Prairie Series
Mattie’s Transactions of the Panama Pacific Dental Congress
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This is the first in a series of paintings based on my family’s archives. This painting is my interpretation of Mattie Wyman, my paternal grandfather’s sister; my great-aunt, born in 1872 in New Brunswick, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. She had hoped to become a medical doctor, but as a woman, too many barriers stood in her way.
She worked as a nurse in Duluth, Minnesota until 1903. After leaving nursing, Mattie attended Northwestern University Dental School in Evanston, Illinois, graduating in 1905 as a Doctor of Dental Surgery. She was one of the early female dentists in the United States. She started her dental practice in Cleveland, Ohio, but most of her career as a dentist was in Seattle, Washington. Her dental practice was on the 9th floor of the Heritage Landmark Seaboard Building in Seattle.
At the Panama Pacific Dental Congress of the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco, she presented and published the paper “Caries in Children’s Teeth to Prevent, Retard and Cure”. As far as I have been able to determine, she was one of just three female dentist to have presented a paper at the Congress.
In Mattie’s 1915 paper, she discussed proper nutrition for pregnant mothers in order to ensure good dental and general health for their babies as well as themselves. At least one orange or apple a day is advised… and a dish of prunes every morning at breakfast time…all fresh, ripe fruits in their season may be taken. During gestation, advise vegetables such as spinach, carrots, lettuce, celery, string beans, fresh peas and watercress.
Mattie never married which no doubt contributed to her ability to continue her work as a dentist until her retirement. She died in 1957 in Seattle at the age of 84, two years after I was born. I wish I had known her.
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X24” |
| MEDIA | Image transfer, oils, acrylics and mixed media on Mylar and birch panel |
| DATE | 2021 |
Fortitude and Forebear-ance
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Many early women immigrants to the prairies came from eastern Canada, the US and Europe where they had social life, community and culture, and they longed for that. Memories of that companionship and society were all that they had.
Today, one of the groups for which the coronavirus pandemic has had a particularly adverse effect is women. The isolation and loneliness that was endured by early prairie women reminds us that we are not alone in our present experience of isolation and adversity. Many have come before us; their strength and perseverance is with us.
Civilization is gone and only the little band of lonesome women here remember it…
Quote from Hilda Rose’s published memoir: The Stump Farm: A Chronicle of Pioneering, 1928. Hilda came from Boston, Massachusetts to Montana, and then to Fort Vermilion, Alberta. Her book is based on a series of her letter written to friends between 1919 and 1927, which were published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1928, the money from which allowed her and her husband to survive in one particularly difficult year.
If we just had some neighbors but we are three miles from the nearest. I have seen no women since fall.
Quote from Gertrude Chase’s letter to her mother, February 11, 1922. Gertrude came to the Wapiti River area, Alberta from Tonasket, Washington State in [1918]. Letters: Provincial Archives of Alberta PR1973.0569
We felt our neighbors hearts beat with ours in trouble and in joy.
Quote from Mrs. Stedman’s memoir. She came to Pincher Creek from Ontario in 1884. Glenbow Archives #CA1935
Once I visited another of the early settlers. She was a young woman with a baby and she was lonely too…When we met, we ran to each other; we each had to speak to a woman, and put our arms around each other’s neck and just had a good cry. All the hunger and longing which we had stifled for so long, came to the surface.
Quote from Catherine Neil’s memoir. Catharine came to the Grassy Lake area of Alberta from Scotland in 1905. Glenbow Alberta Archives M888, M4116.
Photograph: Miss MacKay & friend, Ottawa 1885. Library & Archives Canada #MIKAN 3448478
| DIMENSIONS | 11“X14” |
| MEDIA | Image transfer, ink and graphite on Mylar |
| DATE | 2020 |
The Beulah Home for Unfortunate Women and Girls
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The Beulah Home for Unfortunate Women and Girls is based on the records and photographs of the Beulah Home in the Provincial Archives of Alberta (# PR1971.47).
This home for unwed mothers and their babies was founded in Edmonton in 1909 by Maude Elizabeth Chatham, who worked most notably with long-serving Superintendent Mary A. Finlay and Nurse Olivia Eidsath. In 1911, Alex Ronald donated two acres of agricultural land at what is now 134 Avenue and 101 Street, and a purpose-built home was built. The house was decorated in a cozy, homey way rather than appearing institutional, and the Home welcomed the women and girls into the Beulah “family” during their stay.
The Beulah Home emphasized compassion and forgiveness, and provided interdenominational Christian guidance for the women and girls to help in “recovering them to a healthy, moral and spiritual life” as well as teaching them how to care for their babies. It was felt that many of these girls had not benefitted from a stable home life, and lacked education about the basics of life, and therefore were easily taken advantage of by men.
May God help us that this traffic against our women and girls will not thrive in the shadow of our silence, but that we may seek for information and put forth definite effort to rescue our fallen sisters.
