History students commemorate Canadian war experiences

Vancouver Island University History students will commemorate the Canadian war experience by reading letters from Canadian soldiers at a Remembrance Celebration Monday, Nov. 10 at the Nanaimo campus.

The reception takes place at 2 pm in the Royal Arbutus Room and members of the public are invited to attend.

The letters come from The Canadian Letters & Images Project collection, a unique on-line archive of Canadian war experiences.

 “The objective of the Canadian Letters and Images Project is to let Canadians tell their own story in their own words by creating a permanent on-line archive preserving Canada’s wartime correspondence from the battlefront and from the home front,” said History Professor Stephen Davies who started the project eight years ago.

“Each piece of correspondence is a valuable artifact linking Canadians to their past. When seen in combination with many others, a single letter can help to tell a remarkable story of the unyielding spirit of a country at war.

“We think having students read some of these letters out loud will be a moving and poignant way to commemorate Remembrance Day.”

At Monday’s reception, presentations will also be made to Legion presidents in recognition of their ongoing support of The Canadian Letters & Images Project.

The collection now has over 6,000 donated letters and images available on-line, with another 4,000 in progress of being digitized or being added to the site.

“To date, there is no evidence of this project style being duplicated in Canada or elsewhere,” said Davies.

Davies began the project using the computer program Front Page in August 2000 when digital learning was in its infancy at Vancouver Island University and elsewhere in education.  Much adaptive work took place to make the program do what was envisioned but it never did integrate, search or present the data efficiently. 

Davies collaborated with VIU’s Centre for Digital Humanities Innovation (CDHI) to develop a database using new technology, and again, innovative ways to manipulate the data had to be developed.  Currently, he is creating a teacher-resource database to augment the visual displays with datastreamed materials such as interviews.

Although it was created for students, The Canadian Images and Letters project is now being utilized by researchers, professional historians, and scholars around the world.

Recently, the Canadian War Museum used images in an exhibit that were only available through this project, and the Senior Historian of the museum uses the site for classes at Carelton University. 

Davies regularly champions the need for electronic preservation and dissemination of the archival materials by participating in CBC Radio interviews, appearing on television, giving public talks, or being a guest speaker at various universities.

For more information, contact Davies at 753-3245 ext. 2131 or visit the site at www.canadianletters.ca