Herstory Cafe

Next Presentation

The Women of
Roedde House Museum Tour

by 4 local historians

Sunday February 5th, 2012
11:00am to 12:30pm
Roedde House Museum.
1415 Barclay Street
$5 per person
All proceeds to the Roedde House Preservation Society
*Tour followed by a reception & light refreshments*
maximum 20 people
To arrange pre-paid TICKETS contact:
(604) 684-7040 or info@roeddehouse.org or
email Jolene@herstorycafe.ca
(order your tickets early as we expect this event to sell out)

*** more info below ***

ornamentation

Upcoming Herstory Cafe Presentations

Sunday, February 5, 2012 - The Women of Roedde House Museum Tour
Roedde House Museum in Vancouver's West End is a late-Victorian home in the Queen Anne revival style, built in 1893 for the family of Matilda & Gustav Roedde, the city's first bookbinder. It has been faithfully restored with period furnishing and family artefacts to reflect the day-to-day life of a middle class, immigrant family at the turn of the last century.
TOUR by: Lorraine Irving, (BC Genealogical Society and Mt View Cemetery tours) speaks on the tragic 1925 murder of young nurse Anna Catherine Roedde at Vancouver General Hospital. Lara Campbell, (Herstory Cafe and SFU Women's Studies) speaks on Women and Domestic Service. Jolene Cumming, (Herstory Cafe and the Stanley Park History Group) speaks on Leisure and Recreational activities of the day and a Roedde House docent joins the tour as well.
More info: www.roeddehouse.org

March (date tba), 2012 - International Women's Day/Week Special Event:
"Women in Trousers: What a difference a pair of pants made!"
An illustrated talk by Alexandra Henriques.
Join Alexandra Henriques for a light hearted global romp through the past to look at the history of women and trousers. From freedom of mobility, survival and protection strategies, to demonstrate political and personal statements and for practical, romantic and fashion related reasons, women wore britches. The Amazons, Joan of Arc and Marlene Dietrich all wore them. Women in fields, factories and "on the move" wore them. Societies frowned upon women wearing them, laws banned them, some religions too, but defiant women asserted their rights and chose from a wide variety of reasons why they should don the pantaloon. If you missed it at the BoldFest Conference 2011, here's your opportunity to see this entertaining presentation.
Guest Speaker: Alexandra Henriques is an educator and community activist. She taught French and Portuguese at UBC, SFU and Langara and is currently Vancouver's Generations Community Developer. Her interests include language and culture.
Where: SFU Harbour Centre Campus. 515 West Hastings. Room tba.7:00pm-8:30pm. Free admission. Drop in only. Includes light refreshments.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
"The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton"
by Sheryl Salloum
Illustrated talk, dinner (optional) and book signing
Sylvia Hotel, 1154 Gilford Street (on English Bay)
Illustrated Talk: 7:00pm - 8:30pm in the meeting room. Free, limited seating, drop-in only.
Dinner (optional): 5:30pm-6:50pm with Sheryl Salloum and Herstory Cafe coordinators.
Food and Beverages for purchase. Pre-registration required for the dinner at 604 681-9321
(max 15 people for dinner).
During her lifetime (1890-1967), Mildred Valley Thornton (HON. CPA, FRSA) was noted nationally and internationally. The full story of this distinctive artist, accomplished with landscapes and portraits, watercolours and oils, is being told for the first time. Thornton's early works-vibrant landscapes-were inspired by artist J.W. Beatty, her instructor at the Ontario College of Art. Later, portraits of the First Nations peoples of Western Canada became the genius loci of her oeuvre. During the Depression, her family moved to Vancouver where she continued, for the rest of her life, to carve out a unique career as a fiercely independent, adventurous and confident artist driven to create. Between painting, writing and travelling around the province, she became an advocate for First Nations peoples and made important historical contributions to British Columbian art and culture. Thornton was also a noted journalist, Vancouver Sun art critic (1944-1959), book reviewer, published poet and recipient of a Canadian Authors' Association Award for her book Indian Lives and Legends (1966). She has yet to be recognized as an important early Canadian painter.
Sheryl Salloum was born and raised in British Columbia. She has lived and worked in various regions of the province. Sheryl graduated from Simon Fraser University with an English major and Early Childhood minor. She has taught in the public school and college systems. A freelance writer for over twenty years, Sheryl has published articles in numerous Canadian magazines and newspapers. Her areas of interest include Canadian art, culture and history, and children's issues. In 1995, Sheryl published Underlying Vibrations: The Photography and Life of John Vanderpant (Horsdal and Schubart). That book was a finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction BC Book Prize. In 1987, Sheryl published Malcolm Lowry: Vancouver Days (Harbour Publishing). She and her husband have one daughter. They live in Vancouver.
Book signing: Book sales - $36 cash only.
"The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton" - #4 in The Unheralded Arts of BC series, author Sheryl Salloum, Mother Tongue Publishing, Salt Spring Island, BC, 2011

