Eva Irene Herron was born in Toronto in 1890, and married W.B. (Barney) Cooper in 1916. She was in Britain for the duration of her husband’s military service in First World War, and returned with him to Canada after the war. They lived in Lethbridge, Alberta and Regina, Saskatchewan before moving to Winnipeg in 1926 or earlier. They adopted a daughter, Phyllis Mairi Cooper, who was born in Edmonton in 1926. Beginning also in 1926, Barney and Eva Cooper participated in psychical research experiments at the home of Dr. T. Glen Hamilton (1873-1935) and Lillian May Hamilton (1880-1956). The Coopers also held their own séances at their Winnipeg home in late 1931; the majority of purported spirit communicators were also present in the Hamilton experiments. The group’s participants were Eva Cooper, Barney Cooper (referred to as Victor in the proceedings), Eva's mother Catharine Herron (d. 1936), Wilfrid Ernest (Bill) Hobbs (1887-1982), and, occasionally, their young daughter, Phyllis Cooper. The Coopers continued to attend the Hamilton sittings until about 1933, after which they moved to Toronto for employment. Eva worked as a sales clerk and later manager of the china department at Birks. The Coopers maintained ties with the Hamilton family, periodically meeting Dr. Hamilton’s daughter, Margaret Hamilton Bach (1909-1986). After moving to Markham, Ontario to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren, Eva died there in 1976.

William (Bill) Shead is a member of the Peguis First Nation. A graduate of Dalhousie and the Canadian Forces Staff College, he served as a naval officer in the Regular and Reserve Forces of the Canadian Navy from 1956 to 1992. He held a variety of appointments in several ships. He was seconded to the Public Service Commission of Canada as the Co-ordinator of the Office of Native Employment from 1975 to 1977. Bill served as the Regional Director General for the Prairie Region of Veterans Affairs Canada from 1986 to 1992. In early 1993, he was seconded to be the Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg. Bill remained CEO until 1996 when he retired from public service. Bill served as Mayor of Selkirk, Manitoba, from 1980 to 1983. Some of his past and current volunteer service includes: Chair, Board of Directors of St. Boniface General Hospital; Vice-president, Me-Dian Credit Union; Secretary-Treasurer, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation; Board Member, Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg; Member of the Executive Board of the North American Indigenous Games 2002; Public Councilor, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba; Chair, Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg board; Vice-Chair, Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development [CAHRD]; Member of the Board of Directors, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and Indspire.

Reverend John Smithurst (b. 1801 - d. 1867) was appointed by the Church Missionary Society of England to its North West America Mission, and was later appointed as company chaplain at the Red River Settlement by the Hudson's Bay Company. He arrived in Rupert's Land in 1839 and served as company chaplain until 1840, when he reverted to serving solely as a missionary of the society. During this time he oversaw the mission extension at the Pas, in northern Manitoba, which was run by Reverend Henry Budd, who, at the time, was catechist and schoolmaster. Budd eventually became the first native minister in North America to be ordained by the Church of England

Alexander Pereima was born on 15 July 1922 in Montréal, Québec. In his early career, he was a ballet dancer and one of the founding members of Les Ballets Québec in the late 1940s. In 1958, he graduated from Sir George Williams University, now Concordia (Montreal), with a B.A. in economics. He and his partner Maurice Legault were long-time members of First Spiritualist Church of Montreal (FSCM), attending many lectures there and at St. James United Church in Montreal, with which there was a lecture exchange; later, they attended Springdale Church in Toronto. They knew a number of prominent Spiritualists, including British medium/SNU minister Mrs. Hilda Martin, and British direct voice medium Leslie Flint and his partner Bram Rogers. Pereima died on 18 March 2009 in Ottawa, Ontario.

Erlendur Haraldsson was born in Iceland in 1931. He studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1955-1956) and the University of Freiburg (1956-1958), later studying psychology at Freiburg (1963-1966) and the University of Munich (1966-1969). In 1969-1970 he spent a year with Dr. J. B. Rhine at his Institute of Parapsychology in Durham, North Carolina, and in 1970-1971, he did an internship in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville where he met Dr. Ian Stevenson, leading to a life-long association and publication of joint papers. From 1971-1973 he worked with Dr. Karlis Osis at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York. He received a doctorate in psychology from the University of Freiburg in 1972, and became a lecturer and assistant professor at the University of Iceland in psychology in 1973; in 1989 he became a full professor, and in 1999, an emeritus professor. His research and publications have covered a wide range of religious and psychological topics, including mediums, reincarnation, and deathbed phenomena. He passed away November 22, 2020.

