Library Lectures: Ann Shteir – Morrin Center

Join us for a Library Lectures event in honour of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec’s 200^th anniversary! Ann Shteir will present a talk titled “Women and Botany in 19^th-Century Canada.” Learn more and register HERE.

Celebrating Historical Research and Historical Researchers: Women and Botany in 19^th-Century Canada. An Illustrated Talk

Papers in the Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec from the 1820s and 1830s are historical documents by individuals in early 19^th-century Canada who were searching for knowledge about nature in a “new land” and who also wanted to “excite in the rising generation a taste for scientific knowledge and pursuits.” Two women were among the researchers: Christian Ramsay (Countess Dalhousie), who contributed a “Catalogue of Canadian Plants collected in 1827,” and Harriet Sheppard (“Mrs. Sheppard”), who wrote about shells and Canadian songbirds in Quebec and had a keen interest in plants.

This talk celebrates women who pursued knowledge of nature, especially knowledge about plants, in 19^th-century Canada. It features Lady Dalhousie and Anne Mary Perceval in Quebec, Catharine Parr Traill and Alice Hollingworth in Ontario, and Mary Brenton in Newfoundland. Who were they? How did they come to know about plants? What were their contributions? What did their work mean to them? How do we find them? And where do we find material by them and about them?

Presenter Biography

Ann Shteir is a Professor Emerita in the School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at York University. In 2016, she received an Honorary Law degree from York University for her work in developing the university’s pioneering graduate program in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies.

The event will be hybrid.

Please sign up to attend this event in person or online.