People and Urban Spaces: A Round Table in Honour of Sherry Olson

Robert C. H. Sweeny, Université du Québec à Montreal & Memorial University of Newfoundland

The great paradox of studying urban spaces historically is that although they are undoubtedly human creations, we have considerable difficulty in recognising the central and yet complex role that people play. Indeed, when in the 1970s we finally moved beyond the study of urban elites, our preferred methodology of random sampling ensured we would not be able to follow people over time. First developed by the Philadelphia Social History Project, in Canada these methods were applied in a pioneering and highly influential study of mid-19th century Hamilton led by Michael Katz. Their legacy continues to shape many of our large scale social history projects. In reaction, most historians interested in people focused on either labour or women; approaches that at best limited urban dynamics to the background. In Québec, two quite remarkable sources, continuous runs of Catholic baptism, marriage and funeral records and perhaps the most complete collection of notarial records in existence, made possible very different theories and methods. First worked by demographers of New France, the civil records provided the basis for a qualitatively different approach to the social history of first the Saguenay and then all of eastern Québec, while notarial records informed the reconceptualisation of pre-industrial Montréal. The integration of these sources through a pioneering application of historical GIS with a critical understanding of urban space was the singular contribution of the historical geographer we honour today. Through a variety of collaborative projects, (Shared Spaces, Montréal, l’avenir du passé and Peopling the North American City) Sherry demonstrated that a new synthesis was possible. Today’s round table highlights the multiple generations of scholarship in Canada and beyond that have been able to build on her multifacted approach.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 182. People and Urban Spaces: A Round Table in Honour of Sherry Olson