Obvious Sources (Canadian Edition): The National Film Board

Today is Canada day. July 1st 1867 the British North America act was enacted and Canada was created. So to celebrate, and realizing it's a holiday and no one wants to work too hard, here's a bit of Canadian history as presented by the National Film Board of Canada.

• The Romance of Transportation in Canada
• The Voyageurs
• The Fate of America (The title refers to French North America becoming British North America. Not to the United States of America.)

The Fate of America is an amazing documentary to watch. For two reasons. First, about an hour in Laurier LaPierre will give you an interpretation of the battle of Abraham which will change the way you look at Canadian history. Secondly I don't think any documentary has had me laughing out loud for a long time. The last 20 minutes or so are not to be missed.

The NFB is a national treasure. It has an interesting history in its own right. So many of it's most famous films are on the website and freely available to watch that you could get lost for hours. If you are Canadian you'll find every favourite you remember. And no matter what your background this is an invaluable collection of films.

On the more personal side I reminisced by watching "I don't know. Looks pretty tricky" aka Path of the Paddle: Doubles Whitewater. 

Happy Canada Day!

History: It Only Looks Like Monopoly Money

Americans like to say that Canadian money looks like Monopoly money because it isn't as drab and dreary as their own currency. In this case it turns out that Americans are behind the times and not being modern for regardless of the continuous forward march of progress Americans don't want to give up plain green money.

Even the newly announced 100 dollar bill is no improvement. Almost all the added colour is just on specific anti-counterfeiting measures. So far the biggest online controversy about the new bill is related to typography. Yes... people are complaining about helvetica on the money.

The rest of the world is leaving America in the dust when it comes to currency design. Don't just use colour to prevent counterfeiting. Why not use colour to great effect? I suppose since it is the still the de facto currency of the world America wants the dollar to seem solid, old, and unchanging. I wonder if the designs will change more radically if the Euro becomes the new currency of world trade?

Americans don't get to see too much international currency every day of course. Most of us see only our own currency. As America's biggest trading partner it's not surprising that Canadian currency is the foreign currency most often encountered by Americans. That's why only the Canadian dollar gets the nickname of Monopoly money.

Turns out the Canadian dollar hasn't always been that colourful. The Bank of Canada has a free book on the History of the Canadian Dollar. It touches on the history of currency in Canada, the history of the Bank of Canada, and the ever changing link between the Canadian dollar and other currencies. Foreign exchange and monetary issues are covered in summary throughout the book. This isn't a photo history of Canadian currency. It's a more general history.

What's interesting is how something as seemingly simple as the history of one country's money has to involve everything from world affairs, wars, and politics. Whether greenbacks, monopoly money, the yen, or the Euro it's all interrelated and interconnected.

No one has a monopoly on money anymore.

Memoir: One Who Inspired McLuhan and Helped Define Canada

I seem to be posting about the Canadian experience a great deal. No surprise there I'm Canadian myself so consider me biased. Up next is the memoir of a Canadian intellectual giant.

It's interesting to come across a memoir that, until recently, no one knew about. Even more interestingly the writer of the memoir is the subject of several biographies. I'm not sure whether even the recent biographers had access to this memoir as they wrote.

In 2004 the Canadian Journal of Communication published Memoir of Harold Adams Innis: Covering the years 1894-1922. Innis lived until 1952 and was writing his memoirs at the time of his death. Memoirs which were only known to his family until their publication. This may be a unique chance to compare what biographers have come up with and what the subject himself said.

The subject in question is Harold Innis. A Canadian scholar who wrote some important works on economics and on the media. He looked at the Canadian experience in economic and technical terms. He wrote about the Canadian Pacific Railway and its impact on the country. He wrote the seminal work on the economic history of the fur trade. The trade that helped establish Canada.

His work on the media predates and heavily influenced Marshal McLuhan. McLuhan took Innis' ideas on writing and print and extended them into his own more expansive ideas. McLuhan didn't come up with his ideas in a complete vacuum. "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants" if I may quote Isaac Newton.

