Selma Barkham facts for kids

Selma Barkham in 2014

Selma Barkham (born Selma Huxley, March 8, 1927 – May 3, 2020) was a Canadian historian and geographer. She became famous around the world for her work on the history of the sea in Canada and the Basque Country.

In 1972, Selma moved to the Basque Country. She wanted to research a little-known part of history: how Basque people fished for cod and whales in an area they called "Terra Nova." This area is now part of Canada's Atlantic coast, especially Newfoundland. Her research focused on the 1500s and 1600s.

Over the years, she looked through thousands of old documents in archives in the Basque Country, Spain, and Portugal. These documents helped her discover many important things. She learned about a large Basque whaling industry in southern Labrador and nearby Quebec in the 1500s. She found out where their whaling ports were and even found remains of their old bases. She also discovered that Basque ships, like the San Juan (from 1565), had sunk in these ports.

In 1981, she received the Order of Canada. This award recognized her amazing work and how much she helped tell "the story of this nation." One of the whaling ports she found, now called Red Bay in Labrador, became a National Historic Site of Canada in 1979. In 2013, UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site. In 2015, she was also made an Officer of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Early Life and Family Background

Selma Huxley was born in England into a family of smart people and scientists. Her father, Michael Huxley, was a diplomat and started the Geographical Magazine. His cousins included the famous writer Aldous Huxley and the biologist Sir Julian Huxley. Selma's great-grandfather was the well-known scientist Thomas Henry Huxley.

Her mother, Ottilie de Lotbinière Mills, was Canadian. Her grandfather was Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, a Canadian politician. Selma spent her teenage years in England and the United States during World War II. After the war, she studied at universities in Paris and London.

Moving to Canada and Discovering the Basque Country

In 1950, Selma decided to visit relatives in Canada. She settled in Montreal and worked in different jobs, including as a librarian at the Arctic Institute of North America.

In 1953, she met Brian Barkham, an English architect who loved the Basque Country. He had traveled there to study old farmhouses. Selma didn't know then how much this meeting would change her life. In 1954, Selma and Brian got married and moved to Ottawa, Canada. They started a family and had four children. Two years later, they visited the Basque Country. A friend there told them about the old Basque presence in Canada.

A New Plan for Research

In 1964, when Selma was 37, her husband passed away. She became a widow with four young children. She needed to find a way to support her family. She worked as a historian for the National Historic Sites. One of her projects was helping to restore Louisbourg, an old French fort and fishing port in Canada.

This work made her curious about European fishing trips to Canada in earlier centuries. She became especially interested in trips from the Basque Country because of her personal connection. She decided to research Basque fishing in Canada during the 1500s and 1600s. To do this, she knew she would need to learn Spanish.

At that time, people knew that Basque fishermen and whalers had visited "Terra Nova." However, there was very little written information about their trips.

Journey to Mexico and the Basque Country

In 1969, Selma moved to Mexico with her children. She taught English to support her family and learned Spanish. Three years later, in 1972, she applied for a grant to start her research. She then put her family and belongings on a cargo ship heading to Bilbao, a port in the Basque Country.

However, her grant application was turned down. People thought that this kind of research had already been done. Selma found herself in a difficult situation with little money. But she didn't give up. She believed that the old archives held valuable information. For the first year, she taught English and studied how to read old Spanish writing. She also received some money from a kind Canadian person, which helped her pay rent. Soon, she started finding important documents.

In 1973, she got a part-time contract to find documents in Spain that were important to Canada. She also continued her own research. That year, she moved to Oñati, a town in the Basque Country. She realized how many valuable, unused documents were in the Archivo Histórico de Protocolos de Gipuzkoa there. She lived in Oñati for twenty years.

Amazing Discoveries in Old Documents

Over many years, Selma searched through about 40 different archives. These included church, town, and legal records in places like Tolosa, Bilbao, Madrid, and Lisbon. Slowly, she found thousands of old papers from the 1500s and 1600s. Most were in old Spanish and talked about Basque fishing in "Terra Nova." These papers included insurance policies, lawsuits, wills, and lists of supplies. She also found many documents about other parts of the Basque sea economy, like shipbuilding and trade.

