Grainswest - Fall 2022

Fall 2022 grainswest.com 17 BY CAROL PATTERSON • PHOTOS COURTESY OF CALGARY PUBLIC LIBRARY Farm historian says local stories matter Know your past I n her words, Shelly McElroy is attracted to a good Alberta story like a magpie after a shiny object. As the curator of the Pioneer Acres Museum in Irricana, her focus is lesser-known stories from Alberta’s agricultural history. This past March through September, McElroy was given the position of histori- an-in-residence at the Calgary Public Library, and Heritage Calgary, a charitable organization whose mandate is to “identify, preserve and promote” all things to do with the city’s her- itage. Splitting time with her regular job, she dived into the Glenbow Library and Archive Western Research Centre at the University of Calgary, the Calgary Public Library Collection and resources held by Heritage Calgary to un- cover farm tales of yesteryear. GrainsWest: Why did you take up farm history as a career? Shelly McElroy: I was brought up on a grain farm and a ranch east of Calgary. I had that in my life from the time I was small. The other thing I loved my whole entire life was history. My mom told me when I was three I named a cat Socrates. I always had a big stack of books on my bedside table and my dad was an amateur local historian. He always modelled how important reading was and knowing about the place you came from. I went to school for an early education degree. I worked at the YWCA and also with libraries. About three years ago I was hired as curator at Pioneer Acres. GW: What makes a good historian? SM: A lot of people don’t realize history is actually a muse—as in the muses of ancient Greece. She’s often depicted with a scroll in one hand and a trumpet in the other. So, threats to history are lies, things that are made up, things that aren’t verified. A historian tries their best to tell things as accurately as possi- ble. That also means we don’t omit parts of stories. GW: What can visitors find at Irricana’s Pioneer Acres Museum? SM: At Pioneer Acres, farming is what we talk about all the time, and we focus on that story of agriculture between approximately 1900 and 1950. We’ve got 50 acres and a lot of buildings you can see by self-guided tour. We typically give about three guided tours every day the museum is open. We have some first generation tractors that are 100 years old. We’ve also got the Roy Howden collection, the belongings of a bachelor that captures farm life in the ’40s and ’50s. And we have the amazing Long House, built in 1914. It has taps, toilet and a tub. It also had electricity and a furnace. At the time, this technology was just about unheard of in rural areas. GW: How valuable to Albertans are historical farm resources such as Pioneer Acres? SM: The historical resources in Alberta need to be protect- ed. We’re famous in southern Alberta for not really being that interested in history—it’s not really a money-maker. We’re more famous for liking our ghost stories. But I sense this story of farming and agriculture is just going to get even more important. So many people have revealed to me that they’ve never been to a farm before. And yet people are very interested in food. GW: What are your research interests? SM: I tried to figure out how I could research stories that are underrepresented when it comes to farming in that time period of 1900 to 1950. There are three big ones I focused my residency on. First of all, women and children’s experiences on farms and ranches. I also wanted to know what Métis farmers and