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Places and geography

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671 recordsStructured records (JSON) ↗
John Stanley Plaskett, 1917.
CA-K569History

John Stanley Plaskett and the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory

John Stanley Plaskett began Canada’s first astrophysical research at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa in 1905, then urged the creation of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory near Victoria, designed its main instruments and became its first director in 1917. With its 1.85-metre telescope he observed stellar motions fundamental to the first measurement of our galaxy’s rotation.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Samuel Leonard Tilley, February 1869 (Topley Studio).
CA-K568History

Sir Leonard Tilley, New Brunswick Father of Confederation

Samuel Leonard Tilley of Gagetown led New Brunswick’s government and was a delegate to the Charlottetown, Québec and London conferences, an architect of the British North America Act and leader of the province’s pro-Confederation forces. As federal Minister of Finance he drafted the National Policy, and he twice served as lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
William Roper Hull, portrait published in 1903.
CA-K564Economy & trade

William Roper Hull, Alberta cattleman

William Roper Hull, a cattleman, entrepreneur and land developer, was the first in Alberta to combine cattle raising, meat processing and retailing on a large scale in the late 1880s. He built several ranches and city holdings in Calgary and made the Bow Valley Ranch a regional showpiece known for its irrigation and its social events.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Édouard Lacroix, 1927.
CA-K560Economy & trade

Édouard Lacroix, Beauce industrialist

Édouard Lacroix, a business leader from the Beauce, built an industrial empire in Quebec, the Maritimes and New England, opening up Appalachian forests and helping integrate the lumber and pulp and paper industries of the Saint John River basin. A rare francophone among interwar industrial leaders, he was also an MP from 1925 to 1944.

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Photo: Philippe Angers · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Charles Edward Saunders, portrait published in 1927.
CA-K555Economy & trade

Charles Saunders and Marquis wheat

Charles Edward Saunders of London, Ontario, was Dominion Cerealist at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa from 1903 to 1922. There in 1904 he developed the famous Marquis wheat, first grown by farmers in 1910, along with other varieties suited to the Prairies such as Ruby, Garnet and Reward.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
James Teit, before 1922.
CA-K547Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

James Teit, ethnographer of the Interior Salish

James Teit, a Shetlander who came to Spences Bridge, British Columbia, in 1884 and married into the Nlaka’pamux Nation, was the leading ethnographer of the Interior Salish. Encouraged by Franz Boas, he recorded oral traditions of the Salish, Dene and Ktunaxa, and as a champion of Indigenous land rights he served as special agent for the Allied Tribes of British Columbia.

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Photo: unknown (self-portrait?) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Edward Alexander Partridge (Saskatchewan Archives Board).
CA-K546Economy & trade

E. A. Partridge, prairie farm leader

E. A. Partridge, a farmer at Sintaluta, Saskatchewan, led farmers who banded together to defend their interests in the wheat boom. He helped found the Grain Growers’ Grain Company in 1905–1906 and was founding editor of the Grain Growers’ Guide in 1908, championing co-operative grain marketing, wheat pools and farmer–worker co-operation.

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Photo: Saskatchewan Archives Board · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
J. B. Tyrrell (Canadian Press Syndicate).
CA-K545History

J. B. Tyrrell, geologist and explorer

Joseph Burr Tyrrell of the Geological Survey of Canada (1882–1899) surveyed much of Western Canada and conducted scientific fieldwork in the Hudson Bay region and the northern tundra. Later a mining consultant in the Klondike and Northern Ontario, he is recognized for his work on glacial geology and for recovering and publishing David Thompson’s journal.

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Photo: Canadian Press Syndicate · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Louis-Philippe Hébert, around 1898 (Wm. Notman & Son).
CA-K538Culture & sport

Louis-Philippe Hébert, sculptor

Louis-Philippe Hébert was a Canadian sculptor known for public monuments. After carving wood figures for churches in Ottawa and Montréal, he made bronze statues such as Cartier on Parliament Hill and won renown for the sculptures on the façade of the Quebec legislature, his Maisonneuve monument in Montréal and the Macdonald monument in Ottawa.

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Photo: William Notman & Son · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Wilfrid Pelletier (right) with Claude Champagne at the opening of the Conservatoire, 1943.
CA-K537Culture & sport

Wilfrid Pelletier, conductor and founder of the Conservatoire

Wilfrid Pelletier, an internationally renowned conductor, contributed greatly to Quebec’s musical life, especially in opera and through the Montréal Festivals and the Matinées symphoniques for young people. He was first director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and artistic director of the Montréal and Québec symphony orchestras; the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts bears his name.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Simon Newcomb, between 1905 and 1909 (Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress).
CA-K530History

Simon Newcomb, astronomer from Nova Scotia

Simon Newcomb, born at Wallace Bridge, Nova Scotia, moved to the United States in 1853 and became a leading authority on mathematical astronomy at the U.S. Naval Observatory. As director of the Nautical Almanac from 1877 to 1897, his revision of lunar and planetary tables simplified nautical almanacs worldwide.

