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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
Percy Erskine Nobbs, 1906 (Wm. Notman & Son).
CA-K961Culture & sport

Percy Erskine Nobbs, Arts and Crafts architect

Percy Erskine Nobbs, a Scottish-born architect, educator, writer and critic, helped advance architecture in early 20th-century Canada. He taught at McGill and wrote on town planning, public housing design and Canadian architecture as a national art. His remarkable, finely built designs, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, reflect his strong commitment to fine craftsmanship.

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Photo: Wm. Notman & Son · Photo licence: CC0 · 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
Governor General Monck, Montréal, 1864 (William Notman).
CA-K955History

Lord Monck, first Governor General of Canada

Lord Monck, an Irish peer, became Governor General of British North America in 1861. During the American Civil War he worked to keep the fighting from spreading north, and as an early supporter of union he put his energy and prestige behind Confederation. His term was extended so that he could become the first Governor General of the Dominion of Canada in 1867; he retired to Ireland the next year.

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Photo: William Notman · 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
Lester B. Pearson in a photograph published in a 1957 National Film Board photostory about his Nobel Peace Prize.
CA-K951History

Lester B. Pearson, diplomat and prime minister

Lester B. “Mike” Pearson, Canada’s fourteenth prime minister, was an influential diplomat who became Secretary of State for External Affairs in 1948, helped form NATO and won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership at the United Nations during the Suez crisis. Liberal leader from 1958 and prime minister from 1963 to 1968, he promoted bilingualism, championed the new flag, and brought in universal medicare and the Canada Pension Plan.

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Photo: Capital Press · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Augustin-Norbert Morin, about 1865 (Jules-Isaïe Benoît).
CA-K949History

Augustin-Norbert Morin, Patriote and co-premier

Augustin-Norbert Morin, lawyer and journalist, entered Lower Canada’s Assembly for Bellechasse in 1830, helped write the Parti patriote’s 92 Resolutions and took part in the Rebellion of 1837. In the Province of Canada he was co-premier with Francis Hincks and Allan MacNab, and in 1854 his government abolished the seigneurial system in Canada East. As a Superior Court judge from 1855, he helped draft the Civil Code of Lower Canada.

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Photo: Jules-Isaïe Benoît · 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
Charles Le Moyne on the Maisonneuve Monument, Place d’Armes, Montréal.
CA-K939History

Charles Le Moyne and his family

Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay (1626–1685), soldier, trader and first seigneur of Longueuil, founded a family prominent in the military, commercial and administrative life of New France, ennobled by Louis XIV. His Canadian-born sons, including d’Iberville, de Sainte-Hélène and de Bienville, fought France’s enemies across North America on land and sea and served as colonizers and administrators.

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Photo: Jean Gagnon · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Abbé Léon Provancher (The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 1919).
CA-K937Culture & sport

Abbé Léon Provancher, naturalist

Abbé Léon Provancher was a naturalist and entomologist known for his work on bees, wasps and ants. His publications include Flore canadienne and Petite faune entomologique du Canada. In 1868 he founded Le Naturaliste canadien, and he assembled several insect collections.

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Photo: The Canadian field-naturalist ("courtesy les Archives Léon-Provancher, l'Université Laval") · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
B.K. Sandwell (Yousuf Karsh).
CA-K936Culture & sport

B.K. Sandwell, editor of Saturday Night

B.K. Sandwell was a journalist, essayist, lecturer and academic who edited Saturday Night from 1932 to 1951. He used the magazine to express English Canadian liberal ideas and defend civil liberties, and wrote extensively on literary and social questions.

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Photo: Yousuf Karsh; Library and Archives Canada · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
Governor General Vincent Massey, 1956 (Gar Lunney).
CA-K934History

Vincent Massey, first Canadian-born Governor General

Vincent Massey, diplomat, philanthropist and patron of the arts, was Canada’s first diplomatic minister to Washington (1926–30) and High Commissioner in London (1935–46). He chaired the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, whose 1951 report was a landmark in Canada’s cultural history. In 1952 he became the first Canadian-born Governor General, serving until 1959.

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Photo: Gar Lunney · Photo licence: Public domain · 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
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
C.D. Howe, about 1940.
CA-K922Economy & trade

C.D. Howe, “Minister of Everything”

Clarence Decatur Howe, born in Massachusetts, came to Canada in 1908 and set up an engineering firm in Port Arthur in 1916. Elected in 1935, he dominated Liberal cabinets for more than two decades, tied his party closely to business and drove Canada’s rapid industrialization in war and peace. He led the creation of many Crown corporations, including Trans-Canada Airlines and Atomic Energy of Canada.

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Photo: Fayer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context