Swiss American Historical Society Review
Keywords
Swiss-Canadians, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
This is truly a Swiss-Canadian book. It not only offers a fact-filled survey of the Swiss presence in Canada's vast province of Ontario, covering some three centuries, but it is also produced by Swiss Canadians. The text is .written by "a descendant of Johannes Etter, a Swiss innkeeper," the study's end page explains; in 1735 he had left Bern, Switzerland, with about 300 others for South Carolina. "Etter's son Peter, a Loyalist, travelled to Halifax in ·1776, founding the Canadian branch of the Etter family." Also the book's artwork is done by a Swiss-Canadian, the painter Rudolf Stussi, and the exquisite interspersed poems enriching the text are by Peter Baltensperger. The printing of the work is done by a firm whose president is H. Rindlisbacher, a descendant of the Bernese Arnold Rindlisbacher who settled in Canada in 1925. The book, furthermore, contains a nuanced foreword by the Consul General of Switzerland residing in Toronto, and the study is dedicated to "The Swiss Abroad in their celebration of the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation in 1291." Although clearly a work of love, illustrated by photographs and eight color plates mainly of immigrants or their descendants, Joan Magee; a reference librarian at the University of Windsor and author of four other books relating to Ontario history, has given the study a professional form.
Recommended Citation
Schelbert, Leo
(1992)
"Joan Magee, The Swiss in Ontario,"
Swiss American Historical Society Review: Vol. 28:
No.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol28/iss2/5