Transported back in time with the library’s Life on the Homefront project
If it were 100 years ago, I wouldn‘t be writing this article. Maybe I would be reading the Eastern Chronicle learning about how Sgt. Frank Cameron from New Glasgow accidently met his demise in France while on active service, or the fact that Mr. Pushie’s son Ernest was wounded with a severe contusion of the leg while he served with heavy artillery overseas (Eastern Chronicle: October 30, 1917). But that was then, and this is now.
Libraries often house items that transport you back to a different time within their walls, but sometimes we’re also the conduits for sharing information through various mediums. The information I mentioned in the first paragraph of this article can be credited to the online component of the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library’s Life on the Homefront: Antigonish and Pictou Counties during the Great War 1914-1918 project.
In 2014 when the four-year project was created, the aim was to provide different perspectives about how the Great War affected Pictou and Antigonish communities through a blog (which features a selected article from a local newspaper published 100 years previous to the posting date), books, DVDs, our larger NovaStory initiative and more. By accessing this material, whether it be online, at the reference desk at your local library or borrowed from the library to be read in the privacy of your own home; it takes people back to different place and time and helps them understand how the Great War shaped the communities we live in.
Reading material and programs related to the Great War
A book that might be of interest available to borrow is Letters Home: Maritimers and the Great War, 1914-1918 (Nimbus, 2014), edited by Ross Hebb. This book is a compilation of personal letters gathered from public archives and the relatives of those who fought in the First World War.
Through these letters, readers learn more about Canadian soldiers, from recruitment to deployment to return, in their own words. Author Susan Evans Shaw also wrote Canadians at War: A Guide to the Battlefields of World War I (Goose Lane Editions, 2011) that is available to borrow with your free library card. In this informative guide, she provides an historical overview of each battlefield as well as maps, photographs, and information on the memorials and cemeteries. Evans Shaw made her first visit to the battlefields of World War I in 2004, where she realized that there was a dearth of material for Canadians.
Collaborating with photographer Jean Crankshaw, she created this book as a tribute to her grandfather, who was killed in action in 1918 (credit: The Writers Union of Canada website).
This month’s Community Café on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 2:30 p.m. in the Pictou Library also highlights the Great War as our speaker (and Chief Librarian) Eric Stackhouse talks about his journey overseas to the Great War battlefields of the Somme, Arras, and Vimy. Tea, coffee and light snacks will be served — all are welcome.
Remembrance Day holiday In observance of Remembrance Day, public libraries in Pictou and Antigonish Counties will be closed on Nov. 11th (but our drop boxes and online services remain open).
In lieu of Remembrance Day falling on a Saturday, PARL regional library headquarters and the Antigonish Town and County Library will be closed on Nov. 13. For those who have served, and continue to serve, our country – we thank you. Lest we forget.
For more information on upcoming library programs, special events and services, please drop by your local library branch, follow us on Twitter, find us on Facebook, or visit us online at www. parl.ns.ca.