22 March 2016 is the 156th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur George Doughty.
Born in England he came to Canada in 1886 and was the longest serving Dominion Archivist and Keeper of the Public Records of Canada, from May 1904 until 1935.
He is buried with his second wife in Ottawa's Notre Dame Cemetery.
Thank you for this reminder of one of my heroes. His statue, which used to welcome those who came to the Public Archives of Canada on Sussex Drive, was at last sight still hiding behind the Library and Archives building at 395 Wellington - though maybe he is smiling faintly now at the recent improvements in that institution. The plaque commemorating him as a person of national historic significance seems to be totally missing, but perhaps someday it will reappear.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Vincent
A toast to Sir Arthur! Thank you for the posting. Readers might also be interested to learn that AGD was responsible for collecting "trophies" from the battle fields of the Great War. Prior to the establishment of the national museums in the early 1960s, the Public Archives was, de facto, Canada's history storehouse and proudly displayed Isaac Brock's uniform, the J-B Duberger/Col. John By model of Quebec and many other artifacts. Doughty's collection of war trophies became the nucleus of today's Canadian War Museum. Yes, he is a central figure in the history of the preservation of our documentary and materiel heritage,and today we remember him even if his statue (the only one in Ottawa dedicated to a civil servant)remains behind LAC and out of public view.
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