Awards
The L.M. Montgomery Institute gives out three awards at the Biennial Conferences.
Elizabeth R. Epperly Award for Outstanding Early Career Paper
Dr. Betsy Epperly grew up loving the work of L.M. Montgomery, drawn in and to the special place Montgomery created, Prince Edward Island. She excelled as a student, and pursued Montgomery, but those two roles did not overlap, at least officially, because Montgomery was considered to be not a “suitable” subject matter for serious academic study. Doctoral work was completed instead on Anthony Trollope, and then Epperly fitted in Montgomery scholarship, or fitted in work and life around Montgomery scholarship, playing her role in establishing the field of Montgomery studies. Along the way Epperly became President of Montgomery's alma mater, the University of Prince Edward Island.
It was the imagination and the tenacious and relentless work of Betsy Epperly that got things started, and that have done so much to sustain and to nurture the LMMI. That nurturing is no more evident than in her role as mentor, and especially mentor to new scholars.
Recipients
Josephine Rafe
“Queering the Home: The Queer Domesticity of Green Gables”
The committee characterized Lee’s essay as engaging research in both Montgomery criticism and queer theory, as well as presenting an intriguing development of the conference theme. It presents a nuanced and sophisticated argument that considers the queering of time, space, and place by demonstrating the fluidity of gender roles past, present, and future. We were especially intrigued by Lee’s discussion about the reciprocity of queerness and the blurring of traditional gender roles in Anne of Green Gables and found that the argument moves scholarship beyond binaries. As Lee writes, “Nothing is straightforwardly one or the other.”
The Rev. Dr. Francis W.P. Bolger Award
Dr. Francis W.P. Bolger was a Professor Emeritus of History at UPEI and a member of the Order of Canada. Mid-career, Bolger was shown a series of recently uncovered letters written by a teenage Lucy Maud Montgomery to her cousin, Penzie Macneill. Never having been encouraged to read Montgomery’s works, Father Bolger was astounded by the quality of Montgomery’s mind and writing. He soon became one of her most vocal champions, and his book, The Years Before Anne, played a significant role in legitimizing the serious study of Montgomery. He co-signed the grant application that led to the founding of the L.M. Montgomery Institute and chaired the first LMMI symposium in 1994. He also supported the L.M. Montgomery Land Trust and for more than twenty years he chaired the Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace Trust Board.
The Rev. Dr. Francis W. P. Bolger Award is presented for outstanding contributions to our appreciation of Montgomery and place in Prince Edward Island, through scholarship, education, preservation, creative works, or by other means.
Recipients
Kevin Rice and the Honourable Antoinette Perry, Lieutenant Governor of PEI
Kevin Rice
Gallery Director, Confederation Centre of the Arts
Leaving a studio practice in the visual arts, Kevin Rice joined the nationally recognized public Confederation Centre Art Gallery, serving first as registrar and curator and, since 2009, as Director. In each of those roles Kevin has been, daily, involved with preservation and scholarship and inevitably with education, overseeing the creation of literally hundreds of exhibitions that celebrate Canadian art and its diversity. Those large and small exhibitions foster a love of place – of Canada as a nation and of Prince Edward Island as a place of inspiration and beauty. Among the Island artists his Gallery has featured, such as Robert Harris and Elaine Harrison, Kevin Rice has made a special place for L.M. Montgomery. He has collaborated on five major real-time Montgomery exhibitions and two on-line, including the most recent Digital Museum Canada one that features, annotates, transcribes, and contextualizes the whole manuscript of Anne of Green Gables. Since the very day of its launching, in April of 1993, Kevin Rice has been a good friend of the L.M. Montgomery Institute. All of Kevin Rice’s career recommends him for the Rev. Dr. Francis W.P. Bolger Award, “making outstanding contributions to our appreciation of Montgomery and place in Prince Edward Island.” Those who have worked directly with Kevin know there is also something else that makes this recognition of educative excellence especially appropriate. One colleague says of him, Kevin “has the great gift of balance, combining a gentle demeanour with admirable firmness. (He may be soft-spoken, but he is by no means a soft touch!)” Kevin Rice encourages the people he works with to feel that they are invaluable contributors to a large, vital, creative, Island-based cultural enterprise. And we thank him for so warmly supporting PEI, Canada, artists, and the Arts.
L.M. Montgomery Institute Legacy Awards
This award recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions in building Montgomery scholarship and/or public engagement may be awarded biennially in conjunction with conference. This award is not necessarily awarded each conference. The recipient(s) receives a framed certificate; a plaque, with space to recognize recipient(s) for multiple years that will be placed in the LMMI space in the Robertson Library. Recipient(s) will be identified by the LMMI Committee.
Recipients
Linda and Jack Hutton with Honourable Antoinette Perry, Lieutenant Governor of PEI
Jack and Linda Hutton
Bala's Museum with Memories of Lucy Maud Montgomery
Linda Jackson-Hutton and Jack Hutton have made Bala, Ontario a must-see destination for all admirers of L.M. Montgomery. Through their own labor, “sweat equity,” and resources, they have re-stored and preserved a place that the author loved and in which she found rest, beauty, and inspiration for her popular novel, The Blue Castle. Yet, it was Anne of Green Gables that launched Linda and Jack into this unexplored realm of Montgomery’s work. Following their honeymoon to Prince Edward Island in the summer of 1990 and immersion into Anne’s world, they returned home to Bala to discover that Dr. Mary Rubio had been inquiring about a two-week vacation that L.M. Montgomery Macdonald and her family spent in Bala in 1922. At the end of a phone call with Rubio, Linda decided they would buy the old Tree Lawn house where the Macdonalds took their meals and make it into a private museum, featuring L.M. Montgomery and the Bala community of the 1920s. After two hard years of restoration, they launched Bala’s Museum With Memories of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Four hundred guests heard keynote speaker, Mary Rubio, at the official opening on July 24th, 1992. The Museum has been open for 32 years since then, delighting more than 150,000 visitors from more than 40 countries. Linda and Jack have become life-long friends to many of these visitors. The Bala Museum was awarded a Heritage Designation from the Township of Muskoka Lakes in 2013. The Huttons wrote and published a beautifully designed book, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Bala: A Love Story of the North Woods, for Blue Castle fans, highlighting their careful research into the connections between Maud’s book and the Bala community. Jack and Linda have sleuthed out possible locations in the area found in Blue Castle as well as context for its characters. In 2008, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Anne’s publication, the Huttons created and premiered their re-enactment of the long-lost 1919 Anne of Green Gables silent movie for the LMMI conference attendees. Linda read from the original script alongside images from the movie while Jack, a highly-acclaimed ragtime artist, provided the dramatic piano accompaniment. Linda and Jack make a fuss over everyone, and now is the time to make a fuss over them. Their perseverance and enthusiasm as museum hosts and their indefatigable support of L.M. Montgomery’s international legacy has been a boon to tourists, neighbors, friends, and scholars everywhere.
