Into the archives
Relaunch of book, new exhibit set for June 9 at CBU
It promises to be a busy day at Cape Breton University on June 9 with a book launch, an event for International Archives Day and a new exhibit at the CBU Art Gallery.
The Beaton Institute with CBU Press will relaunch the out-of-print book, “Italian Lives, Cape Breton Memories” edited by Sam Migliore and A. Evo Di-Pierro. The book was originally published in 1999 and was made available as an e-book earlier this year.
The book looks at Cape Breton’s Italian presence and how it dates back 150 years on the island. It looks at the immigration experience, work experience in the home, the steel plant and the coal mines and it looks at business, politics and other areas of endeavour.
Many chapters of the book were contributed by members of the community, who may have relied on archival materials for their research and hence the connection to Archives Day.
“A great many of our authors — including fiction writers — spend countless hours in archives gleaning insights from the past for their work,” said CBU Press editor-in-chief Mike Hunter.
Catherine Arseneau, director of the Beaton Institute, said archives are essential to understanding the community.
“The records created by individuals and organizations as they go about their lives provide a direct window on past events,” she said. “We are the custodians of society’s memory.”
The theme for International Archives Day 2017 is Archives, Citizenship and Interculturalism, and under that banner “Italian Lives” will be relaunched and there will Italian-Cape Breton displays and tours of the Beaton archives from 2-4 p.m.
Other activities on June 9 include a public talk and exhibit opening in the CBU Art Gallery, entitled: In Our Time: The Political Cartoons of Josh Silburt (1942-1947). Silburt was a cartoonist at the Sydney Post Record during those years.
A talk about the exhibit is scheduled for 12 p.m. and the opening will be held from 6-8 p.m. in the CBU Art Gallery.