Halifax's Northwest Arm: An Illustrated History, and: The Artists' Halifax: Portraits of the Town and Harbour through 250 Years (review)

Although disadvantaged in wealth, power, and population, Atlantic Canada is richly endowed in history, thanks largely to having been, for half a millennium, the doorway through which Europeans ventured into North America. Outstanding in this regard is Halifax, which, for over 250 years, has been the region's principal port of entry. However, except for a few dramatic episodes, most notably the explosion of 1917, Halifax's past has tended to be neglected in traditional surveys of the Canadian experience. Fortunately local firms, led by Formac and Nimbus, have been actively engaged, especially over the past decade, in publishing books that explore multiple aspects of the Halifax story. Two of the most recent works to appear are assessed in this review.

Heather Watts (here assisted by Michèle Raymond, heritage activist and provincial politician), has previously written on nineteenth-century cycling in Nova Scotia, historic Halifax houses, and the city's suburbs. Her latest work focuses on the sheltered, three-mile, salt-water inlet that forms the western boundary of peninsular Halifax. Geographically isolated from Halifax's urban core until the post-Confederation era, the 'Arm' was dominated by military and civilian prisons, complemented by an array of quarries, mills, and fishing stations. Then, starting in the 1850s, members of Halifax's gentry, motivated by a yearning for space and tranquillity, built estate houses along the eastern shore of the Arm.

Their arrival precipitated a struggle between 'rough' and 'respectable' culture over land-use. By the 1920s, industry, first in the form of a thermal power plant and later an artificial canyon designed to carry trains to a new waterfront pier complex, eroded the Arm's elitist seclusion. As the gentry gradually beat a retreat, their place was taken by middle-class Haligonians, led by members of rowing, sailing, and swimming clubs that, by the First World War, had established the Arm as the leading site for water-based recreation in Nova Scotia's capital. Decline set in during the 1930s, but recent years have brought revitalization: now the Arm bustles with activity, and homes with water access have become prized possessions for a new generation of affluent Haligonians.

The Watts/Raymond account of life on the Arm breaks little new ground in evidence or interpretation. Its major appeal lies in the rich array of artwork and photographs that the authors have mustered, particularly for the years between 1850 and 1930. Despite a scarcity of maps and neglect of recent developments, highlighted by quarrels over land-use regulations along the shores of the Arm, this is a worthwhile and visually appealing contribution to the literature on Halifax's past.

Diane O'Neill, a curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, offers a larger perspective on the Nova Scotian capital by way of artistic impressions of the city and its people through the past two and a half centuries. Using inventory from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, she has assembled over 130 images by some seventy-two artists to tell the story of Halifax from its founding to today. Complementing the illustrations is a brief general introduction, followed by summaries of the four episodes into which O'Neill divides Halifax's history: beginnings to 1810, War of 1812 to Confederation, Canadianization up to the end of the 'Great War,' and 'roaring twenties' to the present. The captions provided by O'Neill are succinct and persuasive, although one wishes she had been more specific about when a particular image was created.

Most of the illustrations presented for Halifax's pre-Confederation era are familiar, often being the work of such high-profile artists as J.E. Woolford and William Eager. Less well-known images follow, mainly by local artists whose...