Determined to succeed despite the discrimination, Esther managed to get a short stint as a draftsman with MacDonald and Magoon in Edmonton. She took a post-graduate course in town planning at the University of Toronto, studied at Columbia University, and worked for architect Marcia Mead in New York. Esther then reapplied to the Alberta Association of Architects. In 1925, she became the first Canadian woman to be a registered architect.
When offered architectural work in New York by another female architect, Esther returned to the United States and stayed there until 1928. Back in Edmonton, she again managed to get short-term work with MacDonald and Magoon, but with the onset of the Great Depression there were no other opportunities. Esther turned to weaving, teaching, and making gloves and greeting cards.
She continued with these occupations when she moved to Victoria in 1936 with her parents. Once the economy improved after the Second World War, she set up her own architectural practice. Esther found many of her clients through weaving. A longtime member of the Victoria Weavers’ Guild who wore her own homespun clothing, she taught both weaving and spinning and won first prize for her work at Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition in 1942.
Esther successfully registered with the Architectural Institute of British Columbia in 1953. She served on the city planning commission for five years and worked as an independent architect in Victoria until she retired in 1963.
Struggling to develop a career in the male-dominated field of architecture, Esther had a lonely professional existence. She worked by herself on all her projects, often designing on a drafting table in her parents’ living room. During her years in Victoria, she designed houses, kitchen renovations, an addition to a church, several apartment buildings, and a senior citizens home.
Esther Hill, 1920s.
UTA, Majori Inc. B1986-0106/005P
Esther Hill died in 1985. Many of the buildings she designed have been demolished, and for those that remain, men often took the credit.[2] As Professors Annmarie Adams and Peta Tancred noted, we can only imagine what this pioneer architect might have achieved had she entered the profession half a century later.[3]
Quote:
“One must have artistic talent, practical experience, professional knowledge, good business and executive ability, resourcefulness, and a determination to persevere. With these assets there is no reason why a woman should not be as successful as a man.”[4]
Lotta Hitschmanova, 1940s.
Courtesy of USC Canada
The Atomic Mosquito
Lotta Hitschmanova
1909–1990
The face of hope to millions around the globe, she inspired Canadians to help the world’s most vulnerable.
Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova was one of Canada’s greatest humanitarians and among the most prominent Canadian women of her time. From the 1940s to the 1970s, she was one of the most widely recognized figures in the country because of her annual fundraising appeals and public service announcements on TV and radio.
The small woman with flaming red hair, dressed in an olive-green uniform and cap and speaking passionately with a Czech accent, was unforgettable. Her pleas always ended with the same message: please give generously to the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) and send your contribution to 56 Sparks Street, Ottawa. The address was as well known as that of the prime minister’s.
Lotta was born in Prague, where she grew up in a prosperous and happy Jewish family. She deeply admired her father and adopted his belief in honesty and hard work, charity, wisdom, and education as a key to independence. She obtained a Ph.D. from Prague University in languages and literature. Earning diplomas in five languages (French, English, German, Spanish, and Czech), she also studied political science and journalism at the Sorbonne in Paris and acquired a Red Cross nursing diploma. After a stint working for the largest daily newspaper in France, she established herself as a political journalist in Czechoslovakia.
When Hitler’s troops prepared to invade, the openly anti-Nazi journalist fled to Paris and then Brussels in the summer of 1938. She was on the run for years, experiencing the horrors of the Second World War in France and Belgium and helping refugees. Her parents died in a Nazi concentration camp and Lotta was determined to make sure that their deaths hadn’t been in vain.
When she collapsed from hunger in Marseilles, Lotta was cared for at a medical clinic run by the American USC. The chance visit introduced her to the organization that would become her life’s focus. When she finally escaped Europe in July 1942, Lotta was asked to deliver a report on the refugee situation to USC headquarters in Boston. From there she went to Montreal. When she arrived, she weighed less than 100 pounds, had $60 in her pocket, and was completely alone in a strange country. She was thirty-two.
Within four days, Lotta landed a job and settled in Ottawa. In 1945, she established an independent USC in Ottawa to help children and other refugees in war-ravaged European countries. The work she did with the USC became her all-consuming passion; she worked seven days a week, from dawn until midnight. The United Nations initially required aid workers to wear a uniform, so Lotta began wearing a military-style uniform. The “Soldier of Peace”[1] only hired women for the USC office, preferring single women prepared to work long hours.
Lotta was the heart of the organization for thirty-six years, involving the USC in projects around the world, from Africa to Asia and Latin America. The USC became a successful non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to helping people suffering as a result of war, drought, disease, or poverty. She believed in empowering local people to help themselves and treating them respectfully. Under Lotta’s leadership, the USC worked with local partners (most of them women) who could become leaders in their communities. She felt that women should be at the heart of all aid projects; many aid programs provided educational opportunities once basic needs were taken care of.
Lotta Hitschmanova in Korea, 1954.
