WETHERELL, Donald G. 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born April 2, 1949, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; son of S. R. and G. T. (Thesen) Wetherell; married Irene R. A. Kmet (a historian and writer). Education: University of Saskatchewan, B.A. (with honors), M.A.; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—1201 21st Ave. N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2M 1L3. Office—Museum and Heritage Studies Program, Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4; fax: 403-282-6716. E-mail—[email protected] and [email protected].

CAREER:

Alberta Culture, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, executive assistant to the assistant deputy minister, Historical Resources Division, 1980-83; D. G. Wetherell and Associates Ltd., co-owner, 1983—. University of Regina, research fellow at Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1991-92; University of Calgary, senior fellow of Historical Resources Intern Program, 1993-2001, assistant professor in Museum and Heritage Studies Program, 2001—; University of Alberta, adjunct researcher at Canadian Circumpolar Institute, 1994-2001. Calgary Heritage Park, member of Historical Interpretive and Education Committee; Old Strathcona Foundation, past member of board of directors and chair of Design Review Committee, 1988-91; presenter of community workshops and public lectures.

MEMBER:

International Council of Museums, Canadian Museums Association, American Association of Museums, Alberta Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Citation for scholarly book of the year, Alberta Publishers Association, 1995, for Town Life: Main Street and the Evolution of Small Town Alberta, 1880-1947; citation for outstanding academic title of the year, Choice, 2000, and Clio Award, Canadian Historical Association, 2001, both for Alberta's North: A History, 1890-1950; grants from Alberta Historical Resources Foundation and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2002.

WRITINGS:

(With Irene Kmet) Useful Pleasures: The Shaping of Leisure in Alberta, 1896-1945, Canadian Plains Research Centre, University of Regina (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada), 1990.

(With Irene Kmet) Homes in Alberta: Building, Trends, and Design, 1870-1967, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1991.

(With Elise Corbet) Breaking New Ground: A Century of Farm Equipment Manufacturing in Prairie Canada, Fifth House Publishers (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada), 1993.

(With others) Two Decades of Innovation in Housing Technology, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

(With Irene Kmet) Town Life: Main Street and the Evolution of Small Town Alberta, 1880-1947, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1995.

An Annotated Bibliography of Northern Alberta History to 1950, Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 2000.

(With Irene Kmet) Alberta's North: A History, 1890-1950, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 2000.

Contributor of articles and reviews to professional journals, including Literary Review of Canada.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Editing and writing introduction to Selected Writings of Cecil Burgess on Architecture and Town Planning, 1909-1950 (tentative title), publication expected in 2004; History of the Relationship between People and Wildlife, Prairie Canada, 1870-1965 (tentative title), completion expected c. 2005; research on the history of museums in Canada since 1945, the history of rural life in prairie Canada, and the history of landscapes, parks, and gardens.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donald G. Wetherell told CA: "My concern as a historian is with what life has been like—with the textures, activities, and foundations of daily life and the structures and forms that contain and channel our energies, thoughts, possibilities, and lives. Through these glimpses of what life has been like comes the realization—often tentative and qualified—of what being human has meant and continues to mean. I am drawn to how we experience history through the remnants of the past—the texts and oral records, artifacts, buildings, landscapes, and impressions on the earth. But always there is a sense of how incomplete this record is and how the things that have survived by accident or design now shape how we imagine and re-imagine past lives. It is this tantalizing incompleteness that makes history worthwhile and of infinite nuance and potential."