Alongside images of racing chuckwagons, cowboys on bucking broncos and Aboriginal people in full regalia, one of the most recognizable and enduring symbols of the Calgary Stampede is a trio of pretty cowgirls wearing white-hat crowns. Not surprisingly, modern-day Stampede Queens and Princesses make more than 450 public appearances per year promoting the show and the city of Calgary both at home and abroad. But the fair was nearly six decades old before it appointed a royal representative to promote its interests. In 1946 Patsy Rodgers became the Stampede's first rodeo queen. The following year, a local service club raised funds by sponsoring a contest for "Queen of the Stampede." Although it bore little resemblance to its modern counterpart, this early competition based on ticket sales was widely popular and over the next few decades raised the equivalent of one million dollars for local charities and service projects. From the beginning, the Stampede recognized the promotional potential of the royal figureheads and worked to ensure that winners were credible representatives of what quickly became a year-round public relations job. In 1966 the Stampede officially took over and modernized the contest, but it would take many decades of trial and error evolution to perfect the process of selecting and training its royalty. Against a backdrop of changing times, and drawing on contemporary sources and personal interviews, the author traces the origin and development of the Calgary Stampede Queen contest and profiles its lucky young winners over seven exciting decades. Complete with a large selection of archival photos, Calgary's Stampede Queens tells the story from this fascinating corner of The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.

Kimberly A. Williams wants the annual Calgary Stampede to change its ways. An intrepid feminist scholar with a wry sense of humour, Williams deftly weaves theory, history, pop culture and politics to challenge readers to make sense of how gender and race matter at Canada’s oldest and largest western heritage festival. Stampede examines the settler colonial roots of the Calgary Stampede and uses its centennial celebration in 2012 to explore how the event continues to influence life on the streets and in the bars and boardrooms of Canada’s fourth-largest city. Using a variety of cultural materials—photography, print advertisements, news coverage, poetry and social media—Williams asks who gets to be part of the “we” in the Stampede’s slogan “We’re Greatest Together,” and who doesn’t.

I strive to create an example of all that I can be so that others in my situation can see disability for what it is. Disability does not separate me from anyone. All people are disabled, and only some are temporarily enabled. Everyone will age. Everyone will need a little help. If people understand this, then all are equal. - Thomas Thomas is a brilliant student, an advocate for people with special needs, and a loving son and brother. He has a rare form of muscular dystrophy that over a short time leaves him completely, physically helpless. He cannot roll over, swat away flies, or feed himself, and he requires 24/7 care. But despite his daily challenges, Thomas never lets his disability get in the way. Always quick with a joke, he’s eternally optimistic, finds the positive in any situation, and looks out for those around him, trying to make their day better. In Living in the Land of the Uprights, Thomas’s mother, Kathy, recounts Thomas’s journey as their family faces uphill battles navigating doctor’s appointments, visits to emergency rooms, advocating for funding, and fighting for equal rights for Thomas. A close-knit family, they celebrate successes and support each other through heartbreak. In his time on earth, Thomas faces the world on his terms and wows everyone he encounters, never taking no for an answer and lobbying to move across the country to follow his dream. He and his family have no idea of the powerful impact he will have and how he will change so many lives. When you read this book, not only will you feel the pure blissful passion of Thomas’s life story, but you will also learn how to leave a legacy that will live forever as Thomas has done ... through kindness, perseverance, and humour.

"Wishart and the staff of the Center for Great Plains Studies have compiled a wide-ranging (pun intended) encyclopedia of this important region. Their objective was to 'give definition to a region that has traditionally been poorly defined,' and they have

The central aim of "The West and Beyond" is to evaluate and appraise the state of Western Canadian history, to acknowledge and assess the contributions of historians of the past and present, to showcase the research interests of a new generation of scholars, to chart new directions for the future, and stimulate further interrogations of our past.-- The book is broken into five sections and contains articles from both established and new scholars that broadly reflect findings of the conference "The West and Beyond:-- Historians Past, Present and Future" held in Edmonton, Alberta in the summer of 2008.-- The editors hope the collection will encourage dialogue among generations of historians of the West and among practitioners of diverse approaches to the past.-- The collection also reflects a broad range of disciplinary and professional interests suggesting a number of different ways to understand the West.

