Culture & Heritage Grants
The St. Andrew’s Society of Winnipeg considers awarding financial grants to individuals or organizations for initiatives that further the objectives of the Society, which include but are not limited to:
a) Preservation and promotion of Scottish culture and heritage within Manitoba, for all Manitobans,
b) Increased understanding by the Manitoba public of the Scots’ role in the origin and development of Manitoba, and
c) Positive presentation to the world of Manitoba’s Scottish culture and heritage
At this time the Society does not accept grant applications from businesses, or for the operation of a fund-raiser (although we would consider a direct grant to the recipient of a fund-raiser’s proceeds), or for any form of tuition.
We Were Builders - A Book Review by Alexandra Paul
The St. Andrews Society of Winnipeg periodically supports history projects. This winter, it took on its latest, with a $6,000 grant towards the publication of We Were Builders by Gordon McDiarmid.
This book an engaging and lavishly illustrated compendium of the buildings of Western Canada that Gordon’s family built. Along the way, the family played a central role in the development of Scottish society through their participation and leadership in the St. Andrews Society of Winnipeg.
It covers the work of the J. McDiarmid Co. from the period after the Riel Rebellion in the 1880s to the end of the Depression in 1935, a time of astonishing growth.
The book is meticulously researched with bios on hundreds of structures, from the Manitoba Legislature to the grand homes and businesses of the families that founded them and then beyond the cities to the picturesque railway stations that seeded towns across the west.
In his Forward, Gordon notes his interest in the founding and growth of his family’s construction company came about by accident as he explored his family’s history. And while the book is a tribute to his Scottish ancestors and their Canadian descendants, it is also a discovery of a much greater story in the building of Western Canada.
At the same time, the book is sympathetic to the profound and destructive impact this significant period of colonization had on First Nations and the Metis. It acknowledges they paid for it with the loss of their way of life.
This book crosses genres of history, and architecture and design, all threaded through with the stories of immigrants and how their families built the Prairie provinces out of the vast North West.
The book is currently being published and is available through the Argyle Museum website for $25 per copy.
We were Builders from Scotland by Gordon McDiarmid available at the Argyle Museum or online here.