……Excerpt from Beulah Home report, 1914
Reports described the women and girls who came to the home in various ways: unfortunate, fallen, needy, erring, wandering, and “young girls who have stepped aside”. However, in an attitude that was unusual, they did not blame the women and girls, but rather condemned the absent men who had led them astray.
The Beulah Home was different than other institutions of the day in another significant way. It was common practice at the time to pressure unwed mothers into giving up their babies for adoption, and in some cases babies were taken away from the mother immediately after giving birth. Although the Home arranged for adoptions, they also helped mothers to keep their babies if they wished to do so. An enlightened view, well ahead of its time.
| DIMENSIONS | 20“X20” |
| MEDIA | Image transfer and oil stick on Mylar and birch panel |
| DATE | 2019 |
The Visitors
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Many women’s associations carried out a heavy load of charitable work long before governments took this on. I titled this painting The Visitors after the Visiting and Relief Committee of the Edmonton Chapter of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE). “The Visitors” committee was started to help some of the women and families of the soldiers who were serving overseas in the First World War.
The minutes of women’s associations at the Provincial Archives of Alberta (#1974.1) recorded good works such as providing furniture, clothing, coal for heating, and short term loans. On several occasions it is mentioned that the Visitors took children of sick or deceased mothers into their own homes.
Sadly, not all of the work of these women’s organizations was of a positive nature. They were on the forefront of initiatives such as banning black immigration, advocating for eugenics, and the intrusive assimilation of indigenous peoples.
Paradoxically, women’s groups who were simultaneously fighting for women’s rights, also led the charge for eugenics.
Human beings are flawed. We are none of us perfect, and we all possess both good and bad – although some gravitate more toward either end of that spectrum. The negative parts of our history need to be unearthed and remembered along with the good. Destroying and burying what we are ashamed of and would rather not remember, means that we forget about the harm that was done and that harm can be repeated. Telling both sides of the story is an opportunity for learning and doing better.
Although today it is difficult to understand some of the thinking of the past, it is important to consider the influences of those times because analogous forms of influence come into play for us every day. History lays the foundation for critical thinking, moral sense, and vigilance so we can continue to protect human rights and freedoms.
| DIMENSIONS | 20″ X 20″ |
| MEDIA | Image transfer and oil stick on Mylar and birch panel |
| DATE | 2019 |
Bluebird
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Madeleine Frances Jaffray was born in 1889. She served as a lieutenant and Nursing Sister in the Canadian Army during the First World War. Madeleine was one of 10 nurses sent overseas in 1915 by the Canadian National Nursing Association in answer to an appeal made by the French Flag Nursing Corps. “Bluebird” was the nickname for the Nursing Sisters in the war who wore blue uniforms and white veils.
On June 5, 1917 she was wounded in a bombing while stationed at a hospital at Adinkerke, Belgium. The injury resulted in the amputation of her left foot, making her Canada’s only female war amputee. In recognition of her service and injury, Madeleine was presented with the Croix de Guerre, the first Canadian woman to receive this honour.
In 1927, Madeleine married Byron Morrison, a watchmaker in Edmonton, Alberta. She worked for the Victorian Order of Nurses and was involved with the War Amputees of Canada and the Overseas Nurses Association. Madeleine died July 23, 1972 and is buried in the Edmonton Municipal Cemetery.
Photographs: Madeleine Jaffray (marked with X) and “Face Patients” [1917]
My evacuation day, 1917
Madeleine Morrison fonds, Provincial Archives of Alberta PR1986.54.0012.35
Excerpt from letter to Madeleine Jaffray’s mother from Nursing Director Madame Border-Turner, June 6, 1917. Madeleine Morrison fonds, Provincial Archives of Alberta PR1986.54.9
| DIMENSIONS | 16“X24” |
| MEDIA | Oil stick, graphite and image transfer on Mylar and birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Mat No More
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Originally from Ontario, Matthew (Mat) and Mary Hyde arrived in Edmonton on April 29, 1911. They had four children, one who died in infancy. On July 7 1915, Mat enlisted in the Canadian military. Mat was killed in action on 26 Sep 1916, likely near Courcelette, France on the Somme Front.
While Mat was serving overseas, Mary noted in her daily diary entries “Mat in England” or “Mat somewhere in France”. After Mat died in 1916, Mary wrote “Mat no more” every day in her diary passages until her last diary entry on December 28, 1944, shortly before she died. Mary never remarried.
Photo of the Hyde family. l-r: David, Matthew, Mary, and Alice; Robbie on Matthew’s knee, 1916. City of Edmonton Archives #EA-806-1
Page from Mary Capling Hyde diary, October 17 – 18, 1916. City of Edmonton Archives, Mary Capling Hyde fonds #MS253
| DIMENSIONS | 16″X24“ |
| MEDIA | Oil stick and image transfer and on Mylar and birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Back to the Garden
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“Back to the garden” might well be a motto put into action by employed and unemployed alike; it costs little for seed, and the energy & time will be amply repaid by the fresh vegetables with which to help out our larder, & a few 10 cent packets of flower seed will brighten many a lot & cheer us up if we feel depressed. …Gladys Reeves
Excerpt from Gladys Reeves’s notes for her “Clean up, Paint up, Plant up” campaign, Edmonton, [1930].
