Mona was one of the most important women in Prince Edward Island.[4] She built public-health programs that affected nearly everyone in the province. Despite resistance, Mona managed to change the belief that illness was the will of God, bringing acceptance of the many public-health services she introduced. She created inoculations, tuberculosis care, and preventative education programs, and promoted dental hygiene, assistance for crippled children, and better sanitation in schools.
Mona also found time to help set up the Zonta Club, a professional women’s club, and a Girl Guides troop. After her retirement, she travelled around the globe. Though Mona had many beaus, she never wed. Historian Douglas O. Baldwin speculated that society’s requirement for a married woman to give up her career could have been a factor in her decision.[5]
Mona was an excellent administrator and a leader in public-health nursing in Canada. Her nursing division became Prince Edward Island’s provincial health department. She received the highest international recognition in nursing, the Florence Nightingale Award, and was named Island Woman of the Century in 1967. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board recognized Mona as a person of national historic significance. The Mona Gordon Wilson Building, where she once worked in Charlottetown, was named in her honour.
The engraving on Mona Wilson’s gravestone recognizes her lifetime dedication to nursing: “She Answered Every Call.”[6]
Quote:
“There were all kinds of disabilities — dislocated hips, tubercular bones, rickets, knocked knees, spinal curvatures.… This was one of the most tragic scenes I had ever witnessed and that night I wept into my pillow.”[7]
— Mona’s memories of a clinic for crippled children.
Florence Wyle, 1930.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts/Library and Archives Canada/PA-103160
The Sculpting Life on Glenrose
Florence Wyle
1881–1968
A powerful force in Canadian sculpture, she became the first woman sculptor to gain full membership in the Royal Canadian Academy.
Florence was born in Trenton, Illinois, in 1881. As a child, she was a tomboy who loved playing on the farm and helping wounded animals. She also liked to draw pictures. When Florence’s puritan father gave her $500 for her education, she decided to become a doctor. Mr. Wyle wasn’t amused when his daughter discovered art was her greater love and became a sculptor.
In 1903, Florence enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, where her instructors included Laredo Taft and Charles J. Mulligan. She fell deeply in love with Mulligan and kept his picture at her bedside for decades.[1] Most of her fellow students were women, eager to pursue an occupation previously closed to the fairer sex. Among them was another aspiring American sculptor named Frances Loring, who would become her lifelong friend. The two young women began sharing a studio in New York in 1911. Florence’s career looked promising, and several of her works were shown at the National Academy to good reviews.
Several years later, thirty-year-old Florence joined Frances and moved to Toronto. They eventually moved into an old church on Glenrose Avenue. When they first arrived in the city, there were few Canadian sculptors, and the other female one wasn’t as talented as “The Girls.”[2] Their home became a haven for artists and musicians, who had to bring treats for the pets. Members of the Group of Seven — after whom Florence and Frances named their chickens — as well as rich art patrons dropped by. Though the couple was usually poor, they were always generous to young art students. For more than five decades, the home would serve as what artist A.Y. Jackson called “the hub of culture in Toronto.”[3] The women’s unconventional lifestyle shocked the doyens of society.
The unusual residence also served as headquarters for the Sculptors’ Society of Canada, which the pair helped create in 1928. The organization helped raise Canadian sculpture’s profile at home and abroad, and nurtured a group of aspiring sculptors. There was considerable opportunity to achieve distinction in the relatively small community of Canadian sculptors. Despite male domination, Florence became one of the best sculptors in the country. Sculpture was her life.
University anatomy classes and neoclassical training helped Florence shape her respect for depicting the human body accurately. The sculptor worked in bronze, wood, and plaster, bringing together naturalism and realism. She depicted adults and children as well as animals and nature, creating serene and intimate pieces. Female nude torsos were among her best works, but she also created some large memorials.
During the First World War, she sculpted some small bronze statues of female war workers, which the National Gallery purchased for display in 1918. In 1927, the federal government commissioned her to document the West Coast’s decaying totems with sketches and models. Florence’s sculpture also included busts of artists A.Y. Jackson and F.H. Varley, as well as a sculpted tombstone for Dr. Frederick Banting. She was prolific, praised for her frequently exhibited works, and the recipient of many commissions. Florence was awarded the Coronation Medal in 1953. She was also a poet, and published a book of her work in 1958.
Though contemporary sculpture later overshadowed Florence’s work, sculptors such as Alan Jarvis acknowledged The Girls’ contribution: “The art of sculpture in Canada has been something of a poor cousin compared to painting. That it has survived at all, much is owed to two distinguished sculptors, who are also two great women, Frances Loring and Florence Wyle.”[4] When Florence died on January 14, 1968, the press hailed her as one of Canada’s great sculptors.
Florence Wyle’s memorial to Edith Cavell can still be seen at Toronto General Hospital and some of her hundreds of other works are held by the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the War Museum in Ottawa; whether they are displayed is another question. A tiny Toronto park, so small it is called the Loring-Wyle Parkette, is a modest tribute to Florence and her partner. Historian Elspeth Cameron’s book about The Girls played an important role in ensuring that their contributions to the development of professional sculpture in Canadian are not completely forgotten.
