File 2038 - Christmas memory, my first by Martha Louise Black.

Martha Louise Black, Canadian politician and second woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons, was born in Chicago on February 24, 1866. She attended St. Mary's College in Notre Dame Indiana. In 1877 Black married Will Purdy and together they had two sons, Warren and Donald. She and Purdy had plans to joint the Klondike gold rush in 1899 but Purdy backed out and instead moved to Hawaii, leaving her to travel to the Klondike via the Chilkoot Pass in 1898 with her brother. In January of 1899 she stopped in Dawson City to give birth to her and Purdy's third son Lyman. She then returned briefly to Chicago before going again to the Klondike in 1900 where she would live for 54 years. Here she earned money by staking gold mining claims and running a sawmill and iron ore crushing plant. In 1904 Black met and married George Black, Commissioner of the Yukon from 1912-1916.

In 1921 Black was elected to the House of Commons and was speaker of the house from 1930-1935. She ran in the federal election and was elected in the Yukon riding as an Independent Conservative in 1935, taking over for her ailing husband. Black was also involved in a variety of social and charity organizations including supporting IODE, the Victorian Order of Nurses, and as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England.

In 1938 Black published the book "My Seventy Years" an autobiography, which was later updated as "My Ninety Years." She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1946 for her social and cultural contributions to the Yukon. She died in Whitehorse on October 31, 1957.

Elizabeth Smith was one of the first women to earn a medical degree in Canada. Born January 18, 1859 at 'Mountain Hall', Vinemount, she was educated by a governess in the home, at Winona School and at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute. She attended Queen's University, Kingston and received her degree in medicine at the Royal Medical College in 1884 (one of the first 3 women M.D.'s in Canada). She also received a diploma from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

For two years Dr. Elizabeth Smith practised in Hamilton. She was married December 3, 1886 to Adam Shortt. They moved to Kingston where Elizabeth lectured at Queen's on Medical Jurisprudence and Sanitary Science. She worked for the first Y.W.C.A. in Canada and served as its president, and was a sponsor of the Kingston Musical Club and presided over it for seven years.

In September 1908 she and her husband, Dr. Adam Shortt, moved to Ottawa where she became very active in the local, provincial, and National Council of Women affairs. In connection with these organizations she wrote pamphlets on social aspects of tuberculosis, housing, inspection of markets, clean-up weeks, fly control, pasteurization of milk, care of mentally deficient, child welfare, and mother's pensions'. In 1911 she was the first Convener of the Public Health and Mental Hygiene Committee of the National Council of Women. She was also Convener of the Committee on Immigration in the Council and was instrumental in organizing a hostel for women immigrants in Ottawa. She was largely responsible in convening a committee to petition the Provincial Government to establish Mother's Allowances in Ontario, and when this was accomplished in 1920, she was appointed vice-chairman of the Provincial Board of Mother's Allowances and acted in that capacity for seven years. She died in Ottawa January 14, 1949.

Muriel Shortt and Roger Clark married in 1917 and settled into fruit farming in Vineland. Her portion of the fonds contains details of the struggle to become established in this field.

Lorraine Shortt, a graduate of Queen's, chose a field in the public service - social work, and the collection traces her successful career in this area.