The Personal and the Professional: A Tribute to the Life and Legacy of Esther Clark Wright

Abstract

IN 2016 THE 21ST ATLANTIC CANADA STUDIES CONFERENCE OPENED with a roundtable profiling the life and legacy of historian Esther Clark Wright. Cosponsored by the Loyalist Research Network (LRN) and the Planters Studies Centre, the panel featured Barry Moody, a professor emeritus at Acadia University; Patricia L. Townsend, an archivist at the Esther Clark Wright Archives at Acadia University; and Keith Grant, a doctoral student in history at the University of New Brunswick (now an assistant professor of history at Crandall University). As the main coordinator of the LRN, it was my pleasure to chair this session. The panelists have graciously consented to have their comments reproduced here, with the addition of a submission by Gail G. Campbell, a professor emerita of history at the University of New Brunswick, who contributed to a vibrant discussion period after the presentations. The original idea for this panel must be attributed to LRN member David Bell, who reminded us that 2015 was the 60th anniversary of the publication of Esther Clark Wright’s The Loyalists of New Brunswick and who suggested that something should be done to mark the occasion.1 We should also note that 2015 marked the 120th anniversary of Esther Clark Wright’s birth and the 25th anniversary of her passing. The year of the conference (2016) was also the centenary of her graduation from Acadia University. The authors’ submissions reveal different aspects of Esther Clark Wright’s life and legacy. Barry Moody shares his various encounters with Wright over the years – a “tireless historian” as well as a “flesh and blood person.” In 1990, upon Wright’s death, Moody and Patricia L. Townsend collected her papers and arranged for their donation to the archives at Acadia University. Townsend comments here on Wright’s letters, manuscripts, and research notes – specifically, the many shoeboxes that were full of little slips of paper. Keith Grant, finishing his doctoral dissertation at the time of the conference, reflects on the ongoing relevance of Esther Clark Wright’s work to a graduate student studying religious communities in Planter and Loyalist Nova Scotia. And Gail G. Campbell completes this forum by reflecting on the significance of Esther Clark Wright’s scholarship, concluding that her work was “too far ahead of the curve to be properly appreciated in her own day. But it ought to be appreciated in ours.” The subject of our panel wrote 15 books and numerous articles over the course of her life, her last book appearing only a short time before her death.2 Many of these scholarly contributions are discussed below. What is clear from this examination is that Esther Clark Wright’s work is still relevant and continues to be used by