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Friday, May 25, 2001

Architects' eye on Cambridge
Genealogists converge on campus
Emigration papers come to UW library
Other news, notes and events

Architects' eye on Cambridge

Map by Barry Levely of the environmental studies cartographic unit

An exhibition of work by UW architecture students opens tonight under the title "Architecture in Cambridge: Shaping the City". It will continue at the Cambridge Gallery in the downtown Galt section of Cambridge -- not far from the site that will someday become the architecture school's new home -- through June 30.

A news release from the gallery says the show "explores the richness boldness and inspiring nature of the urban landscape in Cambridge's historical core and celebrates a new partnership between the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and the City of Cambridge with the imminent relocation of the School of Architecture to the banks of the Grand River in the centre of old Galt.

"The unique situation of Cambridge's core has offered many of the School of Architecture's students an opportunity to reflect on the complexities of architecture, urban design and landscape. The intricate and symbiotic relationship of the city to the Grand River is exceptionally rich and offers Cambridge an identity that few North American cities enjoy: a sense of place and memory intricately linked to the architecture and industrial history of the city. The challenges and opportunities grow even greater as contemporary ecological and economic factors come in to play in designing a new future for Cambridge's Galt core.

"From bridges to boathouses to new schools of architecture, or the projecting of a 100 year urban/ecological master plan onto the site, the aim of these students has been to dissect the essence of the core, analyse its complex layers and reconstruct it with rigour and imagination, while doing justice to its strong history and legacy."

It says the exhibit "should be considered the first of many important cultural transactions" between the city and the architecture school. "The quality of the work presented in the exhibit is a testament to Cambridge's heritage and the poetry it inspires among the University of Waterloo's young architects."

An opening reception for the show starts at 7:00 this evening. The gallery is in the Cambridge Public Library building on Queen's Square in the centre of the Galt downtown. It's open Monday to Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closed Sundays during the summer.

Genealogists converge on campus

As many as 500 genealogists are expected to attend the Ontario Genealogical Society annual meeting and 40th anniversary seminar this weekend at UW. Delegates from as far away as England, the United States and western Canada will be staying at the Ron Eydt Village Conference Centre while they attend a series of seminars beginning today and continuing through Sunday.

Wendy Cameron, a visiting fellow at the Northrop Frye Centre, Victoria University at the University of Toronto, will present the J. Richard Houston Memorial Lecture, "The Petworth Immigrants: Seeking Opportunity in Upper Canada" tonight following the opening ceremonies at 7:30 in the Humanities Theatre.

Among those presenting seminars will be some UW researchers:

Marj Kohli (information systems and technology), who will present sessions on Conducting Online Research on Saturday (1:30 p.m.) and Sunday (9:30 a.m.), as well as a session on Immigrant Children on Saturday at 10 a.m.;
Ken McLaughlin (history), addressing The Textile Mills of Hespeler on Saturday at 10 a.m.;
Ron Lambert (sociology), speaking on Our Australian Cousins at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Other seminars will deal with such diverse topics as care and restoration of gravestones, "scrapbooking", religious sectarianism in German Lutheran churches, patterns in water and land transport, and "sin, sex and probate".

Genealogists are invited to take advantage of the research opportunities at libraries at UW, St. Jerome's University and Conrad Grebel College while on campus, and are offered a selection of tours of local historical sites.

Emigration papers come to UW library -- from the UW news bureau

A historical account of the emigration of venturesome English people to Canada in the 19th century has found a home at the UW library. Susan Bellingham, head of special collections, said the UW library's Doris Lewis Rare Book Room has received the family history archives of a major research project entitled "The Petworth Papers".

The official presentation will take place today as part of the opening session of the Ontario Genealogical Society's 40th Annual Seminar.

The papers document the Petworth emigration scheme, which, in the 1830s, saw more than 1,800 people sent out from Sussex, England, to Canada. Centred in Petworth, East Sussex, and established under the auspices of the third Earl of Egremont, the scheme sponsored emigrants to many parts of Upper Canada (Ontario), including the Waterloo area.

Leaving behind a life of hardship and poverty, one of those emigrants, Thomas Adsett, in 1833 described his experience in Waterloo as follows: "My children is in good place: my two girls is in as good places as the world can afford, and they are bringing them up like two young ladies. And my boy is at another place, about three miles from my girls, and he is going to learn to be a tanner and currier, and I think that it is one of the best places in the country. The people is so agreeable here. The people I am now among is Dutch (i.e. Pennsylvania-Dutch) and English, in general. The place is called Waterloo, where I live and my children."

This major research project has been undertaken with researchers working in England and Canada for the last 10 years. They have studied the details of the emigration scheme as well the emigrant families, their reasons for leaving England and their new life in Upper Canada.

The donated collection contains the working papers of the project's researchers, copies of documents relating to the emigrants, and details about many of the families.

The Petworth Emigration Project was sponsored by the Rev. Edward Jackman, himself a descendant of a Petworth family, and the project is supported by the Jackman Foundation. Recently, two books have been published documenting this research: Assisting Emigration to Upper Canada: The Petworth Project, 1832-1837 and English Immigrant Voices: Labourers' Letters from Upper Canada in the 1830s.

"These papers will add substantially to the library's holdings in local and urban history and will complement the papers of emigrants to this area from both Germany and Pennsylvania which are already present in the collection housed in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room," Bellingham says.

Other news, notes and events

I've just learned that UW's Formula SAE car placed ninth (among entries from 123 universities) at this year's SAE competition, held May 16-20 at the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit. A team from Cornell came in first. I'm hoping details will be along soon.

Donna O'Brecht of the department of electrical and computer engineering is about to retire, after some 24 years at UW. The department will hold a reception in her honour this afternoon, from 3 to 5 p.m., in Davis Centre room 1301.

A bus heads off first thing tomorrow for the staff association's first Niagara wine tour of the season (there will be a second, similar tour on June 2).

Tomorrow also brings "The Whole Kit 'n' Kaboodle", a day-long career development seminar covering everything from self-assessment to how to cope with employer interviews. Need a further incentive? There's pizza at lunchtime. The career resource centre in Needles Hall, phone ext. 4047, should have last-minute information.

And Saturday afternoon and evening, the local Bojangles dance studio has recitals in UW's Humanities Theatre (2:00 and 7:00).

Happening off-campus tomorrow is a 40th anniversary reunion at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, not so far from campus on Hazel Street. The event runs from noon to 10 p.m. and is for all former students, teachers and staff, anywhere from the school's opening through to the present. Information, 884-9590.

A recent announcement in the Waterloo Chronicle says that "the Bengali Cultural Group will present an evening of Indian music May 27 [that's Sunday] at 5:30 p.m. at Conrad Grebel College. The event will feature world-famous maestros Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain (sehnai nawaz) and Pandit Subhen Chatterjee (tabla). Tickets for the event are $10. For further information, call Robin Chatterjee at 742-6362."

And . . . a little bird has been spreading the news that Franklin the turtle, beloved of the younger generation, is making a return visit to campus soon. I'm told that Franklin's appearance will be at the UW bookstore, on Tuesday morning, June 12; presumably more information will be coming along soon.

CAR