Archbishop Samuel Pritchard Matheson began seeking support to build a church in 1876 and became the first minister of All Saints' Church, Victoria, Manitoba in 1877. While he was the Canon of St. John's Cathedral, he was also a professor of theology at St. John's College. Matheson was appointed as the 2nd Chancellor of the University of Manitoba in 1908 and was succeeded by John Dafoe in 1934. Between 1905 and 1936, he was the Archbishop of Rupert's Land and Primate of All Canada beginning in 1909.

Patricia Joan Martens was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1952 to Howard and Hazel Weber. Patricia began her career in education, teaching chemistry and mathematics at St. Mary’s Academy in Winnipeg from 1973 to 1978.

Patricia met Gary Martens during their undergraduate degrees at the University of Manitoba in the early seventies. They were married in 1974 and moved to Kleefeld, Manitoba in 1978. Their first son, John, was born the same year. A few years later, they had a daughter, Rebecca. In Kleefeld, Patricia cultivated her interest in breastfeeding. Beginning in 1978, she led the local chapter of La Leche League, a nonprofit organization that supports breastfeeding. She obtained her IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) designation in 1987, and re-certified every five years.

Patricia received her Masters degree in Community Health Sciences from the University of Manitoba on October 20, 1994. Her thesis is entitled Breastfeeding Choice and Duration: A Prospective Study of Women and Infants in Four Southern Manitoba First Nations Communities. In it, she concludes that “[i]ntervention at a community level could target breastfeeding confidence, referent support, and beliefs. Intervention by health care providers may decrease early weaning due to preventable problems” (p. ii).

She received her Ph.D five years later, also from the University of Manitoba. Her dissertation is entitled Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Breastfeeding Promotion Community Strategy in Sagkeeng First Nation. She concludes by writing, “[b]ut most important of all, it [a breastfeeding promotion strategy] requires commitment, especially by the women of the community, as they make the journey from forgotten traditions to remembered, shared experiences” (p. 263).

Patricia began work at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy in January 1999 as a research associate. The Centre is a research unit in the University of Manitoba, partially funded by the Province of Manitoba to publish a certain number of health policy-related reports each year. The Centre is concerned with the health of Manitobans and strives to answer the question, "What makes people healthy?"

Originally succeeding the Centre's Director Noralou Roos in the position of Acting Director in June 2004, she was made Director and Senior Researcher of the Centre in June 2005, a position she held for ten years. Concurrently, she held the position of Associate Professor, and later full Professor, in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.

She was integral in forming The Need to Know Team, a collaboration between the RHAs (Regional Health Authorities), Manitoba Health, and researchers at the Centre. The Need to Know Team was originally funded by a CIHR (Canadian Institute of Health Research) grant, from 2001-2006. Patricia was a vibrant speaker and during her time at the Centre, she traveled extensively to speak on deliverables (reports published by the Centre) and other health-related topics.

Patricia is the author of over 300 publications. A partial list of her publications is available. She is also very well decorated, as she is recognized as a leader in her field. Among her awards are the 2005 CIHR Knowledge Translation Award for Regional Impact, the 2010 Manitoba YM/YWCA Woman of Distinction for Health & Wellness, the Order of Canada (2013), the 2013 R.D. Defries Award, the 2014 Justice Emmett Hall Laureate Award, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013.

In 2013, Patricia was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Patricia passed away on January 10, 2015. She will be remembered for her generous spirit, her way of cultivating a strong sense of community, and turning dry topics into stimulating discussions.

Simone Georgette Florentine Etsell La Rocque (nee Chauviere) was born in Paris in 1900 and raised in Winnipeg. She was married to Winnipeg physician and surgeon Dr. Edward Etsell until his death in 1958. She was later married to Emile La Rocque until his death in 1981.
She acted with Le Cercle Molière Theatre Company, sang with the Winnipeg Light Opera productions at the Walker Theatre and taught voice.
Simone was a member of Le Rendez-Vous Francais and the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg. She was president of the Fédération de Femmes Canadiennes Francaise au Manitoba (1932-34 & 1958-61), president of L’Alliance Francaise (1958-61). Life member and former vice-president of the Winnipeg Council of Women. She was the Canadian Delegate to the International Council of Women’s Conference in Istanbul, Turkey (1960). As well she was a member of the Women’s Auxillary of the CNIB from 1933 onwards.
Simone died in Winnipeg on August 27, 1986.

