Canada: Shaping an Identity Images Collection

#41 National Transcontinental Railway under construction, Ont. or Man., ca. 1909   

#42 Building the Transcontinental - West of Edmonton, AB, 1912   

#43 Railway steel for the Western Front. Soldiers of a construction battalion lifting steel on one of the parallel lines, Yellowknife, B.C.

Note: Yellowknife was chosen as the official capital of the Northwest Territories (NWT) in 1967. Prior to this, Yellowknife was considered part of British Columbia.   

#44 Women.

The role and place of women in the French-speaking communities prior to 1920 was well-defined. Their education stressed the domestic arts, and, where possible, it was given in an all-girls school or convent. These young girls, in this 1912 scene, attended one of the many convents scattered across the West which were operated by religious orders, in this case, the Sisters of the Holy Names. The woman at the spinning wheel is occupied with one of the numerous tasks which fell upon women in this pioneering era. Women's labour, so essential in rural areas, assured that their economic role was not secondary.   

#45 French-speaking businesses.

Most of the French-speaking people who moved into Western Canada after 1870 turned to agriculture. There existed, however, a busy rural and urban commercial class which sought to service the francophone community. One finds hotels, general stores, liquor stores, and shoe stores in almost all the small French-speaking communities, and also brickmakers, entrepreneurs, and some financiers in the larger centers like Winnipeg-St. Boniface and Edmonton.

Businessmen like the butcher Rochon in St. Boniface could afford to advertise only in French, while a grocer like Couture who had a shop in St. Boniface and another in Winnipeg, advertised in English. This photograph (c. 1905) also shows the Banque d'Hochelaga, a local branch of a Montreal-based bank.

Interestingly enough, while many French-speaking businessmen in the West carried on their trade in both French and English, large department and hardware stores often advertised in the French newspapers that they had a clerk who could speak French.   

#46 Ste-Anne des Chênes.

Urban centres, with their collèges, newspapers, and various businesses were not the only focus of francophone settlement. At a time when Canada was still primarily a rural society, francophones, like all other groups, were found mostly in the rural areas. The parish of Ste. Anne des Chênes, located on the Seine River 35 miles east of St. Boniface, had grown out of a small Métis settlement astride the Dawson Road. Repatriated French-Canadians who had settled in the area in the 1870s founded other parishes, among them the dairy centre of La Broquerie.

This photograph shows the second church built in Ste. Anne by the Rev. Giroux which was torn down in 1898. The buttresses required to support the sagging walls reveal the difficulties inherent in large frame buildings. Often, monies for the construction of a new church were scarce, owing to poor crops or low prices for farm products. When church contributions were assured, a new church would be built of brick if possible.   

#47 Early Transportation, Red River Carts, 1883.

To understand the excitement over the arrival of the first railway locomotive in Winnipeg in 1877, it must be realized that one of the basic modes of transportation was the "shrieking" Red River Cart pulled by oxen. In the pre-railway era all goods entering Winnipeg had to come in from one of three directions: from Eastern Canada over one thousand miles of rock, muskeg, and tangled waterways; from the Hudson's Bay by way of a gruelling overland route; or from St. Paul, Minnesota to the south. On the latter route, these Red River Carts were often used.   

#48 Winnipeg Automobile Club, 1904.

This photograph shows members of the Winnipeg Automobile Club at a gathering at John Arbuthnot's residence in Armstrong's Point. Except for the wealthy, the automobile was not a common possession in this era, and even for the well-to-do, the automobile served primarily as a means of leisure activity. Clubs organized Sunday afternoon drives in the countryside. In a climate like Winnipeg's, it was not surprising that automobiles such as those shown here were not used daily throughout the year.   

#49 The False Creek Jungle (Unemployed Camp), Vancouver, 1931.

In desperation, many of the unemployed and even their families - without food or shelter - established communities on vacant land in the nation's cities. "The Jungle," said the Vancouver photographer who took this picture, "was...on the city dump.... It was a collection of nondescript habitations made out of anything which could be begged, borrowed, or stolen and hung together somehow to afford shelter from the elements to a large number of unemployed men; men from everywhere, all sorts of ages, education, characters, attainments, and which a common want and some misery had banded together in larger or smaller groups for mutual help.... While I was taking the photographs some women came up; to gratify curiosity I surmise. I observed that one of the women watchers had tears running down her cheeks; one could hardly blame her; I felt a little similarly inclined myself." Food for this jungle was supplied by a minister of the United Church. A few weeks after the photograph was taken, infectious diseases broke out, the jungle was cleared and the habitations burned by order of the City Health Officer.   

#50 Line-up for Relief, Vancouver Relief Office, 1932.

Each working day queues of reliefees lined up at civic relief offices across the nation, some to be registered, others to receive their issue of supplies. Note one man (centre) carrying away his groceries. Registration involved an almost complete invasion of personal privacy in order to ensure that the relief recipient was jobless, destitute, and without any sort of financial or family support. Potential reliefees had to give permission for civic inspection of homes and bank accounts, had to provide affidavits from referees who would testify to their citizenship and destitution, had to turn in automobile licence plates and sometimes even radio licences. Moreover, they had to promise to accept any work provided by the authorities to prove good faith and much of the work was in the form of "boondoggles" such as rock breaking, wood sawing or dandelion pulling. In some cases they had to sign legal notes promising to repay the city for relief received. At first, reliefees generally had to collect groceries at central depots (without even the luxury of street car fare). They also received at these depots city vouchers with specified amounts for rent, fuel and perishables, like milk. Later, many cities converted completely to a voucher system, with vouchers redeemable at authorized retail outlets for specific commodities. By about 1936, many cities had turned to cash relief by mail. Relief in the form of food, fuel and shelter was satisfactory perhaps, at the outset of the depression, but in time provision also had to be made for worn-out clothing and household equipment, for medical and dental care, and for educational supplies for children. Step by step, the nation, mainly in the cities, was moving toward a permanent welfare system and away from emergency relief.   

#51 The Local Rodeo.

Among those sports and entertainments common to the cattle country were some that had emerged from within the cattle industry itself. As a relief from the tough work of the range where the opportunities for organized recreation were non-existent, the cowboys created their own games for their own amusement. These games developed naturally from the skills practiced daily with horses, ropes and cattle. Within each cattle "outfit", were those who had gained reputations for their riding and roping talents. Competitive instincts led to spontaneous contests within each outfit, and when outfits from other ranches were in the vicinity, inter-camp rivalry sprang up. This was particularly the case when cowboys from many ranches were brought together each year at round-up time. For these contests there were no prizes, but individual and ranch prestige plus small side bets kept things lively. The rodeo idea developed gradually from this natural origin as the West was settled and towns were established. It was in the small western towns at Victoria Day, July 1st, and July 4th picnics that the rough-and-tumble games of the cowboys found their first spectators. As the cowboy contests were brought into the towns, they were formalized, and eventually standards were established for each of the four major competitions (Bareback Riding, Saddle Bronc Riding, Calf Roping, and Steer Roping), for judging, and for the payment of prize money.

The Gilchrist Ranch in southern Alberta where this "saddle bronc" contestant is pictured "biting the dust", like many of the bigger ranches, was often ready to sponsor a local rodeo by issuing an invitation and challenge to the neighbouring ranches. The traditional rangeland "bronc buster" was often a man apart. He was a specialist who travelled from ranch to ranch offering for hire his services in breaking wild range horses to the saddle.