In 2003, Morrison edited and contributed to Lake Superior to Rainy Lake: Three Centuries of Fur Trade History and, in 2004, she won the Chronicle-Journal Prize for her contributions to Thunder Bay's heritage. In 2005, she won the Thunder Bay Museum Society's M. Elizabeth Arthur Award for the best scholarly production on the history of Northwestern Ontario. She enjoys living in Thunder Bay where she is married to Ken Morrison. She is proud of her three daughters and four grandchildren.

 

 

Steve Ross, an honours history student, will spend the fall semester studying in Mexico as part of the International Academic Mobility Project (IAM). IAM is a trilateral academic initiative between NAFTA members Canada, United States, and Mexico. 

 

Affiliated universities include Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Universidad del la Americas, Puebla, both in Mexico; Purdue, and Louisiana State Universities in the USA; and Regina, and Lakehead in Canada. Lakehead has been an affiliate university since 2004. Steve will be undertaking his studies in Mexico.

 

The program enables students of the participating universities to stay at least a semester at any of the other participating universities, at no extra cost, while enrolled in courses at the host institution that will be recognized for transferred credits by their home institution. In addition, students are provided with allowances for travel and upkeep. A total of 42 students are expected to participate over the four-year duration of the project, 14 from each member country.

 

Project Director for Lakehead, Dr. Umed Panu, stresses the need for this initiative, stating that, "It is an opportunity for Lakehead students to experience other institutions and cultures and to learn from them at close range."  

Lakehead will benefit from this initiative by increasing the diversity of its student population and sharing the Canadian and Lakehead experience to American and Mexican exchange students. Another benefit is that Lakehead students who participate will have the opportunity to develop into internationally trained professionals, capable of confronting global problems with integrated and interdisciplinary perspectives such as language skills, knowledge of other cultures, and comprehension of the global markets.

25 June 2007 - Thunder Bay

 

 

 

Prof. David Ratz has contributed a new introduction to the recent reprint of George F. Stanley's classic study In the Face of Danger: The History of the Lake Superior Regiment. Originally published in 1960, it remains one of the best unit histories ever written. This timely reprint was commissioned by the veterans of the the Lake Superior Regiment (Motor) who felt strongly that the achievements and sacrifices of those who had served in the regiment during the Second World War should be recorded.

 

Copies of the book can be purchased at local bookstore or directly from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment.

  

Captain David Ratz is the Department of History's military historian. He had published widely on the subject of the military in both Canada and Northwestern Ontario.

 

George F. Stanley (1907-2002) was a historian, author, soldier, teacher, public servant, and involved in the design of the current Canadian flag. A prolific authour, his work includes over twelve well-respected historical monographs dealing with topics ranging from the Canadian West to New France.

 

  

 

 

Professor David Ratz, the Department of History's military historian, is heading to Vimy Ridge in April to take part in the full military funeral of a young First World War soldier his research helped identify. The following article about this trip appeared in the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal on 30 March 2007. 

 

By Sarah Elizabeth-Brown

 

 

Experts in military history, genealogy, DNA and bio-archeology are headed to France for a 22-year-old's funeral.

 

Dr. Carney Matheson and his team of researchers who helped identify the young man, dead some 90 years, are headed to Vimy Ridge to see what else they can learn about Pte. Herbert Peterson.

 

They will also take part in the full military funeral of the young First World War soldier they helped to identify.

 

He is also to be buried April 7 at La Chaudiere Military Cemetery with his name on a headstone, unlike so many soldiers buried simply as "a soldier of the Great War" or with no marker at all.

 

Matheson, an anthropology professor and chief of forensic research at Lakehead University's Paleo-DNA lab, and his team will also meet Peterson's living relatives.

 

Until his remains were identified after several years of painstaking research by historians, genealogists and scientists, Peterson's family had no idea what had happened to the young private, other than he was missing and presumed dead.

 

Researchers believe he died during a night raid on German trenches near Vimy Ridge on Jun 8, 1917, about two months after the famed battle at Vimy.

