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Thomas Alexander Crerar, official portrait, about 1919.
CA-K964Economy & trade

T.A. Crerar, grain trade leader and Progressive

Thomas Alexander Crerar began as an agrarian reformer at Russell, Manitoba. As head of the Grain Growers’ Grain Company he helped shape Canadian grain marketing, and championing western farmers he led the Progressive movement to great influence in the 1921 election, ending the federal two-party system. He later served in Mackenzie King’s cabinets and was an active Senate leader until 1966.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Library and Archives Canada · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Skirving Ewart, about 1902.
CA-K962History

J.S. Ewart, lawyer and advocate of Canadian autonomy

John Skirving Ewart, a noted constitutional lawyer born in Toronto, practised in Winnipeg from 1882 to 1904, founding the Manitoba Law Journal and serving on Louis Riel’s appeal defence team. He was counsel for Manitoba’s Roman Catholic minority in the schools dispute of the 1890s, then argued cases before the Supreme Court and Privy Council from Ottawa. He was an early, ardent advocate of Canadian autonomy at home and abroad.

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Photo: Unknown photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Alexander Gibson, about 1890.
CA-K959Economy & trade

Alexander “Boss” Gibson, New Brunswick’s Lumber King

Alexander Gibson, lumber and railway baron and generous benefactor, was a pivotal figure in the Maritime economy as it was integrated into the national economy. A leading New Brunswick entrepreneur, he expanded from lumber into cotton, developing Marysville into one of Canada’s first model company towns. Though his business foundered under overproduction encouraged by the National Policy, he left the province important railway and industrial infrastructure.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Robson, portrait (Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K957History

John Robson, newspaperman and premier of British Columbia

John Robson, born in Perth, Ontario, came to British Columbia in 1859. In 1861 he founded the British Columbian at New Westminster, a newspaper on the British Columbia mainland, and used it to demand responsible government. Elected in 1867, he urged the colony to join Confederation, held several cabinet posts and was premier from 1889 until his accidental death in London, working to organize schools and regulate resource development.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Library and Archives Canada · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Margaret Charlton, portrait (U.S. National Library of Medicine).
CA-K952Institutions

Margaret Charlton, pioneer medical librarian

Margaret Charlton, librarian at McGill University’s Medical Library (1895–1914) and Toronto’s Academy of Medicine Library (1914–22), advanced modern library methods in the profession’s formative years. In 1898 she co-founded the Medical Library Association, which became an international leader in specialized librarianship. She also wrote on the medical history of New France, and her success in a male-dominated field opened the way for other professional women.

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Photo: Unknown photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Violet McNaughton, about 1910 (University of Saskatchewan Archives).
CA-K950Economy & trade

Violet McNaughton, farm women’s leader

Violet McNaughton, a leader in the women’s, peace and co-operative movements, drew on her life as a farm wife to organize the Women Grain Growers and help develop the Wheat Pool. She led the fight in Saskatchewan for women’s right to vote and for publicly funded medical care, and from 1926 to 1960 promoted agrarian feminism, pacifism and co-operation as a journalist with The Western Producer.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
James Bernard Harkin, 1914.
CA-K947Places & geography

J.B. Harkin, first parks commissioner

James Bernard Harkin, born in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, became commissioner of the new Dominion Parks Branch in 1911 and over 25 years built a nationwide system of parks open to as many Canadians as possible. An ardent conservationist, he made important advances in wildlife protection, and on his advice the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada was created in 1919, with him as an original member.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Rev. C.W. Gordon (Ralph Connor), right, with Dr. Francis Landey Patton, 1929.
CA-K946Culture & sport

Ralph Connor, novelist and churchman

Charles William Gordon, born in Glengarry, Ontario, was a Presbyterian minister and pastor of St. Stephen’s Church in Winnipeg from 1894 to 1924. As “Ralph Connor” he entertained and instructed millions with novels, many about the settlement of western Canada. An ardent Canadian nationalist, he worked for causes such as temperance and help for immigrants, and his optimism reflected the views of many Canadians of his time.

