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Looking Back: Temporal and Spatial Connections of Post-War Migration and Displacement Through the Eyes of the Toronto Telegram

Woman reading The Evening Telegram

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"Many miles across the ocean from the dangers of hun bombs, young Robin Kingsley, son of Capt. Charles Kingsley, R.A.F., and Mrs. Kingsley, is shown here on the edge of the swimming pool on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Grant Glassco, just north of Maple. On the diving board are Dick and June Glassco, who will be his companions "for the duration," as Robin will make his home with the Glasscos." (Caption on back)
Contents of this annotation:

Contents of this annotation:

"Many miles across the ocean from the dangers of hun bombs, young Robin Kingsley, son of Capt. Charles Kingsley, R.A.F., and Mrs. Kingsley, is shown here on the edge of the swimming pool on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Grant Glassco, just north of Maple. On the diving board are Dick and June Glassco, who will be his companions "for the duration," as Robin will make his home with the Glasscos." (Caption on back)

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Contents of this tag:
1. Robin Kingsley Spending the Duration of the War on Farm north of Maple, ON "Many miles across the ocean from the dangers of hun bombs, young Robin Kingsley, son of Capt. Charles Kingsley, R.A.F., and Mrs. Kingsley, is shown here on the edge of the swimming pool on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Grant Glassco, just north of Maple. On the diving board are Dick and June Glassco, who will be his companions "for the duration," as Robin will make his home with the Glasscos." (Caption on back)
2. War Guests Overlooking Union Station
3. Boarding at Union Station to return home to the British Isles "Seventeen young war guests of Canada gathered at the Union Station last night to board a train that whisked them off on the first leg of their long journey back to their homes in the British Isles. Some of them are shown in these pictures. Margaret Cowie, who came to Toronto from Edinburgh to st ay with Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Godson, was just 14 when she arrived. Now she is 19-and pretty-and she had two handsome male friends on hand to bid her good-bye. One was a member of the Royal Canadian Navy, Bill Westlake, of Toronto, while the other was an RCAF man, Don Gray, of Windsor, and formerly of Edinburgh. Like Margaret, Don came to Canada when he was 15 but not at 20, he is not going back home. He is now a Canadian citizen and what's more, he's in the air force. He served overseas and saw his parents in Scotland while there. Twelve-year-old John Gomm, of Hounslow, Middlesex, found it anything but easy bidding his pals good-bye. And the eyes of Teddy Hill were suspiciously bright as he watched Bill Leak give John's haversack a final little tug. John has been the guest of Bill and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Leak, 10 Ardmore road, for the past five years. Lionel Dawson, 15, has been staying with Mr. and Mrs. Stiver at their Unionville home. He comes from Norwich, Englad. With him in Unionville were his brothers and sister, Neville, 17, Gerald, 11, and Betty, 13. At home is another little brother and a baby sister whom they have never seen." (Caption on back)
4. …And as they go. This is the "grown-up" pair to whom Dr. and Mrs. T. O. Chenoweth are bidding good-bye after give years "Each more than 53 pounds heavier, and 14 inches taller, both Donald and Olive Stewart, war guest brother and sister now 14 and 15 years old, are returning to-morrow to their mother and grandmother in Dumfries, Scotland. They arrived in Canada in 1940 to live with their uncle and aunt, Dr. and Mrs. T. O. Chenoweth of 1 St. Edmunds drive. Donald is returning armed with complete knowledge of local birds, trees and flowers, which he gained by forming a nature study club in the neighborhood a few months after he arrived. He and the other boys met every Tuesday and rose at 7 o'clock some mornings to take part in the nature hunts sponsored by the Royal Ontario Museum. Though Donald has lost his Scottish accent, he has not lost his original Scottish desire to become a minister. He plans to study in Edinburgh. At University of Toronto Schools he won a scholarship the first year, excelling in public speaking. Olive, who was nine when she arrived, has developed her talent for music at the Toronto Conservatory and has passed its grade nine examinations with first class honors. She is not quite so certain about her future, especially after having to leave all her young friends at Lawrence Park Collegiate. She, to[o]. has lost her Scottish accent but, "we hope we can retrieve it before we start school in the fall because if we don't we'll be teased," they say." (Caption on back)
5. Ann Ryan writing a letter home
9. Five-year-old twins sat close together on the station bench, holding their coats and each other's hands
10. Far from the danger of bursting bombs and spitting machine guns, these English children arrive in Toronto
13. Reay, Mrs. Buckingham and Ian "Wife of an English Presbyterian minister, Mrs. William Buckingham, of Worthing, Sussex, and her two sons, ten-year-old Reay and Ian, seve, stayed over in Toronto to-day as guests of United Church of Canada officials. They are en route to Moose Jaw, where they will live "for the duration" with Mrs. Buckingham's uncle, T. D. Mackay. "We are very glad to be away from air raids," Mrs. Buckingham said. "It wasn't so bad in Sussex, although we went through several, but my boy Reay was at school on the Isle of Wight and it was terrible there, due to the German plans trying to bomb Portsmouth." "We're looking forward to Canada," Reay interjected in precise English accents. "It's our first visit to Moose Jaw. Of course we've been East." "To Eastern Canada?" "Oh, no!" the little boy answered. "Malaya, you know, in the East." "Did Ian go to Malaya, too?" "He was born there," Reay said, "so he really couldn't go, if you know what I mean." Their father, they said, was in the Reserve." (Caption on back)
14. President of the University of Toronto is photographed with some of the children of Oxford University faculty members.
15. Three young war guests brought to an Oakville "duration" school
17. War guests of the International Business Machine Co., Ltd., of Canada "These war guests are members of a party of 28 children, mothers and guardians who arrived here last night as guests of the International Business Machine Co., Ltd., of Canada. Through the offer of Thomas J. Watson, president of the International Business Machine Corporation of New York, the group, consisting of the families of representatives of the International Time Recording Co. of Great Britain, a subsidiary of the U.S. firm, was brought to Canada for the duration of the war at the expense of the company. Upper left, Margaret Lemond, aged 10, of London: upper centre, Mrs. E. M. Kelk, of Birmingham, and her two daughters, Panela, aged 13 (left), and Betty, aged nine; upper right, Joan Pathie, aged five, of Exeter; lower left, five boys ranging in age from three to six years; lower right, Godfrey Spencer, aged eight (left), and Anthony Spencer, aged six. The two brothers, from Cheswick, near London, travelled with their aunt, Mrs. G. A. Butler, while their mother and father remained in England." (Caption on back)
19. Henryetta Edwards and Anne Beare were snapped on their last morning at Branksome Hall

