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In the 1970s and early 1980s Dalhousie Cultural Activities referred to the department responsible for operating the Dalhousie Arts Centre and the university program of arts related activities it oversaw.

Senate Standing Committee on Cultural Activities

The department originated from a Senate Standing Committee on Cultural Activities created in 1964 to coordinate arts events on campus. The committee worked with three arts advisory sub-committees (one each for music, art, and theatre) and was Dalhousie’s first coordinated approach to cultural activity planning on campus. In addition to organizing specific events such as concert series, exhibitions, and workshops, the committee pressured senior administration to build a university centre for the arts which would house teaching and office space, an auditorium, a theatre, and a gallery.

General Committee on Cultural Activities

The Senate dissolved the committee two years later in favour of creating a formal university committee with a similar mandate. In 1966 President Hicks selected the members of the new General Committee on Cultural Activities which would be directly responsible to him. This committee continued to work with subcommittees who were allocated their own budgets and who were responsible for programming in specific areas: art, music, and theatre (a film subcommittee was also added in 1969). Members of the general committee included the chairmen of the sub-committees, students, alumni, representatives from the theatre and music departments, faculty, and other members from the community.

In addition to developing and overseeing a well-rounded, university wide, cultural activity program on campus, the general committee was also involved with the development of the Dalhousie Arts Centre. The committee provided input on layout and design, set priorities for completion, and helped determine how the new facility would be managed. The committee played a pivotal role in securing a coordinator for the centre and professional director for the gallery. John Cripton was hired to be the university’s first coordinator of cultural activities while Dr. Earnest Smith was appointed director of the gallery.

Dalhousie Cultural Activities

The committee evolved again with the opening of the Arts Centre in 1970. Both administrators were given seats on the general committee as ex-officio members and the department now became known collectively as Dalhousie Cultural Activities. Still responsible for providing a rounded cultural program, the general committee now also determined the policies of the Dalhousie Arts Centre and oversaw the activities of the coordinator. The new coordinator was responsible to the general committee and for administering the arts centre with the teaching programs in mind; cooperating with similar organizations in the community; preparing activity programs for the approval of the general committee; negotiating bookings for visiting performers; managing the daily activities of the centre and its staff; preparing budgets for committee approval; and publishing event calendars.

Although an executive committee was formed in 1976 to help manage the affairs of the centre, the committee structure began to break down by the 1980s. Many of the sub-committees, the general committee, and the executive committee were meeting rarely and lacked enthusiasm, in part due to severe budget cuts and the growing complexity of operating the department. As a result, in 1984 the general committee was dissolved and the coordinator of cultural activities became directly responsible for the Arts Centre, liaising with the Art Gallery and other departments, and reporting to the vice president, finance and development.

Dalhousie Arts Centre

In 1985 Dalhousie Cultural Activities formally changed its name to the Dalhousie Arts Centre. As of 2006, the department continues to be responsible for the administration of the arts centre and remains one of four autonomous departments (the others being the Art Gallery, and the music and theatre departments) within the facility, responsible for managing the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium and three reception rooms. Thirty-five years after opening, the centre maintains a vibrant arts program for the university and greater Halifax community.

Chief Officers

Known chairmen of the General Committee of Cultural Activities include C.B. Weld (ca. 1966-1968), Malcolm Ross (ca. 1969-1971), George Nicholls (ca. 1972-1974), Rowland Smith (ca. 1975-1976), and Sonia Jones (ca. 1976-1980).

Coordinators of the Arts Centre include John Cripton (1970-1973), Erik Perth (1973-1984), John Wilkes (1984-1987), Murray Farr (1987-1988), Robert Reinholdt (1988-1989), and Heather McGean (200?).

Vincent Christopher MacDonald was born in 1897 in Mulgrave, Nova Scotia, to Archibald and Clara MacDonald. He was educated at Dalhousie University where he received a BA (1930) and LLB (1920). In 1927 MacDonald married his first wife, Emily O’Connor, with whom he had three children, David, Peter, and Paul. After Emily’s death in 1937, MacDonald married Hilda Durney in 1938 and had two more children, Brian Henry and Alan Hugh.