Faye Settler was born on December 13, 1916 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Growing up, she lived in Southey, Saskatchewan, Plum Coulee and Teulon, Manitoba, but moved back to Winnipeg with her family in 1928. Settler completed her formal education at St. John’s Technical High School. She married Bert Settler in 1938. In 1948, Faye Settler and her mother Maggie Brownstone opened a small antique store named the Curiosity Shop in their neighbourhood. By the mid-1950s they moved the Curiosity Shop to 313 Smith Street in downtown Winnipeg. The Upstairs Gallery opened in 1966 as an extension of the Curiosity Shop and exhibited the work of the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. Shortly after its opening, the Upstairs Gallery introduced a regular schedule of exhibitions by both local and national contemporary artists. In 1967, the Curiosity Shop became a Charter Member of the Canadian Antique Dealers Association, and in 1971, Upstairs Gallery was invited to join the Professional Art Dealers Association of Canada (now the Art Dealers Association of Canada.) As a result of the success and growth of both the Upstairs Gallery and the Curiosity Shop, Settler relocated to a larger space at 266 Edmonton Street. Stemming from Faye Settler’s interest in Inuit art, the Upstairs Gallery became well-known for its Inuit sculpture and tapestry exhibitions and Settler’s unique and personal relationship with Baker Lake artists. In 2001, Faye Settler made a gift to the Winnipeg Art Gallery of the Faye and Bert Settler Inuit Collection. In 2003, Settler received the Manitoba Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the Art Dealers Association of Canada Award for Lifetime Achievement. Faye Settler passed away on January 21, 2004. The Upstairs Gallery closed on March 1, 2005.

Lovern Kindzierski is a Winnipeg-based illustrator, artist, author, and colourist recognized by the Comic Buyer’s Guide as one of the comics industry's most influential colourists of all time. A graduate of both Red River College and the University of Manitoba, he worked as both a courtroom sketch artist and an animator with the Children’s Television Workshop at CBC. He then worked as an assistant to animator Richard Condie and comic book artist George Freeman before starting the colouring and inking studio Digital Chameleon in Winnipeg in 1991. Digital Chameleon pioneered the use of Adobe Photoshop within the comic book industry and won several awards before closing its doors in 2003.

Kindzierski has regularly given workshops throughout Canada and Europe and has taught a course on graphic narrative at the University of Manitoba. He has won Eisner and Harvey awards throughout his career, as well as a Wizard Fan award, and has produced work for every major comic book publisher. As an author his work on Tarzan, published by Dark Horse Comics, earned him a nomination for Best Writer at the 1997 Harvey Awards.

Susan MacWilliam was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1969, and is an artist, film-maker, and lecturer in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. In 2009, she represented Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale. She works primarily with video, photography and installation, and explores themes surrounding paranormal and supersensory phenomena, and the history of parapsychology and psychical research.

Christopher John Abbott is a Canadian artist, experimenter and medium who has been pursuing spirit breath photography since 2010.

Christine Kesara Dennett is a California-based artist who works with parapsychologists and other investigators of supernatural and paranormal phenomena to create artistic renderings and illustrations of this phenomena. She has been active in this area since 1986, and has also consulted with numerous researchers on books, documentaries and television shows.

William John Hills immigrated to Canada sometime in the 1890s from the United Kingdom. Hills was considered to be a ‘home child’ who along with many other were sent to Canada between 1869 to the late 1930s during the child emigration movement. Hills ran away from his labour-based placement and was adopted by the Speer family. Hills married Betsey (née Jones) Hills in 1906. The Hills and Jones family were friends with Joe Keeper, a Canadian marathon athlete in the 1912 Olympics.

Some members of the Hills family worked for the Norway House Indian Residential School, located in Rossville, Manitoba. William Hills and his son, Arthur Edward Hills, born in 1909, worked at the Norway House school while Betsey’s brother, Joseph Jones, began as a teacher in 1914. Betsey taught sewing at the school while William worked as a custodian. William also created a garden to grow fresh vegetables for the children and the staff members. Joseph later became a Reverend and the principal of the Norway House school from 1944 to 1946. During William’s employment at the school, he took various photographs as an amateur photographer. He died in 1961.

Norway House Indian Residential School was a boarding school for Aboriginal children built in 1899, managed by the Methodist Missionary Society of Canada. The school began with three staff members and 56 students in its first year. The original building was destroyed by a fire on February 26, 1913. After the new building was built, the school reopened on October 15, 1915, able to accommodate 80 students. The school was operated by the United Church in 1925. Norway House reopened again in 1954 after another fire that destroyed the building on May 29, 1946. The Indian Affairs Department officially closed Norway House as an Indian Residential School on June 30, 1967. The building was then converted into classroom space for the Day School Programme for children living in the area.

