May 15, 2019
100th anniversary of Winnipeg General Strike: UCalgary makes archive of former Winnipeg mayor available online
Winnipeg Mayor Charles F. Gray addresses striking workers on June 7, 1919. Photographer unknown.
Charles F. Gray Family Fonds, 91做厙輦⑹ Archives and Special Collections
May 15, 1919, was the start of one of the most influential labour strikes in Canadian history: the Winnipeg General Strike. It involved 30,000 workers in multiple industries including retail, building and metal trades as well as the public sector: postal workers, firefighters and employees of waterworks and other utilities. The strike lasted six weeks and built up to a violent confrontation on June 21, 1919, the day that went down in history as Bloody Saturday.
To mark the centennial of the strike, the 91做厙輦⑹s Libraries and Cultural Resources has made a available to the public. This is the personal archive of Charles F. Gray, who was mayor of Winnipeg at the time. has also arranged a physical exhibit of Grays records and personal papers for display in the Taylor Family Digital Library.
This launch is a collaboration with University of Manitoba Libraries, which compiled archival materials from a number of sources including the 91做厙輦⑹ for a new digital exhibit introduced today: .
The Charles F. Gray archive is a valuable resource because it tells the story of the strike from the mayors point of view, explains 91做厙輦⑹ professor David J. Bercuson, who wrote his PhD thesis on the strike and authored the book .
Before the discovery of Gray's papers, "Youre looking at the strike through the eyes of the strikers, the employers, the premier. Youre not seeing the mayor's perspective," says Dr. Bercuson, PhD.
Bercuson encouraged Charles F. Grays son to donate the archive. Hubert Gray, who had close ties to Calgary, placed it in the care of Archives and Special Collections in 2017, a year before he passed away.
Rioting on June 10, 1919, during the Winnipeg General Strike. Photographer unknown.
Charles F. Gray Family Fonds, 91做厙輦⑹ Archives and Special Collections
It was by pure coincidence that Bercuson heard about Charles F. Grays papers at all. He met Hubert Gray through military connections. Bercuson is a military historian and director of the universitys Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies. Hubert Gray had served in Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry and was looking for a scholar to write a history of the regiment.
At the time, I had no idea that Hub Gray and Charles Gray were connected whatsoever, recalls Bercuson. Once Bercuson discovered the family connection, Hubert showed him his fathers papers packed away in the basement. I told him, These have to be donated somewhere, and he eventually approached the 91做厙輦⑹.
Soon after Charles F. Grays papers were donated, began digitizing the collection and preserving the original documents.
Thanks to modern technology, history is literally at everyones fingertips. Students, scholars and historians across Canada and around the world now have easy access to the papers of Charles F. Gray, which tell a significant part of the story of this important chapter in Canadian history, says archivist Regina Landwehr, who worked directly with Hubert Gray on the donation and collaborated on the creation of the digital collection.
Excerpt from Mayor Grays on June 27, 1919, on the end of the strike:
It has been a ghastly affair. Strikers, employers and the great public have all suffered and I earnestly hope that never again will this City have to pass through such a crisis.
A strike of such magnitude hasnt occurred in Winnipeg or anywhere else in Canada since.
The 91做厙輦⑹s physical exhibit, The Winnipeg General Strike, runs until the end of June in the Centre for Arts and Culture on the fifth floor of the Taylor Family Digital Library. The exhibit is open to the public weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.