Collection search - MacDonald, Dora C. - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

MacDonald, Dora C. - Interview

Item number (ISN):

379028

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-06-06

Item number (ISN):

379028

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

THE GREAT WAR AND CANADIAN SOCIETY PROJECT

Accession:

1975-0098

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1974-06-06

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Lori Rotenberg

Description:

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Interview of Mrs. Dora C. Macdonald of Toronto, age 85. She was born in Woodstock, Ontario in 1889. Her parents were from England. Subjects discussed include: her father’s job as Deputy Registrar of the County of Oxford; her schooling; the family’s living conditions; the outdoor toilet; getting a Saturday night bath in front of the fire; attending church; attending high school; her father’s death; learning shorthand and typing; her job as a stenographer in a factory office; her job with the Daily Woodstock Sentinel Review newspaper; recreational activities such as going to parties and dances, snow-shoeing, tobogganing and sleigh-riding; more about her work as a stenographer at the newspaper and as assistant to the editor of Rod and Gun, a sporting magazine; the newspapers in the Woodstock area; moving up to jobs in the advertising department and society editor; a boss telling her that ”If you weren’t a woman I’d make you city editor”; women not being allowed to cover council meetings because they could not work late at night; more on working conditions at the newspaper; a strike by the printers’ union; the enlistment of her brothers in the First World War; moving to Toronto with her mother; her marriage in 1918; working in a factory office in Toronto; her working and living conditions in Toronto; her sister’s teaching job; moving to Peterborough with her husband; occasional part-time work after she married; a recollection of an American travelling from Chicago to Collingwood in 1914, expressing pro-German sentiment; the opinion that the war would be over by Christmas 1914; the death of one brother overseas in 1917; another brother injured by shrapnel; their military training; public opinion about the war; knitting socks for the Red Cross to send to soldiers overseas; resentment about French Canadian opposition to the war; conscription; the support in Ontario for the war; military allowances for soldiers’ families; reservists at the Sentinel-Review called up and Americans brought in to fill their positions; a bulletin board in the newspaper office for war news that arrived after the newspaper came out; the Titanic disaster; casualties among boys she knew in Woodstock; Armistice celebrations; difficulty experienced by one of her brothers to find work after he came back from the war; lack of compensation from the government for war injuries suffered by her brothers; repression during World War One and an outbreak of irrationality in the 1920s; the crazy clothes and dances of the 1920s; experiments with trial marriages in the 1920s; how soldiers came back from the war more broad-minded because they had met people from different countries; resentment over American because they were late in joining the war; readjustment by her brothers to civilian life; her lack of resentment that she did not get promoted to city editor of the Woodstock Sentinel; awareness of suffragettes such as Nellie McClung; her focus on the war rather than women’s rights; not being much aware of trade unions, but awareness that they were doing good for the working man; doing your bit as the main sentiment during World War One; patriotism among the public at that time; more about the newspapers in Woodstock; and coverage of the war by Toronto newspapers.

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. The interviews took place in 1974 and resulted in the publication of a book entitled "The Great War and Canadian Society" edited by Daphne Read - copyright 1978 - New Hogtown Press, Toronto.~2. Release forms, data sheets, and summary analysis/transcripts are available in binders labelled Opportunities for Youth - War and Canadian Society in VSA's audio-visual section.~3. Part of a series of recorded interviews with elderly citizens who lived in Canada during the period of World War I. The interview material consists of their opinions and observations about the war, the war years, and the effect on Canadian society during and after WWI.
~4. The interviewee signed an agreement giving consent for a recording of this interview to be placed in the Public Archives of Canada for the purposes of historical research and also signed a publication agreement allowing any transcribed portions of the interview to be used in the book under the condition that no full names, addresses or phone numbers would be published.~5. Subject description is based on information found in the fact sheet, deposit agreement, publication agreement and summary analysis.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

436345

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01374

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

438795

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-05-0045

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

76:10

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

736949

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/059
1975-0098/060

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

2

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

1003808

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-05-0045

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01374

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2007-05-0045

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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