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History of the Maritime Provinces

This page can help you find known primary sources on various topics in the history of the maritime provinces.

Acadian History

Black History

Coal Mining

Comish, Shaun. The Westray Tragedy: A Miner's Story. Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood, 1993.
* MSVU call number TN 806 C22 N835 1993. Written by a survivor of the Westray Mine disaster. 

Halifax Explosion

Russell, Benjamin. 1932. Autobiography of Benjamin Russell. Halifax, N.S.: Royal Print & Litho.
* Available at several Novanet libraries.

Armstrong, John G. "Letters from Halifax: Reliving the Halifax Explosion through the Eyes of My Grandfather, a Sailor in the Royal Canadian Navy."  Northern Mariner / Le Marin Du Nord 8, no. 4 (10, 1998): 55-74.

Kitz, Janet. "The Halifax Explosion, December 6, 1917." Canadian Oral History Association Journal 12, (01, 1992): 6-11. Excerpts from interviews with survivors.

Richardson, Evelyn. "The Halifax explosion, 1917." Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly 7, no. 4 (1977): 305-330.
MSVU Print Journal stacks.

Public Life

Fergusson, Charles Bruce, ed. The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz. Halifax, N.S. Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1965.
MSVU call number: F 1039.5 L86 G33.

Adolphus Gaetz (1804-1873) was a merchant in the town of Lunenburg who held many important public offices. The diary covers the years 1855 to 1873.

Davies, Richard, ed. The Letters of Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.
MSVU call number: PR 4735 H25 Z54 1988.
Haliburton (1796-1865) was a judge in Nova Scotia and an M.P. in England who achieved fame as the author of The Clockmaker  and the character of  Sam Slick of Slicksville.

Rose, Clifford. Four Years With the Demon Rum  1925-1929: The Autobiography and Diary of Temperance Inspector Clifford Rose. Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis Press, 1980.
MSVU call number: HV 5091 C2 R67.
Rose was the temperance inspector of the town of New Glasgow.

Religion and Education

The Life and Journals of the Rev. Henry Alline.    Hantsport N.S. : Lancelot Press, 1982.  Several Novanet locations.


Henry Alline (1748 - 1784) was a clergyman and the founder of a sect which later became the Free Christian Baptists.

Whiteley, Marilyn ed. The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle - Working for the Best. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press,  1999.
MSVU call number: HQ 1455 T87 A3 1999
Annie Tuttle (1839-1934) was a teacher in Nova Scotia and later the matron of a Methodist home for Chinese women in Victoria, B.C.

Mi'kmaw History

Military Life

Webster, John. Acadia at the End of the Seventeenth Century: Letters, Journals and Memoirs of Joseph Robineau De Villebon, Commandant  in Acadia, 1690-1700. Saint John N.B.: New Brunswick Museum, 1934. MSVU call number: F 1038 W38

Journals and Letters of Colonel Charles Lawrence - being a day by day account of the founding of Lunenburg ... Halifax, N.S.: Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1972. MSVU call number: F 1038 L39 1972

Women's History

Clinch, Sarah. The Diary of Sarah Clinch - A Spirited Socialite in Victorian Nova Scotia. ed. M. Hallett. Halifax N.S.: Nimbus, 2001.
MSVU call number F 1038 C58 A3 2001

Collins, Louisa. The 1815 Diary of a Nova Scotia Farm Girl - Louisa Collins of Colin Grove, Dartmouth. Ed. Dale McClare. Dartmouth, N.S.: Brook House Press, 1997.
MSVU call number F1039.5 D3 C66 1997.

Conrad, Margaret, Toni Ann Laidlaw, and Donna E. Smyth. No Place Like Home: Diaries and Letters of Nova Scotia Women, 1771-1938. Halifax, N.S.: Formac, 1988.
MSVU call number:  HQ 1459 N7 N66 1988.
An important collection of texts of diaries and letters.

Stanley, Della. A Victorian Lady's Album: Kate Shannon's Halifax & Boston Diary of 1892. Halifax N.S.: Formac, 1994.
MSVU call number: F 1039.5 H17 S48 1993.

Loyalist Women

Loyalist Women in New Brunswick 1783-1827 features the letters and other primary documents relating to Loyalist women, including three generations of women in the family of Edward and Mary Winslow, who settled in New Brunswick in 1785. The Winslow Papers are housed at UNB.

Canadian War Brides

The Stories section of the Canadian War Brides website includes the first-person accounts of European women who married Canadian servicemen during the World War II era. Use of information on this website is subject to a copyright disclaimer.

Jarratt, Melynda. War Brides : The Stories of the Women Who Left Everything Behind to Follow the Men They Loved. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009.

Other Links

World War I

Tennyson, B. D. and Percy Willmot . Percy Willmot : A Cape Bretoner at War, 1914-1919. Sydney, N.S.: Cape Breton University Press, 2007.
A soldier's letters to his sister written from 1914 to 1918.
MSVU call number

Tennyson, Brian Douglas. ""Wild Bill" Livingstone Goes to War: A Diary and Letters 1916-19." Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society 12, (2009): 119-144.
Livingstone was a Cape Breton native serving in World War I.
MSVU call number F 1036 N932 Vol. 12.

World War II

Scott, Ruth. Keeping the Home Fires Burning : A Story of Fredericton in World War II. Fredericton, N.B.: The Author, 1996.
Available at Saint Mary's (Call number: FC 2496.26 S36 A3 1996)

Day, Frances Martin et al.  Women Overseas : Memoirs of the Canadian Red Cross Corps (Overseas Detachment). Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 1998.
MSVU call number: D 807 C2 W65 1998.
Thirty-one women tell of their work with the Canadian Red Cross Corps during World War II and the Korean War.

Other Topics

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