Mary Valentine was born in Ottawa, Ontario on May 6, 1931. Her interest and aptitude for art began in her early years and she attended a variety of art classes, including studying with Ernest Fosberry. She attended the (short lived) Fine Arts Program at McGill University, graduating in 1952. While at McGill she had noted Canadian artists John Fox, Arthur Lismer and John Lyman as teachers.

After her graduation Mary married Barry Valentine (1927-2009), a theology student who would become a clergy member of the Anglican Church. They first lived mainly in the Montreal area, with Mary working first as an art teacher and later at the Bell Telephone Company creating advertising images for the Yellow Pages. With the arrival of her first child in 1954 Mary took a step back from her art, concentrating on raising her four children (John, Leslie, Guy and Michael) and supporting her husband's career. With her husband's election as Bishop of Rupert's Land the family moved to Winnipeg in 1969, where Mary would continue to live. Mary would go on to work in the library and teach Art appreciation at St. Johns Ravenscourt School after receiving her Manitoba teacher certification.

With Mary's 1978 separation from her husband she made the foray back into the art world, with her first show in 1979 at the University of Manitoba. As she neared 50 years old she made the decision to stop teaching and concentrate full time on painting, making a living solely from her art from that point onwards. Mary painted both landscapes and people, creating some notable portraits, such as that of the late Senator Gildas Molgot which is held at the Speaker's Portrait Gallery in Ottawa, as well as a portrait of Captain George Blagdon Westcott which is held in Allhallows Museum in Devon, England. She gained inspiration for her paintings from her travels, particularly her travels to Canada's north. Beginning in 1980 she travelled throughout the Artic, including a trip to Alert on Ellesmere Island at the invitation of Governor General Ed Schreyer. She travelled extensively throughout Nunavut (then Northwest Territories), but also spent time in Alaska, BC, Greenland and Newfoundland. In 1987-1988 Mary took an extended trip around the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and Europe, while later years took her to Greece and Turkey. The people and the places of her travels are reflected in her paintings.

Mary's work was showcased in exhibitions throughout Canada and the United States at galleries such as the Buhler Gallery (Winnipeg), the Monkland Gallery (Montreal), the Mira
Godard Gallery (Calgary and Toronto) and the Plains Art Museum (Moorehead, Minnesota). Mary also held an annual show at her personal studio in Winnipeg. Her work continues to
be held in corporate, private and public collections, such as that of St. Paul's College at the University of Manitoba. Mary passed away February 21, 2016.

In 1915, the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba began appointing a senior stick and a lady stick. The faculty chose two students, one male and one female, out of the incoming senior class for the honour of being senior stick. The senior stick would act as the head of the arts student body and represent it in its dealings with the faculty. It is believed that the title "Senior Stick" originated out of the custom of presenting each appointee with a cane. In 1975, the faculty dropped the title of "Lady Stick" and instead allowed women to run for senior stick. Faculty of Arts students continue to elect a senior stick.

George Swinton was born in Vienna, Austria on April 17, 1917. He studied Economics and Political Science in Vienna from 1936 to 1938 before coming to Canada in 1939. He served five years with the Canadian Intelligence Corps in the Canadian Army, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1944. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at McGill in 1946 and took courses at the Montreal School of Art and Design from 1946 to 1947 and the Art Students' League of New York from 1949 to 1950.
Swinton was the Curator of the Saskatoon Art Centre from 1947 to 1949. He was an instructor at Smith College from 1950 to 1953 and Artist-in-Residence at Queen's University from 1953 to 1954. That fall, he joined the faculty of the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, a position that he held for twenty years. From 1974 to 1981, he was a professor of Canadian Studies at Carleton University. His final academic position was an adjunct professorship in the Department of Art History at Carleton University from 1981 to 1985.

Swinton had many interests outside of academia. He was the art critic for the Winnipeg Tribune from 1954 to 1958. He hosted the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series Art in Action from 1959 to 1962. Swinton illustrated a book of poems by Thomas Saunders titled Red River of the North & Other Poems of Manitoba, in 1969. He was the recipient of many honours, including the Centennial Medal in 1967, Member of the Order of Canada in 1979, Professor Emeritus from Carleton University in 1986, and an L.L.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1987.