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Photo: Harris & Ewing · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Strachan, 1855.
CA-K525Institutions

Bishop John Strachan, King’s College and Trinity College

John Strachan, born in Scotland, came to Kingston in 1799, taught at Cornwall and became rector of York in 1812 and first Anglican Bishop of Toronto in 1839. A central figure of the Family Compact, he promoted public schooling and in 1827 secured a charter for King’s College; when it became the secular University of Toronto in 1849, he founded the Anglican Trinity College in 1851.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir Ambrose Shea (Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K521History

Sir Ambrose Shea, Newfoundland Father of Confederation

Ambrose Shea of St. John’s sat in Newfoundland’s House of Assembly almost continuously from 1848 to 1882. An advocate of union with the other British North American colonies, he was a delegate to the Québec Conference of 1864, though his pro-Confederation coalition was defeated in 1869; his career also included service as Speaker and governor of the Bahamas.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Library and Archives Canada · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Georgina Pope, head nurse of the first Canadian contingent, around 1898.
CA-K520History

Georgina Fane Pope and Canadian military nursing

Georgina Fane Pope of Charlottetown was chosen in 1899 to lead Canada’s military nurses in the South African War and became the first Canadian to receive the Royal Red Cross. Appointed to the permanent Army Medical Corps in 1906, she became Canada’s first military nursing matron in 1908, in charge of all Canadian military nurses.

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Photo: A.G. Pittaway · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Richard Blanshard, around 1850.
CA-K512Institutions

Richard Blanshard, first governor of Vancouver Island

Richard Blanshard, an English barrister, was appointed first governor of Vancouver Island in 1849 and took office in March 1850. Disappointed by conditions in the colony, where the California gold rush slowed growth, and in poor health, he resigned that November, though slow communications kept him in Victoria until 1851.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Mayor Charles A. Magrath of Lethbridge, Alberta (Glenbow Archives).
CA-K511History

Charles Magrath, surveyor and first mayor of Lethbridge

Charles Alexander Magrath took part in the foundation surveys of the North-West Territories from 1878 to 1885, then joined Sir Alexander Galt’s pioneer enterprises. He was the first mayor of Lethbridge, a territorial legislator and MP for Medicine Hat, and later chaired Ontario Hydro and the Canadian section of the International Joint Commission.

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Photo: British and Colonial Photographic Company · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir John William Dawson in 1885 (William Notman and Son, McCord Stewart Museum).
CA-K508Institutions

Sir William Dawson, principal of McGill

Sir John William Dawson of Pictou, Nova Scotia, studied in Edinburgh, worked with the geologist Lyell and became Nova Scotia’s first superintendent of education. As principal and professor of natural history at McGill University from 1855 to 1893 he profoundly influenced Canadian education and science, and he was first president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1882.

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Photo: William Notman and Son · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
E. J. Pratt in Toronto, 1944 (Gordon W. Powley).
CA-K506Culture & sport

E. J. Pratt, poet from Newfoundland

E. J. Pratt, born at Western Bay, Newfoundland, taught and briefly served as a Methodist minister before spending his career at Victoria College in Toronto. By the 1930s he was a prominent Canadian poet, writing on grand themes such as evolution and human struggle against nature, with images of sea and rock that echo his Newfoundland roots.

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Photo: Gordon W. Powley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Robert Falconer, portrait published by the Empire Club of Canada.
CA-K503Institutions

Sir Robert Falconer, president of the University of Toronto

Sir Robert Falconer, born in Charlottetown, was an educator, writer and lecturer. After serving as principal of Pine Hill College in Halifax, he was president of the University of Toronto from 1907 to 1932 and wrote many books and articles on education and public questions.

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Photo: Empire Club of Canada · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The commemorative plaque to Louis-Guillaume Verrier in Québec City, 2021.
CA-K501Institutions

Louis-Guillaume Verrier and the first law courses in Canada

Louis-Guillaume Verrier, born in France, was attorney general of New France and a member of the Council of Quebec for 30 years from 1728. He founded the first school of law in Canada, and from 1735 many future lawyers took his courses; he also assembled a library of some 4,000 volumes.

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Photo: Jeangagnon · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
R. B. Bennett, prime minister (Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K499Institutions

R. B. Bennett, prime minister in the Depression

Richard Bedford Bennett, born at Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, moved to Calgary in 1897 and sat in the North-West Territories and Alberta legislatures before entering the House of Commons in 1911. Conservative leader from 1927, he was prime minister from 1930 to 1935, and his government’s association with the Depression contributed to its defeat.

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Photo: Library and Archives Canada / C-008098 · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Marshall McLuhan in 1945 (Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K491Culture & sport

Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message”

Marshall McLuhan, a University of Toronto professor and pioneer of media studies, became famous in the 1960s for his theories about how print and electronic media shape human perception and behaviour. His ideas of the “global village” and “the medium is the message” made him one of the most celebrated scholars in the Western world.

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Photo: Josephine Smith · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Peter McArthur, portrait published in 1916.
CA-K486Culture & sport

Peter McArthur, farmer and essayist

Peter McArthur of Appin, Ontario, edited the New York magazine Truth from 1896, encouraging Canadian and American writers. Returning to his birthplace in 1908, he combined farming with journalism, and his best-known collection of essays is In Pastures Green.

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Photo: Photographer not named. · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Stephen Willison, portrait published in 1913.
CA-K479Culture & sport

Sir John Willison, editor of the Globe

As editor of the Toronto Globe from 1890 to 1902, John Stephen Willison made it the most influential Liberal newspaper in Canada. Disenchanted with Laurier’s government, he took over the independent Toronto News in 1902, later became Canadian correspondent of The Times of London, and wrote a significant study of Laurier and the Liberal Party.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context