Thursday Sept 20, 2012
"The Bell-Irving Family"

An illustrated talk by Robert A.J. McDonald, UBC
7pm-8:30pm. Free admission. Drop in only. Limited seating.
Co-sponsored by the City of Vancouver Archives 1150 Chestnut Street (Vanier Park). 604.736.8561

Check back for information on a very special
Women's History Month event in October 2012!!!


Past Presentations

December 10, 2011 - Herstory Cafe Book Club discussion group: The Concubine's Children by Denise Chong. Rhizome Cafe.

October 27, 2011 - WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH. Bread and Roses: The History of Women in the Vancouver Labour Movement, an illustrated talk by Joey Hartman, president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council and vice president of The Pacific Northwest Labour History Association.

September 8, 2011 - Terrain of Memory: A Japanese Canadian Memorial Project, a talk and book launch by Kirsten Emiko McAllister, SFU. The Japanese Canadian National Museum.

August 14, 2011 - 4th Annual Herstory Cafe Summer Picnic at Camp Vivian. Tea Swamp Park.

June 26, 2011 - Crinolines, Crimes and Courage: Women of Mountain View Cemetery Historical Walking Tour by; Lorraine Irving, BC Genealogical Society and B.C. Historical Federation Director; M. Diane Rogers, Women's History Network of BC and BC Genealogical Society and Jolene Cumming, Herstory Cafe. A Fundraiser for the Friends of the City of Vancouver Archives.

May 12, 2011 - Women with Green Thumbs: Celebrating the Creative and Curious Gardeners of Vancouver with Means of Production Artist's Raw Resource Collective (MOPARRC). An illustrated talk by senior artist and accomplished organic gardener Catherine Shapiro. Hosted by Lori Weidenhammer aka Madame Beespeaker. Rhizome Cafe.

March 13, 2011 - History, Gender and Landscape, a Stanley Park Historical Walking Tour to mark International Women's Day/Week with Jolene Cumming and Mahtab Eskandari, UBC.

January 20, 2011 - Awfully Devoted Women, Lesbian Lives in Canada 1900-65. Book Launch by independent researcher and historian Cameron Duder. Co-sponsored by Archive of Lesbian Oral Testimony, SFU Dept of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, SFU Dept of History and the UBC Press. Vancouver Public Library.

December 7, 2010 - The Herstory Cafe Book Club - "Maria Mahoi of the Islands" by Jean Barman. Rhizome Cafe.

October 26, 2010 - WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH. Women and Food: A Vancouver Historical Perspective with Guest Speakers: Cease Wyss: A First Nation's Perspective; Meeru Dhalwala, Vij's: Women and Indian Cuisine; Tracey McDougall: Hogan's Alley's Vie's Chicken and Steak House; Edith Turner: Gulf of Georgia Cannery: Women and Cannery Work; Shirley Chan: Eating Stories: Laying It All on the Table; Devorah Kahn: Women and Farmer's Markets and City Councillor Andrea Reimer. Host City Councillor Ellen Woodsworth and co-sponsors The Women's Advisory Committee. Vancouver City Hall Council Chambers.

September 28, 2010 - 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. A talk by educator and author Dr. Anita Clair Fellman at the Sylvia Hotel.

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

Stanley Park walking tour
Saturday January 21, 2012 - NEW - PART 2: Stanley Park Historical Photographs Exhibit. If you enjoyed Part 1 please join us again for a display of all new photographs at the Stanley Park Nature House on Lost Lagoon with interpretation by local historian Jolene Cumming. The venue is located at the water's edge under the lagoon viewing plaza, foot of Alberni St. Drop-in only. Admission by donation (no one turned away). Warm up with a complimentary cup of hot chocolate. More info: Stanley Park History website and Stanley Park Ecology Society.

