The Peter Paul Books and Periodicals Collection (HIL-SPECP) contains over 250 items about ethnography, linguistics, and history of Indigenous peoples, including materials on the Wabanaki, the Wolastoqey language, and local histories of York, Carleton, Victoria, and Maine’s Aroostook counties since 1950.1 Peter Lewis Paul (1902-1989) was a Wolastoqiyik expert on local, indigenous culture, language, and crafts in New Brunswick. In addition to books and periodicals, the archival collection (MG H 151) includes his papers, photographs, correspondence, audio cassettes, maps, memorabilia, as well as minutes and related documentation from political and cultural organizations where he acted as an advisor.
UNB Libraries acquired this collection in 1991, for $ 10,000, with funds from the SSHRC Support to Special Collections Programme and the Yee-Sun Wu Library Fund.Dr. Karl van Duyn Teeter (Harvard, Linguistics), Peter Paul’s friend and colleague, compiled an initial inventory of his library while Dr. Vincent O. Ericksen (UNB, Anthropology) identified items of significance and encouraged the library to obtain a formal appraisal of the collection.3
The research value of the book collection lies in Paul’s margin notations that record his observations on the work of his friends and colleagues.4 Paul shared his expertise as a consultant—a linguistic and ethnographic informant—with prominent anthropologists and linguists, as well as students of First Nations culture in Canada and the United States. His consultations included the artist, writer, and fellow consultant on Wolastoqey culture Edwin Tappan Adney, New Brunswick historian George Frederick Clarke, linguist Karl van Duyn Teeter (Harvard), linguist and curator Ives Goddard (Smithsonian), anthropologist Tom McFeat (U of T), anthropologist Vincent Ericksen (UNB), ethnographer and librarian Nicholas Smith (Ogdensburg Public Library), and Native Studies Professor Andrea Bear Nicholas (STU).5
In a tribute to Peter Paul, Smith calls him “an exceptional and distinguished Maliseet ambassador to the Whites” and credits him with working against the grain, well before the study of First Nations languages and heritage became more widely accepted.6 Among the many tributes paid him was the awarding of the Centennial Medal (1967), an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from the University of New Brunswick (1970) and membership in the Order of Canada (1987).7 After his death on 25 August, 1989, the Canadian Museum of Civilization published In Memoriam: Peter Lewis Paul, 1902-1989.
Related collections: Edwin Tappan Adney Fonds MG H 22 (Wolastoqey culture prior to 1950), Wilson D. and Ruth Otis S. Wallis Fonds MG H 116 (Mi'kmaq of the Maritime Provinces), and Nicholas Smith Fonds MG H 165 (Wabanaki history and cultures).
- 1Patricia Belier, SSHRC Fleeting Opportunities Grant Application, August 27, 1990. Donor File for Carole Polchies.
- 3Chronological notes on meetings regarding this collection from Oct. 1989 to June 1990 [Patricia Belier?]; printout of inventory of Peter Paul’s library (from computer diskette), compiled by Karl V. Teeter, Dec. 20, 1989. Donor File for Carole Polchies; Memo from Mary Flagg to Miss Laidlaw, April 3, 1990; Memo from Vincent O. Ericksen to Judith Colson (Head, Collections Development Section, HIL), July 24, 1990. Donor File for Carole Polchies.
- 4Belier, SSHRC.
- 5Teeter, ed., In Memoriam: Peter Lewis Paul, 1902-1989, 1993, pp. 21-36; Smith, N. N., Antropologica 32 (1990): 265-267, p. 268.
- 6Smith, N. N., Antropologica 32 (1990): 265-267, p. 268. Donor File for Carole Polchies; Teeter, ed., In Memoriam: Peter Lewis Paul, 1902-1989, 1993, Smith on Peter Paul, p. 29
- 7Teeter, ed., In Memoriam: Peter Lewis Paul, 1902-1989, 1993, Obituary of Peter Paul by Smith, p. 6.