He was a reknowned authority on Inuit art and the author of numerous articles on the subject. His own art hangs in the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He wrote four books: What is Good Design? with Donald Buchanan (National Industrial Design Council, Ottawa, 1964), Eskimo/Sculpture/Esquimade (McClelland & Stewart, 1965), Sculpture of the Eskimo(McClelland & Stewart, the New York Graphic Society and Christopher Hurst of London, 1972), andAlmost Poems (self-published, 2001). A revised edition of his third book was retitled Sculpture of the Inuit (McClelland & Stewart, 1992). He died in Winnipeg on April 22, 2002.

Donald Dunklee was born in New York City on October 5, 1907. He obtained a diploma from Ecole Des Beaux Arts, Fountainbleau, France in 1932. He was an Instructor at New York University in the School of Architecture from 1938-1940. Upon receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from New York University in 1940, he became an Instructor in the Department of Household Art, New York State College at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. From 1941-1945 he served with 1635th Engineer Construction Battalion in the U.S. Army. Following his discharge he worked in the Store Planning Division of Raymond Loewy & Associates, New York from 1945-1947 & in the Store Planning Division of the Amos Parrish Corp. New York, 1947-1948. In 148 he moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba to become an Assistant Professor of Interior Design at the University of Manitoba. A position he held until his death in 1972.

Frederick Samuel Zaplitny was born at Oak Brae, Manitoba in 1913 and raised in Dauphin. He operated an insurance and real estate agency in Dauphin and served as President of the Dauphin Chamber of Commerce. He was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) party in 1945, 1953, and again in 1957. He was defeated in the federal elections of 1949, 1958 and 1962. Zaplitny served with the Canadian delegation to the United Nations in New York in 1957. He passed away on 19 March, 1964.

Jill Wade was born in 1942 and raised in St. Boniface, Manitoba. She taught British Columbia history in the university program at the Open Learning Agency in Burnaby and published Houses For All: The Struggle for Social Housing in Vancouver, 1919-1950 (UBC Press, 1994).

Henry Gerald Wade was born in 1875 in Port Hope, Ontario. He grew up on a farm and attended school at Bishop Ridley College. In 1910, he moved to Winnipeg where his uncle, Harry Willson, had established the Willson Stationery Company. He remained with Willson's until his retirement in 1947. Wade became an officer of the newly re-organized Winnipeg chapter of the Charles Dickens Fellowship and began collecting books and lecturing. He was one of the more ardent Dickensians to become a charter member of the Pickwick Club. Eventually, Wade's literary interests expanded to encompass Canadian writers, several of whom became personal friends. His library included a notable collection of autographed editions and letters from such prominent writers in the 1920s and 1930s as Bliss Carmen, William Arthur Deacon, Frederick Philip Grove, Hopkins Moorhouse, Charles G.D. Roberts, and Robert Stead.

Dr. James Nickels received a B.A. at the Occidental College in Los Angeles (California) in 1953. In 1955, he obtained an M.A. from the University of Missouri, where he worked as a Psychometrist from 1954-1955. He further worked as an Instructor at the same University as he worked on his Ph.D., completed in 1959. From 1959-1961, he acted as First Lieutenant and Research Psychologist in the United States Air Force, working in the Human Engineering Laboratory in New York. Moving to Nevada in 1961, Dr. Nickels worked at the University of Nevada for the next six years, where he held positions as Assistant Professor, Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, and also served as Acting Director of the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Call Center. In 1967, he moved to Winnipeg to work at the University of Manitoba, where he remained until his retirement in 2009. During his time at the University of Manitoba, he occupied many positions in the Department of Psychology, including: Professor, Coordinator of Clinical Training, Acting Head and Acting Undergraduate Associate Head. He was also a Professor and Director for the Psychological Services Centre, and a Professor and Project Chair for the Center for Settlement Studies. Throughout his career, Dr. Nickels has published many works related to human values and life meaning, life satisfaction, quality of life, stress and coping, illusion of control, control and prediction of life events, human choice, time orientation and suicidology.

Martin Platz was born and lived in Winnipeg prior to the Second World War, graduating from Daniel McIntyre Collegiate. He played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and was on the team when they won the 1939 Grey Cup. He also played for the Regina Roughriders. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two. He was held as a Prisoner of War after his plane was shot down over Cologne in July 1941 until the end of the war. He was in several German POW camps, including Stalag Luft III. Upon his return home he was employed as a radio broadcaster.

Richard Pennefather was a member of the British Army.
He was the brother of John Pennefather, and uncle to John Pyne Pennefather.

