As we move away in time from past conflicts and as our veteran population declines, it becomes increasingly difficult for Canadians to understand the sacrifices that men and women made, both on the battlefield and on the home front, during wartime. The Canadian Letters and Images Project has been sharing their stories, and Canada’s story, for the past quarter century. These are the experiences of Canadians as seen through their eyes and their words. This is history in the raw, without a lens of interpretation added through time. I invite you to spend some time reading their letters, seeing their faces in the photographs, or listening to an audio letter, to appreciate why their experiences must be preserved for now and for future generations. Donations, large and small, ensures that The Canadian Letters and Images Project can keep this important content freely available for this generation and for future generations. Please help us to preserve their stories.
Accolades for the Canadian Letters & Images Project
“This book is based on a substantial range of primary and secondary sources. I have drawn most of the primary sources from the excellent and very large online collections of Great War letters, memoirs, and diaries gathered by the Canadian Letters and Images Project. CLIP is directed by Dr. Stephen Davies of the History Department at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, B.C., and it operates on a shoestring budget and with voluntary labour. The collection (which includes material from all Canadian conflicts) is an exceptional resource.”
J.L. Granatstein, The Greatest Victory : Canada's One Hundred Days, 1918. Oxford University Press.
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“As the years tick by quicker than ever it seems the importance of preserving our Canadian past becomes more and more important. Generations of the future need to hear our stories of the past as the last war veterans come to the ends of their lives and aren't around to share their experiences anymore. What better way to keepsake our stories then by reading the beautiful letters written so long ago by the seemingly ordinary wife to her soldier husband? Or from the mother to her son so far away in the trenches? The ordinary becomes extraordinary when we hear their day to day goings on set against the dramatic backdrop of the war. The mundane news in these letters takes on a whole new and extremely moving testament to the time.“
Sheila McCarthy, CLIP guest reader of letters from the Dennis Wellington Murray and Margaret Munro, and the Frank Cyril Pye Collections.
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“...there is a large and growing body of material written by Canadian soldiers in Britain during both world wars, some of it published and much more available online. The best of these websites is The Canadian Letters and Images Project.”
Jonathan F. Vance, Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars. Oxford University Press.
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“I think its important that the thousands from WWI be remembered as men and women rather than as numbers and facts. Having their letters brings their humanity closer but lifting their words from their letters with our voices is perhaps the best way we can hear them and appreciate who they really were. The Canadian Letters and Images Project is such a bold and necessary idea.”
R.H. Thomson, CLIP guest reader of letters from the Amos William Mayse Collection.
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“I was honored to participate in a reading of one of the fallen soldiers’ letters. Reading Howard Curtis' letter allowed me to better understand what went on during WW1. I have great respect and admiration for those who have served our country and have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country.”
Scott Hartnell, CLIP guest reader of a letter from the William Howard Curtis Collection.
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“Getting information on the patient experience of various diseases and injuries is also difficult, especially for shell shock. Soldiers’ letters, diaries, memoirs, and recorded oral histories have been the main sources used by medical historians… and the letters and diaries put online through the Canadian Letters and Images Project are invaluable for researchers.”
Mark Osborne Humphries, A Weary Road: Shell Shock in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918. University of Toronto Press.
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“The genealogists, teachers, and students have been aided by the digital revolution, especially as Library and Archives Canada digitized its personnel files and war diaries, and many other museums and archives have put letters, diaries, photographs, works of art, and film on their websites, with the richest collections to be found at the National Film Board, the Canadian War Museum, and the Canadian Letters and Images Project at Vancouver Island University.”
Tim Cook and J.L. Granatstein, Canada 1919: A Nation Shaped by War. UBC Press.
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“…parts of this study rely heavily on the Canadian Letters and Images Project, an online archive containing hundreds of digitized letters and diary entries from Canadian soldiers during the Second World War. Without this free-text searchable database, it would not have been possible to assemble and describe the manifold social norms and attitudes of military smokers stationed abroad during the war.”
Daniel J. Robinson, Cigarette Nation : Business, Health, and Canadian Smokers, 1930-1975. McGill-Queen's University Press.
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“Ongoing sincere appreciation for the amazing work of Dr. Stephen Davies & his crew at Vancouver Island University's Canadian Letters.”
Jacqueline Larson Carmichael, Tweets from the Trenches: Little True Stories of Life & Death on the Western Front. Independently Published.
