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Soldiers had fewer recreational options. Drinking was a key activity– in barracks and canteens within the garrisons, and at taverns in town. Canteen profits were used to buy reading material for garrison libraries and “apparatus for games” like cricket, soccer, and skittles. Some posts provided recreation rooms as another way for officers to keep an eye on their men. The driving forces behind this exhibit were Steve Otto and Michael Peters of The Friends and Chris Baker, exhibition coordinator for Toronto Culture. Others, particularly Jim Burant of Library & Archives Canada, helped identify a remarkably rich lot of images to choose from, in spite of the modesty of Canada’s pictorial record. In selecting images, balance was sought in terms of how many images represented officers/soldiers, indoor/outdoor settings, and each season; broad geographical and temporal coverage and a wide range of leisure activities were other objectives. Success proved elusive on most fronts. Officers and outdoor scenes outweigh soldiers and indoor scenes two-to-one, the time span runs just from 1827 to 1887 (with nearly two-thirds of the images coming from the 1840s and ‘60s), and only Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Ontario are depicted. We shouldn’t be surprised by some of these outcomes. They reflect the pattern of military development in Canada and an abiding British interest in the Canadian outdoors –especially fun ways of coping with winter. More unexpected was the appearance of women in many images. Their finely-attired presence at “regimental entertainments” could be taken for granted, but their participation in skating, sleighing, and tobogganing parties shows how the public realm presented a more level playing field for gender relations.
Lady Eveline Marie Alexander, Grand Military Steeplechase, London, Canada West, May 1843, lithograph by Rudolph Ackermann, London, 1845. Credit Library & Archives Canada, C-041205 Thanks to the generous support of The Friends of Fort York, a new exhibit is now on display in the Great Room of the Blue Barracks. At Ease: The Military at Play in Nineteenth-Century Canada comprises nineteen images on thirteen framed panels which capture some of the leisure-time pursuits enjoyed by off-duty officers and soldiers during the 1800s.
by Wayne Reeves
Both decorative and educational, At Ease is a wonderful addition to the most important room in the Blue Barracks.
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