MacDonald worked as a lawyer, educator, and civil servant. Called to the bars of Nova Scotia and Ontario in 1920 and 1927 respectively, he practiced law in both provinces; worked as a law clerk in the Nova Scotia Legislature; was a research assistant to the Royal Commission on Maritime Claims; served as secretary to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1927; and lectured in law at Dalhousie from 1920-1926 and Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto from 1929-1930. In 1930 he returned to Dalhousie to teach law and in 1934 became Dean of the Law School. He also served as Assistant Deputy Minister of Labour of Canada from 1942-1944. He remained at Dalhousie until 1950 when he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. MacDonald worked with numerous boards and commissions throughout his career, and served as an advisor to the Newfoundland government on union with Canada in 1948. He published numerous papers, frequently on topics related to constitutional and labour law, and edited a variety of publications, including the Dominion Law Reports and Canadian Criminal Cases (1924-1934). He also served on the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University and received honorary degrees from St. Francis Xavier, British Columbia, Dalhousie, and Columbia. MacDonald died in 1964.

The Reverend D.B. Blair was born in Strachur on Loch Fyne, Argyleshire, Scotland, to John Blair and Catherine MacGregor. His father was employed as manager of a large sheep farm. Blair received his education at Edinburgh University and was licensed to preach in 1844. Two years later he left Scotland for Barney's River, Pictou County, where he was ordained on 29 October 1846. From 1850-1890 he preached at the Free Church congregation established in Barney's River, which derived from the Garden of Eden, Blue Mountain and Barney's River, and was named "Blair Presbyterian Church" in his honour.

In 1851 he married Mary Sibella of Brolas, Mull, Argyleshire. She died in 1882. They had six children: Anna Margaret, Thomas Chalmers, Laughlan MacLean, John Knox, Ewan Alexander and David Welsh. Blair was considered, in his day, to be the best Gaelic scholar in North America. He died in 1893 and is buried at Laggan, Pictou County.

Norman MacKenzie, better known as Larry, was born in 1894 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. He was educated at Pictou Academy before moving to Saskatchewan at the age of fifteen to farm with his brothers. In 1913 he entered Dalhousie, where he studied for one year before enlisting in the army. From 1914-1918 he served overseas, returning to Dalhousie to graduate with his BA in 1921 and his LLB in 1923. He received his LLM from Harvard University, where he also won a Carnegie fellowship to study international law at Cambridge.

Following two years as legal advisor to the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927 MacKenzie took up a professorial appointment at University of Toronto, where he taught for thirteen years. In 1940 he became president of the University of New Brunswick, and from 1944-1960 he served as president of the University of British Columbia. He was appointed to the Senate from 1966-1969. MacKenzie and his wife, Margaret Thomas (1903–1987), had three children: Bridget, Susan, and Patrick Thomas. He died in 1986.

J.J. (John James) Stewart was a teacher, lawyer, editor, publisher and businessman. He was born 13 May 1844 in East Branch River Philip (Williamsdale), Nova Scotia, son of William Stewart and Sarah Emily Peppard. Educated at his local public school and then at Amherst Academy, Stewart taught and served as headmaster at the Academy until 1870, when he moved to Halifax to study law with Howard Maclean, being called to the bar in 1874.

In 1875 he became one of 88 shareholders of the Morning Herald, Halifax's fledgling Conservative daily. In 1876 he became the paper’s first president and in 1878 its third editor. He left his law practice and in 1883 bought out the majority of shareholders to become the Herald’s first publisher. Following this success, Stewart branched out into banking, rising to the presidency of the Acadia Loan Corporation and the People's Bank of Halifax.

Stewart was a member of the Masons, the Navy League, the Good Templars and the YMCA, but his primary commitments were to the North British Society and the Nova Scotia Historical Society. He was an ardent British imperialist, Canadian nationalist and supporter of Confederation. He devoted much time to the province's Conservative Party and made two unsuccessful bids for election to the provincial assembly.

Stewart died as the result of burns suffered during a fire in his home. His widow, Catherine Olivia MacKay, whom he'd married in 1880, donated his collection of 3,200 books to Dalhousie University Library.

The Nova Scotian Institute of Science was founded in 1862 as a direct descendant of the Halifax Mechanics’ Institute (1831–1860) and the Halifax Literary and Scientific Society (1839–1862). It is one of the oldest learned societies in Canada. The Institute was incorporated by an act of the Nova Scotia Legislature in 1890, the Revised Statutes of Nova Scotia in 1967, and received its first grant from the Legislature in 1867.

The Institute provides a meeting place for scientists and those interested in science and publishes The Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. The Institute's library was established in 1864 and is now housed in the Killam Library at Dalhousie University. It holds a number of periodical titles not available elsewhere in Canada.

