Ross Fair Speaks on Agricultural Association of Upper Canada
Riverdale Historical Society, Tuesday, October 25, 2022, at 6:30 pm.
Announcements in the History of Canadian Science and Technology.
First posted Friday, October 21, 2022 / Yom shishi, 26 Tishrei, 5783.
by David Orenstein, Emeritus, Danforth CTI, Toronto
david.orenstein@alumni.utoronto.ca
You might remember my post about Robert O’Dell’s virtual talk last month. It was about postal cancellations and hosted at the Zoom account of my local neighbourhood historical society.
Well, the Riverdale Historical Society is doing it again: another Canadian history virtual lecture on the last Tuesday of the month:
Tuesday, October 25, 2022, at 6:30 pm.
This time the speaker will be Ross Fair from Ryerson University in Toronto (aka Toronto Metropolitan University) and he will be speaking to us about Canadian agricultural technology. To wit,
“ ‘Toronto was all bustle and excitement’: The 1852 Agricultural Exhibition and the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada.”
“Another year’s Canadian National Exhibition has come and gone. But when did exhibitions become an annual tradition and who first organized them?
“To answer these questions, the talk will centre on the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada (founded 1846) and its 1852 Provincial Agricultural Exhibition, hosted in Toronto. Susanna Moodie was so impressed by the show that she wrote a chapter about it. But a successful exhibition was just one of the association’s ambitions that year and, at the event, the provincial government made a major announcement that has shaped government support of agriculture in Ontario ever since.”
“Dr. Ross Fair teaches in the Department of History at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). His study of agricultural societies, Improving Upper Canada: Agricultural Leadership and State Formation, 1791-1853, will be published soon. He is currently writing a book on the failed attempts to encourage hemp cultivation in Upper and Lower Canada.”
I was lucky enough to be at our Zoom practice session earlier this week and saw his visuals. They are high-definition electronic copies of the period images from the Toronto Public Library’s Baldwin Room, in the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, near the central intersection of Bloor and Yonge Streets.
But that’s another story!
Links
Riverdale Historical Society Links:
- Riverdale Historical Society.
https://riverdalehistoricalsociety.blogspot.com
- RHS Notice of Ross Fair’s Talk.
https://riverdalehistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-1852-agricultural-exhibition-and.html
- RHS Sign-up to get on mailing list for Zoom link.
https://riverdalehistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/p/contact-rhs.html
Other Links:
1st CSTHA Blog on Robert O’Dell III at RHS.
https://cstha-ahstc.ca/2022/09/16/robert-odell-iii-on-postal-cancellations/
2nd CSTHA Blog on Robert O’Dell III at RHS.
https://cstha-ahstc.ca/2022/09/23/robert-odell-iii-united-empire-loyalist/
Agricultural Association of Upper Canada Agricultural Exhibition Ticket.
Links from Ross Fair: Ross has sent me these links:
The Canadian Journal (proceedings of the Canadian Institute, 1852-3
The Canadian Journal: A Repertory of Industry, Science, and Art; and a … – Google Books (illustration of exhibition grounds)
The Canadian Journal: A Repertory of Industry, Science, and Art; and a … – Google Books (report of exhibition)
The Canadian Agriculturist’s report of the exhibition:
Canadian agriculturist : [i.e. v. 4], no. 10 (O… – p. 289 – Canadiana Online
Chapter 16 “Agricultural Show” in Suzanna Moodie’s Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush
Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush – Google Books
The experimental farm on the U of T campus is identified in this plate of Boulton’s 1858 atlas of Toronto:
WS Boulton: Atlas of the City of Toronto and Vicinity 05.jpeg (2899×4096) (utoronto.ca) (expand and see top right of image)
Bibliography
Ross Fair (in press), Improving Upper Canada: Agricultural Leadership and State Formation, 1791-1853.
Richard Jarrell (2016) Educating the Neglected Majority: The Struggle for Agricultural and Technical Education in Nineteenth-Century Ontario and Quebec.
McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston, xiii + 418 pp., 38 pp. Notes, 29 pp. Biblio., 44 pp. Index.
Agricultural Association of Upper Canada on pp. 19-20, 31, 37, 46, 47, 58, 88, 134, 162.