Upcoming Presentations | Past Presentations | Other Events

Next Presentation

Tuesday
September 28, 2010
talk: 7pm-8:30pm
pre dinner with guest speaker: 5:30pm-7pm
(dinner optional, see info below)

"The Impact of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books or How a Series of
Children's Books Helps Explain Anti-Government Sentiment in the U.S."
by Anita Clair Fellman, educator and author
Sylvia Hotel
.

October 26, 2010 : Women's History Month
Special Event at City Hall
"Women and Food:
A Vancouver Historical Perspective"

** see complete details below **

About Herstory Cafe

The Herstory Cafe is a get together where women’s history buffs can meet, hear a presentation and socialize.
Coordinators:

• Lara Campbell teaches Canadian Women’s History in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University.
• Jolene Cumming is a historical interpreter who specializes in early Vancouver women’s history.

Upcoming Herstory Cafe Presentations

September 28, 2010 - Tuesday at the historic Sylvia Hotel
Talk 7:00pm-8:30pm. "The Impact of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books or How a Series of Children's Books Helps Explain Anti-Government Sentiment in the U.S." by educator and author Anita Clair Fellman.
***Come early and have dinner with the guest speaker and others: 5:30pm-7:00pm.
Dinner reservations required: 604 681-9321. Food and beverages for purchase***
Wilder's books, bestselling favourites for seventy-five years, offer an engaging picture, presumably true, of one family's late 19th-century pioneering experience on the Great Plains of the U.S. These beloved books are present everywhere in American life, and are the source of many people's understanding of the shaping influence of the frontier on U.S. character and history. Rather than being a straightforward recollection of the author's childhood, however, the books offer a picture that was shaped as much by her anti-New Deal, anti-government politics as by her family's actual experiences. What exactly are people absorbing as they read and reread the Little House books and identify so fervently with the character Laura?
Speaker: Anita Clair Fellman retired in 2008 from being Chair of Women's Studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She previously taught Women's Studies at SFU. Her most recent book is Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Impact on American Culture (2008). She was also co-editor, with Veronica Strong-Boag, of the first three editions of Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women's History.
Sylvia Hotel, 1154 Guildford St on English Bay. The talk is drop-in only and admission is free, seating is limited. Hotel parking is available.

October is Women's History Month. Tuesday October 26, 2010 - 7:00pm-8:30pm.
"Women and Food: A Vancouver Historical Perspective" presented by the Herstory Cafe, The Women's Advisory Committee and Councillor Ellen Woodsworth. This special presentation will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall and is free and open to the public. The event will feature a diverse and impressive panel of speakers presenting on a variety of topics relating to our cities history, women and food, ie; farming/gardens, food services, food production, traditional & cultural food uses, food industry/labour, business women, family stories/recipes and how women are shaping the food and sustainability movement today.
Check back for more details and the list of special guest speakers.

December, 2010 - The Herstory Cafe Book Club.
"Maria Mahoi of the Islands" by Jean Barman, New Star Books, Vancouver.
"Maria Mahoi represents women of her time and circumstances, who are not usually given much credence in traditional histories. Yet such matriarchs are fundamental to so much of Canada's character," Annalee Greenberg, Editor, The Beaver.
Please read this book by December, the VPL has several copies, and check back for details for where and when the discussion group will be held.

Past Presentations

August 22, 2010 - Herstory Cafe's 3rd Annual Picnic at Camp Vivian. Bring a book or archival photo and share stories. Trout Lake in East Van.

July 11, 2010 - The Modern Women: Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Other Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay, Paris guided gallery tour. Vancouver Art Gallery.

June 24, 2010 - IMAGES - Kootenay Women's Paper: A Primer on Feminism (1973-1991), an illustrated presentation by Dr. Marcia Braundy. Rhizome Cafe.

April 10, 2010 - WOMEN'S HISTORY FAIR at the Vancouver Public Library. The Women’s History Network of BC's "Women's History Fair" featured over 20 displays, exhibits, collections and programs from museums, archives, historical societies, cultural groups, schools and others on the history of the diverse women of British Columbia. Co-sponsored by the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch, Herstory Cafe and the Vancouver Courier newspaper.

March 6, 2010 - Freedom of Mobility: Women, Sports and Recreation in Stanley Park, 1880-1920 Historical Walking Tour with Jolene Cumming.

February 3, 2010 - The Herstory Cafe Exchange. Researchers, students, educators, writers, genealogists, collectors and others discussed their latest women's history project at the Rhizome Cafe.

December 7, 2009 - Caesarean Sections in Canada: 1945-1970, by Sally Mennill, PhD candidate UBC Centre for Women's and Gender Studies. Harbour Centre SFU downtown campus.

November 10, 2009 - The Art of Artemisia Gentileschi, an illustrated talk by Dr. Efrat El-Hanany, Art Historian, Capilano University. Co-sponsored by the Italian Cultural Centre and il Museo.

October 14, 2009 - WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH SPECIAL EVENT: Helena Gutteridge, Vancouver's First "Alderman," an illustrated talk by historian and author Irene Howard. Readings by Katherine and Nicholas Howard. Council Chambers of Vancouver City Hall. Co-sponsored by Councillor Ellen Woodsworth and the Women's Advisory Committee and SFU Dept of Women's Studies.

September 10, 2009 - "A Passion for Mountains: the life story of Phyllis Munday", an illustrated talk by historian, author and archivist Kathryn Bridge. Co-sponsored by the City of Vancouver Archives and the Women's History Network of British Columbia.