Quote:
“Young sculptors … dare to flout the things nature does so well. They don’t know anatomy. A knowledge of anatomy gives vitality, vigour to sculpture.”[5]
Letitia Youmans.
Fighting the Gigantic Crime of Crimes[1]
Letitia Youmans
1827–1896
She built the first Dominion-wide women’s group, leading a movement to stop the evils of drunkenness.
Like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, Letitia Youmans tried to stop alcohol abuse. At the helm of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Canada, she pleaded for home protection. Sister Youmans didn’t see it as advocating for women’s rights, but remonstrating against woman’s wrongs, claiming “for every wife the right to have a sober husband, and a sober son, and a comfortable home for herself and children.”[2]
Letitia Youmans was born in a log cabin near Cobourg, Ontario, in 1827. John Creighton had great expectations for the new baby, naming her after a generous estate owner in Ireland who had befriended him when he was a lad. Letitia proudly trudged off through the forest to school at four years old. Despite the family’s modest means, the girl was well-dressed in a pretty blue-and-white calico dress with a bonnet, carrying a brightly painted lunch basket with bread and butter, as well as an egg.
Letitia’s Methodist family strongly believed in abstaining from alcohol. When she was a schoolgirl, a teacher taught her class about the evils of alcohol abuse and the importance of temperance. Letitia happily signed a pledge of abstinence. Her devotion to the cause was reinforced by the ravages of alcohol in her community: inebriated men brawling until one died, families left destitute by drunken fathers, drunks scrounging for whiskey. Her most impressive temperance lesson was the horrific discovery of a dead drunk, whose corpse was swarming with maggots.
Letitia studied at both the Cobourg Ladies’ Seminary and the Burlington Academy. While teaching at the Picton Academy[3] s
he met and married her soulmate, Arthur Youmans. The widower with eight children owned a farm, as well as some mills. Letitia lived on the farm for eighteen years, devoting herself to being a good mother and wife.
After the children were raised, the Youmans moved to Picton. Letitia had always wanted to do good in the world[4] and her observations of the towns’ alcohol-related problems fuelled her passion to join the anti-booze crusade. Letitia directed her energy into what she considered a holy cause, abstinence and prohibition.
Letitia taught Sunday school and educated children about temperance. She created the non-denominational Band of Hope, a youth group in which members pledged not to use alcohol, tobacco, or bad language. In 1874, Letitia participated in an inspirational meeting of a new national WCTU in Chautauqua, New York, conducted by women. It was the first time in her life that she’d heard a lecture by a woman.
Back in Picton, Letitia Youman established a WCTU group, the second in Canada, to promote temperance through legislation that would prohibit the sale of alcohol. Letitia and the other women risking their reputations by being so bold, decided to petition the town council to stop granting liquor licences to grocery stores. Letitia was a reluctant speaker, but she became a powerful voice for temperance across Canada and abroad.
With growing confidence, Letitia marched on. She was invited to speak at a temperance meeting in Cobourg in 1875, and stunned her audience by delivering a rousing one-hour presentation — without a single note. Sister Youmans travelled widely despite failing health, addressing five or six audiences a week in Ontario to reach at least 15,000 potential converts. Supporters hailed the impressive orator for her “zealous and self-denying labors.”[5]
Left to right: Frances Willard (president, United States WCTU), Margaret Bright Lucas (president, British WCTU) and Letitia Youmans (president, Canadian WCTU), 1886.
Letitia was elected president of Ontario’sWCTU, with other WCTUs established across Canada as a result of her fiery speeches. When her efforts resulted in a national WCTU in 1885, she was named president and remained the honorary president until her death. She took her campaign across the country, from British Columbia to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and discussed her views with Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.
Letitia also represented the WCTU internationally, travelling more extensively after her husband died and she moved to Toronto in 1882. She visited England and Scotland as the Canadian temperance spokesperson, and spoke frequently in the United States. She participated in a presentation to the Maryland Senate and enjoyed a private interview with President Rutherford B. Hayes’s wife, Lucy, at the White House. Letitia was an admirer and close friend of American temperance leader Frances Willard, who praised her Canadian counterpart as an electrifying speaker and remarkable leader.
Forced to retire after being seized by a severe case of inflammatory rheumatism in August 1988, Letitia was bedridden. She documented her heroic story in an autobiography entitled Campaign Echoes.
Letitia was the inspirational founder of the original White Ribbon Movement in Canada, named after the WCTU’s emblem. By the turn of the century, the WCTU was the largest national, non-denominational women’s group in the country, with nearly 10,000 members. Prohibition laws were passed across Canada, but were short-lived. Historian T.A. Crowley suggested that the association Letitia built provided an important forum for Canadian women to discuss issues, and the opportunity to work together later to obtain the vote.[6]
Letitia Youmans is commemorated by a government of Ontario historic plaque at her grave in Glenwood Cemetery, Picton.
