MHS Transactions, Series 3, Number 31, 1974-75 season
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Having served as Honorary Secretary this past year, it is my pleasure to report tonight on the activities of the Historical Society since our last annual meeting.
The paper Professor Stone will present this evening on William Rose, A Manitoba Historian concludes a successful series of programmes this year. On 15 October, the Assiniboine Historical Society’s film of rural Manitoba in the 1920s “Glimpses of Yesterday” was shown to a large audience, including a busload of Assiniboine members who participated in this ambitious undertaking. On 19 November, Professor Phillip D. Keddie of the Department of Geography, University of Guelph and a native Manitoban, gave a factual and well researched slide and lecture presentation on Changes in Rural Manitoba Ethnic - Mosaic 1921-1961. A standing-room only crowd at the joint meeting of the Jewish and Manitoba Historical Societies on 10 December enjoyed a very unusual presentation. Dr. Maara Haas, a well-known Manitoba poet and author, spoke on The Street Where I Live, relating her experiences as a child growing up in North Winnipeg in the 1930s. About 150 members attended the Sir John A. Macdonald Anniversary Dinner on 18 January to hear Dr. Cornelius J. Jaenen of the University of Ottawa speak on Ethnic Factors in Canadian History. On 18 February, Professor Sylvia Van Kirk of Dalhousie University presented a paper entitled Destined to Raise her Caste: Sarah Ballenden and the Foss-Pelly Scandal. On 18 March, Mr. Robert E. Emmett, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba, shed light on one aspect of our local history in a paper on One Hundred Years of Free Masonry in Manitoba. Our President, Dr. Shaw, presented a paper on “Lieutenant Joseph Rene Bellot, French Officer in the Polar Sea” at a joint meeting of the St. Boniface and Manitoba Historical Societies on 15 April. For this event, the first joint venture undertaken by the two societies, simultaneous translation was provided by the Manitoba Department of Tourism, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.
Two interesting field trips were also offered to Society members this year. On 22 June, some 55 members traveled to Pine Fort, near the Spruce Woods Provincial Park, to view the archaeological work under way on the site of the fort which was built in 1785. After touring the site, the members went on to Glenboro for lunch and then to Brandon to visit the Blue Hills Game Farm. Dinner at the Brandon Agricultural Centre was followed by a short film from the Assiniboine Historical Society. The annual Manitoba Historical Society/ Red River Valley Historical Society autumn meeting and tour were held on the weekend of 27 to 29 September. The program began Friday evening with a reception and dinner at the International Inn. Mr. G. W. Battershill, executive assistant to the Deputy Minister of Education, presented a most interesting and timely paper, “Winnipeg - the City and the People.” After the Board of Directors’ meeting Saturday morning, about 75 people joined the tour of the Mennonite Village Museum at Steinbach. In the evening, a dinner was held at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School. Members were entertained by the Treble Teens Choir and Rev. Gerhard Ens, secretary of the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, presented a paper on the Mennonite Centennial. Sunday, the tour concluded with visits to Macdonald House, the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, a trip on the “Prairie Dog Central” and a smorgasbord at the Voyageur Inn.
Page revised: 24 January 2015
