Abstract

"The Hudson's Bay Company and the Creation of Canada's History Society"

Joe Martin, University of Toronto (Jmartin@rotman.utoronto.ca)

In 1994 the Hudson’s Bay Company gifted their archives and artifacts to the people of Manitoba, Canada and for this they received a tax credit of $60 million. Instead of taking the savings [$30 million] into earnings they gave the archives and provided a beautiful new facility to the Province of Manitoba; their artifacts, for which they built a new wing at the Manitoba Museum as well as donating a replica of the HMS Nonsuch their 1670 ship; and they created Canada’s History Society www.canadashistory.ca. This paper analyzes the background to this extraordinary corporate gift. In addition the paper examines the activities of The Society, which continued to publish the Bay’s magazine – the Beaver, since renamed Canada’s History magazine – but went beyond to create the Pierre Berton Award for an individual or group who popularized Canadian history and initiated the Governor General Awards for Teaching History – a magnificent occasion @ Rideau Hall, the Governors General residence in Ottawa where school teachers K to Grade 12 are honoured annually in addition to other historical activities. This is the story or a Corporation giving its multi century history so that it lives on thousands of miles from where it began in 1670.