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The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (ASO), Canada's first and only full-time professional regional orchestra, was formed on June 12, 1968. Its predecessors, the New Brunswick Symphony Orchestra and the Halifax Symphony Orchestra, were small volunteer ensembles with limited resources. Demand for a fully professional ensemble and improved facilities -- combined with support from the Canada Council, provincial governments, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) -- led to the decision to jointly support a regional orchestra and the smaller local orchestras were disbanded. Prior to the formation of the ASO, no professional symphony orchestra existed east of Quebec City.

Although based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the ASO served the four Atlantic Provinces, travelling over 20,000 kilometres each thirty-four week season to perform in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. It was supported by five community-based committees: Halifax and Sydney, Saint John, Moncton, and Fredericton. Each committee was responsible for hosting concerts once or twice a season. Hosting included managing ticket sales, fundraising, and local promotion.

The activities of the ASO were governed by the Officers of the Corporation, Board of Directors, Standing Committees, and Local Committees. Full power for the active management and business of the corporation was vested in its Officers, including a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Past Presidents include Dr. J. F. Filbee, Dr. Richard Goldbloom, Rev. Roland Soucie, and Eric T. Wennberg.

The Board of Directors was composed of representatives of the governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, local committee representatives, and at-large members as well as a member of the orchestra and the Executive Director. While the Board was responsible for policy functions, the Executive Director was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the corporation. In recognition of its multi-community character and responsibilities, the Board rotated its annual general meeting among the five key cities. Fundraising was conducted through a separate body known as the Atlantic Symphony Inc., which drew its officers from the interprovincial board.

For the first eleven years, ASO was financially viable, which was attributed to its knowledgeable executives, its renowned conductor, and its concert subscription series. The management group in Halifax operated on a tight budget with a staff of six: an Executive Director (Lionel D. Smith until 1980, then Mark J. Warren), a Musical Director (Klaro M. Mizerit until 1977, followed by Victor Yampolsky), an Orchestra Manager (Leone Wilcox until 1979 when she became Director of Development, succeeded by Loredana Flebbe), an accountant, and two secretaries.

Under Klaro Mizerit (1914-2007), the ASO developed a standard repertoire, including works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky, among others. It also supported Canadian composers by performing more than one hundred Canadian works. Canadian and world premiers included works by Jean Coulthard, Adrian Hoffman, Michael R. Miller, Patric Standford, and by Mizerit himself. In 1968, Mizerit also founded the Atlantic Choir to perform choral works with the symphony and the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra. Under Victor Yampolsky (b.1942), the ASO continued its tradition of performing both traditional and modern (especially Canadian) repertoire, with performances of works by Beethoven, Bach, Handel, as well as Robert Turner, Janis Kalnins, and Roger Matton.

The ASO rehearsed and regularly performed at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in the Dalhousie Arts Centre. It gave subscription, school, and community concerts, which were regularly broadcast on CBC radio and television. In its first year, the orchestra was composed of forty-eight contract players and gave thirty-nine subscription concerts. By 1977, the orchestra had grown to sixty-five players and performed more than one hundred concerts per season. As it became better known, it increasingly attracted nationally and internationally renowned guest artists including Harry Belafonte, Liona Boyd, Maureen Forrester, James Galway, Louis Lortie, Ravi Shankar, Robert Silverman, and William Tritt, as well as conductors such as Raffi Armenian and Vittorio Negri.

By 1979, the operating budget was approximately $1 million, with the Canada Council contributing about a third and the provinces and municipalities providing a further fifteen to twenty percent. The balance of revenues was derived from ticket sales, CBC broadcast income, private and corporate donors, and additional fundraising through women's auxiliary committees. However, in the early 1980s, ASO started running into financial difficulties. A labour dispute in 1979 had suspended operations for twelve weeks, and government cutbacks, high touring costs, and declining corporate support all took their toll. A deficit of $163,300 was recorded in 1981, and in September 1982 the Board of Directors suspended operations, citing a $407,000 deficit. Despite fundraising efforts and a twenty week interim season under the direction of Boris Brott, the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra declared bankruptcy in September 1983. Symphony Nova Scotia, which acquired the ASO's assets, was subsequently formed in Halifax in the same year.

The Atlantic School of Theology (AST) is an ecumenical university based in Halifax, Nova Scotia that provides graduate level theological education. AST was founded in 1971 and formally incorporated on June 28, 1974 through an act of the Nova Scotia Legislature.

Theological education has been provided in Halifax, Nova Scotia since 1878. AST was formed through a merger between the Faculty of Theology, University of King's College (Anglican Church of Canada), Holy Heart Seminary (Roman Catholic Church), and Pine Hill Divinity Hall (United Church of Canada).

The Atlantic Queen Crab Association was formed ca. 1968 to create better marketing and fishery management of the crab fishery. It was in operation until the mid- to late-1980s, but with not much activity since the mid-1970s due to the high market values of crab. Past presidents of the Association included Les. N. Pottie, E.H. Janes, F.J. Frontain, and Emile Gallant.

Some members of the Association included Atlantic Queen Seafood Ltd., Bonavista Cold Storage, Beothic Fish Processors, Connors Brothers Ltd., Eastern Quebec Seafoods Ltd., National Sea Products, H.R. Nickerson and Sons Ltd., Quebec United Fishermen, United Maritime Fishermen, Quinlan Brothers, and Produits Belle-Bois Ltd.