Quote:
“These Christian nations have actually instituted a system by which it is a legitimate branch of business to deal out liquid death and distilled destruction.”[7]
Notes
Introduction
1. Constance Backhouse, “Clara Brett Martin: Canadian Heroine or Not?” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1992): 273.
2. See the stories of Dr. Leone Farrell, Dr. Irma LeVasseur, and Florence Lawrence in this book.
3. Andrew Cohen, “Don’t Be Shy, Honour Ourselves,” Ottawa Citizen, August 5, 2003.
4. Lindsay E. Rankin and Alice H. Eagly, “Is His Heroism Hailed and Hers Hidden? Women, Men, and the Social Construction of Heroism,” Psychology of Women Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 4 (2008): 414–22.
5. Greg Spurgeon to Merna Forster, November 10, 2009.
6. As of March 31, 2011. There were also three couples designated.
7. Dianne Dodd, “Canadian Historic Sites and Plaques: Heroines, Trailblazers, The Famous Five,” CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 2009).
Mary Electa Adams
1. Alexandra Mosquin, “Mary Electa Adams,” Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada Submission Report — Person, 2003-33, 1095.
2. Nathanael Burwash, The History of Victoria College (Toronto: Victoria College Press, 1927), 56.
3. John G. Reid, “Mary Electa Adams,” DCB, www.biographi.ca.
Sally Ainse
1. Alan Taylor, The Divided Ground (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 400.
2. Ibid., 401.
3. John Clarke, “Sarah Ainse,” DCB, www.biographi.ca.
4. Sarah Ainse to David W. Smith, March 26, 1794, in Taylor, 401. Ainse may have had others write letters for her, then she signed with her totem.
Maud Allan
1. Judith R. Walkowitz, “The ‘Vision of Salome,’ ” The American Historical Review, Vol. 108, No. 2: 338.
2. Philip Hoare, Oscar Wilde’s Last Stand (New York: Arcade, 1998), 77.
3. “A New Canadian Dancer,” London Observer, 1908.
4. Amy Koritz, Gendering Bodies/Performing Art (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1995), 2.
5. Walkowitz, 363, 337–76.
6. Ibid., 343.
7. Felix Cherniavsky, The Salome Dancer (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991), 291.
8. Ibid., 194.
Elizabeth Arden
1. Lindy Woodhead, War Paint: Madame Helene Rubinstein & Miss Elizabeth Arden (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 4, 23.
2. Alfred Allan Lewis and Constance Woodworth, Miss Elizabeth Arden (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1972), 34.
3. Woodhead, 94.
4. Ibid., 95.
5. Ibid., 2, 6.
6. Ibid., 229.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 209.
9. Barbara C. Eastman, “Women Entrepreneurs: The Role Has Models,” Canadian Woman Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1982): 94.
10. Ron Shillingford, History of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs (The History of the World’s Greatest, 2010), 275.
Helen Armstrong
1. Bob Waters, Four Generations That Walked the Walk (Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co., 2010), 20.
2. Paula Kelly, “Looking for Mrs. Armstrong,” The Beaver, June–July 2002: 21.
3. Waters, 37.
4. Mary Horodyski, “Women and the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919,” Manitoba History, No. 11, March 1986: 28–37.
5. Paula Kelly, producer, The Notorious Mrs. Armstrong, Buffalo Gal Pictures, 2001.
6. Waters, 39.
Elizabeth Bagshaw
1. Charlotte Gray, “Elizabeth Catharine Bagshaw,” CMA Journal, Vol. 124 (January 15, 1981): 211.
2. “Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw Role in Birth-Control Clinic Aroused Ire in 1932,” Globe and Mail, January 7, 1982.
3. Mark McCurdy, director, Doctor Woman: The Life and Times of Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw, National Film Board, 1978.
4. Frances Rooney, “Elizabeth Bagshaw, M.D., An Interview,” Makara, Vol. 2, No. 3 (May 1977): 28–29.
Mary "Bonnie" Baker
1. Lois Browne, Girls of Summer (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1992), 163, 183.
2. Ibid., 35.
3. Ibid., 117.
4. Ibid., 61.
5. Ibid., 44.
6. M. Ann Hall, The Girl and the Game (Peterborough: Broadview Press,
2002), 125.
7. Browne, 164.
8. Dawn Walton, “Canadian Ball Star Gave U.S. Someone to Cheer,” Globe and Mail, December 22, 2003.
9. Browne, 35, 193.
Catherine and Mary Barclay
1. Allan Connery, “Mary Belle Barclay,” Calgary Herald, October 7, 2000, and Evelyn Edgeller, Mary Belle Barclay (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 1988), 75–79.
2. Doris Anderson believed Catherine Barclay started the first such exchange. See Doris Anderson, “The Teacher Who Changed My Life,” Toronto Star, December 10, 1988.
100 More Canadian Heroines Page 30