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Authority record
Corporate body · 1896-

Ashburn Golf and Country Club in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a members-only private club for recreation, began in 1896 under the name Halifax Golf Club. They leased land from the Studley Grounds and rented a house on Le Marchant Street to act as a club house. Officially formed as the Halifax Golf and Country Club in 1922, their first permanent 18-hole golf course was designed by architect Stanley Thompson in 1922 on 142 acre site close to the city. In 1952 the name was changed to Ashburn Golf and Country Club. When a public highway was being built through part of the golf course in 1958, the Club purchased a 600 acre site near Kinsac Lake in Fall River NS. The new course was designed and built by Geoffrey Cornish, a Canadian Golf Hall-of-Fame member, in 1968 and officially opened in 1970. The Club has hosted many provincial and national championships including Crown Life Pro-Am, Cunningham Trophy, Captain’s Cup, the Mixed Lettuce Bowl, the Fall Classic, and Web.com Tours. As of 2024, Ashburn operates 2 golf courses, the “Old Ashburn” and the New.

Corporate body · 1976-1983

The Association of Outdoor Nova Scotians was founded in 1976. Its aims were to distribute information on education, industry and research related to the out of doors; to promote ecology conservation and the wise use of our natural resources, to encourage the exchange of information between regional, national and international groups with similar interests of hiking, camping and other outdoor activities, and to promote awareness of environmental issues. The organization ended in approximately 1983.

Corporate body · 1784-1820

Cape Breton Island was made a separate colony in 1784, due primarily to the lobbying of American Loyalists looking for positions and land. The new colony's first lieutenant-governor was Joseph F.W. Des Barres, who governed with an executive council. The British government did not provide funds for an elected assembly, seeing little value in the island, its only resources being coal and fish, which were plentiful and cheaper elsewhere. Despite serving for only two years, Des Barres was an active governor. He opened coal mines, attracted settlers, and began to build the capital, Sydney. He was dismissed for spending unauthorized money to aid starving settlers. A lack of funds plagued succeeding governors, as the island's post-Loyalist settlers were mainly poor Highland Scots forced off their land by closure. The colony faced a crisis when Richard Gibbons, Jr., a lawyer, began a revolt against the levying of a rum tax, claiming that it was illegal to tax people without representation. However, the British government believed the population was too poor and ill-educated to support an elected assembly and refused to grant one. The inability of the council to raise funds, combined with pressure from the governors of Nova Scotia to have Cape Breton returned to their control, resulted in the colony being re-annexed to Nova Scotia in October 1820.

Lorne White family
Family · 1874-

Ronald Lorne White (b.1928-d.2008), teacher, administrator, and professional singer, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1928 the 12th child of Rev. Captain William Andrew White (b.1874-d.1936) and Izie Dora (White) White Sealy Johnston (b.1890-d.1972). Lorne earned a Bachelor of Education degree in 1952 from Acadia University, then a Master of Physical Education in 1955 and Master of School Administration in 1975 from Dalhousie University. He taught school in Halifax 1952 to 1973 then was Vice Principal of Bloomfield Elementary and Junior High School 1973 until retirement in 1986. He was also Principal Performer on CBC television show “Singalong Jubilee” 1960-1972 and acted in several television and theatre shows 1981-2007. In November 1955 he married fellow Acadia graduate Ann Mary (Hennigar) White (b.1933-d.2018) and had 3 daughters: Holly M., Shelly A. and Rosalie “Lee” J. White. Together with Lorne’s younger sister Yvonne White (b.1930), they performed religious concerts as the White Family Singers, 1980-1991. Lorne’s older sister Portia White (b.1911-d.1968) became internationally famous as a classical singer (opera) in the 1940s and 1950s, overcoming racism towards people of colour. Lorne’s father served overseas in the First World War as chaplain to the No. 2 Construction Battalion, a racially segregated Canadian military unit for people of colour. After the war Rev. Captain William A. White served as pastor of the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in Halifax (known as New Horizons Baptist Church starting in 2018). Lorne White died in Halifax on 14 April 2008 and Mary died 19 November 2018.

Thomas Mower Martin
Person · 1838-1934

Thomas Mower Martin (1838-1934), artist, writer, and educator, was born in 1838 in London, England to Edward H. Martin and Susan Abernethy. He and his wife Emma Nichols (1842-1911) immigrated to Canada in 1862 and eventually settled in Toronto, Ontario where he earned a living as a full-time painter in oils and watercolors. He travelled across Canada from the east to the west coasts and in the United States. He was a founding member of several art schools in Canada and was a member of the Railway Painters. In 1907 he produced a major book, Canada, with text by Wilfred Campbell. He also illustrated J. T. Bealby's book Canada published in 1909. Thomas Mower Martin continued to paint until a few months before his death in 1934 in Toronto, at the age of 95.

