Thursday, November 10, 2011

Stag



Jewish Ladies Stag Party at home of H.L. Weidman, 130 Furby St., 1920. Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba (n2448).

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A biography of Hiram L. Weidman (1863-1933) is on the Memorable Manitobans section of the Manitoba Historical Society's website.

Boys Captured



Boys captured for murder that took place on Greater Winnipeg Water District, 1918. Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba (n15801).


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From the Free Press archives:

In June 1918 cousins Mike and Nick Powdochuk (or Podelezuk), aged 14 or 15, were arrested for murder.

The crime took place in a Greater Winnipeg Water District railway camp, which, according to the City of Winnipeg Water and Waste Department, "was built to transport men and supplies for the construction of an aqueduct from Shoal Lake on the Manitoba-Ontario border to Winnipeg."

Mike was eventually tried for the axe murder of Louis Marcie, described by the then Manitoba Free Press as "an old logger."

"The deceased was not of a quarrelsome nature, but he sometimes got 'peeved,' and in that state, he had a peculiar habit of whispering to himself. The boys were apt to note his infirmity and make fun of him, but he had warned them against the annoyance they were inclined to give the man." (June 18, 1918)

CPR Station



Group of Immigrants Arrives at CPR Station, 1927. Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba (n2066).

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

University of Manitoba Press Seeks LOST Foote Photos!

Next fall, University of Manitoba Press will publish a new book of photos by Winnipeg’s most famous photographer, L.B. Foote (1873-1957), prepared and introduced by award-winning historian Esyllt Jones.

From the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike to Winnipeg Beach in its heyday, from nurses in the North End to construction workers on top of the Fort Garry Hotel, the Newfoundland-born Foote shot it all.

“Many of us have seen Foote photographs, whether or not we are aware of their origins. For at least thirty years, since the creation of the Foote archive at the Manitoba Archives in the early 1970s, these photographs have been used to tell the story of Winnipeg’s past,” says Jones, author of Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg. “They have been used to illustrate everything from academic histories to posters for rock concerts.”

There are approximately 2,500 images at the Manitoba Archives but that’s just a fraction of the photographs Foote took in the more than five decades that he documented Winnipeg and parts of Manitoba outside the perimeter.

University of Manitoba Press is looking for some of the lost Foote photos and is hoping that Winnipeggers are willing to rummage through their attics and photo albums.

“Even though Foote’s most famous work is of princes and processions, his bread and butter was shots of weddings, funerals and Winnipeg’s small businesses,” says David Carr, Director of University of Manitoba Press. “And that’s what we’d like to see and possibly share with a wider audience.”

People with photos to share can contact UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant Ariel Gordon at (204) 474-8408 or gordoajd@cc.umanitoba.ca.