Provincial Archives of Alberta #1974.0173.60
Photo of Gladys Reeves, [1910] Provincial Archives of Alberta #PR1974.0173.610. Photographer unidentified
| DIMENSIONS | 12″X24“ |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
I Love Trees
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I love trees, I love beautiful home surroundings, & I want the visitors to our City to take home with them the impression that the People of Edmonton must love their City or they would not have taken the trouble to make it lovely. …Gladys Reeves
Excerpt from a speech by Gladys Reeves [1925]: Provincial Archives of Alberta #PR1974.0173.39a
Photo of Gladys Reeves, [1925]: Provincial Archives of Alberta #B7351 Photographer: Ernest Brown
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X24” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Gladys as River Valley Warrior
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Those of us who have lived among Edmonton’s ravines and river banks enough to know and love them, to have drunk in the beauty of the bursting leaf buds in the Spring; the restful swath of green in the Summer; the riot of color during our Autumn days & the magic of Jack Frost’s artistry on a hoar frosty morning in winter…wonder if the real beauty is better viewed from the top road, rather than by cutting a gash right through the centre of these lines of beauty… …Gladys Reeves
Excerpt from Gladys Reeves’s letter to the Editor of the Edmonton Journal protesting road development in the river valley, [1930]. Provincial Archives of Alberta #1974.0173.33
Photo of Gladys Reeves dressed as Brittania: Provincial Archives of Alberta #1974.0173.603. Photographer unidentified
| DIMENSIONS | 16“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Peony Garden
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It always seemed to me that the herbaceous peony is the very epitome of June. Larger than any rose, it has something of the cabbage rose’s voluminous quality; and when it finally drops from the vase, it sheds its petticoats with a bump on the table, all in an intact heap, much as a rose will suddenly fall, making us look up from our book or conversation, to notice for one moment the death of what had still appeared to be a living beauty. …Vita Sackville-West
Photo of Mary Rose Carson and son Robin in garden with peonies, Edmonton, [1940]
City of Edmonton Archives, Rene Oswald fonds #MS-665, EA-597-21 Photographer unidentified
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X24” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Prairie Madonna: Home Births
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I was conducted into a small bedroom where the patient lay in agony. The clean bed was surrounded by several frustrated women, who were counting their rosary beads while praying loudly and fervently… I recognized a breach presentation; the delivery would indeed be a complicated and difficult one.
Margaret Charlotte Falkson Thomson memoir of summer 1920. Margaret came from Germany in 1919 to the Fort Assiniboine, Alberta area.
Margaret had been awoken in the night by Tony, the father of the baby, who asked her to help with the birth. The mother’s name was Maria, who emigrated with her family from Italy and spoke very little English.
Memoir: Provincial Archives of Alberta Accession #PR1984.0156, Photograph: Christina McKinnell & baby daughter, Teulon Manitoba [1902] Glenbow Archives #NA-5236-1
| DIMENSIONS | 20“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Prairie Madonna: Letters of Desperation
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I am a mother of 5 children, the oldest being 7 years. I am 25 years old. We live on the farm, but owing to sickness we haven’t got on very well. I trust we will do better soon, but debts are a very constant worry… Please send information on birth control.
Letter from “Another Reader” to the Western Producer newspaper, November 10, 1927
I am 31, the mother of 7 children, eldest 11 years, and youngest 8 months, not at all strong, and owing to farm conditions, very heavily in debt. I would like to have any information I can get re birth control.
Letter from “Mrs. E.J.M.” to the Western Producer newspaper, September 29, 1927.
These and other similar letters were written to Violet McNaughton (nee Jackson), the Editor of the Western Producer newspaper’s Women’s Column from 1925 to 1950. Violet was an agrarian feminist and among her many other accomplishments, she headed a campaign to bring trained midwives and health care to farm families. With Violet’s help, farm women were able to obtain birth control information, which was illegal at the time, through cover activities such as sewing circles.
Photograph: Unidentified woman and child [1900] Provincial Archives of Alberta #A21376
| DIMENSIONS | 16“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Prairie Madonna: Blessed Children
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Now we were celebrating [Dolly’s] fourth birthday and as High Prairie was suffering a sugar famine, the birthday cake was of syrup…it did fall flat and was waxy but oh the joy of the little ones over it! …clapping hands, exclaiming and rejoicing, danced in front of it…Blessed indeed are we who look for our happiness in the lives of little children! To a grownup, the cake would have meant a flat failure…to Nookie and Dolly and Baby Jim it was the centre of a golden day.