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Photo: Wide World Photos · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Statue of DesBarres, Sydney, Nova Scotia.
CA-K945Places & geography

J.F.W. DesBarres, chart maker and founder of Sydney

Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres, a military engineer of Huguenot descent, took part in the capture of Louisbourg in 1758 and Quebec in 1759. From 1763 to 1773 he surveyed and charted the coasts of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, contributing to marine surveying. He was the first Lieutenant Governor of Cape Breton and founder of Sydney, and later governed Prince Edward Island; he died in Halifax at 102.

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Photo: Hantsheroes · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Sir Louis Henry Davies, 1903 (William James Topley).
CA-K944History

Sir Louis Davies, Island premier and Chief Justice

Louis Henry Davies, born in Charlottetown, was premier of Prince Edward Island from 1876 to 1879, defending tenant farmers while working to settle the land question. He served as counsel to the International Fisheries Commission at Halifax in 1877, sat in the House of Commons and became Minister of Marine and Fisheries in 1896. Named to the Supreme Court in 1901, he became Chief Justice of Canada in 1918.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Wilfred Campbell, portrait photograph.
CA-K943Culture & sport

Wilfred Campbell, poet of the Confederation group

William Wilfred Campbell, born in Kitchener, left the Anglican ministry in 1891 to become a civil servant in Ottawa. A member of the Confederation group of poets, he drew inspiration from the Bruce Peninsula of his youth and also wrote novels, histories, plays and travel books. His writing explored nature, faith and Darwinism, as well as imperial ideas of his time.

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Photo: Photographer unattributed · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
William Molson, 1863 (William Notman).
CA-K942Economy & trade

William Molson, brewer and banker

William Molson, youngest son of Montréal brewer John Molson, helped expand the family empire into distilling, lumber, a foundry, steamships and railways by the mid-19th century. In 1853 he and his brother John founded Molsons Bank, which he led until his death. A leading philanthropist, he was president of the Montreal General Hospital and gave money toward founding and building McGill University, later becoming a governor.

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Photo: William Notman · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Hiram Walker (Hiram Walker and Sons archives).
CA-K938Economy & trade

Hiram Walker and Walkerville

Hiram Walker, born in Massachusetts, was a successful merchant, distiller and grain dealer in Detroit by the 1850s. After Michigan adopted prohibition in 1855 he bought land across the river in Canada and built a distillery and mill that grew into the company town of Walkerville, later adding cattle finishing, a river ferry and a railway. He played an important part in western Ontario’s economic development.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Hiram Walker and Sons archives · Photo licence: CC0 · Credit & context
William Kirby, portrait photograph.
CA-K933Culture & sport

William Kirby, author of The Golden Dog

William Kirby, born in England, came to Canada in 1839 and settled at Niagara, where for 20 years he edited the Niagara Mail and was Collector of Customs. A journalist, poet and historian, he is best known for The Golden Dog (1877), a novel of old Quebec that went through thirty editions and was translated into French by Pamphile Le May.

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Photo: Photographer unattributed · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
David Ross McCord, 1862 (William Notman).
CA-K932Institutions

David Ross McCord, collector and museum founder

David Ross McCord, of a prominent Montréal family, built one of the earliest and most important collections of objects, images and manuscripts on Canada’s history. Believing that knowing the past strengthens national identity, he spent most of his life and fortune gathering some 15,000 items on Indigenous, French and British history in North America, and left them to McGill University, which founded the museum he had dreamed of.

