The text on the back of the photo above reads: CANADIAN RED CROSS, NEW BRUNSWICK DIVISION, Work Room in Legislative Assembly Room, Fredericton, N.B. (Shared by permission: Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB): MC2441 – New Brunswick Division, The Canadian Red Cross Society fonds; MS5 – Photographs)
In the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, there are records of the Canadian Red Cross activities during the Second World War. I was directed to these records by Dr. Sarah Glassford, author of Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross, and co-editor with Amy J. Shaw of Making the Best of It: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the Second World War. Sarah has been very helpful in directing me to resources and encouraging my deeper investigation into voluntary textile production by Canadian women and children during the war.
Since I have been invited to present publicly in St. Andrews, New Brunswick this month, I spent a day at the archives in Fredericton to review the records. I had hoped to post these pages on social media but since the actual text is small on some pages of this Red Cross Annual Report, I decided it would be most effective to create this blog post and publish several of these pages in their entirety.
As I research, I am constantly considering the language that was being used to inspire, encourage and show gratitude to the workers, but also how the work was being described or spoken of. I hope you find these as interesting as I do. I welcome comments on IG and the Facebook Group page, Canada’s Forgotten Wartime Quilts.