Sunday February 12, 2012 - A special St. Valentine's Day event: The Stanley Park Ecology Society presents: The Amorous, Curious and Shady Side of Romantic Stanley Park Historical Walking Tour with historical interpreter Jolene Cumming. Tour departs from the Nature House on Lost Lagoon located at the water's edge under the lagoon viewing plaza, foot of Alberni St. 1:30pm-3:30pm. Reservations recommended at: Email: programs@stanleyparkecology.ca or Tel: 604-257-8544 or 604 718-6522. Tickets $5 Members/Seniors/Children; $10 Non-members More info: Stanley Park Ecology Society. and Stanley Park History website

Saturday March 10, 2012 - Pauline Johnson's (Tekahionwake) Vancouver Days Exhibit. The display includes historical photographs and other material relating to Johnson's life and death in our city, 1909-1913. Stanley Park Nature House on Lost Lagoon is located at the water's edge under the lagoon viewing plaza, foot of Alberni St. Drop-in only. Admission by donation (no one turned away). Enjoy a complimentary cup of tea. Stanley Park History website & Stanley Park Ecology Society. This special event also marks Johnson's March 10 birthday and International Women's Day/Week. 12:00pm-3:00pm.

Vancouver Maritime Museum. exhibit: "Chatwilh, The Craft and Culture of the Squamish Canoe". This exhibit includes a ca. 1920's Women's Canoe found behind a home in North Vancouver; " ... were used to collect and transport resources. They were smaller, nimble and easy to move through inlets and sloughs." For countless generations, Squamish people hunted, fished, gathered resources, engaged in battle, and welcomed visitors from their canoes. This special exhibition, a partnership between the Vancouver Maritime Museum and the Squamish Nation, will take visitors through the life cycle of a Squamish canoe - from its roots in a stand of local temperate rainforest, through the hands of Squamish craftsmen, and throughout the Salish Sea.

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is pleased to announce Remarkable Women: Honouring Women From Our Vancouver Communities poster series for 2012. The theme is Vancouver women artists. Twelve posters of Remarkable Women from Vancouver will be produced as a unique way to remember, acknowledge, and honour women in our communities whose accomplishments highlight the important role women play in our daily lives. The posters will be available in January 2012. Those selected as Remarkable Women will be acknowledged at a reception to be held in conjunction with International Women's Day on March 8, 2012.

Vancouver Museum on-line collection: Pauline Johnson's Performance Costume - The poet and performer Pauline Johnson wore this costume when she read her poems as dramatic works. She was born Tekahionwake on the Six Nations Reserve in Brantford, Ontario in 1861 to mixed-race parents. Johnson expressed her versions of traditional First Nations legends in romantic, colourful verse and prose on stages across Canada. Johnson chose Vancouver as her home in later years and passed away here in 1913. By special permission she was buried in Stanley Park near Siwash Rock where her ashes are marked by a picturesque cairn. Pauline Johnson's will read in part: "I bequeath to the Museum of the City of Vancouver and in order that the same may remain in the City of Vancouver my Indian Costume intact and comprising the scalps, silver brooches and all other decorations and including the skirt and bodice... " http://www.museumofvancouver.ca/collections/object/pauline-johnsons-performance-costume

Vancouver Historical Society Speaker Series at the Museum of Vancouver fourth Thursday monthly, located at 1100 Chestnut Street at 7.30 pm. www.vancouver-historical-society.ca.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
A Vancouver Romance: John and Ruth Morton Speaker: Rev. Bruce A. Woods. Most Vancouverites know the name John Morton (1834-1912) as being one of the Three Greenhorns who settled in 1862 on the claim now called Vancouver's West End. After the CPR acquired much of their property, Morton moved to Mission. What most don't know is the lifelong romance between John and his wife Ruth, now memorialized by the Ruth Morton Baptist Church which author Bruce A. Woods calls Vancouver's and John Morton's Taj Mahal. Forty years of research, including interviews with John Morton's granddaughter, have brought together an enchanting story of the Mortons. Humourist, Rev. Bruce A. Woods, author of Between Two Women and Between Two Worlds, in 1971 prepared for the CBC the pamphlet "The John Morton Story", the subject of his last talk to the VHS in September 1970.

UBC's Centre for Women's and Gender Studies (CFIS) lecture series. Check updates for their Spring 2012 schedule of speakers.

In Toronto? Check out HerstoriesCafe, Toronto. herstoriescafe.blogspot.com

Vancouver Women's History Poster exhibit - On Line. Remarkable Women: Honouring women from our Vancouver communities. The Arts and Culture Office of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation