Dr. Catherine Wilson will speak about reciprocal work bees such as barn raisings and quilting bees at the annual meeting of the Mapleton Historical Society, to be held on May 9 at 7:30pm at the PMD Arena Complex.
The evening will include a chance for discussion on working together in the community, music provided by Dunc Lamont and friends, and refreshments.
Wilson grew up in the Ottawa Valley where her ancestors had first settled in the 18th and 19th centuries. She graduated with an honours degree in history from the University of Guelph, completed her Masters and PhD in history at Queen’s University and researched her thesis at the Institute of Irish Studies in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
A teacher, author, wife and mother of two, she has taught Canadian history and rural history at the University of Guelph since 1989.
Wilson’s particular area of research is pioneer Ontario.
Her first book, A New Lease on Life (1994) about Irish migration to Amherst Island, was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction.
Her second book Tenants in Time (2009) about tenant farming in a society of freeholding pioneers where ownership was revered, has received the Canadian Historical Association’s CLIO Award for Regional History, the Ontario Historical Society’s J.J. Talman Award and the Champlain Society’s Floyd S. Chambers Award in Ontario History.
