An Educator’s Passion
Changing Lenses on the North Bay Normal School (1915-1942)
This exhibition is part of a larger project entitled “Approaching Normal”: A Comparative Historical Study of Canadian Teacher Education Programs (1925 to 1975).
Funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), this four-year endeavor examines the history of teacher education across Canada to discover the genesis of ideas about educating teachers, exploring the similarities and differences between regions and why these might exist.
Composed of a four-person team spanning the country, each member is responsible for a different geographical area:
Dr. Kurt Clausen (Nipissing University) – Ontario and Quebec
Dr. Frances Helyar (Lakehead University) – The Maritimes
Dr. Lynn Lemisko (University of Saskatchewan) – The Prairies
Dr. Helen Raptis (University of Victoria) – The West Coast
In studying the North Bay Normal School as part of the Departmental network throughout Ontario, by happenstance I met with members of the Ricker family who offered their stored material for study and asked if a suitable archive could be found for the collection.
Soon, boxes of photographs, negatives, correspondence, and much more were making their way to North Bay from Toronto and Vancouver Island. This became the core of the present exhibition – a treasure trove that has now been bequeathed to the Nipissing Archives, North Bay Museum and Fowler Herbarium.
Thanks must be given to the two grandsons who have carefully stored this material for so long: Eric Ricker (of Nanaimo), and Harry Smaller (of Toronto).
Thanks must also be given to the many people who helped to complete this exhibition. Without their assistance, this venture would not have reached what was envisioned:
Trent Renette of Faculty and Administrative Support Services at Nipissing University for the tremendous work he put into creating the numerous poster designs for this exhibition.
Marg Foisy Iwanchun of Print Plus at Nipissing University for all her help in creating the final posters in vinyl and Phototex format.
Oriana Pokorny of the Biology and Chemistry Department for her assistance in procuring the loan of the many birds in the exhibition, and for helping set them up and properly identifying them.
Dr. Erin Dokis for her helpful consultation on the taxidermy specimens and on her grandfather who created them.
And, the folks at Photo Metro for helping figure out how a camera from the 1930s works!
While the items in this exhibition fill a room and tell far more than just one person’s story, it must be kept in mind that it does only represent a minute part of the history of education in this country (or even this community).
It is a collection of just one of dozens of principals, hundreds of teacher educators and thousands of teachers in this province. Can you imagine what still remains sitting in descendant’s basements, waiting for the day an archive is found for them? A lifetime of work awaits those who have a passion for preservation…
Kurt Clausen
Professor, Nipissing University