Weymouth, Nova Scotia
Corporate body · 1841 -

In 1822 certain inhabitants of Digby Township petitioned Governor Kempt to establish a separate township but no formal steps were taken until 10 April 1841 when a bill constituting the Township of Weymouth became law.-- Townships acquired some powers, such as the administration of poor relief, but most of the control of local affairs was under the Courts of General Sessions of the Peace. Townships were required to keep vital records of settling families, including records of town meetings, cattle marks, land records, and grant descriptions.

Howard Pentelow
Person · 1901-1963

Howard Mitchener Stevenson Pentelow (1901-1963), Halifax Explosion survivor, was born March 18, 1901 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada to William (b.1861) and Maud (Stevenson) Pentelow (b.1871). Howard was a cadet attending the Royal Canadian Naval College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in December 1917. On December 6, 1917 Cadet Pentelow was in the College’s gunroom when the Explosion occurred. He was cut by window glass and blown through a closed door, received wounds to his face and one hand. In 1919 he became a midshipman with the Canadian Navy, then left the military, became an electrical engineer in Chicago, Illinois, United States employed with the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois. He married Naomi Frances Evadne Small (b.1902) in July 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, became a United States citizen in 1933. He died on 26 November 1963 in Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA.

Alexandra Society
Corporate body · 1902-2002

The Alexandra Society was founded in 1902 by a group of at least fifty Anglican women as a Women’s Auxiliary to the University of King’s College in Windsor, NS. These women were primarily not students, and were rather community members invested in the Divinity School at the College as “mothers, wives and sisters of Church of England men.”1 In 1910, the group renamed themselves the Alexandra Society after Queen Alexandra, consort of King Edward VII.2 The society’s foundation as an Anglican group is reflective of the close relationship between the Church and King’s. The College remained a religious institution until 1971, and to this day incorporates many Christian practices into its traditions.3 Though the Alexandra Society was composed of mainly Anglican women, the group began accepting any woman interested in the welfare of King’s soon after their formation.

The Society initially set their membership fee at 25 cents annually, in the hopes of being financially accessible to as many women as possible. Their initial objective was to ask the university to hire an additional Chair of Divinity which would be called the Queen Alexandra Chair. They petitioned the administration with this request in 1903 along with the promise that they would fundraise to supply the Chair’s salary ($1000 annually) for the first five years.4 That is the equivalent of approximately $26000 today.5 Once the society was successful in funding this position, they worked towards other initiatives that they believed would support the College, Church, and greater community.