An overview of Innis' work and its relation to the work of McLuhan is at the Library and Archives of Canada. Old Messengers, New Media: The Legacy of Innis and McLuhan is a good place to read about some of the most important intellectual ideas of the 20th century.

The Canadian Journal of Communication also published an essay about Harold Innis' memoir by one of his biographers. Paul Heyer's History from the Inside is a fascinating read in its own right that gives additional insight into the memoirs.

Harold Innis didn't complete his memoirs. He managed to cover his early years and his experiences in the WWI. Including some details about the attack on Vimy Ridge which was a turning point for Canadian nationalism. Regardless of how Vimy is looked upon by history it's important to remember it was a battle. A bloody battle. The Great War had a profound influence on Innis. His memoirs describe much of the war in simple matter of fact terms. He spares us the horrors of war and yet here and there he reminds us that it was a war. During his description of the attack he writes simply that:

At first, when the barrage lifted, the skyline was filled with a line of men who had gone over the top and were in the German trenches before the Germans had a chance to recover from the effects of the barrage. Small groups of German prisoners began almost immediately to filter back, as did groups of the wounded and of course the dead were to be found scattered over the whole area, both German and ours. The advance continued steadily as the second and third lines of German trenches were taken. The barrage lifted and the dugouts either mercilessly bombed and the men inside killed or the men allowed to come out and be taken prisoner.

Memoir: An Immigrant's Story

The last post on the topic of the senses was about Lene Andersen's The Seated View. Lene was born in Denmark and now lives in Toronto Canada. I can think of no better way to start looking at histories by showcasing another Danish immigrant to Toronto at the Canadian Museum of Civilization's online exhibit Chris Bennedsen: Scrapbook of a Life in Letters.

A warning though. The material is wonderful. The story engaging. The slice of history is engaging. But the site itself has serious issues. I'll give a few hints below but hang in there - it's worth figuring out how to navigate the site.

Chris Bennedsen came to Canada in 1951 and stayed the rest of his life. He married an Italian-Canadian woman and built a life for his family. He never did lose the connection to Denmark and the family and friends who were there. Chris was also a collector. He kept every letter he sent and received as well as lots of other material. The online exhibit is a portion of a meticulously kept scrapbook of a life put into context and explained. It is a window into one man's life.

The exhibit however has some problems.

It suffers from 1990's multimedia syndrome mixed in with museum mentality. The site is menu driven, inflexible, and does not exploit the power of the web or the web browser. Having the material forced to fit into a small on-screen window is a waste. The site looks great. Just as I'd expect the placards and signs in the museum to look. As a web site though it is a pain to view.

Here are the steps to go from the intro page to the first page of the digital scrapbook:

• Click on Introduction at the top left of the splash screen
• Click on Enter at the top left of the intro screen
• Click on the "book" titled "1 Spandet" or on the "1. Spandet" link across the bottom of the page
• Click on the work "Spandet" under the intro text
• Click on the "1" along the top of the virtual book, or click on the "Next Page" button at the bottom of the page, to start reading the material on the site

This may be how museum presentations are put together but it's terribly wrong as a way to build a website. I haven't seen material this hard to access since the days of multimedia productions on CDs. The virtual book metaphor doesn't have to be so literal let alone so narrow and tall. I have rather large monitors but I still had to scroll down two narrow book pages to read anything. I understand that if you're building a museum exhibit there are physical constraints and the need to unify everything behind a consistent visual theme. But this is the web. Where the material should fit my browser and not the other way around.

Even with the issues on accessing the content of the site it's well worth it. Behind the clicks and the menus is a compelling tale. One that crosses cultural boundaries, one section is entitled "A Dane in Little Italy", that could only happen in a city like Toronto and in a country like Canada. People like Lene and Chris and the lives they've made for themselves are some of the reasons I love living in Toronto.