The first major conference hosted by the Atlantic Canadian gay community was Our Atlantic Gay Community: United Against Oppression, from 8 -10 October 1977. Events included workshops, meetings, an Artisan's Expo, dinner and dance at The Turret, and Halifax's first gay march. The conference was jointly organized by GAE and APPLE (Atlantic Provinces Political Lesbians for Equality.)

The following year the city hosted Building Solidarity: The Fight Against Repression, which marked the sixth national conference of the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Rights Coalition.

In 1979 the Atlantic Gay and Lesbian (AGL) Conference theme was Building a Community Spirit. In 1980 the AGL conference theme was Growing. The fourth AGL conference (1982) was held in Fredericton. By 1993 the conference name had changed to the Atlantic Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Conference and the theme that year was We Are Everywhere. The conference had 230 people in attendance.

The Atlantic Institute of Education (AIE) was a short-lived degree-granting body providing graduate studies in education, curriculum research and development, and training for school board directors. It was conceived in 1969 as a cooperative initiative of the four Atlantic provinces to serve as a research and development arm of the education industry. However, Nova Scotia was the only province to enact legislation around it—the Atlantic Institute of Education Act.

The original idea was the brainchild of Nova Scotia premier and education minister Robert Stanfield and, in 1966, on the advice of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU), he commissioned the Fletcher report, which recommended that such an institute be established at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Graduate Studies. Despite the enthusiasm of Stanfield and the Nova Scotia Department of Education, the recommendation was not welcomed by the other provinces, Nova Scotia universities, or even Dalhousie.

Despite this, the institute was chartered in 1970, with a board of directors, an academic council, and offices at 5244 South Street. Joseph Lauwerys was appointed as the first director and Gary Anderson as assistant director. In December 1973 the AIE granted its first degrees. In 1975 W.B. Hamilton took over as director and, in an effort to encourage buy-in from the other provinces, he established representation on the academic council from all the provincial universities. In 1976 the institute joined the Association of Atlantic Universities and received support from a series of Nova Scotia ministers of education.

In August 1982 the new Conservative government withdrew all funding and the AIE was shut down.

The Atlantic Fishing Vessel Association, formerly called the Atlantic Trawler Association, was formed in 1970 to give a voice for the offshore fishing industry in Atlantic Canada. During their operations, the Association promoted improvements in vessel safety, design, equipment, and navigational and fishing aids. Members represented a large majority of the offshore fishing vessels operators in Atlantic Canada and Quebec who were primarily involved in the groundfish, scallops, and herring fisheries.

Some of the former presidents included L.C. Hume, P.P. Russell, B. Blais, J.B. Morrow, D.A McLean, and J.A. Reed. Some members of the Atlantic Fishing Vessel Association included B.C. Packers, Booth Fisheries, Comeau's Sea Foods Ltd., Connors Brothers, H.B. Nickerson, Mersey Seafoods Ltd., National Sea Products, Scotia Trawler Equipment Ltd., Usen Fisheries Ltd., and Swim Brothers.

The Atlantic Fisheries By-Products Association was formed on September 8th, 1942 when ten representatives of the fish liver oil industry in Atlantic Canada decided to create an association "to take an active interest in the promotion, development and protection of the interests of all producers of fish liver oils along the Atlantic seaboard, and to work in close co-operation with the Fats and Oils Administration of the Wartime prices and Trade Board." They also acted as representatives of their members to transportation companies and government committees and officials. The By-Products Association supported the International Association of Fish Meal Manufacturers and was a member of the Fisheries Council of Canada. They also gave financial support in promotion of the use of fishmeal in livestock and poultry feeds.

The Association stopped operations on March 31, 1979 and their remaining interests, marine oil and seals, were taken over by the Nova Scotia Fish Packers Association and the Atlantic Fishing Vessel Association.

Andrew Cunningham was president of the Association for eighteen years. Other presidents included Karl Karlsen, L.C. Hume, W.R. Murdoch, B.J. Comeau, and O. Hjelkrem. Some members of Atlantic Fisheries By-Products Association included Acadia Fisheries Ltd., Booth Fisheries Ltd., Karl Karlsen and Co. Ltd., Lunenburg Sea Products Ltd., National Sea Products Ltd., Quebec United Fishermen, and Whitmoyer Laboratories Inc.

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.

The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is an American association out of the University of Madison-Wisconsin Pharmacy School. The documentation and preservation of pharmacy's heritage is the primary aim of the Institute. They do this by making available a wide variety of materials related to scholarly, professional, and popular history of pharmacy. The Institute provides financial support for research designed to illuminate the history of the profession, the history of drug research and manufacturing, and the history of the uses of medicines in society.

AIHP serves as consultant to professional associations, teachers, libraries, museums, pharmacy schools, communications media, and scholars in the field. The Institute has co-operated with the agencies and associations of American pharmacy to promote professional development by providing historical research, information, and insight on the issues affecting pharmacy both past and present. The Institute sponsors symposia and workshops, often collaborating with groups like the American Pharmaceutical Association and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy to foster research and publishing on ethics, technology, and other issues of importance to the field.

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.