Ruth Holmes Whitehead ONS (10 October 1947 – 29 August 2023) was a Canadian historian, ethnologist, and museum curator at the Nova Scotia Museum.
Ruth Holmes Whitehead | |
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| Born | 10 October 1947 Charleston, South Carolina, United States |
| Died | 29 August 2023 (aged 75) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
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Biography
editRuth Holmes Whitehead was born on 10 October 1947 in Charleston, South Carolina, to parents Ruth Holmes Humphreys Everett and Hobart Ray Everett.[1][2] She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, graduating with a degree in Spanish. She moved to Canada in 1968 before returning to Charleston to continue her education, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Charleston.[1]
Whitehead moved to Nova Scotia in 1972, where she took a position with the Nova Scotia Museum. She worked there until her retirement in 2003, following which she was named Curator Emeritus and remained as a research associate until 2019.[1] Across her career, she wrote or co-authored 18 books, and contributed articles to a variety of magazines and academic journals.[1] Her book Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities won the Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing in 2014.[3]
In 1995, Whitehead was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by St. Francis Xavier University. She was inducted as a member of the Order of Nova Scotia in 2014.[4][5]
Whitehead died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 29 August 2023. Her funeral took place at the Halifax Shambhala Centre on 1 September.[1]
Publications
edit- Whitehead, Ruth Holmes (1980). Elitekey: Micmac Material Culture from 1600 A.D. to the Present. Halifax, N.S.: Nova Scotia Museum. ISBN 978-0-9196-8013-5.
- — (1982). Micmac Quillwork: Micmac Indian Techniques of Porcupine Quill Decoration, 1600–1950. Halifax, N.S.: Nova Scotia Museum. ISBN 978-0-9196-8022-7.[6][7][8]
- —; McGee, Harold Franklin (1983). The Micmac: How Their Ancestors Lived Five Hundred Years Ago. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9208-5221-7.
- — (1988). Stories from the Six Worlds: Micmac Legends. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 0-9210-5406-8.[9][10][11]
- — (1989). Six Micmac Stories. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 0-9196-8035-6.[12]
- — (1991). The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Mi'kmaw History, 1500–1950. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 0-9210-5483-1.[13]
- — (2002). Tracking Doctor Lonecloud: Showman to Legend Keeper. Fredericton, N.B.: Goose Lane Editions. ISBN 978-0-8649-2356-1.[14][15][16]
- —; Robertson, Carmelita (2003). Life of Boston King. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5510-9451-9.
- — (2013). Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7710-8016-3.[17][18][19][20][21]
- — (2015). Niniskamijinaqik: The Mi'kmaq in Art and Photography. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7710-8263-1.[22]
- — (2020). Nova Scotia and the Great Influenza Pandemic, 1918–1920. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7710-8915-9.[23]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 "Tribute to Ruth Whitehead". The Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa. 31 August 2023. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ "Ruth Holmes Everett Whitehead". The Chronicle Herald. 1 September 2023. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026 – via Remembering.ca.
- ↑ Baldassi, Julie (22 May 2014). "Atlantic Book Award winners announced". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ "Walter Borden, Wanda Thomas Bernard among five people named to Order of Nova Scotia". The Chronicle Herald. 4 November 2014. Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
- ↑ "2014 Order of Nova Scotia Recipients Announced" (News release). Premier of Nova Scotia. 4 November 2014. Archived from the original on 21 September 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
- ↑ McGee, Harold F. (1 January 1984). "Whitehead, "Micmac Quillwork" (Book Review)". Canadian Ethnic Studies. 16 (3): 163. ProQuest 1817720.
- ↑ Harry, Margaret (30 October 1982). "Micmac quill and quire". Times-Transcript. p. 4. Retrieved 18 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Williams, Eve (November 1982). "Micmac Quillwork". Canadian Review of Materials. Vol. 10, no. 4. Manitoba Library Association. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ Parkhill, Thomas (September 1990). "Stories from the Six Worlds: Micmac Legends Ruth Holmes Whitehead Halifax: Nimbus, 1988. x + 242 p". Studies in Religion. 19 (3). Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion. doi:10.1177/000842989001900321.
- ↑ Hulan, Renee (Spring 1997). "The spirit sings on". Essays on Canadian Writing. No. 61. Toronto: ECW Press. EBSCOhost 9709116196.
- ↑ Kelly, M. T. (15 April 1989). "High forms of literature". The Globe and Mail. p. C18. Retrieved 18 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Kelly, Anne (July 1989). "Six Micmac Stories". Canadian Review of Materials. Vol. 17, no. 4. Manitoba Library Association. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ Pritchard, James (1991). "The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Micmac History, 1500-1950". Canadian Book Review Annual Online. University of Toronto Libraries. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ Methot, Suzanne (November 2002). "Tracking Doctor Lonecloud: From Showman to Legend Keeper". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ Powers, Ann Marie (2008). "Tracking Doctor Lonecloud: Showman to Legend Keeper. By Ruth Holmes Whitehead". Ethnologies. 30 (2). Association Canadienne d'Ethnologie et de Folklore: 282–283. doi:10.7202/019957ar.
- ↑ Parenteau, Bill (March 2005). "Tracking Doctor Lonecloud: Showman to Legend Keeper; Including the Memoir of Jerry Lonecloud". Canadian Historical Review. 86 (1). University of Toronto Press: 167–168. doi:10.1353/can.2005.0083.
- ↑ Burns, Megan Moore (June 2013). "Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Community". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
- ↑ Walker, Barrington (Autumn 2017). "Exhuming the Archive: Black Slavery and Freedom in the Maritimes and Beyond". Acadiensis. 46 (2). University of New Brunswick: 196–204. Retrieved 18 May 2026 – via Érudit.
- ↑ Reid, Mark (February 2014). "Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities". Canada's History. Vol. 94, no. 1. Winnipeg: Canada's National History Society. EBSCOhost 94270474.
- ↑ Grant, John (2017). "Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities". Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society. 20. Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society: 97–98.
- ↑ Snyder, Jennifer K. (January 2015). "Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities". South Carolina Historical Magazine. 116 (1). South Carolina Historical Society: 87–88.
- ↑ Hersey, Linda (3 July 2015). "Book celebrates Mi'kmaq culture". Times-Transcript. p. C4. Retrieved 18 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Woodbury, Richard (2 January 2021). "This N.S. historian spent years researching the Spanish flu. Now she's living in a pandemic". CBC News. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
External links
edit- Ruth Holmes Whitehead at 49th Shelf, Association of Canadian Publishers
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