New Heritage Minute Celebrates Mary Riter Hamilton
TORONTO – October 29th – Historica Canada will mark Canada’s annual Remembrance Day with the release of a new Heritage Minute marking a unique commemoration of the efforts and sacrifices of those who served in the First World War.
The Minute tells the story of Mary Riter Hamilton, who spent nearly three years in the battlefields of Western Europe immediately following the end of the First World War in Western Europe. Born in Teeswater, Ontario, in 1867, Hamilton built a successful reputation as an artist but was refused status as a commissioned artist during the First World War because of her gender. Undaunted, she then travelled to the battlefields shortly after war’s end on a commission from the War Amputees of Canada. Alone except for her adopted dog, Bob, Hamilton, by then in her 50s, braved unexploded mines, disease, roaming deserters and other hazards to produce some 350 paintings marking war’s terrible legacy. She spurned numerous offers to buy her paintings and ultimately donated 227 of her works to the National Archives of Canada and donated many others to veterans. Her efforts took an enormous toll on her health, both mentally and physically. Largely forgotten after the war, she died in poverty in a mental hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
“Mary Riter Hamilton was a remarkable artist whose contribution to Canada was too long forgotten” said Anthony Wilson-Smith, President and CEO of Historica Canada. “Her work and determination, in the face of years of isolation and personal sacrifice, revealed to Canadians at home the unglamourous cost of war.”
Filmed in July 2024 in Delta, British Columbia, the Minute was produced by Historica Canada, and Scopitone Films (Paldi Heritage Minute) and was made possible through funding from the Government of Canada and in-kind equipment support from Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV (formerly William F. White International).
Elad Tzadok and Hayley Gray served as co-executive producers, co-directors, and co-writers with Raynor Shimabukuro as producer. Director of Photography is Leo Award winner Naim Sutherland, known for Charlotte’s Song (2015). Hamilton is played by Megan Follows, who first became known for her role as Anne Shirley in the 1980s Anne of Green Gables series. More recently, she starred as Catherine de’ Medici in the television series Reign. Renowned war correspondent Lyse Doucet lent her voice for the end narration.
On this production, Historica Canada consulted with Dr. David Borys, a military historian, Dr. Sarah McKinnon, co-author of No Man’s Land: The Life and Art of Mary Riter Hamilton (2017), and Dr. Irene Gammel, author of I Can Only Paint: The Story of Battlefield Artist Mary Riter Hamilton (2020).
Historica Canada is a charitable organization that offers programs in both official languages that you can use to explore, learn, reflect on our history, and consider what it means to be Canadian. The Heritage Minutes collection is a bilingual Canadian series comprised of 60-second short films, each depicting a significant person, event, or story in Canadian history.