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Image Representation of Refugees: An Analysis of Terence Wright's Article, "Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees" 23 plain 2018-05-08T16:18:29-04:00
The selection of material for this digital archive, much like any archive, is subjective to what the presenter would like to show. The collection in which I was given to select photographs was already heavily influenced and biased by those working at the Toronto Telegram. In 2002, Terence Wright wrote the article, “Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees,” which discussed the stereotype and iconography of ‘the refugee’ through image representation and its perpetuation in the media (i.e., photographs, news reports, and to an extent, documentary films). Wright contends that refugee images are embedded in Christian iconography (p. 54); meant to elicit an emotional and moral response from the public. Images of ‘the refugee’ hold a social purpose and “act as a way of coping with a social ‘problem’” (p. 56). Wright asserts that the roots in Christian iconography establish the “iconography of predicament” (p. 64), and outlines four distinct categories of typical refugee photographs rooted in Christian iconography (p. 57):
1. “The Fall of the Man” – based on the story of Adam and Eve, the refugee is seen as degraded, isolated, the picture of poverty, and expelled from their homeland.
2. “Flight into Egypt” – the story of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay, the refugee is “displaced but necessarily destitute”, has possessions and a means of transportation.
3. “Exodus” – Exodus is typically referred to the story of Moses traveling across the Red Sea with the Israelites to be free from Egyptian-forced slavery, the refugees are part of a mass expulsion of people, and it is inferred through the image that this group is being pursued.
4. “Madonna and Child” – the picture of Mary and Baby Jesus, which has also “attained a broad secular appeal” (p. 59), this image is a woman photographed with children, and can be combined with any of the above categories.
Perhaps it was the time this article was published, where the images of refugees that saturated the media were of starving African villages, the Rwandan Genocide, the Yugoslav Wars, and the Chechen Wars, because only a few of the images from this digital collection reflect any of the criteria Wright puts forward. “Flight of Man” is a category that can somewhat characterize photographs in this collection, however, this category does not describe the plight of the refugee, but the modern-day (im)migrants looking to improve their living conditions. The Exodus is the only category I can accurately place a few of these photos, however, the Exodus category is hardly acknowledged, and Wright does not offer further elaboration, which is the category that compares most to the 2015 Syrian Refugee Crisis. And, any similarities I could find to "Madonna and Child" do not look as though they portray the stereotypical refugee or individuals that have had their lives uprooted.

Although an interesting read that holds valid criticisms of Western media in its attempt to dilute reality into a specific depiction of suffering, Wright’s argument of refugee images and media portrayal as represented through Christian iconography is narrow and temporally inapplicable. Images of children smiling upon their arrivals and departures in Toronto does not indicate the same, if any, form of suffering expected to be seen from the typical refugee. Furthermore, the categories in which he typecasts refugee images are not strictly limited to Christian iconography, but in studying global religions, it can be seen that poverty and expulsion lie within, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

Wright, Terence. "Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees." Visual Studies 17, no. 1 (2002): 53-66.
Timeline of Publishing Patterns of Global Displacement between 1939-1964

Seen above is the timeline of the photographs from this collection, plotted based on their dates of publication. Although, there were photographs that were either published more than once, and another where the publication date was unknown but it could be determined when the photograph was taken based on the newspaper being read and knowing the publication date of the photograph used on the front page.

The timeline shows a pattern in the Telegram's publishing. A great interest in the War Guests in Toronto is indicated by the large number of photographs published during WWII, and then a lull until the mid-1950s when the Toronto Telegram photographed a series of Toronto's Red Cross initiatives, and then again in the early 1960s when immigrants and migrants began relocating to Canada.