Thomas Alexander (author) Jeff Papineau (photographer)
Lise Melhorn-Boe (artist) Karin Fodor (photographer)
The Granary of the British Empire: The Western Provinces of Canada: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia
The cover illustration for this brochure depicts a masculine cowboy surveying his domain, lush with crops, new farming equipment, and domestic bliss. Noting that as of 1913, only about 10 million of the 170 million acres of potential wheat land in the West were under cultivation, the brochure encouraged settlers to take advantage of Western Canada’s rich soil and ability to grow “hard” wheat—that is, wheat with a high protein content, excellent for bread. Statistics emphasized increasing farm values, livestock numbers, and grain yields, but “King Wheat,” declared to be “the basis of all civilized existence,” drove the settlement of the Canadian West. As this booklet declares, “the potential wealth of the rich soil of Western Canada has attracted from all quarters of the globe men and women tired of the impoverished surroundings which are the unfortunate complement of many of the populous centres of modern civilization, and anxious, while there is yet time, to secure to themselves and their families a share of the prosperity which the boundless West holds in store for those who seek it.”
Canadian Pacific Railway Company Department of Natural Resources
The Herball, or, Generall Historie of Plantes by John Gerarde
The Iron Man and the Tin Woman by Stephen Leacock
First introduced in the United States in 1897, Jell-O initially struggled to find a market, so in 1904, the company introduced the “Jell-O Girl.” She was based on four-year-old Elizabeth King, the daughter of one of the advertising agency’s artists, and her image appeared in ads, booklets, billboards, and package inserts (Wyman 16–18). This insert belongs to a North American series, in which the Jell-O girl also visits Niagara Falls, Quebec, Ottawa, the Hudson, Mammoth Cave, Lookout Mountain, the Grand Canyon, the Spanish Mission at Capistrano, Catalina Island, Yosemite, and the Pueblo in Taos. On her other travels, the Jell-O girl saw India, China, Romania, Italy and Belgium, among other countries. She was accompanied on her trip to Lake Louise by her mother and her pet parrot, Polly. The card also contains recipes for “Plum Pudding,” “Horseradish Relish,” and “Spanish Jell-O Salad,” made with lemon Jell-O, cabbage, celery, pickle, and pimentos, and served on lettuce with mayonnaise dressing.
The Key to Prosperity in the Bread Basket of the World
The Canadian Northern Railway grew swiftly from its creation in 1899 to its nationalization in 1918. In the same vein as the Grand Trunk’s Bread: Terse Stories of Success, the company published The Key to Prosperity in the Bread Basket of the World. “The Bread Basket of the World” was a common slogan among railway and land development companies promoting the West, evoking the Prairies’ potential for bountiful harvests. This potential was realized when the land was seeded with Red Fife wheat, the first variety to flourish in Canada (Musgrave 146). Marquis wheat, developed in 1909 and exemplifying excellent yield, high-quality milling, and a shorter growing period of under one hundred days, was even more successful; by 1920 it was grown on about nine-tenths of total Prairie wheat acreage (Dexter 265). Intended for an American readership, this brochure proclaims harvests of forty bushels per acre, declaring that “Canada is the only Country that has proved good enough for the American to emigrate to.” The brochure promises that immigrants would find no wild frontier—only civilization—and might hardly realize that they were in a different nation. In addition to social benefits, the booklet noted that the soil and weather were well suited for wheat, oats, barley, speltz (spelt), and peas, as well as grasses and fodders, with enough water for dairy farming. Root vegetables, potatoes, legumes, and small fruits were possible as well.
The Life Story and Trial of Awolowo and 23 others
Chinaka's political pamphlet The Life Story and Trial of Awolowo and 23 Others tells the story of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Awolowo was the leader of the Action Group, a political party once active in Western Nigeria, and was integral in Nigeria's independence in 1960. Chinaka divides The Life Story into three parts. First, Awolowo divulges the details of his childhood and education in first-person. Despite his initial ambivalence about school, Awolowo aggressively pursues education even after his father dies and leaves his immediate family a poor inheritance. Here, Awolowo is a sympathetic character. His thirst for education (his father's instills in him an ambition to be a clerk in Lagos) typifies the ambition and class mobility important in Nigeria's high-life modernity. Second, the pamphlet reproduces court records and newspaper articles about Awolowo, though the sources are not properly cited. Finally, the pamphlet ends with a play that dramatizes the tension between Awolowo and his accusers in court. Despite being a political pamphlet, The Life Story seems ambivalent about Awolowo and his Action Group. The story of Awolowo's education and struggles as a child incite sympathy, but the rest of the pamphlet stays silent about Awolowo's guilt and doesn't vilify Judge Sowemimo (who sentenced Awolowo to ten years in jail).
Njoku & Sons Bookshop, ℅ Arondizuogu Street, Fegge—Onitsha/Nigeria
All Star Printers, 19 Emodi Street, Onitsha