These detailed documents showed her that the Basque people had a very successful cod fishery and a huge whaling industry in Atlantic Canada during the 1500s. By studying these papers, she was able to piece together most of what happened during those Basque fishing trips. She learned about how big they were, how they were organized and paid for, what kinds of ships they used, who was on the crews, their routes, and where they went. She also learned about fishing and whaling seasons, shipwrecks, the lives of sailors, their food, clothes, and even their contact with Indigenous peoples.

Basque Ports in Canada

Selma's research showed that Basque whaling ships, unlike cod fishing boats, went to about twelve ports in an area the Basques called the "Gran Baya." She also looked at old sailing maps and charts.

She figured out that the cod fishermen mostly used ports in what is now southeastern Newfoundland. For whaling, she concluded that the "Gran Baya" was the Strait of Belle Isle. This strait separates Newfoundland from Labrador. The old whaling ports mentioned in the documents were along the south coast of Labrador and a small part of the Quebec coast.

Most importantly, she found the exact locations of many of these old whaling ports and their modern names. For example, the old port of Buttes is now Red Bay. So, she not only showed that a Basque whaling industry existed in Labrador in the 1500s but also found their specific ports.

The archives also held three unique documents from that century that were written right on that coast. These included a sale of whaleboats (1572) and two wills (1577 and 1584). These were the oldest original civil documents ever written in Canada.

Finding Old Remains in Labrador and Quebec

Selma knew from the documents that there must be remains of the Basque whaling presence in these ports, both on land and underwater. She wanted to find them. In the summer of 1977, she organized an archaeological trip to southern Labrador. She explored several harbors and found archaeological remains of Basque whaling bases, including at Red Bay. This confirmed her historical work. An archaeologist named James Tuck joined her expedition.

Among the documents Selma found were some that talked about several Basque whaling ships sinking in the 1500s. These ships sank in specific ports of the "Gran Baya," whose modern names she had identified on the Labrador coast. For example, the San Juan (1565) sank in Buttes (Red Bay).

In 1978, a year after Selma's trip, a team of underwater archaeologists from Parks Canada led by Robert Grenier used Selma's discoveries and detailed information. They searched at Red Bay and Chateau Bay. They found shipwrecks in both harbors that turned out to be 1500s whaling ships.

Selma continued her historical and geographical work alongside the land and underwater digs at Red Bay. Red Bay was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1979.

In 1982, she organized another trip by sailboat. She found 1600s Basque cod fishing spots on the west coast of Newfoundland. She also found more archaeological remains of 1500s Basque whaling in Quebec.

Sharing Her Discoveries and Being Recognized

Selma Barkham shared her research at many conferences and published many articles. Her most complete book is Los vascos en el marco Atlántico Norte. Siglos XVI y XVII (The Basques in the North Atlantic in the 16th and 17th Centuries), published in 1987. Her work has been featured in magazines, books, and documentaries. In 1985, her work and the archaeology at Red Bay were the main story in National Geographic magazine.

She received many national and international awards. When she was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1981, the announcement said she "uncovered a period (1540-1600) in Canadian history about which almost nothing was known." In 1993, Memorial University of Newfoundland gave her an honorary doctorate. They said her work "sparked a wholesale revision of 16th-century Canadian history."

In June 2013, the Red Bay National Historic Site was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This shows how important Selma Barkham's work was to the history of both the Basque Country and Canada.

Awards and Special Honours

• In 1980, Selma Barkham was the first woman to receive the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. This was for her "classic piece of historical-geographical research."
• In 1981, she became a Member of the Order of Canada. The award recognized that she "uncovered a period (1540-1600) in Canadian history about which almost nothing was known." It also said she "discovered the presence of 400-year-old Basque settlements [and sunken ships] in Labrador."
• In 1981, she became a member of the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País (The Royal Society of Friends of the Basque Country).
• In 1985, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Windsor in Canada.
• In 1993, she received another Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.
• In 1999, she received the Sabino Arana Foundation Prize for Culture.
• In 1999, the city of St. John’s, Newfoundland, named a street after her.
• In 2000, the Town of Red Bay, Labrador, named its Town Centre after her.
• In 2002, she received the Government of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.
• In 2009, she was chosen as a Fellow of Wings WorldQuest. This group supports women who are doing important scientific research.
• In 2012, she received the Government of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
• In 2013, she received the Gold Medal of the Oceanographical Society of Gipuzkoa.
• In 2014, she received the Lagun Onari prize from the Basque Government.

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See also

In Spanish: Selma Huxley para niños