Alda Dale Randall diary, 11 March 1920, Pg 100-101
Dale came from North Dakota to the Barons/Stavely area of Alberta in 1917, and then to the High Prairie area in 1919
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta Accession # PR1994.0202, Photograph: Mrs. Wright & baby Frederick, Calgary AB 1912 Glenbow Archives # PA-4048-95
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X24” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2018 |
Prairie Madonna: A Corner of the Earth
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In log cabins and sod shacks, fifty and even one hundred miles from the railways are thousands of brave women living on the western prairies, bearing the cross of motherhood without proper care and giving the best of their lives in the struggle to win a corner of the earth which they and their families may call home.
Front page, The Grain Growers Guide, 27 November 1912
Photograph: Pauline, friend of artist’s paternal grandmother, Lily Wyman [1916] Collection of the artist
| DIMENSIONS | 12″X12“ |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on canvas |
| DATE | 2018 |
Nellie’s Sunrise
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The fiery sunrise represents Nellie McClung’s passionate fight for women’s rights. She and her fellow activists brought the hopefulness of a sunrise into many women’s lives.
Photograph of Nellie McClung from Glenbow Archives (#NA-5032-2)
Pink teapot background represents Pink Teas held by suffragettes
Note: There has been some recent controversy about McClung’s life and accomplishments. This article presents an interesting view on the issue.
| DIMENSIONS | 12″X24“ |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on birch panel |
| DATE | 2017 |
My eyes are full of dirt
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April 13, 1931: Another great wind & dirt storm, my eyes are full of dirt sitting in the house.
Quote from Cecily Jepson Hepworth’s diary. Cecily came to the Readlyn, Saskatchewan area from Chorley, Lancashire, England in 1930. Diaries: Saskatchewan Archives R-E190
Photo: Clara Lawrence, Peace River area AB 1902 Glenbow Archives #NA-2502-16
| DIMENSIONS | 24“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer, oil stick, oil pastel, and graphite on paper |
| DATE | 2017 |
I turned my head away
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Each day the atmosphere was filled with choking dust, the wind seemed to be forever blowing: the sun resembling blood, shining through the thick dust, and as I walked, I always turned my head away from the growing crop; not wanting to see how badly it was.
Quote from Esther G. (Vann) Cooper’s memoirs. Esther came to Pangman SK (south of Regina) from Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire, England in 1912. Saskatchewan Archives #R-E539
Photo: Mrs. Hugh Leavitt, Cardston area, ca. 1920s Glenbow Archives #NC-7-970
| DIMENSIONS | 20“X24” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer, oil stick, oil pastel, and graphite on paper |
| DATE | 2017 |
Just eating grit
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April 15, 1931. Miserable weather, eating soil.
April 10, 1934: Another terrible dust storm, just eating grit, terrible weather.
Quotes from Cecily Jepson Hepworth’s diary. Cecily came to the Readlyn, Saskatchewan area from Chorley, Lancashire, England in 1930. Diaries: Saskatchewan Archives R-E190
Photo: Unidentified woman, ca. 1900, Wetaskiwin Archives #20648
| DIMENSIONS | 24“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer, oil stick, oil pastel, and graphite on paper |
| DATE | 2017 |
Wit’s End
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When the snow went we just had one dust storm after another until people were at their wit’s end.
Quote from Anne Pringle Hemstock’s letter to her Aunt Nell, May 6, 1932. Anne came to the Hanna, Alberta area from Chatsworth, Ontario in 1918.
Letters: The Alberta Women’s Memory Project, Athabasca University
Photo: Ms Averbach ca 1920s Jewish Archives and Historical Society of Edmonton and Northern Alberta
| DIMENSIONS | 24“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer, oil stick, oil pastel, and graphite on paper |
| DATE | 2017 |
A nerve-wracking, peace-destroying wind
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A nerve-wracking, peace-destroying wind has been blowing ever since I arrived…it rages and roars, whistles and shrieks…if I let myself dwell on it for long, I shall never be able to stand this country!
Quote from Evelyn Springett’s published memoir, For my Children’s Children, 1937. Evelyn came to the Macleod, Alberta area from Quebec in 1893.
Photo: Pauline _____, Baintree, AB ca. 1920s, private collection
| DIMENSIONS | 24“X20” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer, oil stick, oil pastel, and graphite on paper |
| DATE | 2017 |
A tremendous thunderstorm hovered around us
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A tremendous thunderstorm hovered around us from W. to N. all this evening. The lightening was terrible. 10:30 I think it has gone beyond us. The air is fearfully hot and the wind is whistling, but no rain.
Diary excerpt is from Jane Frances (Warne) Sutton’s diary, dated July 23, 1908 (Saskatchewan Archives Board #R-2007-09 F-398 File 3)
Jane moved to Fertile Valley, NWT (later Saskatchewan) from England in 1884 and then moved with her husband to Outlook in 1903.
