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February 28, 1865
SLIDES USED TO ILLUSTRATE GRENFELL LECTURES
Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, was born February 28, 1865. He was an English physician and missionary, famous for his work among Labrador fishermen. Dr. Grenfell came to Labrador in 1892. During more than 40 years of service in Labrador and in Newfoundland, he built hospitals and nursing stations, established cooperative stores, agricultural centers, schools, libraries, and orphanages, and opened the King George V Seamen's Institute in St. John's, N.L., in 1912. Grenfell cruised annually in the hospital steamer Strathcona II, keeping in touch with his centers of missionary work.
Bishop Michael Francis Howley of St. John’s had reservations about Dr. Grenfell and his work. In a series of letters and editorials in the local papers in 1905 Bishop Howley expressed his concern about the Grenfell Mission and its negative effects among the inhabitants of Labrador. Howley openly criticized the (Grenfell) mission in the Daily News in December 1905 he wrote “Not only was it unnecessary, but “the means by which Dr. Grenfell obtains financial aid for his Mission is A Degradation of the People of Newfoundland.” The slides which the doctor used to illustrate his lectures, “taken from the very lowest and poorest of our people’s homes, are highly colored by an exaggerated verbal description, and the impression left on the mind of the hearers is that such is the general and Normal State of Our People. Thus the poverty of a few . . . of our poorest settlements is exploited as a means of extracting alms from a charitably-minded audience.”
Dr. Grenfell was also in the habit of describing the difficulties he had personally experienced in the course of his work. Howley, who had laboured in similar conditions on the west coast, wondered why the self-proclaimed missionary did not simply carry on his chosen work without complaint.
Archival fonds: Archbishop Michael Francis Howley fonds -106
Recommended Reading:
Wilfred T. Grenfell, FORTY YEARS FOR LABRADOR. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1932, Boston:
Grenfell, Wilfred T. THE ROMANCE OF LABRADOR. London: Hodder and Stroughton Limited, 1934.
Recommended Resource: The records of the International Grenfell Association (IGA) were donated to the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL) by IGA representatives in June 1985. The IGA magic lantern slides form the most colourful pieces of the IGA fonds. These records are available at the Provincial Archives of NL, The Rooms. http://www.tcr.gov.nl.ca/panl/exhibits/
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s
P.O. Box 1363
St. John’s, NL
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