Browse Exhibits (2 total)
"I Always Speak to Dogs and Cats": Early Animal Rights Literature for Children
This exhibition examines the intersection between Victorian children’s literature and the emergent animal rights movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Working closely with Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections, we have curated a selection of critical texts in both traditions: Victorian children’s literature and reform writings on the humane treatment of nonhuman animals. We are especially interested in contributions to this literary conversation by Canadian women writers L. M. Montgomery and Marshall Saunders. Therefore, we have devoted a display case to each author and her touchstone works, such as Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon (1923) and Saunders’s Beautiful Joe (1893), which is based on a real dog from Meaford, Ontario. Indeed, the title of this exhibition is taken from a song by the Band of Mercy, an animal rights organization for children that features in Saunders's novel:
I am a Band of Mercy boy, / I would not hurt a fly, / I always speak to dogs and cats, / When'er I pass them by.
Animals figure prominently as educational tools in early children's literature. But we suggest this relationship of instruction may be reversed, with children playing a leading role in reshaping our attitudes toward—and treatment of—nonhuman animals.
This exhibition features works from the Children’s Literature Collection and the Edith and Lorne Pierce Collection of Canadiana, held at W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections, Queen’s University Library.
This project was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant.
Little Wanderers: A Literary History of the British Home Children in Canada
Between 1869 and 1948 as many as 118,000 children came to Canada under a British program of child migration. Many of these “Home Children” journeyed to Canada from the UK in search of a better life, far from poverty and discrimination in the old world. But why was migration viewed as a reasonable solution to urban poverty in the first place, and why was Canada the selected destination for these displaced youth? This special exhibit, “Little Wanderers,” seeks to answer these questions by surveying influential literature from the period. The exhibit features texts by prominent social reformers documenting the dire situation of the working-class and poor people in the Victorian city. It also includes nineteenth-century education and adventure fiction for children—works that often celebrate colonialism as a means to self-reform and social belonging. Literature by late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century Canadian authors also represents the colony as a place for discovery and growth. “Little Wanderers” concludes with a selection of texts specifically depicting the experiences and reception of the Home Children in Canada, including the legacy of these young migrants in their adoptive country.
Curated by Dr. Brooke Cameron, Associate Professor of English, and Alicia Alves, PhD Candidate in English. Special thanks to Kim Bell, Jacques Talbot, and Debbie Jardine in W.D. Jordan Special Collections.
This project was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Counsel of Canada Insight Development Grant.
Featured Exhibit
"I Always Speak to Dogs and Cats": Early Animal Rights Literature for Children
This exhibition examines the intersection between Victorian children’s literature and the emergent animal rights movement in the 19th and early...