From 1914 to 1918,
thousands of Canadian men and women were called upon to contribute to
the effort required for the First World War, an event that transformed our nation,
culture, economy and identity. This exhibition is designed to illustrate,
through the National Archives of Canada's collections, the many roles
that Canadian men and women played during
the First World War, and the definite
mark the war left on our society.
The documents selected
are not intended to rewrite the history of the conflict but rather to
present the variety and wealth of the sources held at the National Archives
of Canada. You will notice that most of the documents on record are in
English; we must remember that at that time, fifty years before the institution
of official bilingualism, the affairs of state were conducted exclusively
in English.
The
large scale digitization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
attestation papers that are part of this project was realized in part
through the generous contributions of Industry
Canada [http://collections.ic.gc.ca/E/view.html], since 1996.
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