Photograph is of Ann Oliver, Edmonton, NWT (later Alberta), 1895 (Provincial Archives of Alberta #B8376)
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X24” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic monotype & mixed media |
| DATE | 2016 |
Trees were crashing all around
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It had rained for 48 hours and been raining all night when about four o’clock we were awakened by a terrific crash – Guy gave a startled What’s that & jumped into several in[ches] of icy water. He got up and lit the lamp. I heard the spit! spit! of snow on the tent and the light showed the tent sagged about down on our heads – on the other side it was held up by the bread in the dish pan (We had baked 10 big loaves). Guy shook off the snow from the tent & looked out – everything was loaded with a heavy mass of snow – big branches crashing from the golden leaved poplars – little poplars breaking off completely & the tops breaking off of the spruce. It is 4am and Daddy dressed & went to rescue the little calf in the meadow. He took the lantern & said it sure looked awful – trees were crashing all around – the crash that awakened us was the huge limb of a poplar falling at our tent door.
Quote from Alda Dale Randall diary, page 121 -122, Sept 25, 1920. Dale came from North Dakota to the High Prairie area of Alberta in 1917.
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta. PR1994.0202
Found photograph
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on paper |
| DATE | 2015 |
Our plan of a house
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I work for hours on our plan of a house & decide I can furnish it with just what I have if Guy will make the furniture for me – and he loves to, thank goodness! Thot [sic] of a “children’s corner” in Living Room & like the idea. Book shelves with desk below them & toy cupboard underneath. Seats just right for little ones. Here is my plan: 1 in = 5 ft.
Oh I can take my blue dress – the light silk & cotton I wore in Wyo and make curtains & with yellow under curtains of cheese cloth it will be lovely! Guess I’ll make a new pillow of my feathers – I’ve a nice little gunny sack here!
I can use my kitchen table for a library table nailing the black imitation leather on the top with brass headed tacks after Guy makes a dining table.
Quote from Alda Dale Randall diary, Page 55. Sunday May 9, 1920. Dale came from North Dakota to the High Prairie area of Alberta in 1917.
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta. PR1994.0202. Photo in artwork: Clementine Douglas in cabin door Asheville, NC [1920], North Carolina State Archives. The hand-drawn plan is Alda Dale Randall’s from page 55 of her diary.
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on paper |
| DATE | 2015 |
Wild exquisite things
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Alda Dale Randall often spoke of her hunger for literature. At one point in her diary, she begins to write fiction alongside her diary entries.
Labor omnia vincit
Returning she laid a clean white cloth on the home-made table and kneeling beside the oven took out the light crisp brown loaves to turn them deftly upside down upon the cloth.
Then she stood straight & tall and turned with a humorous half smile to the man.
“Yes I know it is time for me to go home” he answered the smile, but somehow I can’t seem to get started. My shack always That shack of mine is so dark and cold after this.
“I know” she said softly.
There was a tenseness in their voices. A suspicion of tremble. She turned to the deep set window and bent over a bowl of north country roses, wild exquisite things, with all the wide open pinkness of the prairie rose combined with sweet briar fragrance.
“I found them on the river bank, near the ford,” He told her. He came slowly beside her close and lifting his hand awkwardly half fearfully touched her hair where it rippled over the temple.
Excerpt from story in Alda Dale Randall diary, Page 191 – 194. [1921]. Dale came from North Dakota to the High Prairie area of Alberta in 1917.
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta. PR1994.0202. Photo in artwork is unidentified found photo.
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on paper |
| DATE | 2015 |
A fairy woods
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The muskeg moss is of many varieties – some places it is just a green velvet carpet – again tiny fairy spruce trees form deep soft moss and nearby we think the ground is covered with wee ferns their leaves spread like a lacy coverlet tho never a frond is over an inch long. A fairy woods, growing unnoticed at the feet of the giant spruce, brightened by the cranberries tiny waxy leaves and bright red berries!
Quote from Alda Dale Randall diary, Sat Oct 9, 1920. Page 141. Dale came from North Dakota to the High Prairie area of Alberta in 1917.
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta. PR1994.0202
Photo: Teresa and Gisela Himsl, Saskatchewan [1922-1923], Collection of M. K. Aubrey, Centreville, Nova Scotia. Fairy illustrations are Cicely Mary Barker’s. She would have been a contemporary of Dale’s.
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on paper |
| DATE | 2015 |
All my dishes are broken
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We all go to bed and are almost asleep when Bang! Clatter! Crack! The cupboard shelf Guy fastened to the logs for my dishes falls & all my dishes are broken on a pile in the mud room on the floor. I have but 2 saucers, 3 plates, 1 deep dish left – all dessert dishes, meat platter, saucers & the great pile of plates gone besides cups etc… We see that logs have sprung & sunk due to the storm until the window has a hole 3 in. above it at one corner.
Quote from Alda Dale Randall diary, Page 91 – 92. Saturday July 24, 1920. Dale came from North Dakota to the High Prairie area of Alberta in 1917.
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta. PR1994.0202.