Journalist and poet Kenneth Leslie was born in 1892 to businessman Robert Jamieson and Bertha (Starratt) Leslie in Pictou, Nova Scotia. He was raised and educated in Halifax, where he attended the Arnold School (a one-room private school), and Alexandra School. At age fourteen he entered Dalhousie University and received his BA in 1912. This was followed by one year of study at the Colgate Theological Seminary, an MA at the University of Nebraska (1914), and further graduate studies in philosophy and mysticism at Harvard University. Throughout this time, Leslie developed an appreciation of poetry, socialism and mysticism that would dominate his later life.

On his return to Halifax, Leslie married Elizabeth Moir, daughter of Halifax businessman James Moir. They had four children: Kathleen, Gloria, Rosaleen and Kenneth Alexander (later Alexander Moir). With James Moir’s support, Leslie experimented with a number of unsuccessful business ventures including farming and investment. During this time he also joined an informal Halifax literary group called the Song Fishermen.

Leslie moved to New York City where he experimented with preaching, broadcasting, composing music and acting. He continued to write poetry and was published in The Song Fishermens’ Song Sheet as well as Literary Digest and Scribner’s Magazine. In 1934 he published his first book of poetry, Windward Rock, which coincided with the end of his marriage. Between 1936–1938 Leslie published three more poetry books, including By Stubborn Stars and Other Poems, which won the 1938 Governor General’s Award. He also founded the religious and politically-minded magazine Protestant Digest (later called The Protestant) with his second wife, Marjorie Finlay Hewitt, and the assistance of three Nova Scotians—Ralph (Kelly) Morton, Sanford Archibald and Gerald Richardson. In 1943 Leslie established the Textbook Commission to eliminate anti-Semitic statements in American textbooks, and in 1944 he published an anti-fascist comic book called The Challenger. As publisher and editor of The Protestant, Leslie corresponded with many prominent American political and social figures and became a popular public speaker.

During the late 1940s Leslie's reputation as anti-Catholic and pro-communist began to grow; there were staff problems at The Protestant; and his marriage to Marjorie ended. In 1949 Leslie and his third wife, Cathy, returned to Halifax when Leslie and The Protestant drew criticism from Senator McCarthy for un-American activity. Leslie’s third marriage dissolved shortly after his return to Nova Scotia. He continued to publish The Protestant and successor periodicals from Nova Scotia on a smaller scale until 1972 when his health declined. He also worked sporadically as a taxi driver and teacher while continuing to write and publish poetry. In the early 1960s he married his fourth wife, Nora Steenerson. Kenneth Leslie died in Halifax in 1974.

Murdock Maxwell MacOdrum was born in 1901 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He graduated with his BA from Dalhousie University in 1923, then went to McGill, where he wrote his Master's thesis on the survival of English and Scottish popular ballads in Nova Scotia. In 1925 he participated in a teacher’s exchange to Glasgow, where he received his DPhil. He continued his studies at Harvard and was later appointed lecturer at the University of Kings College, Dalhousie, and at Queen’s University. In 1935 he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where he ministered for four years.

In 1944, after a stint at the Dominion Coal and Steel Company in Sydney, MacOdrum moved to Ottawa to sell war bonds. He was recruited by Carleton College's founder and president, Henry Marshall Tory, to be his executive assistant and eventual successor. MacOdrum became the college's president in 1947, and within a few years had successfully lobbied the Ontario government to award the college a charter and degree-granting powers. He died in 1955.

John Rutherford was born in Shincliffe, England. He emigrated to Albion Mines in Pictou County and served as Inspector of Mines for Nova Scotia from 1865-1872, when he was appointed General Manager and Mining Engineer for the General Mining Association, later the Halifax Company. He had extensive dealings with Albion Mines, Blight Area, Caledonia Coal Mines, and the Style Mining Area. Beginning in the late 1890s, Rutherford sold Styles Mining Company options; his goal was to sell the entirety of the property to a worthy buyer.

Robert Rutherford was John’s only surviving son (George Rutherford died in 1903), and was left in charge of his father's estate in 1913. He continued his father's efforts to sell off the Cumberland Coal Areas until at least 1932.

Launched in 1978 by Bob Atkinson, John Bell, and Alain Chabot as an outgrowth of the Dalhousie University School of Library Service's Halycon I, the Halcon Science Fiction Society was a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Atlantic Canada region. The Society held yearly conferences in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the 1970s-1980s.

