WHEAT KING: SELECTED LETTERS AND PAPERS OF A.J. COTTON 1888-1913. 1985. Edited by Wendy Owen. IX. THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF LORD SELKIRK 1810-1820 1987. Edited by J.M. Bumstead. Volume 2, In The Writings and Papers of Thomas Douglas, Fifth Earl of Selkirk and Volume 9 of the Society’s Publication series. X. THE MODERN BEGINNINGS OF SUBARCTIC ORNITHOLOGY: NORTHERN CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1856-68 1991. Edited by Debra Lindsay XI. OTTAWA AT WAR: THE GRANT DEXTER MEMORANDA, 1939-1945. 1994. Edited and Introduced by Frederick W. Gibson and Barbara Robertson. Information on obtaining back volumes is available from The Society at 403 Fletcher Argue Building, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2N2. THE MANITOBA RECORD SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS V O L XII U M E GENERAL EDITOR Debra Lindsay ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ann Morton The Manitoba Record Society Winnipeg 1997 Copyright © 1997 Manitoba Record Society Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Main entry under title: A Great movement underway (Manitoba Record Society publications ; v. 12) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1. Women – Prairie Provinces – Social Conditions. 2. Women – Prairie Provinces – History. 3. Prairie Provinces – Social Conditions – 1905-1945.* 4. Frontier and pioneer life – Prairie Provinces. 5. Grain growers’ guide I. Kelcey, Barbara Eileen, 1949- II. Davis, Angela E., 1926-1994. III. Manitoba Records Society. IV. Series. HQ1459.P6G73 1997 305.4’09712 C97-920068-7 Angela Elizabeth Davis (1926-1994) FOREWORD Letters flooded into the Davis home when Angela died in 1994. Her circle of friends and colleagues was vast-she kept in touch with classmates from King’s College Nursing Hospital, with friends made during the 1950s after she and her husband Royden moved to Canada, and with associates and colleagues in the arts and academic communities-and everyone recalled her integrity, her enthusiasm for life and learning, her wonderful sense of humour, her grace, and her courage. She was loved and admired. As a scholar, Angela was an example to many, both students and colleagues. No matter what the topic, her exuberance and interest were contagious. Although her research and teaching almost always encompassed some aspect of the arts and women’s history, Angela had a broad, inclusive approach to the discipline. For many years she taught introductory courses in the history of western civilization and upper level courses in historical methods, but she was equally at ease arranging the Brigden Papers at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, leading a tour through the British Midlands, or organizing academic conferences. Together with Kerry Abel and Jean Friesen she organized a conference on “Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada,” and she organized a conference on “Women in Manitoba History” with Mary Kinnear. Angela began her academic career as a nursing student. She trained in Britain, graduating in 1948. She nursed for two years at King’s Hospital while her husband, Royden Davis, finished his medical residency at Cambridge. In 1951 they left England for Canada where vi A Great Movement Underway Royden was stationed in Vancouver with the Royal Canadian Airforce. For the next twenty years she devoted herself to her family and her community. While living in Regina during the 1960s, for example, she was a founding member of one of the first cooperative childcare centres. In the early 1970s, after raising her family, Angela decided to return to the academy. She enrolled at the University of Winnipeg, and in 1977 she obtained her B.A. Honours. She then went on to do graduate work at the University of Manitoba, and received her M.A. in 1979 and the Ph.D. in 1987. Her dissertation on “Business, Art and Labour: Brigden’s and the growth of Canadian Graphic Arts Industry, 1870-1950” was published posthumously. Angela’s dissertation epitomizes her approach to history. She was always sensitive to those whose stories were usually ignored. Initially she thought she would study the Chartist Movement. As appealing as this topic was, she reassessed her ambitions in light of what was practical given her many non-academic responsibilities. She never completely abandoned her interest in reform movements or labour history, though. She wrote and delivered many papers on such topics, for example: “Mary Barrett Speechly, 1873-1968, A Manitoba Feminist” or “Art and Work, Frederick Brigden and the history of the Canadian illustrated press.” Additionally, her interest in such topics meant that she used atypical kinds of evidence such as oral accounts. She recognized the value of sharing past experiences in the reconstruction of women’s history, and Angela herself was pleased to contribute to this process. When her granddaughter Alexandra Lount came to her with a school assignment on family history, she shared her experiences of living in war-torn England. Angela applauded the initiative shown by teachers who devised projects which focussed on the lives of every-day people. Angela’s first-hand experience with war came out in her work in other ways as well. She had always had an interest in the arts, no doubt a reflection of having a father (George Frederick Pizzey) who earned his living as a singer on stage and in radio, and one of her last projects was a melding of scholarship and life experience. Together with Dr Sarah McKinnon she organized an exhibition on the wartime paintings of Mary Riter Hamilton entitled “No Man’s Land,” and she also participated in an Foreword vii exhibition on prairie printmakers entitled “The Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop.” Her work on Mary Riter. Hamilton also appeared in a film produced by the War Amps of Canada. Scholars incur many debts as they go about their work in the archives, in libraries and in our universities, and one of the ways in which those debts are repaid is through service to the community. Angela’s record on this count was unparalleled. She always gave more than she took. She was a co-founder and consultant of the Osborne Gallery from 1980-85, and she was a founder of the Women and History Association of Manitoba (1988). She was active in the Manitoba Historical Society, chairing the program committee and sit-ting on council for several years, but she was also active in the university community. At the University of Manitoba, she was a member of the President’s Advisory Council for Women (1982-85), and she was a Fellow at St. John’s College, University of Manitoba. She served on many committees at the College, chairing several. Her work on the Art Committee was particularly notable, and is recognized with a watercolour dedicated to her memory. Angela always believed that scholarship is a collaborative process. She willingly shared her love of history and her research with others, and her example almost always meant that her generosity was reciprocated. It was quite in character, then, that just before she died Angela asked that her ongoing projects be distributed among her. friends and colleagues. The Women’s Pages of the Grain Growers’ Guide was just one of the half dozen works-in-progress left by her untimely death, and it was at her request that Dr Barbara Kelcey complete the manuscript for publication. Debra Lindsay Wendy Owen May 1997 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This volume represents an edited version of a manuscript prepared in 1989 by Dr. Angela E. Davis entitled Country Homemakers: A Selection of Letters and Editorials from the Woman’s Page of the Grain Growers’ Guide, 1908-1928. In its original form, the letters and editorials were presented thematically and the completed work was three times the length of this completed version. It is still available in the University of Manitoba Libraries.