Photo: Unidentified woman, Glenbow Archives #NC-50-304
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on paper |
| DATE | 2015 |
Sometimes I get so hungry
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We put on the last tame chicken to cook – must depend on rabbits & partridges now if we can’t get moose.
We debate whether to have supper or save rabbit until tomorrow for dinner – decide the latter & Guy eats tea with toast & lard.
Last night we were wishing for eggs & ham & bacon & I told Guy “Sometimes I get so hungry I feel like giving up hopes of a home and saying ‘Let’s just go and get a job where we can eat’”. He owned to a like weakness at times – only one meal a day of meat and that light makes one unable to stand a hard day’s work & is rather depressing at times.
Excerpt from Alda Dale Randall diary, Page 114, Wednesday September 1 to Thursday September 3, 1920. Dale came from North Dakota to the High Prairie area of Alberta in 1917.
Diary: Provincial Archives of Alberta. PR1994.0202.
Found photo
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic, photo transfer and oil stick on paper |
| DATE | 2015 |
Evelyn C. Hardy Diary: The Hills of Eastend, Saskatchewan
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I had no idea there were hills here. Hills to the door. It’s like living on the bed of the sea. They have been formed by that – each ridge an enormous exaggerated rib of sand.
Quote from Evelyn C. Hardy’s Diary, April 1928. Miss Hardy came to “The Ranche” at Eastend Saskatchewan from Edinburough, Scotland in April 1928 to visit for six months.
Diaries: Saskatchewan Archives A782
Photograph: [Mrs. Ah Sing] Provincial Archives of Alberta
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2014 |
Leaving
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After seducing Mary on the promise of marriage, Charles continued his relations with other women and left the family for long periods after their eventual marriage. Although women had no legal rights to their children or their land at that time, she left to raise her sons alone.
I am always watching and waiting for him and always being disappointed… I wish myself disposed of…I am less than no one here.
Quote from Mary Lees Inderwick’s diaries, 1885, as described in Nanci L. Langford’s thesis. Mary came to the Cowley, Alberta area from Perth, Ontario in 1884. Diaries: Glenbow Alberta Archives M559
The Mountie came to the farm and warned him about abusing his wife. She showed us the marks left by the whip.
Quote from Catherine Neil’s memoir about her neighbor, [1905], published in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan magazine The Western Producer in 1953, as described in Nanci L. Langford’s thesis. Catharine and her neighbor lived in the Grassy Lake area of Alberta. Neil memoir: Glenbow Alberta Archives M888, M4116.
They were continually having family rows…one day after beating his wife one more time, V. did not get away with it this time. His wife shot him in self-defence.
Quote from Margaret May Shaw (Frank)’s memoir of neighbor woman, [1900,] as described in Nanci L. Langford’s thesis. Margaret and her neighbor lived in the Cardston, Alberta area. Memoir: Glenbow Alberta Archives M4168. Photograph of Mrs. Williamson, Calgary, 1914 (NOTE: photograph has no story of abuse associated with it) University of Alberta: Bruce Peel Special Collections Library PC005991
| DIMENSIONS | 20”X24” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2014 |
Flour Children
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Flour came in 50 and 100 lb cotton bags. With frugality as a way of life, pioneer women re-used these flour and sugar sacks and feed bags to make household articles such as tablecloths, sheets, pillowcases, curtains, handkerchiefs and clothing. Embroidery or crocheted edges were sometimes added to make the end products prettier and less revealing of their humble origins. Flour bag companies later began to print floral and plaid patterns on the bags to cater to this re-use.
Hard job to keep enough clothes made and washed. Don’t suppose you have any old things that would make clothes that you could send? Even old underwear…I make everything I can out of flour sacks but they need something warm in the winter… I made the girls middies out of dyed flour sacks. I dyed some pink, they look alright with a little white piping on them…I have to make skirts and drawers out of flour sacks too, and a good many other things. I made Florence a dress and bloomers out of pink flour sacks. Nobody would guess it. It looked just like chambray.
Quote from Gertie Chase’s letters to her mother, October 28, 1922and December 3, 1923. Gertie came to the Wapiti River area, Alberta, from Tonasket, Washington State in [1918].
Letters: Provincial Archives of Alberta PR1973.0569
Sometimes you didn’t get into town for a month at a time especially in winter. When you went to buy the patterned flour bags, you looked them over to see which you would like to make into clothes. Nothing was wasted at our house.
Quote from interview by the artist with Ada Forsyth at the Wolf Willow Health Centre in Eastend, Saskatchewan, April 9, 2013. Ada was born in 1916 on her parents’ homestead near Eastend and homesteaded in the same area after marrying her husband in 1937.