Hugo Carl Wilhelm Hummel was born in Weimar, Germany in 1862. He was born into a relatively successful family; his father was the famous German landscape painter Carl Hummel, and his grandfather was Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a piano virtuoso and composer who was personally mentored by Mozart. In his early life, Wilhelm displayed an aptitude for languages and chemistry. In February of 1888, at the age of 26, he was drafted into the Imperial Army as an infantryman. This would be his first introduction to international travel. It was sometime in 1890 that Hummel traveled to England, where he met Max Engelbert Adolph Holzapfel (b.1861). In 1881, Holzapfel, his brother Albert and a man named Charles Petrie founded Holzapfel Ltd., a company which produced marine anti-fouling coating. Wilhelm Hummel became their international correspondent later on in 1890. He also enrolled at Durham College, where he studied chemistry.

The element which gave the Holzapfel Company’s product its signature red pigment and anti-fouling property was called cinnabar, the mineral from which mercury is extracted. As the company grew, their demand for cinnabar did as well. Hummel frequently traveled to Turkey and Spain which, during the 19th and 20th centuries, had the most significant known deposits of cinnabar in the world. Ultimately, the demand began to exceed the output of the Turkish and Spanish mines, and so Hummel continued to travel to other locales such as Russia, Persia, North Africa and other parts of the Mediterranean in an attempt to source more mercury. It is these travels which are captured in his collection of photography, memorializing his visits to iconic locations such as the pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon, the Blue Mosque and many others. He was a man who clearly aimed to make the most of his unique opportunity to travel so extensively, and wanted to be able to share his experiences with others. Ongoing health concerns forced Hummel into early retirement, and he passed away in 1933 at his home in Florence, Italy.

John Philip Crabb was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Herbert Philip and Doreen Crabb (née Simons) around 1930. A businessman, Crabb married Donna Jean Barker with whom he had three children. He retired from business at the age of 34 to become an art collector. As part of this move, Crabb took on a personal project for Canada’s upcoming 1967 centennial. He sought to collect a print of each woodcut designed by artist Walter J. Phillips. In his search for these prints, Crabb also accumulated etchings, watercolours, engravings and ephemera related to the artist. His collection became the centerpiece for a 1970 exhibit celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Crabb was further successful in showcasing Phillips’ artwork in galleries across North America, consequently increasing the demand for and value of his pieces.

While works by Phillips feature more prominently in his collection, Crabb was also a collector of other artists’ work, including those of Herbert Valentine Fanshaw and Clarence Tillenius As a supporter of the arts, he further donated a studio and centre to the Winnipeg Sketch Club in 1969. In later years, Crabb also donated many works by Phillips to the Assiniboine Park Pavilion Gallery, which is now considered to hold the most extensive collection of the artist’s works.

Frances Russell was born in Winnipeg in 1941. She graduated from the University of Manitoba with a B.A. in 1962. She is a political journalist and author. She was a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press and is the author of two books, Mistehay Sakahegan: The Great Lake, a historical "biography" of Lake Winnipeg which won her the 2000 Manitoba Historical Society's Margaret McWilliams Award for popular history, and The Canadian Crucible: Manitoba's Role in Canada's Great Divide, an examination of how French-English relations in the "Keystone" province affected the course of Canadian history. It received the 2003 Manitoba Historical Society's Margaret McWilliams Award for popular history.

Her career as a journalist and columnist spans nearly 50 years. From 1981 to 1999, she wrote a tri-weekly column on national and political politics for the Winnipeg Free Press. Prior to this, she worked as a reporter and columnist with the Winnipeg Tribune, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe & Mail and United Press International in Ottawa. During this time she also provided occasional columns and commentary for CBC-TV, CBC Radio, CBC Newsworld, The Ottawa Journal, The Edmonton Journal, The Toronto Star, Canadian Forum Magazine and Time Canada Magazine.

William T. Metzger is a pastor, spiritualist, and editor of "Spiritual Press" in Peterborough, Ontario. He worked in medical doctors' offices and in hospitals as a spiritual healer. William Metzger has collected material sent to him by William B. Payne (1915-1977), a writer, artist-cartoonist, and channeler, who under hypnosis through "automatic writing, drawing" communicated with spiritual world. This material was first published in the "Spiritual Press" (1975-76) and "Journal of Automatic Writing" (1974). William Payne died in 1977, and after his death, William T. Metzger published material in the book called "Winds of Doctrine: Pictures & News from Spirit" (1989) and dedicated this book to William B. Payne. The material was donated to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections in 2007.