After laying dormant for a number of years, it was revived in 2010 and renamed Hal-Con. The convention is now being held at the World Trade and Convention Centre and Scotiabank Centre in downtown Halifax. Notable Guests of Honour and Toastmasters included A.E. Van Vogt, Spider and Jeanne Robinson, Robert Sheckley, Gordon R. Dickson, Galad Elfandsson and Ben Bova.

Dalhousie's School of Nursing was opened in 1949 in response to the need for post-graduate education for hospital-trained registered nurses as well as nurse educators and administrators across the Maritimes. A Red Cross-sponsored course in public health nursing for graduate nurses was initiated in 1920 (after the Halifax Explosion), but applicants and university support had waned by the middle of the decade. However, the Registered Nurses Association of Nova Scotia (RNANS) persisted in their attempts to persuade Dalhousie to establish a nursing program. They gained the support of the Dean of Medicine, H.C. Grant, and in 1946 the Senate endorsed the plan, but it wasn't until the federal health grant program came into being in 1948 that Dalhousie agreed to provide a course leading to a BSc in nursing in coordination with the hospitals, which would continue to provide clinical training.

Initially the school offered an entry level nursing degree, postgraduate certificates in public health, and nursing education and administration programs for nurses holding a diploma from a hospital-based program. In 1961 the School of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy were both folded into the new Faculty of Health Sciences. In response to a Royal Commission on Health Services in the early sixties, the School developed an Outpost Nursing program, designed to train nurses to work in remote areas, primarily in northern Canadian Aboriginal communities where they were no resident physicians.

A Masters program was established in the mid-seventies as diploma programs were beginning to be phased out and the program began a restructuring process. Currently the School offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN), a Masters of Nursing (MN), a Masters of Science in Nursing (MScN) and a Doctor of Nursing (PhD). Students can receive their degree at either the Halifax or Yarmouth site. The School has also teamed up with the Nunavut Arctic College, allowing residents of Nunavut to enrol in a BScN and receive their degree from Dal.

Eliza Ritchie was a professor, activist and community leader. Born in Halifax in 1856, she graduated from Dalhousie in 1887 with a Bachelor of Letters, and in 1889 was one of the first Canadian women to earn a PhD, from Cornell University, New York. After further studies in Leipzig and Oxford, she taught school in New England from 1890-1900. Ritchie returned to Dalhousie in 1901 to teach philosophy and in 1919 became the first woman to sit on the Board of Governors. She was a founding member of The Dalhousie Review and an occasional contributor. President of the Dalhousie Alumnae Association since 1911, and always an advocate for female students, she was a driving force behind the building of Sherriff Hall in 1922. In 1986 a women's residence was named in her honour. Eliza Ritchie died in Halifax in 1933.

In 2018 Eliza Ritchie was named one of 52 Dalhousie Originals, a list of individuals identified as having made a significant impact on the university and the broader community since Dalhousie's inception in 1818. https://www.dal.ca/about-dal/dalhousie-originals/eliza-ritchie.html

The Atlantic Federation of Students was formed in January 1975, as a union of students from 12 Atlantic universities and colleges. Internal and external conflicts led to its disbanding. Student councils in Newfoundland and New Brunswick withdrew from the Federation in 1978. On November 9, 1978, student representatives from 11 Nova Scotia post-secondary institutions met in Halifax to found a provincial organization to replace the AFS.

The AFS had links with the National Union of Students (NUS), which emerged in 1972 from the previous Canadian Union of Students (CUS), formed in the late 1920s. It also had ties to other Canadian student organizations, such as the Ontario Federation of Students (OFS) and L'Association Nationale des Etudiants du Quebec.

N. & M. SMITH LIMITED

Nathaniel and Martin Smith were brothers, originally from Yankeetown, Hammonds Plains, Halifax County. Descendants of British Empire Loyalists from Maryland, they moved to Halifax, Nathaniel around 1865 and Martin following in 1870, to attend to growing business interests, establishing a branch cooperage and forming N. & M. Smith Limited.

Martin Smith died in 1889 at age 54. In 1904 the section of the Halifax waterfront with N. & M. Smith wharves and buildings – Lower Water Street between Sackville and Prince Streets – was completely destroyed by fire. This property was rebuilt, and N. & M. Smith Limited returned to it in 1905; however, in the interim they purchased and used a property on Upper Water Street known as Cronan Wharf, which was later leased and subsequently sold.

The original business of a cooperage expanded to the export of salted fish and the import of fishery salt. N. & M. Smith underwent voluntary liquidation in about 1915; Martin Smith’s widow and two sons Howard H. and Albert Martin (“Bert”) retained the premises. A.M. Smith Company Limited was formed in 1917, and in 1920 the company became incorporated and known as A.M. Smith and Company Limited.

