We’re getting ready to welcome you back in person in our stacks, starting on Monday, September 21st! It’s an ideal time to discover some of the new local reads that have recently arrived in our collections.
Newly available in the Local History Room collection, The Planes, Legends and Innovations of Canada’s Aviation Heritage, is a richly-illustrated and instructive read for aviation fans and local history enthusiasts alike. Published by the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, it highlights the pioneer days of aviation in the prairies and northern Canada in the first half of the 20th century. From modest beginnings (the first airplane flight in the province was in 1910 by one Eugene Ely), the next two decades would witness the birth of many innovations and legendary “bush pilots” who would use the new technology to explore and bring supplies over the vast expanses of the Canadian North. The book also covers little-known aspects of passenger and military aviation that took place in Manitoba.
Faces and Places: Trailblazing Women of Manitoba is a history book that promotes visiting the places, seeing the faces, and remembering the stories of Manitoba women who have made Manitoba’s history. Starting with Broadway’s well-known monuments and then going through various city neighborhoods, the book provides walking tour itineraries where we can explore and discover murals, plaques, former homes and other symbols left behind as the legacies of these pioneering women in various fields from politics, arts and sports. The book not only covers locations in Winnipeg but throughout Manitoba as well.
Winnipeg, Minneapolis, Saskatoon, Rapid City, Edmonton, Missoula, Regina, and Tulsa have long been sites of Indigenous place-making and resistance to settler colonialism. Settler City Limits: Indigenous resurgence and colonial violence in the urban Prairie West frames cities as Indigenous spaces and places and examines how the historical and political conditions of colonialism have shaped urban development in the Canadian Prairies and American Plains.
A new edition of Candace Savage’s Prairie has recently been released. It’s an excellent guide to the biology and ecology of the prairies for everyone who wants to know more about the dazzling natural variety of the prairies. As stated in the book: “Until recently, they were also one of the richest and most magnificent natural grasslands in the world. Today they are among the most altered environments on Earth.” This revised edition features a new preface along with updated research on the effects of climate change on the prairie landscape. Sidebars throughout highlight various grasslands species, tell fascinating natural history and conservation stories, and present Indigenous perspectives about the prairie and its inhabitants.
To conclude with a local biography, Growing Up North by Morris Bradburn is a fascinating account of the author’s experiences growing up in Oxford House, a small community in northern Manitoba. The youngest of seven, Bradburn shares some history of the fur trade, and about his family and childhood. He tells of learning to speak English and later having to go to school in southern Manitoba. He also shares difficult memories about abuse he suffered as a child and his process of healing through faith.
We are looking forward to welcoming you back through our doors on Monday!
-Louis-Philippe
Readers' Salon 