The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Canadian Encyclopedia (TCE; French: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.
Editor in chief
- James Harley Marsh (1985–2013)
- Bronwyn Graves (2013–)
Eli Yarhi
- Print (1985–95)
- CD-ROM (1995–2001)
- Online (1999–)
- Hurtig Publishing (1985–1991)
- Anthony Wilson-Smith (2012–)
Canada
English and French
Available for free online in both English and French, The Canadian Encyclopedia includes more than 19,500 articles in both languages[1][2] on numerous subjects including history, popular culture, events, people, places, politics, arts, First Nations, sports and science.
The website also provides access to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, the Canadian Encyclopedia Junior Edition, Maclean's magazine articles, and Timelines of Canadian History.
As of 2013, over 700,000 volumes of the print version of TCE have been sold and over 6 million people visit TCE's website yearly.[3][4]
History[edit]
Background[edit]
While attempts had been made to compile encyclopedic material on aspects of Canada, Canada: An Encyclopaedia of the Country (1898–1900), edited by J. Castell Hopkins, was the first attempt to produce an encyclopedic work entirely on the subject of Canada. This was followed by W. Stewart Wallace's The Encyclopedia of Canada (Macmillan, 1935–37), which was then sold to an American publisher, the Grolier Society, providing the core of John Everett Robbins' Encyclopedia Canadiana (1957).[5]
More common, however, were encyclopedic works focused on particular qualities of Canada. For instance, in 1911, Arthur Doughty and L.J. Burpee compiled the Index and Dictionary of Canadian History as a companion to the Makers of Canada series; Doughty and Adam Shortt edited the 23-volume Canada and Its Provinces (1913–17); Norah Story's The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature was published in 1967; the comprehensive Encyclopedia of Music in Canada was published in 1981 and revised in 1992; and a new Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, edited by William Toye, was published in 1983.[5]
Creating The Canadian Encyclopedia[edit]
By the 1970s, Canada had been without a national encyclopedia since Robbins' 1957 work, which by that time was terribly outdated.
With this in mind, Edmonton-based Canadian nationalist and publisher Mel Hurtig was left unimpressed with the lack of Canadian reference works as well as with the various omissions and blatant errors (e.g., Brian Mulroney was described as a Liberal rather than Conservative) found in existing encyclopedias with Canadian entries. In response, Hurtig launched a project in the 1970s to create a wholly new Canadian encyclopedia.[5]
In 1978, around the Province of Alberta's 75th anniversary, Hurtig approached the Alberta government with the idea of supporting Hurtig's idea of an encyclopedia as Alberta's "gift to Canada," which gained the support of Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed. On 15 November 1979, the Alberta Legislature announced that the provincial government would underwrite the development costs of the encyclopedia with CA$3.4 million and would donate a further $600,000 towards the delivery of a free copy to every school and library in Canada. (This was done on the condition that no other funding would be able to obscure the gesture of the Alberta Government.)[5]
Taking on this publishing 'megaproject', Hurtig would spend the next few years raising funds from banks for printing and marketing. The concern of a French-language edition was put aside with a guarantee by Hurtig that the rights would be donated free to a publisher in Quebec.[5]
Hurtig held a nationwide search for an editor-in-chief, including with an advertisement in the Globe and Mail. Soon after, James Harley Marsh was hired as editor-in-chief in 1980.[5] Marsh recruited more than 3,000 authors to write for the encyclopedia. They made index cards for every fact in the encyclopedia, signed off by the researcher, utilized three sources, and had every article read by three outside readers. Then, the entire encyclopedia was proofread by an independent source.[6] Over 3,000 people contributed to the content and accuracy of the encyclopedia's entries.[7]
In 1981, the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada was published.[7]
Organization[edit]
As the President and CEO of Historica Canada since 2012, Anthony Wilson-Smith is also the publisher of the encyclopedia. As of 2021, the encyclopedia has 5,040 authors.[2]
TCE is funded by SOCAN as well as the federal Department of Canadian Heritage. Its partners include the Canadian Children's Book Centre, Musée des grands Québécois, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and Maclean's.[2]
TCE claims to be "non-partisan and apolitical" and that they are "not affiliated with any government or political party."[12]
