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dcb-dbc.bsky.social
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
@dcb-dbc.bsky.social
510 followers 190 following 74 posts
www.biographi.ca 📖 A bilingual scholarly research & publishing project, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography gives free online access to more than 9,000 biographies, with many more to come.
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Dictionary of Canadian Biography @dcb-dbc.bsky.social · May 13
The @dcb-dbc.bsky.social (@dbc-dcb.bsky.social en français) could not have been happier to collaborate with @nhenrydixon.bsky.social on this work -- we are excited for readers to see the 'behind the scenes' of it all! www.biographi.ca/en/topics/to...
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
When Anna Peel Durie's son Arthur was killed in #WorldWarI, she went to extreme lengths to regain both his body and his legacy, going to France to exhume his body and smuggling it back across the Atlantic for burial in Canada.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peel_...
#RemembranceDay
An older-looking woman dressed in black, wearing a black veil. Around her neck is a large cross and pinned to her neckline is a military medal. A woman in black stands or kneels in a military cemetery near the cross with her son’s name on it. Many other crosses surround her. A plaque in memory of William Arthur Peel Durie. It is bronze in colour with both black and red text. A gravestone - DURIE. The light gray stone features a cross on top with a sword carving featured on it - this is the Cross of Sacrifice.
November 11, 2025 at 2:39 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
Learn about Leonard Cohen’s grandfather, Lyon Cohen (named at birth Yehuda Lieb) (1868-1937), businessman, newspaper publisher, and community leader: www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cohen...
A man in a dark suit and vest, high collar dress shirt, and tie. He has a high forehead and dark hair.
November 7, 2025 at 6:48 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#RemembranceDay William A. White championed the determination of Black men to serve in #WWI, led recruitment efforts for the No.2 Construction Battalion, and was their chaplain and honorary captain.
ow.ly/V1lb50C2WSz / ow.ly/F85S50C2WSA
A Black man wearing a dark suit and patterned tie. He has a small moustache and his hair is slightly greying.
November 6, 2025 at 6:04 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
It is November! Have you read all of our new bios from October?
📖 Maurice Hutton www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hutto...
📖 Herbert Snell www.biographi.ca/en/bio/snell...
📖 Eugene Thornton Kingsley www.biographi.ca/en/bio/kings...
November 5, 2025 at 7:14 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Margaret Gascoigne (1876–1934), educator, school administrator, and musician.
She immigrated to #Montreal in 1913 and opened The Study, a private English-language girls’ school, which developed a reputation for high educational achievement. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gasco...
A white woman with glasses and wearing a striped skirt-and-jacket combo with a fur collar and a cloche-style hat holds a small dog in front of a stone building. The dog's tongue is sticking out.
November 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
As we move towards #RemembranceDay, we highlight the stories of two #WWII air force officers:
Joseph Alfred Jacobson, letter writer, diarist, and air force officer, and
Joseph-Émile-Paul Larichelière, air force officer.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jacob... and www.biographi.ca/en/bio/laric...
A young man in a military uniform. He has dark hair and eyes. A man in a military uniform. He has dark eyes and a dark moustache.
November 4, 2025 at 8:34 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Edward Odlum (1850-1935), militiaman, educator, geologist, ethnologist, businessman, lecturer, politician, and lay preacher.
His legacy is darker than he might have anticipated.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/odlum...
A white man with a long thin face has dark hair and a dark beard and wears academic robes.
October 29, 2025 at 2:02 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#WomensHistoryMonth Kit Coleman (1856–1915) spent most of her 25 years as a journalist walking a creative tightrope between what was considered acceptable behaviour for a woman journalist and what was considered too daring. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/fergu...
A white woman with brown curly hair wearing a dark top looks off-camera to her right, our left.
October 27, 2025 at 7:13 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Marjory Jardine Ramsay MacMurchy (Willison, Lady Willison) (1870–1938), author, journalist, and social reformer.
She was among the most respected Canadian female journalists of the early 20th century. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macmu...
A white woman with dark hair looks off-camera. She is wearing a dark vertically striped dress or top with a shoulder cap sleeves. She has two necklaces or perhaps glasses or a pen on a chain.
October 22, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Dictionary of Canadian Biography
timbousquet.bsky.social
This is big.

‘Daniel Sampson was innocent’: leading lawyers and law organizations in Canada call for executed man to be exonerated
'Daniel Sampson was innocent': leading lawyers and law organizations in Canada call for executed man to be exonerated - Halifax Examiner
My investigation of the Sampson case lays out the incontrovertible truth that Sampson was an innocent man framed by the RCMP, and then murdered by the state.
www.halifaxexaminer.ca
October 9, 2025 at 12:01 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Eugene Thornton Kingsley (d. 1929), farmer, railway worker, socialist, political agitator and organizer, fishmonger, editor, printer, and author.
He was one of the most notable socialist intellectuals of his time in Canada. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/kings...
A bald or shaved-head white man wearing a dark suit and tie.
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#WomensHistoryMonth! We highlight Uttaktuak (d. 1932), Copper Inuit seamstress and artist.
She assisted the Canadian Arctic Expedition between 1915 and 1917. A skilled seamstress, she made winter clothing vital for safety and comfort. 📷 @canmushistory.bsky.social www.biographi.ca/en/bio/uttak...
Two Inuit women in fur-trimmed hoods and parka-type coats that come to their knees. They wear large boots. "Minnie and Iktuktorvik at ‘North Star’ camp near Cape Prince Alfred, Northwest Territories." Canadian Museum of History.
October 14, 2025 at 7:28 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#WomensHistoryMonth Marguerite Lamothe (Thibaudeau) (1853–1939), social reformer and philanthropist, saw opportunities for service as a way of living out a Catholic faith that built bridges across linguistic, religious, and political divides. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lamot...