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Photo: William Notman · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
James Wilson Morrice, R.C.A. (Archives of Ontario).
CA-K927Culture & sport

James Wilson Morrice, landscape painter

James Wilson Morrice, born in Montréal, was a landscape painter active in Canada and Europe. Largely self-taught and influenced by contemporaries such as Whistler and Matisse, he used and transformed light to convey atmosphere. He lived in Paris, showed his work in many cities including Montréal, and his paintings were reviewed by leading critics and acquired by major museums.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Archives of Ontario · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
R. Tait McKenzie (Bain News Service).
CA-K926Culture & sport

R. Tait McKenzie, surgeon, educator and sculptor

Robert Tait McKenzie, born in Lanark County, Ontario, graduated in medicine at McGill and became its medical director of physical training in 1894. A pioneer of physical education, he served as a surgeon in the First World War and developed widely adopted rehabilitation methods. He won international acclaim for sculptures of athletes; his medallion The Joy of Effort was set in Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium in 1912.

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Photo: Bain News Service · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Dr. Andrew Macphail, about 1907.
CA-K925Culture & sport

Sir Andrew Macphail, doctor and essayist

Andrew Macphail, born at Orwell, Prince Edward Island, became a distinguished doctor and writer and McGill’s first professor of the history of medicine (1907–37). Knighted for his service with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the First World War, he founded and edited the University Magazine and wrote books, plays and poems sharply criticizing the modern age, contrasting the rural life of his childhood with urban industrialism.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir Ernest MacMillan, 1940 (Noel Rubie).
CA-K924Culture & sport

Sir Ernest MacMillan, conductor and champion of Canadian music

Ernest MacMillan, composer and organist, was knighted in 1935 for services to music in Canada. For many years he conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, led the Toronto Conservatory of Music and was dean of music at the University of Toronto. He promoted music at every level, supporting national music organizations, publishing, and conducting and judging festivals across the country.

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Photo: Noel Rubie · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Archibald Byron Macallum, about 1900.
CA-K918Culture & sport

A.B. Macallum, pioneer of scientific medicine

Archibald Byron Macallum, born at Belmont, Upper Canada, and educated at Toronto and Johns Hopkins, set up Canada’s first physiological laboratory at the University of Toronto. Professor of biochemistry at Toronto and later McGill, and chairman of the National Research Council from 1916 to 1920, he was a pioneer of scientific medicine and an authority on cellular microchemistry.

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Photo: Jreeland, Toronto · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, about 1890.
CA-K914History

Sir Adolphe Chapleau, premier of Quebec

Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, born at Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville, was one of 19th-century Quebec’s most prominent figures. A noted criminal lawyer who supported Métis rights, he defended Ambroise-Dydime Lépine at his 1874 trial at Fort Garry. He was premier of Quebec (1879–82), a federal cabinet minister (1882–92) and Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1892–97), and spoke for Montréal during a key period of its growth.

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Photo: Aegidius Fauteux · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Plaque commemorating Peter Fidler.
CA-K912Places & geography

Peter Fidler, surveyor of the West

Peter Fidler, born in Bolsover, England, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1788 and founded posts such as Chesterfield House (1800). As a surveyor, he mapped about 5,000 miles of waterways in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and surveyed the Selkirk settlement and the boundaries of Assiniboia. His maps and journals remain basic historical sources.

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Photo: Andyplummer · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Plaque honouring Douglas at the New Brunswick Legislative Building.
CA-K911History

Sir Howard Douglas, founder of King’s College

Howard Douglas, born in England, was Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief of New Brunswick from 1823 to 1831. He encouraged agriculture, steam navigation and lighthouse building, and in 1828 founded King’s College, now the University of New Brunswick. He dealt firmly with armed incursions from Maine and upheld the province’s rights in the boundary dispute of 1826–28, and wrote important books on military and political subjects.

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Photo: JJonahJackalope · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Edward Whelan, 1864 (William Notman).
CA-K900History

Edward Whelan, journalist and Father of Confederation

Edward Whelan, an Irish-born journalist, came to Halifax about 1836 and became a protégé of Joseph Howe. He founded the Examiner in Charlottetown in 1847. A co-founder of Prince Edward Island’s Liberal Party with George Coles and an advocate of responsible government, he attended the Quebec Conference in 1864 and compiled The Union of the British Provinces (1865).

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Photo: William Notman · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context