Photograph of the Potter children, [Edmonton, AB], 1898. Provincial Archives of Alberta B8444
| DIMENSIONS | 20“X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & mixed media on canvas |
| DATE | 2011 |
No Homesteads for Women
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The 1872 Dominion Lands Act prohibited single and married women from obtaining homesteads. Widows with dependents or women in other unusual situations, such as deserted wives, could file for a homestead but only under very strict qualifying conditions. Georgina Binnie-Clark, a single woman originally from England, came to the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan in 1905 to farm, and had to purchase her quarter section of farm land for $2,400, whereas her neighbors, who were men, were able to file for a quarter section homestead for a $10 entry fee. She started the “Homesteads for Women” movement for which she gathered over 11,000 electors’ (men’s) signatures, that she presented to the federal government in 1913, but it was ignored.
She may be the best farmer in Canada, she may buy land, work it, take prizes for seed and stock, but she is denied the right to claim from the government the hundred and sixty acres of land held out as a bait to every man.
…the average hired man seeks wages, and some of them bring more work into the house than they succeed in putting on to the land. The woman who can hitch up her team and go quietly off to the cultivation of her land not only saves her purse the expenditure of the average wage of five shillings a day plus board, but she saves on herself – she conserves her energy.
Quotes from Georgina Binnie-Clark’s book Wheat and Woman, 1914.
Georgina came to the Qu’Appelle Valley area of Saskatchewan from England, in 1905. She farmed for several years as and wrote her book to provide women with information about how to farm in order to prove that this could be a means for single women to gain financial independence. Unfortunately, Canadian homesteading legislation prevented this from being feasible until 1930.
Why hasn’t a Canadian woman a birthright in her own country? In every economic distress that sweeps a land, in every epidemic of disease, in storm or stress of whatever sort, woman bears her full Burden. Full sharer in adversity, why not make her sharer in her country’s gifts?
Quote from Isabelle Beaton Graham’s article Woman’s Sphere in Life and Labour: Homesteads for Women, published in The Grain Growers Guide, November 17, 1909.
The photographs for the image transfers in the painting were selected specifically for their deterioration and obscuring of the subject. Damage includes mold, silvering out, stains, fading, emulsion lifting and cracking. Thanks to the various Alberta archives and staff for helping me locate these photos.
| DIMENSIONS | 36”X36″ |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2014 |
…the bald baldness everywhere you go and the wind…
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I was here for so many years, I had that longing…for trees. The bald baldness of everywhere you go, and the wind. And the trees are so beautiful back home. That was one of the hard things.
Quote from Mary Edey’s oral history interview. Mary came to the Cayley, Alberta area from Ottawa, Ontario in the early 1900s.
Oral history: Provincial Archives of Alberta PR1981.0279
Photograph of Beatrice Wyndham, daughter of Colonel A. Wyndham, holding cat at Dinton Ranch, Carseland, Alberta, 1890. Glenbow Archives NA-2294-7
| DIMENSIONS | 20”X16” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2012 |
The Terrible Silence
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I think the two words, silence and whiteness, will ever be associated in my mind. In those dreary winter months, when almost all life had deserted the prairie, and often the horizon was indistinguishable and one could not see where snow ended and sky began, it seemed as if there could be nothing but silence and whiteness in all the world…
Quote from Hilda Kirkland’s memoir, 1895-1905. Hilda came to the Qu’Appelle district of Saskatchewan from London, England in the late 1800s.
Memoir: Saskatchewan Archives, S-F266.1, R-E3149
I stared silently at the small house, sitting do alone, so unprotected in the middle of thousands of acres of snow…
Quote from Edna Banks’ memoir, 1911. Edna came to the Swift Current area of Saskatchewan from Ontario in 1911.
Memoir: Saskatchewan Archives S-F137.1, R-E2912
Photograph of Lucy Goldthorpe, Williams County North Dakota, [1905], NDSU Institute for Regional Studies 2008.116.74
| DIMENSIONS | 12”X24″ |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2012 |
A Winter’s Amusement
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Photo: University of Alberta students skating on Whitemud Creek, Edmonton 1928, Glenbow Archives M-2879-41
| DIMENSIONS | 10”X10” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2012 |
Profitable Fowl for the West
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Part of what was considered to be women’s work was often barnyard labor: raising livestock such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, turkeys, ducks and chickens. These were valuable sources of food, clothing and household goods for the family in the form of meat, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, gelatin, soap, candles, fertilizer, leather, feathers, down, and wool, all which was utilized and made by the women as well. The raising of livestock and their products also provided an important source of regular income for the homestead, much in the same manner as the women’s gardens did.
I got one hundred baby chicks in April but have only sixty eight left. My brooder house was old and draughty and the brooder didn’t keep them quite warm enough on windy nights. They are doing well. I have about forty more of our own hatching with two hens to come off this week.
I have no turkeys this year. I lost a great many with roup last year so the neighbour who took my breeding stock will return young turkeys this fall – if she has any. The last time I heard from her she was just about fed up with the turkey business as the wind storms had practically demolished the straw shed they had so carefully built for the turkeys.
