Catharine Parr Traill (born Strickland; 9 January 1802 – 29 August 1899) was an English-Canadian author and naturalist who wrote about life in Canada, particularly what is now Ontario (then the colony of Upper Canada). In the 1830s, Canada covered an area considerably smaller than today. At the time, most of Upper Canada had not been explored by European settlers.

Throughout her long life, Traill wrote to generate income in support of her family.

Traill is considered an amateur botanist, because at the time, it was not possible for women to hold professional, paid positions.

Early years

thumb|right|Mrs Catharine Parr Traill by [[William James Topley]]

Catharine Parr Strickland was born in the district of Rotherhithe in Southwark (then in Surrey, today part of Greater London) in 1802, fifth child out of eight, of Thomas Strickland and Elizabeth Homer. Catharine had four older sisters - Elizabeth, Agnes, Sarah and Jane Margaret - and a younger sister, Susanna, as well as two younger brothers, Samuel and Thomas. After Thomas Strickland died in 1818, Catharine and her sisters turned to writing and editorial work as the main source of family income. She began writing children's books in 1818 after the death of her father. Traill's first book The tell tale: an original collection of moral and amusing stories appeared anonymously in 1818; she was only 16. She describes everyday life in the community, the relationship between Canadians, Americans, and Indigenous peoples, the climate, and local flora and fauna.

thumb|[[Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon|Agnes Chamberlin's watercolour painting for Studies of Plant Life in Canada, by Catherine Parr Traill]]

Traill included further observations in a novel, Canadian Crusoes (1851). She also collected information about the skills necessary for a new settler, published in The Female Emigrant's Guide (1854), later retitled The Canadian Settler's Guide. She wrote "Pearls and Pebbles" and "Cot and Cradle Stories".

After the depression of 1836, Traill's husband Thomas joined the militia in 1837 to fight against the Upper Canada Rebellion. In 1840, dissatisfied with life in "the backwoods," both the Traills and the Moodies moved to the city of Belleville, Ontario. While Susanna was more concerned with the differences between rural and urban life, Catharine spent her years in Belleville writing about the natural environment. She often sketched the plant life of Upper Canada, publishing Canadian Wild Flowers (1868), Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885) and "Rambles in the Canadian Forest".

She received a grant c. 1899 from the Royal Bounty Fund, which was supplemented by a subscription from her friends in Canada, headed by Sir Sandford Fleming. She died at her residence, "Westove," in Lakefield, Ontario on 28 August 1899.

Her many albums of plant collections are housed in the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Recognition

Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, named their downtown campus after her. Catharine Parr Traill College is the university's main college for graduate studies.

Commemorative postage stamp

On 8 September 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Library of Canada, Canada Post released a special commemorative series, "The Writers of Canada", designed by Katalina Kovats and featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. Traill and her sister Susanna Moodie were featured on one of the English-Canadian stamps.

Selected bibliography

  • The Tell Tale – 1818
  • Disobedience – 1819
  • Reformation – 1819
  • Nursery Fables – 1821
  • Little Downy – 1822
  • The Flower-Basket – 1825
  • Prejudice Reproved – 1826
  • The Young Emigrants – 1826
  • The Juvenile Forget-Me-Not – 1827
  • The Step Brothers – 1828
  • The Keepsake Guineas – 1828
  • Amendment – 1828
  • Sketches from Nature – 1830
  • Sketch Book of a Young Naturalist – 1831
  • Narratives of Nature – 1831
  • The Backwoods of Canada – 1836
  • Canadian Crusoes – 1852
  • The Female Emigrant's Guide – 1854
  • Lady Mary and Her Nurse – 1856
  • Canadian Wild Flowers – 1868, with illustrations by Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon
  • Afar in the Forest; or, Pictures of Life and Scenery in the Wilds of Canada – 1869
  • Studies of plant life in Canada, or, Gleanings from forest, lake and plain – 1885
  • Pearls and Pebbles or Notes of an Old Naturalist – 1894
  • Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland, (1996). I bless you in my heart : selected correspondence of Catharine Parr Traill. Ballstadt, Carl, 1931-, Hopkins, Elizabeth, BA., Peterman, Michael A., 1942-. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 3. . OCLC 36640963.
  • Cot and Cradle Stories – 1895

References

Further reading

  • Information about Traill and her sister Moodie from the Libraries and Archives Canada
  • Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland.
  • The Canadian Crusoes; a tale of the Rice Lake plains. New York : C.S. Francis & Co., 1853. Accessed 18 July 2012, in PDF format.
  • The female emigrant's guide, and hints on Canadian housekeeping (also published under title: The Canadian settler's guide (1855).). Toronto, C.W. : Maclear & Co., 1854. Accessed 18 July 2012, in PDF format.
  • The Canadian emigrant housekeeper's guide. Toronto : Lovell & Gibson, 1862. Accessed 18 July 2012, in PDF format. (Includes some of the material in The female emigrant's guide, with an appendix of official information and statistics to 1861.)
  • The Chamberlin Digital Collection with books and botanical illustrations

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