Peel’s Prairie Provinces: University of Alberta Library, a Division of Learning Services

Peel 7438

Broderick, Jeanette; Connell, R. S. Scenes of home and abroad: Xmas 1938. S.l.: s.n, 1938.

Physical description: 196 photographs on [124] p. : b&w ; bound in album.; 18 x 30 cm.

Language: English

Photo album. Collection of images of various Saskatchewan locales - such as Beauval, Lac-la-Ronge, and Île-à-la-Crosse - from the 1920s and 1930s. Many of these photographs appear to have been taken in conjunction with the visits of medical teams to Native communities. These groups were working to diagnose and treat cases of tuberculosis - a disease that was extremely prevalent among Saskatchewan Native people during this period. This association is not made explicit in the album's captions, but there are a number of photographs of the Fort Qu'Appelle Sanatorium, and at least two of the individuals identified in the album may be associated with the anti-tuberculosis campaign in Saskatchewan. Dr. R.G. Ferguson - Director of the Fort Qu'Appelle Sanatorium from 1917 to 1948 - was the province's leading tuberculosis researcher and administrator. Dr. Austin Simes, a collaborator of Ferguson, was appointed medical superintendent of the Qu'Appelle Indian Health Unit in 1929.

The R.S. Connell identified on the album’s first page may have worked with both Ferguson and Simes. C. Stuart Houston's biography of Ferguson mentions the significant contribution to the anti-tuberculosis program made by Robert S. Connell and his brother, James. Houston writes that "The story begins in early 1923, when Robert S. Connell was on staff as 'assistant technician, x-ray'… Later, Robert's brother James was also hired… The two Connell brothers had a natural talent for radiography. Robert pioneered the makeshift methods for taking a portable generator and x-ray machine to the File Hills Indian Reserve and to Indian schools for Dr. A.B. Simes." (R.G. Ferguson: Crusader against tuberculosis, Toronto: Hannah Institute, 1991, p. 103.) This generator may be captured in image 27r2. Connell certainly appears to have travelled to many of the communities documented in the album. In 1937 (a year noted in the caption to image 18v1), Simes and Connell “flew to Lac la Ronge and Beauval to survey Indian schools, carrying with them a gasoline-driven generator.” (Houston, p. 98.)