Catharine Parr Traill

Early years

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.

Traill's father retired from his position as manager of the Greenland Docks on the River Thames and moved the family to the countryside in Suffolk, shortly after her birth. She grew up in East Anglia, first near Bungay, and later Southwold and was educated at home. After Thomas Strickland died in 1818, Catharine and her sisters turned to writing and editorial work as the main source of family income.

Career

Sister to fellow authors Agnes Strickland, Jane Margaret Strickland, Susanna Moodie, and Elisabeth Strickland, Traill was the first of her siblings to commence writing. 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. Her early works, such as Disobedience, or Mind What Mama Says (1819) and "Happy Because Good", were written for children, and often dwell on the benefits of obedience to one's parents. A prolific author, until her marriage she averaged one book per year. In 1832, she married Lieutenant Thomas Traill, a retired officer of the Napoleonic Wars and a friend of her sister's husband, John Moodie, despite objections from her family (aside from Susanna). Soon after their marriage, they left for Upper Canada, settling near Peterborough, where her brother Samuel was a surveyor. Her sister, Mrs. Susanna Moodie, emigrated soon afterwards.

Traill described her new life in letters and journals and collected these into The Backwoods of Canada (1836), which continues to be read as an important source of information about early Canada. She describes everyday life in the community, the relationship between Canadians, Americans, and Indigenous peoples, the climate, and local flora and fauna.

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

References

1. (2001). "The Countryside of the Two Canadas".
2. Fara, Patricia. (2007). "Scientists anonymous : great stories of women in science". Icon.
3. (2022-08-09). "Flora's Fieldworkers". McGill-Queen's University Press.
4. Peterman, Michael A.. "Strickland, Catharine Parr".
5. Traill, Catharine Parr Strickland. (1996). "I bless you in my heart : selected correspondence of Catharine Parr Traill". University of Toronto Press.
6. Mitchell, Rosemary. "Strickland, Agnes (1796–1874)".
7. Needler, G. H.. (1946). "The Otonabee trio of women naturualists : Mrs. Stewart - Mrs. Traill - Mrs. Moodie". The Canadian field-naturalist.
8. Traill, Catherine Parr. (1855). "The Canadian settler's guide". publisher not identified.
9. (2004). "Encyclopedia of world biography.". Gale Research.
10. Gray, Charlotte. (2008-06-03). "Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie And Catherine Parr Traill". Penguin Canada.
11. (1903). "Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada". Williams Briggs.
12. "Catharine Parr Traill College - Colleges - Trent University".
13. "[http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/archives/2003/2003_sept_library.jsf 50th Anniversary of the National Library / Canadian Authors] {{webarchive. link. (23 September 2009 ," Canada Post, Web, 28 March 2011.)
14. Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. (1823). "The tell-tale : an original collection of moral and amusing stories". London : Harris and Son, St. Paul's Church-Yard, Printed by Cox and Baylis, Great Queen Street).
15. Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. (1846). "Fables for the nursery: original and select". Grant and Griffith, successors to J. Harris, corner of St. Paul's Churchyard.
16. (1822). "Little Downy, or, The history of a field-mouse: a moral tale.". Printed for Dean and Munday.
17. Traill, Catherine Parr. (1826). "The young emigrants, or, Pictures of Canada : calculated to amuse and instruct the minds of youth". London : Harvey and Darton.
18. Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. (1828). "The step-brothers, a tale". Printed for Harvey and Darton, Gracechurch-street.
19. Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. "Narratives of nature, and history book for young naturalists". Edward Lacey.
20. Strickland, Agnes. (1845). "Narratives of nature, and history book for young naturalists.". E. Lacey.
21. Traill, Catherine Parr. (1839). "The backwoods of Canada: being letters from the wife of an emigrant officer, illustrative of the domestic economy of British America. 4th Edition". C. Knight.
22. (1859). "Canadian Crusoes: a tale of the Rice Lake plains". A. Hall, Virtue.
23. Traill, Catherine Parr. (1854). "The female emigrant's guide, and hints on Canadian housekeeping". Maclear.
24. Traill, Catherine Parr. (1856). "Lady Mary and her nurse, or, A peep into the Canadian forest". A. Hall, Virtue.
25. (1868). "North American wild flowers". J. Lovell.
26. Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. (1869). "Afar in the forest, or, Pictures of life and scenery in the wilds of Canada". T. Nelson.
27. Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. (1906). "Studies of plant life in Canada wild flowers, flowering shrubs, and grasses /". W. Briggs.
28. (1895). "Pearls and pebbles; or, Notes of an old naturalist.". S. Low, Marston.
29. (1895). "Cot and cradle stories". W. Briggs (Toronto); C.W. Coates (Montreal); S.F. Huestis (Halifax).
30. Peterman, Michael A.. (1989-11-30). "Catharine Parr Traill". Canadian Writers Before 1890.