Miriam Green Ellis Archive
Agricultural journalist, feminist, and suffragist, Miriam Green Ellis (1879–1964) liked to align herself with the common folk, straying away from “writers who never leave home except to go to Archives and write over again the things that were done by our grandfathers.” It is perhaps surprising then that Ellis left her archival collection of photo albums, holograph and typewritten manuscripts, an illustrated diary, keepsakes, letters, books, and published newspaper articles to Bruce Peel Special Collections. Ellis’s generous donation presents a unique view of the Canadian West in the early twentieth century by an influential figure who created friendships with notable Edmontonians such as judge and suffragist Emily Murphy, writer Nellie McClung, and aviator Wop May. An exceptional feature of the collection is Ellis’s magic lantern slides (photographs transferred to glass plates and hand painted), many of which were part of a well-documented trip to Aklavik in 1922 and illustrated her “Land of the Midnight Sun” lectures across Canada. The Ellis Archive is explored in an online exhibition which shows how Ellis came to be the truthful and sympathetic voice of farmers in the Canadian West, defiantly driving her trusty car “Finnigan,” and how she left her mark in the male-dominated profession of agricultural journalism.
Collection Formats: 20th Century, Books, Correspondence, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Newspapers, Photographs -- click to see other collections with this format
Ellis with camera, "Out west in the weekly," The Slug editorial supplement, Family Herald and Weekly Star, Oct 1951 (96-91 MGE 11.IV).
Hand-coloured glass slide of a woman making snowshoes (96-91 MGE S1).
Hand-coloured glass slide of a boat maneuvering the rapids (96-91 MGE S1).
Photo from album of the horse patrol at Salt Springs (96-91 MGE 1.III).
"Everybody Talks" from untitled photo album. Left to right: Jack McClung, Nellie McClung, Miriam Green Ellis, and Wop May (96-91 MGE 1.II).