August 9, 2009 - A field trip to Burnaby Village Museum with a guided tour by historian Lynda Maeve Orr.

July 11, 2009 - Herstory Cafe's 2nd Annual picnic. Women, History and Words at Camp Vivian. The group shares their favorite women's history book. Lumberman's Arch in Stanley Park.

June 27, 2009 - Skeletons in the Closet: "The Eternally Wounded Woman: Women, Exercise and Doctors in the Late Nineteenth Century" a talk and slide presentation by Dr Patricia Vertinsky, UBC Human Kinetics professor and Sports Historian. With co sponsors the Museum of Vancouver.

May 15, 2009 - Good Wives and Wise Mothers: Japanese Picture Brides in Early Twentieth-Century British Columbia, a talk by Dr. Michiko Midge Ayukawa with co-sponsors, the Japanese Canadian National Museum. National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre, Burnaby.

April 22, 2009 - Representing a Culture of Violence: American Discourse of Violence Against Women in Northern Mexico, 1910-2007, a talk by Kendra Gill, SFU. Rhizome Cafe.

March 25, 2009 -"Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves", or Not: Aunts and Caregiving in Canada, a talk by Veronica Strong-Boag, historian, UBC professor and author. Sylvia Hotel.

February 25, 2009 - Black Communities in British Columbia, 1858-2008. A talk and SFU Teck Gallery photo exhibition by Dr. Afua Cooper, Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair, Dept of Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University with co sponsors the SFU Gallery. SFU Harbour Centre campus.

January 21, 2009 - "The Life and Work of Mattie Gunterman, Photographer". An illustrated talk by Vancouver photographer Henri Robideau, author of "Flapjacks and Photographs, a History of Camp Cook and Photographer Mattie Gunterman." Vancouver Public Library, Central. Co-sponsor VPL Special Collections.

December 7, 2008 - WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution field trip. Exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

November 19, 2008 - Vancouver's Olga Park: Another Kind of Pioneering Spirit, an illustrated talk by Susan McCaslin, poet and educator. Rhizome Cafe.

October 26, 2008 - WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH SPECIAL EVENT: "The Forgotten Women of Stanley Park," an illustrated talk by historian, educator and author Jean Barman. Co-sponsored by The Stanley Park Ecology Society and SFU's Women's Studies Department. Stanley Park Dining Pavilion.

September 24, 2008 - Show & Tell your own BC woman’s history. Co-sponsored by the Women’s History Network of British Columbia. Rhizome Cafe.

August 29, 2008 - Burlesque History. "The Burlesque Venue: the changing locations of burlesque performances," an illustrated talk with Mary Shearman, SFU. Rhizome Cafe.

July 13, 2008 - The Old Hastings Mill Store Museum tour and summer picnic. Staffed by The Native Daughters of British Columbia.

June 11, 2008 - Sisters of Heaven, China’s Barnstorming Aviatrixes: Modernity, Feminism, and Popular Imagination in Asia and the West, with author and aviation history scholar Patti Gully. Railway Club.

May 21, 2008 - "Hilda’s Story: Discovering a Grandmother I Never Knew" with author and historian Lisa Smedman. Railway Club.

April 30, 2008, - "No Laughing Matter, Adventures, Activism & Politics" with Margaret Mitchell, social activist and former NDP MP for Vancouver East (1979-1993). Rhizome Cafe.

March 31, 2008, - One Hundred Years of Anne: Lucy Maud Montgomery with Carole Gerson, SFU English professor and author. Sylvia Hotel.

February 1, 2008, - The Guerrilla Girls, "masked avengers fighting sexism and racism in the Art World." with art historian Barbara Tyner, Rhizome Cafe.

January 8, 2008, - "Ladies and Escorts: Gender Segregation and Public Policy in BC Beer Parlours," with Robert A. Campbell, Capilano College. Rhizome Cafe.

December 2, 2007, - Private collection tour with Fashion Historian Ivan Sayers.

November 18, 2007, - La Belle Époque, Women’s Fashions 1890-1914 exhibition at the Vancouver Museum.

October 24, 2007, - Visualizing Nursing in B.C., Issues Involved in Selecting Images for a Photographic History with Dr. Linda Quiney, UBC. Rhizome Cafe.

September 25, 2007, - The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), years of Women’s Peace activism with Ellen Woodsworth, Canadian President of WILPF. Sylvia Hotel.

August 26, 2007, - Brockton Point’s Forgotten Women: A Stanley Park Historical Walking Tour with Jolene Cumming, historical interpreter. Stanley Park.

July 31, 2007, - ‘Freak Weddings’ and (trans)Sexual Politics: lessons from history with Elise Chenier, associate professor SFU. Rhizome Cafe.

June 19, 2007, - Illusion and Realism in the French fashion and women’s press, 1919 -1939 with Mary Lynn Stewart, professor SFU. Rhizome Cafe.

May 22, 2007, - "They Followed Their Men into Canadian Exile": American women in Canada during the Vietnam War era, with Robin Folvik, SFU. Railway Club.

April 24, 2007, - Picturing Women: Researching women in historical photographs, with Diane Rogers, BC Genealogical Society & Women’s History Network of BC. Railway Club.

March 13, 2007, - The Widow’s Curse: Irish-Newfoundland Women and Conflict Management on the Southern Avalon, with Willeen Keough, SFU history professor. Rhizome Cafe.

Other Women’s History Events