 

His remains were found accidentally in 2003 by construction workers, along with those of a second Canadian soldier.

 

Matheson, his research team and National Defence historians are close to identifying the second soldier. Matheson will be accompanied to France by David Ratz, a Lakehead University military historian who also serves as a captain with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, bio-archeologist Tal Fisher of LU's archeology department, and Janet Roy, a Thunder Bay resident and co-ordinator of the extensive genealogical research that tracked down Peterson's living relatives so Matheson could make a DNA match with the young private.

 

The groups is rounded out by Andrew Nelson, a bio-archeology professor at the University of Western Ontario in London.

 

The 12-day trip will include further analysis of the artifacts and remains in Peterson's case, and a closer look at where his remains were found.

 

When workers found the soldiers' remains several years ago, Matheson collected DNA samples, and the bones and artifacts themselves remained in France.

 

The team will also be investigating three more cases of missing-in-action soldiers while they're in France, bringing to nine the total of unnamed soldiers Matheson's group is trying to identify.

 

Another of Matheson's projects includes creating a centre in Thunder Bay to connect DNA profiles of unidentified First World War soldiers with those of the living who know they have a soldier in the family tree who has never been located.

 

 

 

The Department of History is proud to announce that Masters' student Nicole Butzke has been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Master's Fellowship. Utilizing material from a wide-range from archives in Central America, her thesis, "Silent Workers: West Indian Women in Costa Rica, 1900-1950," focuses on West Indian women who immigrated to Central America in the early twentieth century and is a comprehensive history of the changing roles of women in an industrial plantation setting.

26 March 2007 - Thunder Bay
From:  The Argus 43:22

 

  

 

The identification of Pte. Herbert Peterson brought much attention to Lakehead University and the researchers leading the task. Thanks to the LU research team, Peterson was the first Unknown Soldier to be identified using a DNA identification process. The second soldier has not yet been identified, but Dr. Carney Matheson and the whole research team hopes for identification soon.

An important thing to keep in mind is that the remains of the soldiers do not come to Canada, but the researchers only receive the DNA and photos of the bones. Ratz explains, "Only the DNA comes to Canada. The bones stay where they are. Up until Afghanistan, it was normal Canadian practice to keep bodies where they were killed, with the exception of Germany where they were buried in Belgium, France, Holland."

Then what is the likely reason why Peterson's remains were there? Ratz explains that it is more likely that the Canadian soldiers' bodies were picked up by the Germans and buried along with German soldiers. Graves were hastily dug because the bodies needed to be removed as soon as possible. Graves were not specific to one individual soldier - a large quickly dug hole would function as a grave for many soldiers, regardless of what side they were fighting for - Canadians would have been buried along with Germans. The bodies needed to be removed from the trenches as soon as possible in order to prevent any spreading of disease that may occur in the trenches, and to keep the small space clear.

A historical analysis evaluates the events that may have lead up to the soldier's death and why the remains were found where they were. Peterson and the unknown second soldier were found entirely accidentally. The construction and digging of a new pipeline uncovered the soldiers' remains. There are likely many other unknown soldiers. Once the remains are found, the researchers work together from all departments - history, anthropology, biology - to identify the soldier.

 

 

Master's student Beverly Soloway's article "In the Shadow if a City: A History of Current River Neighbourhood" appears in this year's edition of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society's well-respected journal, Papers and Records. As the title suggests, it is an examination of one of Port Arthur's original "street car suburbs," chronicling the neighbourhood's history from the first discover of silver in the region in 1865 to the present day.

Beverly Soloway is in her second year of the Master's program. She has a specific interest in Northern Ontario history and is currently engaged in researching the status of Northern Ontario women during the Depression. 

The full citation for the article is:

 

Beverly Soloway, "In the Shadow if a City: A History of Current River Neighbourhood," Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society Papers & Records XXXIV (2006): 51-64.

 

Copies of the 2006 edition of Papers & Records can be purchased from the Thunder Bay Museum located at 425 Donald Street East.