A.M. SMITH AND COMPANY

Howard H. Smith died in the early 1920s and his interest in the company was acquired by his brother, Albert Martin Smith. Albert Martin’s sons Albert Martin Smith, Jr. (“Ad”) and Fletcher S. Smith entered the company business after graduating from Dalhousie University in 1929, the third generation of brothers to do so. Upon declaration of war, A.M. Smith, Jr., a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, entered active service and spent eighteen months on a Canadian destroyer before being transferred to Halifax as a Staff Officer in the Executive Branch, with the rank of Commander. A. Martin Smith, son of “Ad,” was also in the business for a year or so, before leaving to establish his own law practice. Ad Smith died in 1970.

Under the management of Ad Smith and Fletcher S. Smith, the company embraced three main departments – Export, Import, and Domestic. The Smiths were the largest exporters of dry and picked salted fish products in the Maritime Provinces, benefiting from the science of the Atlantic Fisheries Experimental Station which adjoined the plant. Smith’s specialized in pickled mackerel and herring, which was sold in national and international markets.

The Import Department dealt in Fishery Salt, of which A.M. Smith and Company was the largest importer in Eastern Canada, bringing in cargo lots from world production centers. The Domestic Department was responsible for the creation of the “Sea-Nymph” brand of boneless codfish, and later kippered herring, which put bulk salt fish back on grocer’s shelves. The “Sea-Nymph” brand was packed by Smith Canneries, associates of A.M. Smith and Company.

By 1970, A.M. Smith and Company was almost wholly dependent on Newfoundland for supplies such as salted cod. Subsequently, when the Federal Salt Fish Act (Bill C175) was passed, and resulted in the creation of a state-owned company with a complete monopoly over all phases of the cured fish business, A.M. Smith and Company became redundant. The government refused to compensate redundant firms, and thus A.M. Smith and Company Limited were obliged to discontinue their waterfront business, and their property was sold on November 15, 1973. Fletcher S. Smith died in 1987.

The area formerly occupied by A.M. Smith and Company is now part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on Lower Water Street, Halifax, NS.

ACADIA FISHERIES

Acadia Fisheries had a plant at Mulgrave, Nova Scotia, where it was for a time the largest employer in the area, with over 400 people on staff. The company purchased the Old Loggie Fish Plant in 1952, and used it as a base for the harvesting and processing of fish. The plant burned to the ground in the 1970s and was not rebuilt. The company was associated with A.M. Smith and Co.

SMITH CANNERIES

Smith Canneries existed with virtually the same shareholders and directorate as A.M. Smith and Company, but with canning operations principally confined to Prince Edward Island. Fish for the plant was caught off the coast of Prince Edward Island, and subsequently packed under the “Sea-Nymph” brand, which included herring, salt herring, Dutch-style herring, mackerel, codfish, boneless salt cod, and ling. Smith Canneries also has use of the “Sea Nymph 1” dragger, a ship operated by A.M. Smith and Company for the salted and fresh fish trade.

The Ocean Production Enhancement Network (OPEN) was one of fifteen networks of Centres of Excellence funded in 1990 by Industry Science and Technology Canada. Network participants included scientists from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Laval University, Dalhousie University, McGill University, the University of Quebec at Rimouski, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Three of Canada's largest seafood companies also participated in the network: National Sea Products, Clearwater Fine Foods, and Fishery Products International.

The goal of the network's research program was to investigate the processes which control the survival, growth, reproduction, and distribution of fish and shellfish. The research program was primarily focused on two species, the sea scallop (Placopectin magellanicus) and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), which were chosen in consultation with the network's industrial partners. The twenty-nine projects which form the research program involved both laboratory and field studies. OPEN differed from other large scale oceanographic and fisheries research initiatives because it addresses questions of fundamental long-term interest to the fishing industry.

Duncan Chisholm MacDonald was born in River Station, Nova Scotia, on 9 February 1896, the son of John R. and Mary Isabel MacDonald. In 1916, after completing his first year of engineering studies at St. Francis Xavier College, he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, serving as a gunner in the 8th Canadian Siege Battery in England and France from 1916-1918. On his return from the war he attended medical school at Dalhousie University, followed by graduate studies in London, England. After a long career in medicine in small-town Saskatchewan, he retired to Saskatoon, where he was married in 1973 and died in 1976.

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