Life is tough, but so are cowgirls. This is the true story of Flores LaDue (1883-1951), ideal for ages 7-9. A world champion trick roper and First Lady of the Calgary Stampede, Flores helped put Western Canada on the world map. A rider, roper and rodeo queen, her story will inspire kids to work hard, blaze their own trails, and rope the life of their dreams. Part of the award-winning Howdy Books series. Features a special collaboration with First Nations artist Keegan Starlight on pages with Indigenous art. This 44-page full-colour illustrated biography also includes a timeline, archive photos, author notes and cookie recipe. It fits perfectly with the Grade Four curriculum but is suitable for Grades Two to Five. An excellent choice for International Women's Day on March 8, Stampede Week, and Women's History Month in October. To book a Virtual or In-Person school visit by author Ayesha Clough, and/or a draw-along with illustrator Hugh Rookwood, please email [email protected]. BIPOC author and illustrators.

This book offers the first-ever intersectional feminist analysis of the gendered and racialized dynamics of the contemporary Calgary Stampede. Kimberly A. Williams wants the annual Calgary Stampede to change its ways. An intrepid feminist scholar with a raucous sense of humour, Williams combines memoir, theory, history, pop culture, and current events to challenge readers to make feminist sense of how gender and race matter at Canada's oldest and largest western heritage festival. Stampede! takes readers on an adventure into Alberta's past, looking at how the Calgary Stampede came to be and tracing its evolution to the Centennial event in 2012. Using a variety of cultural materials--photography, print advertisements, news coverage, poetry, and social media--Williams asks who gets to be part of the "we" in the Stampede's 2012 slogan "We're Greatest Together." Who gets left out? And what do you have to do to get in? Williams examines some beloved traditions of the Calgary Stampede through the lens of the feminist killjoy: the parade, the First Nations Princess, the Stampede Queen and her two princesses, First Nations Village, and the chuckwagon races. She uses ads from the Centennial planner to weave a story about the Albertan petro cowboy, his family, and his community. And she asks how the Treaty 7 Nations fit into this narrative about the white settler cowboy. There's no question the Stampede is a widely loved event, but could it do more to ensure that we actually are "greatest together"? Williams thinks so, and she concludes the book with some ideas for a new way forward.

While avant-garde modernism disrupted the art salons, architecture schools, and design studios of the world's more sophisticated urban centres in the 20th century, Calgary slept through the cultural upheavals as a provincial backwater. Calgary's initiation to modernism might be dated to February 13, 1947, when Imperial Oil blew in its famous well at Leduc. Or the 1948 football season, when Tom Brooks and Les Lear wrapped the Calgary Stampeders football team around an innovative and modernist-looking T-formation backfield to win the Grey Cup. Calgarians embraced the modern age after the Second World War, taking modernism into the streets and into the suburbs. They went beyond art, architecture, and design, and redefined modernism to include homes, furniture, appliances, and cars. In the process, Calgarians democratized, feminized, and suburbanized modernism. Suburban Modern examines controversies over "coloured" margarine and "mixed" drinking in post-war Calgary. It shows how new petro office buildings transformed the downtown skyline during the 1950s and 1960s, and how new bus lines, roads, and bridges changed the city's transportation network. As the city sprawled horizontally to engulf its ever-expanding suburbs, shoppers deserted downtown for suburban malls. The book follows young couples into their post-war dream homes with modern furnishings and barbecue-appointed patios. Suburban Modern argues that the suburbs rather than the downtown defined Calgary's approach to modernism.

This book tells the story of Japanese Canadian activist Mary Kitagawa. In the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing, Mary was one of roughly 22,000 Nikkei uprooted from their homes on the Pacific coast and forbidden to return to western British Columbia until long after World War II had officially ended. In the decades that followed, Mary and her family navigated financial precarity and ostracism, but also found ways to pursue both economic stability and political engagement. Beginning with Mary's grandparents, who were among the earliest immigrants to Canada from Japan, this book tracks the family's experiences—and those of the larger Nikkei Canadian community—from the late 1800s to the present. Concentrating on the interpersonal and intergenerational bonds that shaped Kitagawa, Karen M. Inouye describes the increasingly activist sensibilities that arose from transformative relationships—with family members, other members of the Nikkei Canadian community, Doukhobors, First Nations peoples, and white allies—as well as in response to the anti-Asian racism that Kitagawa encountered in many forms throughout her life. Inouye presents the Nikkei Canadian experience not as a linear triumph over a single adversity, but as a continual process of identity formation in relation to obstacles and opportunities, suffering and joy, isolation and connection.