Catharine Parr Traill

Catharine Parr Traill

Catharine Parr Traill, Canadian settler and author
Born (1802-01-09)9 January 1802
Died 29 August 1899(1899-08-29) (aged 97)
Occupation Author
Genre Children's and Settler Literature

Catharine Parr Traill (born Strickland; 9 January 1802 – 29 August 1899) was an English-Canadian author and naturalist who wrote about life as a settler in Canada. In the 1830s much of Canada was still unexplored. There were hardly any universities, and scientists were more interested in practical subjects as as agriculture and mining than in theoretical research. Traill is important because she pioneered investigations into Canada's natural history and, through her writing, opened Canada up for English readers.[1]

Biography

Mrs Catharine Parr Traill by William James Topley

She was born Catharine Parr Strickland in Rotherhithe in 1802, sister to authors Agnes Strickland, Jane Margaret Strickland, Susanna Moodie, and Elisabeth Strickland.[2] She was the first of the sisters to commence writing. She began writing children's books in 1818, after the death of her father. Her early work, such as Disobedience, or Mind What Mama Says (1819), and "Happy Because Good", were written for children, and often dwell on the benefits of obedience to one's parents. A prolific author, until her marriage she averaged one book per year. In 1832, she married Lieutenant Thomas Traill, a retired officer of the Napoleonic Wars and a friend of her sister's husband, John Moodie, despite objections from her family (aside from Susanna). Soon after their marriage they left for Upper Canada, settling near Peterborough, where her brother Samuel was a surveyor. Her sister, Mrs. Susanna Moodie, emigrated soon afterwards.

She described her new life in letters and journals, and collected these into The Backwoods of Canada (1836), which continues to be read as an important source of information about early Canada. She describes everyday life in the community, the relationship between Canadians, Americans, and natives, the climate, and local flora and fauna. More observations were included in a novel, Canadian Crusoes (1851). She also collected information concerning the skills necessary for a new settler, published in The Female Emigrant's Guide (1854), later retitled The Canadian Settler's Guide. She wrote "Pearls and Pebbles" and "Cot and Cradle Stories".

After suffering through the depression of 1836, her husband Thomas joined the militia in 1837 to fight against the Upper Canada Rebellion. In 1840, dissatisfied with life in "the backwoods", the Traills and the Moodies both moved to the city of Belleville. While Susanna was more concerned with the differences between rural and urban life, Catharine spent her years in Belleville writing about the natural environment. She often sketched the plant life of Upper Canada, publishing Canadian Wild Flowers (1865), Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885) and "Rambles in the Canadian Forest".

She received a grant c. 1899 from the Royal Bounty Fund, which was supplemented by a subscription from her friends in Canada, headed by Sir Sandford Fleming. She died at her residence, "Westove," in Lakefield, Ontario on 28 August 1899.[3]

Her many albums of plant collections are housed in the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Recognition

Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, named their downtown campus after her. Catharine Parr Traill College is the University's main college for graduate studies.

Commemorative postage stamp

On 8 September 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Library of Canada, Canada Post released a special commemorative series, "The Writers of Canada", with aign by Katalina Kovats, featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. Traill and her sister Susanna Moodie were featured on one of the English-Canadian stamps.[4]

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Catharine Parr Traill.

References

  1. ↑ Patricia., Fara, (2007). Scientists anonymous : great stories of women in science. Thriplow: Icon. ISBN 9781840468403. OCLC 137222064.
  2. ↑ Rosemary Mitchell, ‘Strickland, Agnes (1796–1874)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 26 May 2015
  3. ↑ Morgan, Henry James Types of Canadian women and of women who are or have been connected with Canada : (Toronto, 1903)
  4. ↑ "50th Anniversary of the National Library / Canadian Authors Archived 23 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine.," Canada Post, Web, 28 March 2011.

Further reading

Ainley, Marianne Gosztonyi (1970–80). "Traill, Catharine Parr". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 25. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 78–80. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9. 


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