Courtesy of USC Canada
Each year, Lotta travelled across Canada for about three months to solicit food, clothing, and cash. During one of these treks in 1949, she covered 17,000 kilometres, giving ninety-six talks in thirty-six communities. She raised an impressive $50,000. Haunted by the suffering she’d witnessed, she could easily move audiences and her own employees to tears with her words. Dubbed the “atomic mosquito” because of her small size and persistence, Lotta knew how to create a media buzz and convert it into support for the poorest people in the world.
Dr. Lotta, as she was affectionately called by many, also regularly visited affected areas. True to her journalism background, she asked many questions and took copious notes. She used the trips to assess needs and ensure accountability for the projects. Known for her excellent judgment, she inspired those she met with her warmth and compassion. Between 1948 and 1972 she produced promotional films of her annual trips overseas.
Lotta poured her considerable energy into the USC until she reluctantly retired in 1982, as Alzheimer’s disease claimed the last decade of her life. She died in 1990. Dr. Lotta received many awards from around the world, including the Medal of Gratitude from France, Greece’s Athena Messolora Gold Medal, Rotary International Award for Human Understanding, and 1975 Woman of the Year for India by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[2] Following her death, Agriculture Canada released a new variety of oat seed called AC Lotta in her honour.[3] To recognize the 100th anniversary of her birth, the City of Ottawa declared November 28, 2009, as Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova Day.
Dr. Lotta’s legacy is the USC Canada, which continues to help people in need around the world. She played a major role in awakening Canadians to the sufferings of people in other countries and fostering a commitment to international humanitarianism.
Quote:
“Scientists tell us there is no longer any excuse for human starvation, yet 2/3 of mankind remain hungry, while the world spends 150-billion dollars a year on armaments. Won’t you invest a constructive dollar in the fight against need and poverty?”[4]
Helen Hogg at Harvard.
Helen Hogg at Harvard.
The Stars Belong to Everyone
Helen Hogg
1905–1993
She expanded our knowledge of stars in the Milky Way — and hooked thousands of university students, kids, and their parents on astronomy.
A total eclipse of the sun turned Helen Sawyer on to astronomy: “the glory of the spectacle seems to have tied me to astronomy for life, despite my horribly cold feet as we stood almost knee deep in snow.”[1]
It was 1925 when Helen Sawyer, a student at Mount Holyoke College, switched majors from chemistry to astronomy. Born in 1905 in Lowell, Massachusetts, her parents had encouraged her to appreciate the world around her. After graduation, Helen went to work with the renowned astronomer Harlow Shapley at the Harvard Observatory. She married Frank Hogg in 1930 and obtained her doctorate the following year. Though her studies were completed at Harvard, the university wouldn’t grant science degrees to women, so both her master’s and Ph.D. were issued by Radcliffe College.
The Hoggs moved to Victoria, British Columbia, when Frank had a job at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. There was no hope of Helen getting hired there, because the federal government wouldn’t employ both a husband and wife during the Great Depression. So Dr. Helen Hogg volunteered as her husband’s assistant. There was, however, one benefit of being the spouse: Helen was allowed to do her research and photography at night, because her husband was there to chaperone her. She was thrilled to have access to the second-largest telescope in the world. And once their daughter was born, Helen faced no opposition to bringing the baby along as she studied the night sky.
While in Victoria, Helen began studying the variable stars in globular clusters. After the Hoggs moved east in 1935 so Frank could accept a position at the University of Toronto, Helen continued her research while working as an assistant at the David Dunlop Observatory (DDO), using what is still the largest telescope in the country. In 1936, she gave birth to a son and managed to get her first paid position as a researcher; from then on, Helen worked full-time. She gave birth to her third child in 1937.
With men away during the Second World War, Helen got more career opportunities. She became the acting chairman of Mount Holyoke’s astronomy department from 1940 to 1941, and accepted a teaching position at the University of Toronto when she returned to the DDO. She became an assistant professor in 1951 (her husband died suddenly of a heart attack that year), an associate in 1955, and finally a professor from 1957 to 1976.
As an expert on variable stars in globular clusters, Helen promoted greater understanding of our galaxy. She used the 2,000 photographs she’d taken of clusters to identify thousands of variable stars and compile a series of three catalogues, which are still cited by astronomers. She published more than 200 scientific papers and presided over several Canadian scientific and astronomical organizations, and also served as director of the American National Science Foundation’s astronomy program. Her work set the groundwork for later studies on the Milky Way and earned her international respect.
Beginning in 1951, she wrote a weekly astronomy column in the Toronto Star for thirty years. Some of the material was included in her popular book The Stars Belong to Everyone: How to Enjoy Astronomy. In 1970, she hosted an astronomy series on TV Ontario. After Helen died in 1993, the president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada noted that “perhaps her greatest memorial is the appreciation of a larger universe which her popular writing instilled in thousands of ordinary Canadians.”[2]
Sometimes referred to as a “first lady of science,”[3] Dr. Hogg succeeded when women in science were often ridiculed. Professor Christine Clement noted that in the early days of Hogg’s career “it was very unusual to see a woman working in the physical sciences, a woman who had the respect of her male colleagues and students.”[4] Even after she retired from her regular duties at the University of Toronto, Helen actively encouraged young women to enter scientific fields.
