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dcb-dbc.bsky.social
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
@dcb-dbc.bsky.social
520 followers 190 following 79 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.
En francais: @dbc-dcb.bsky.social
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#NewBio! Sir Herbert Meredith Marler (1876–1940), notary, businessman, politician, and diplomat.
In 1936 he was announced as Canadian minister in Washington, D.C. – but the prime minister soon regretted the appointment. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/marle...
An older white man with thinning hair is wearing a suit and tie. He is leaning to one side. The photo seems to have been taken through a window.
December 3, 2025 at 3:09 PM
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It's #GivingTuesday! The @dcb-dbc.bsky.social has been telling Canada's stories for more than 50 years.
Please consider including us in your planned giving. There are different ways to contribute, such as a one-time or monthly gift, or you can Adopt a Biography:
engage.utoronto.ca/site/SPageSe...
A collage of images of some of the subjects of the DCB/DBC’s most-read bios.
December 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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#NewBio! William James Roche (1859–1937) was an MP for #Manitoba from 1896–1917 and served as minister of the interior under Robert Laird Borden. He championed the replacement of the prevailing patronage system with one based on merit. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/roche...
A white man in a dark striped suit and dark tie looks at the camera. He has a bushy moustache and a high forehead.
November 26, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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#NewBio! A Nova Scotia native, Norman McLeod Rogers (1894–1940) overcame serious injuries suffered during #WWI to become an influential scholar, civil servant, and politician. Mackenzie King mused that Rogers might succeed him as prime minister. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/roger...
A white man with a high forehead wears a dark suit and tie. A white man with a high forehead wearing a dark vest, jacket, and tie, sits at a desk. There are papers on the desk's surface and a bookshelf in the background.
November 19, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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#NewBio! John Skirving Ewart (1849–1933), lawyer and author.
He defended Louis Riel after his conviction in 1885 and supported French Catholics during the debates over the Manitoba school question.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ewart...
A white man wearing a dark suit with side lapels and a high collar. He has a bushy moustache.
November 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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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
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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
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#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
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📖 Marjory MacMurchy (Willison) www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macmu...
📖 Edward Odlum www.biographi.ca/en/bio/odlum...
November 5, 2025 at 7:14 PM
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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
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#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
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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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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#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
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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
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#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
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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