Quotes from Anne Pringle Hemstock’s letter to her Aunt Nell, May 31, 1931. Anne came to the Hanna, Alberta area from Chatsworth, Ontario in 1918. Letters: The Alberta Women’s Memory Project, Athabasca University
I have raised about 80 chickens. Set all the hens I could. Only have a dozen… We have no cow or chickens now. Can’t be bothered with them until we can get settled down. Can’t be moving cows and chickens back and forth…We have 2 doz. chickens, a pig and three horses. That is all the livestock so far…We have four horses and a cow and calf, and about eighty chickens… It keeps me pretty busy with a cow to milk and pigs and chickens to feed…We have 30 little chickens so far with 4 hens. 3 more hens have set.
Quotes from letters by Gertie Chase to her mother, 1918-1923. Gertie came to the Wapiti River area, Alberta from Tonasket, Washington State in [1918]. Letters: Provincial Archives of Alberta PR1973.0569. Photograph: Unidentified woman with chickens and turkeys, Peace River, Alberta. University of Alberta: Bruce Peel Special Collections Library PC004617
| DIMENSIONS | 12”X36″ |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & mixed media on birch panel |
| DATE | 2014 |
Dust Blew All Day and All Night
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Many days were grey with the thick clouds of the drifting soil that had hid the sun; dust and sand sifted into the house through the walls and the closed windows, on to the floor, the tables, the chairs, and the bed was smothered with dust.
Quote from Edna Banks’ memoir, 1911. Edna came to the Swift Current area of Saskatchewan from Ontario in 1911.
Memoir: Saskatchewan Archives S-F137.1, R-E2912
A nerve-wracking, peace- destroying wind has been blowing ever since I arrived…It rages and roars, whistles and shrieks…if I let myself dwell on it too long, I shall never be able to stand this country.
Quote from Evelyn Springett’s published memoir, For my Children’s Children, 1937. Evelyn came to the Macleod, Alberta area from Quebec in 1893.
When the snow went we just had one dust storm after another until people were at their wit’s end.
Quote from Anne Pringle Hemstock’s letter to her Aunt Nell, May 6, 1932. Anne came to the Hanna, Alberta area from Chatsworth, Ontario in 1918.
Letters: The Alberta Women’s Memory Project, Athabasca University
April 11-13, 1934: Dust storms every day. The house is full of summer fallow.
Quote from Cecily Jepson Hepworth’s diary. Cecily came to the Readlyn, Saskatchewan area from Chorley, Lancashire, England in 1930.
Diaries: Saskatchewan Archives R-E190
Photograph of unidentified woman and child, Provincial Archives of Alberta PR 2009.499.6
| DIMENSIONS | 12“X36” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on birch panel |
| DATE | 2014 |
A Little Band of Lonesome Women
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Civilization is gone and only the little band of lonesome women here remember it…
I have no woman to talk to so I will write [letters] to ease my brain.
Quote from Hilda Rose’s published memoir: The Stump Farm: A Chronicle of Pioneering, 1928.
Hilda came from Boston, Massachusetts to Montana, and then to Fort Vermillion, Alberta. Her book is based on a series of her letter written to friends between 1919 and 1927, which were published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1928, the money from which allowed her and her husband to survive in one particularly difficult year.
Isolation was one of the overwhelming factors in a pioneer woman’s life. As a rule, men were much more mobile. If anyone left the farmstead on business, they were usually the ones to go. If anyone took a seasonal job away from home, it was generally the men; the women were left on the farm to manage alone.
Quote from book, A Harvest Yet to Reap: A History of Prairie Women, by Linda Rasmussen, Lorna Rasmussen, Candace Savage, and Anne Wheeler, 1976.
Once I visited another of the early settlers. She was a young woman with a baby and she was lonely too…When we met, we ran to each other; we each had to speak to a woman, and put our arms around each other’s neck and just had a good cry. All the hunger and longing which we had stifled for so long, came to the surface.
Quote from Catherine Neil’s memoir. Catharine came to the Grassy Lake area of Alberta from Scotland in 1905. Memoir: Glenbow Alberta Archives M888, M4116.
Our nearest neighbor was four miles to the south, nearest to the east twenty miles, to the west forty five miles, and no one to the north that we were aware of except Indians…For nine months I did not see a white woman, although I did see an Indian woman but she did not speak English.
Quote from Mrs. Robert Buchanan’s memoir. Mrs. Buchanan Came to the Qu’Appelle Valley Saskatchewan from Goderich, Ontario in 1883. Memoir: Saskatchewan Archives R-E-179
I know that if we went far enough we should come to a place of some friends where there were some women and I did so want to see a member of my own sex. I’m tired of undiluted mankind!
Quote from Monika Hopkins’ letter to her friend Gill, [September 1909]. Monika came to the Priddis, Alberta area from England in 1909. Letters: Glenbow Archives M 536;M 5951;M 6189
| DIMENSIONS | 12”X36” |
| MEDIA | Encaustic & image transfer on boirch panel |
| DATE | 2014 |