Dr. Helen Sawyer Hogg was widely recognized for her achievements as a great scientist, a gifted educator, and an inspirational role model. Throughout her impressive career she received a multitude of national and international awards and honours, including medals, honorary degrees, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1972, an International Astronomical Union Colloquium was held to honour the work of one of Canada’s foremost astronomers. An asteroid, an observatory, and a telescope were also named after Dr. Hogg — fondly remembered as one of a kind.[5]
Quote:
“Make your hours count.”[6]
Ann Hulan’s schooner Industry.
P. Stafford. The Atlantic Advocate, January 1981
The Queen of St. George’s Bay
Ann Hulan
1750s–1840s
She made her mark in Newfoundland — and survived being captured by privateers in the War of 1812.
When the War of 1812 broke out, Newfoundland businesswoman Ann Hulan still had to get her goods to market. She hardly expected to be taken a prisoner of war by an American privateer.
After the United States declared war on Great Britian, armed vessels became a common sight off the coast of Newfoundland. Though British boats were on patrol, there were many private armed vessels engaged in lawful looting. In August 1812, Ann Hulan and one of her daughters set sail on her schooner Industry, with Captain Renneaux at the helm.[1] They were bound for St. John’s with 152 barrels of cured salmon and twenty fox furs.
Just south of St. Mary’s Bay, an American privateer commanded by Captain Ingersoll captured the schooner. The Benjamin Franklin, a one-ton vessel carrying eight guns and 120 men,[2] took the crew prisoner and sailed to New York. During a marine court of inquiry in September that year, the determined Ann Hulan convinced Commissioner Nathaniel Davis that she was not a threat to the United States and depended on the earnings from her cargo. The fiftyish widow won the investigators’ hearts; Davis pleaded for her release in a letter to American Secretary of State James Monroe, writing that Ann and her crew shouldn’t be considered prisoners of war.
She was eventually released. The government made sure that only she could bid at her schooner’s auction and returned her valuable cargo, worth about $2,000. Armed with a safe conduct pass, Ann arrived back in Newfoundland by Christmas.
Ann was a successful trader and experimental farmer who owned and operated Newfoundland’s first commercial farm in the late 1700s. Born Ann Cyril, she was the daughter of a couple who had emigrated from Jersey in the Channel Islands. By the early 1760s, the young girl and her family had settled along St. George’s Bay on the west coast of Newfoundland.
Ann and her husband, James Hulan, established a farm and fish exporting business in St. George’s Bay. After his death, Ann expanded the business while looking after her family. Several notable nineteenth-century travellers wrote about meeting Ann and were impressed by her. Edward Wix, a clergyman and missionary who visited her in 1835, called her “the mother of the settlements.”[3] The explorer William Eppes Cormack stayed at her farm on the second Barasway River in 1822, noting that Mrs. Hulan was “indefatigably industrious and useful” and “commanded a remarkable degree of maternal influence and respect” over the population of St. George’s Bay.[4]
Ann was an accomplished farmer who managed an efficient business. Cormack was amazed by the cleanliness of her dairy and the excellence of the cheese and butter, which she sold to bay residents and to trading vessels. She had a good stock of domestic poultry, and a cellar full of potatoes and other vegetables. Ann experimented with growing different kinds of potatoes. She also grew oats, barley, and wheat, and her fur business included martens, foxes, otters, beavers, muskrats, bears, wolves, and hares.
Often referred to as the Queen of St. George’s Bay, Ann managed a thriving fishing and farming enterprise when many women were usually relegated to more traditional roles. She is featured in a series of educational posters, developed for classroom use in Newf
oundland and Labrador, to celebrate notable people in the history and culture of the province.[5] The Hulan House, built by Ann’s grandson on her farmland, was designated a Registered Heritage Structure in 1991.
Quote:
“She speaks with lively gratitude of the very humane attentions which were uniformly paid her while she was detained in New York.”[6]
— Edward Wix, relating comments made by Ann Hulan.
May Irwin.
Strobridge Lith. Co., ca.1898
The Queen of Comedy
May Irwin
1862–1938
She sang, she danced, she made jokes. And became one of the most beloved comediennes.
“There cannot be too much laughter in the world,” said the jovial Canadian entertainer Mary Irwin.[1] Laughter would be her legacy after nearly fifty years on the stage.
Before May Irwin became a Broadway star, she was a youngster named Georgina May Campbell in Whitby, Ontario. When her father died, leaving the family destitute, her mother encouraged eleven-year-old May[2] and her younger sister Flora to audition for a variety theatre in Rochester, New York. They began performing as the “Irwin Sisters,” and in December 1875 worked at Buffalo’s Adelphi Theatre. The duo debuted in New York City in January 1877.
100 More Canadian Heroines Page 15