In 1914, the society became responsible for furnishing the newly constructed women’s residence. After the Windsor campus burned down in the fire of 1920, the society turned their efforts to rebuilding the women’s residence and the Chapel. In the 1930s, once the rebuilding projects were mostly complete, they turned their focus to fundraising for supplies for the women of Alexandra Hall and bursaries for women and Anglican students at King’s. One of their largest fundraising campaigns happened in the early 1960s, as they organized to assist in the funding of the new women’s residence, Alexandra Hall.6 After the Faculty of Theology at King’s was disbanded and amalgamated into the new Atlantic School of Theology (AST) in 1971, the society began fundraising for scholarships for Anglican students there as well. The women of the Alexandra Society primarily fundraised through bake sales, auctions, dances, and other forms of grassroots advocacy.7 As the years went on, the society financially supported Alexandra Hall, the Divinity School, the Library, the Chapel, and scholarship funds.8 It is estimated that they raised well over $500 000 for scholarships and other initiatives.9
It is important to contextualize their volunteer work through the lens of women’s unpaid and often invisible labour, understanding that the group worked behind the scenes to keep the College and its students thriving. The Alexandra Society is part of a tradition of women’s social clubs that sought to better themselves and their communities in an altruistic manner.10 As former Alex Hall resident and Assistant Librarian Patricia Chalmers (BAH ‘80) explains: “[The Alexandra Society members] were working quietly behind the scene providing us with the things we needed.”11 Accounts like this one remind us that though the vast majority of the Alexandra Society members were not alumni of King’s,12 they spent countless hours and weeks and days working to ensure young women would have access to education, and that King’s as an institution would continue.
The Alexandra Society inspired the creation of the Young Alexandra Society, founded in 1989 by a group of women King’s students and dons. The group supported the Alexandra Society and organized an annual ball at the Lord Nelson Hotel to raise money for scholarships.13 After members of the Young Alexandra Society graduated, they were encouraged to join the Alexandra Society, though this was uncommon as the landscape of volunteering changed over the years. Simply put, women had more mobility, opportunities, and access to workplaces than years prior, making volunteer groups like the Alexandra Society an unsustainable thing of the past.14 As Dr. Henry Roper explains: “Charitable organizations are increasingly professionalized and geared to a world of working couples… the Alexandra Society came into being in another world, and its work has helped King’s College to survive and bring a new world of female equality.”15 Roper’s remarks capture the context of the Alexandra Society’s creation, and ultimately their end.
At a meeting in 1998, the Alexandra Society decided that they would plan to disband the society at a final meeting in 2002, so they would be able to celebrate their centennial.16 This final meeting and ceremony was held on May 13, 2002 at the King’s College Chapel. Various members of the King’s and AST community attended to give them an appropriate send-off.17 A new Bible was dedicated to the society in the Chapel, and various mementos and records were on display in the Library. Members of the society planted a forsythia bush in the quad as one of their last acts. Former president Joy Smith explained the decision by stating: “it’s one of the first plants to flower in the spring. It’s such a beautiful, bright flower. It’s always been in bloom when we met here each year.”18 This sentiment shows that though they were sad to be disbanding, the general consensus among society members was that they were content with the legacy they were leaving. The reason we can discuss all of these events in such detail is due to the fantastic
record-keeping of the Alexandra Society. From 1902 to 2002, they kept extensive minutes from every meeting they held. The group also curated several scrapbooks and photo albums that span decades, a task they took so seriously that every year the role of scrapbook “custodian” would fall to a different member to ensure proper documentation.19 Keeping this method of preservation in mind, it is important to understand that this was not just a single collective of women, but many small groups scattered throughout the Maritimes. The Alexandra Society had 29 branches across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island throughout its existence.20 These branches fostered community among themselves and among the people they served. Together, these branches raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the King’s campus and for student welfare. For an entire century, Alexandra Society members came together to safeguard and advocate for the King’s we know today. It is important to remember them, and to understand how our institution has been cared for over the years.

1 Alexandra Society minutes from their first meeting, 17 June 1902, p. 5.
2 Reflected in Chronicle Herald article from 8 May, 2002.
3 This may be best reflected in the community surrounding the Chapel at King’s, https://ukings.ca/campus-community/chapel-choir/.
4 Henry Roper, homily read at the last Alexandra Society meeting, 13 May, 2002, 2.
5 This is an estimation using the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/. Please note that the oldest data available is from 1914.
6 Karl Turner, “Alexandra Soc. bids farewell,” Tidings (Halifax, NS), Summer 2002, p. 21.
7 Reflected in Alexandra Society minutes spanning from 1902 to 2002.
8 Reflected in Alexandra Society minutes from their last meeting, 13 May, 2002.
9 Reflected in Chronicle Herald article from 8 May, 2002.
10Consult Arlene Kaplan Daniels’ Invisible Careers: Women Civic Leaders from the Volunteer World for more information on the role of unpaid women volunteers in Western society.
11 Karl Turner, “Alexandra Soc. bids farewell,” Tidings (Halifax, NS), Summer 2002, p. 21.
12 Reflected in Chronicle Herald article from 8 May, 2002.
13 This information has been preserved through oral history and can also be seen in the King’s College Record.
14 Reflected in Chronicle Herald article from 8 May, 2002.
15 Henry Roper, homily read at the last Alexandra Society meeting, 13 May, 2002, p. 4.
16 Reflected in Chronicle Herald article from 8 May, 2002.
17 Reflected in Alexandra Society minutes from their last meeting, 13 May, 2002.
18 Karl Turner, “Alexandra Soc. bids farewell,” Tidings (Halifax, NS), Summer 2002, p. 21.
19 This is reflected in Alexandra Society minutes from 1990 onwards.
20 Henry Roper, homily read at the last Alexandra Society meeting, 13 May, 2002, p. 2-3.

Corporate body · 1966 - 1997

The Atlantic Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists (A.A.S.A.) began in 1966 when professors of sociology in the region met at St. Francis Xavier University, for a 'Conference of Atlantic Provinces Sociologists'. The main focus was to get to know each other and describe 3 items: 1) Present organization of Sociology in their Department. 2) Research being completed in their Department. 3) Future plans for honors and/or graduate work. By the 1968 meeting at Dalhousie University, the Conference attendees included Anthropologists. A formal association was established in 1977. They met once a year and presented academic research in the fields of anthropology and/or sociology and they were affiliated with the Canadian Sociologists and Anthropologists Association. By 1997 they were no longer registered as an association in Nova Scotia and presumably ceased activities at that time.