A woman with white/gray hair wearing a black dress and a looped necklace of pearls. A white woman with dark hair pulled up and back, wearing a scoop-neck dress and a multi-strand pearl choker necklace. The also has pearl-type bead embellishments on the shoulder we can see.
October 10, 2025 at 3:54 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Merchant, politician, and militia and army officer. Assigned to support positions during #WWI due to injury, he was mentioned in dispatches. After his return he was an exec with the Robert Simpson Company. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/snell...
A white man wearing a suit and tie. He has a high forehead.
October 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#WomensHistoryMonth Greta Submit Ogden (1875–1939), artist, professor, and pioneer occupational therapist.
She studied the therapeutic benefits of handicrafts in rehabilitating #WWI veterans and helped others to create beautiful and useful things.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ogden...
A white woman with her hair pulled back, wearing small glasses and a dress with an enormous lace-trimmed collar. Pencil sketch of a side view of a woman with her hair down, wearing glasses.
October 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#WomensHistoryMonth Nora Livingston (1848–1927) was a hospital and nursing school administrator. A leading member of her profession, she worked to see that her school had an enviable reputation across Canada.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/livin...
📷 @museemccordstewart
A woman in a light-coloured outfit and a cap on her light curly hair sits, hands folded. She has a dark cloak or coat over her shoulders.
October 6, 2025 at 6:33 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Maurice Hutton (1856–1940), scholar and educator.
A self-effacing man with immense personal magnetism, Hutton inspired generations of students who became the leaders of a growing country. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hutto...
🎨 Art Museum U of Toronto 📷 U of Toronto Archives
A portrait of a balding white man in academic robes holding a statue of a discus thrower. A bust of Plato is in the corner. The portrait is by James Edward Hervey MacDonald, Mauricius Hutton, 1925, oil on board. 152.4 x 121.28 cm. University College Collection UC302, commissioned from the artist, 1924. Courtesy Art Museum at the University of Toronto. A white man with a mustache wearing a suit and a flat-top academic hat rests his head on one hand and looks toward the camera. From: University of Toronto Archives, University of Toronto Archives & Records Management Services.
October 1, 2025 at 1:05 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Allen Patrick Willie (1928–37), schoolboy, was one of more than 150,000 Indigenous children enrolled in Canada’s residential school program between the late 1880s and 1996. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/willi...
A dirt road leads to a large building with rectangular windows. This is Lejac Indian Residential School, front view, Fraser Lake, August 1941. From Library and Archives Canada.
September 30, 2025 at 6:56 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! Mary Travers, known as La Bolduc (Bolduc), (1894–1941) musician, self-taught singer-songwriter, and actor.
La Bolduc is considered the first singer-songwriter of the chanson québécoise. Her success stemmed from her authenticity. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/trave...
A smiling woman with dark curly hair looks up and off camera to the viewer's left. She is wearing a patterned top and large dangling earrings.
September 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
In 1923 James F. Jenkins founded a newspaper, the Dawn of Tomorrow, and used it to educate a multiracial audience about the experiences of Blacks in North America and around the world. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jenki...
Cheers to @crkn-rcdr.bsky.social who digitized it!! n2t.net/ark:/69429/s...
A Black man in a suit and tie.
September 18, 2025 at 6:06 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
For writer George Bowering, John George Diefenbaker (1895–1979) was the wittiest of all the country’s prime ministers, "and he was the most amazing campaigner anyone would ever see or hear." Diefenbaker was born #OTD 1895. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/diefe...
A white man wearing a suit holds a pen as if he is writing on the paper in front of him. He stares directly into the camera. He has a piercing stare.
September 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! John Penman (1845/46–1931), textile and clothing manufacturer and philanthropist.
He set out to dominate the woollen industry in Canada. The company was best known for its combinations – all-in-one winter underwear for men, women, and children. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/penma...
A white man wearing a dark suit and hat. He looks well put together, and has a small but bushy light-coloured moustache.
September 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
#NewBio! A free Black man who was kidnapped into slavery as a child in the United States, John W. Lindsay eventually fled to Upper Canada, where he made a successful career. In escaping bondage, however, he found he had not escaped prejudice. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/linds...
Text from "The Refugee, or, The narratives of fugitive slaves in Canada" by Benjamin Drew. Boston : J.P. Jewett; Cleveland : Jewett, Proctor and Worthington, 1856. Source: https://archive.org/details/cihm_49469/page/n93/mode/2up
September 12, 2025 at 3:15 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
No #NewBio this week. Today we highlight the stories of Félicité Angers (1845–1924), novelist, biographer, journalist, and playwright, and Robertine Barry (1863–1910), journalist, writer, lecturer, feminist, and office holder. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/anger... / www.biographi.ca/en/bio/barry...
A white woman in a black dress with her hair pulled back stands next to a chair and a draped curtain. A white woman wearing a dark dress with a lighter collar sits smiling by a potted plant. The name 'Francoise' is signed across the bottom right-hand corner of the photo.
September 3, 2025 at 7:36 PM
dcb-dbc.bsky.social
No #NewBio this week. Today we highlight the stories of Emma Lajeunesse, known as Emma Albani (1847–1930), singer, pianist, harpist, and teacher, and Béatrice La Palme (1878–1921), violinist, soprano, and teacher.
Emma Albani. A white woman with curly hair wearing a very fussy top/dress and a fancy feathered (?) hair decoration. A veil can be seen behind her head and neck. A white woman with big dark eyes wears a lace patterned dress/top and a pearl necklace.
August 20, 2025 at 4:06 PM