2001 Fredericton Encaenia - Ceremony A
Wallace, Eileen
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
ENCAENIA, MAY, 2001
EILEEN WALLACE
to be Doctor of Letters
New Brunswick women have been pioneers as storytellers (especially on the radio), and as authors, librarians, and teachers of reading and literature. Eileen Wallace belongs in this group of pioneers. As a librarian-educator, she has taught generations of teachers, and has permanently enriched our community.
The turning point in her life came when she was eight years old. Her father died, leaving her mother with three young children and the challenge of surviving in rural New Brunswick during the Great Depression. They met the challenge by moving to Fredericton where Eileen attended Fredericton High School and then UNB. Eileen helped pay her way by working in the university library, a harbinger of things to come. She graduated from UNB with honours in French and Mathematics, stayed on briefly to work in the library, and then headed off to the University of Toronto to take library science. She remained in Ontario for several years, attracted by the new regional library system there, something that New Brunswick did not yet have. It was in Ontario where she developed her expertise in children's literature, and became an avid collector of children's books.
Regional libraries came to New Brunswick in the 1950s, but ironically, it was the offer of a position in the Teachers' College that brought Eileen Wallace back to the province. She joined the staff as librarian and instructor in Library Science, which she taught in both English and French. On leave, she upgraded her skills by taking a masters in library science at the University of Michigan, and a diploma in French at the University of Paris. In 1973, with the amalgamation of Teachers' College with UNB, she became a professor of children's literature and library science, and the first head of the Education Resource Centre. Because the resource centre had very few children's books, she began developing her own private collection which she willingly lent to her students. Almost everything she earned from extension teaching went into her personal lending library.
By the time she retired from teaching in 1989, Professor Wallace had over 2000 titles and no place to put them. This is when she convinced the University to accept them as the nucleus of a children's literature collection, to be made available to students and researchers. Today the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection is housed in the Harriet Irving Library. It has over 15,000 volumes. It is managed by a curator and it offers a research fellowship to allow scholars to come and make use of the collection. It has attracted funding and support from alumni, the province and the University, but most especially from Eileen Wallace herself whose generosity has continued unabated. In 1998, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick presented her the Early Childhood Literacy Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the education of children.
To the uninitiated, children's books may seem unimportant, simple little stories that entertain. Yet to Eileen Wallace, they are much more than this. Like Bruno Bettelheim, who wrote about fairy tales so brilliantly in The Use of Enchantment, she has recognized that many children's tales exist in almost all cultures and serve a very important sociological purpose. Some themes deal with the major fears of childhood such as the loss of a parent or separation anxiety. By reading such stories, children squarely face life's predicaments. One of Eileen Wallace's hobbies sheds light on her views. She loves to travel and wherever she has gone, she has collected dolls as souvenirs: not the stereotypical representations of various cultures, but authentic dolls, the kind of dolls children actually play with. What you learn from the dolls, she has said, is that children throughout the world are more alike than they are different. It is this very similarity among children everywhere that seems most to fascinate her in children's literature. She has discovered not only the role of children's stories in childhood development, but a distinctive child's culture that knows no national boundaries, race or ethnicity. It is a culture defined by innocence, curiosity, and the magic of youthful imaginations.
There is thus an amazing unity to Eileen Wallace's life and work. Whether in her teaching, book-collecting, library work, commitment to her community and her church, her travel, or her doll-collecting, she reveals her belief in our common humanity. While she is never didactic, perhaps Eileen Wallace is hoping that other adults will see what she has seen: that children's literature speaks to people of any age, rooting all cultures in the liberating, optimistic world of childhood. For her lifelong commitment to literacy, childhood education, and humane values we salute Eileen Wallace.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
EILEEN WALLACE
to be Doctor of Letters
New Brunswick women have been pioneers as storytellers (especially on the radio), and as authors, librarians, and teachers of reading and literature. Eileen Wallace belongs in this group of pioneers. As a librarian-educator, she has taught generations of teachers, and has permanently enriched our community.
The turning point in her life came when she was eight years old. Her father died, leaving her mother with three young children and the challenge of surviving in rural New Brunswick during the Great Depression. They met the challenge by moving to Fredericton where Eileen attended Fredericton High School and then UNB. Eileen helped pay her way by working in the university library, a harbinger of things to come. She graduated from UNB with honours in French and Mathematics, stayed on briefly to work in the library, and then headed off to the University of Toronto to take library science. She remained in Ontario for several years, attracted by the new regional library system there, something that New Brunswick did not yet have. It was in Ontario where she developed her expertise in children's literature, and became an avid collector of children's books.
Regional libraries came to New Brunswick in the 1950s, but ironically, it was the offer of a position in the Teachers' College that brought Eileen Wallace back to the province. She joined the staff as librarian and instructor in Library Science, which she taught in both English and French. On leave, she upgraded her skills by taking a masters in library science at the University of Michigan, and a diploma in French at the University of Paris. In 1973, with the amalgamation of Teachers' College with UNB, she became a professor of children's literature and library science, and the first head of the Education Resource Centre. Because the resource centre had very few children's books, she began developing her own private collection which she willingly lent to her students. Almost everything she earned from extension teaching went into her personal lending library.
By the time she retired from teaching in 1989, Professor Wallace had over 2000 titles and no place to put them. This is when she convinced the University to accept them as the nucleus of a children's literature collection, to be made available to students and researchers. Today the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection is housed in the Harriet Irving Library. It has over 15,000 volumes. It is managed by a curator and it offers a research fellowship to allow scholars to come and make use of the collection. It has attracted funding and support from alumni, the province and the University, but most especially from Eileen Wallace herself whose generosity has continued unabated. In 1998, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick presented her the Early Childhood Literacy Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the education of children.
To the uninitiated, children's books may seem unimportant, simple little stories that entertain. Yet to Eileen Wallace, they are much more than this. Like Bruno Bettelheim, who wrote about fairy tales so brilliantly in The Use of Enchantment, she has recognized that many children's tales exist in almost all cultures and serve a very important sociological purpose. Some themes deal with the major fears of childhood such as the loss of a parent or separation anxiety. By reading such stories, children squarely face life's predicaments. One of Eileen Wallace's hobbies sheds light on her views. She loves to travel and wherever she has gone, she has collected dolls as souvenirs: not the stereotypical representations of various cultures, but authentic dolls, the kind of dolls children actually play with. What you learn from the dolls, she has said, is that children throughout the world are more alike than they are different. It is this very similarity among children everywhere that seems most to fascinate her in children's literature. She has discovered not only the role of children's stories in childhood development, but a distinctive child's culture that knows no national boundaries, race or ethnicity. It is a culture defined by innocence, curiosity, and the magic of youthful imaginations.
There is thus an amazing unity to Eileen Wallace's life and work. Whether in her teaching, book-collecting, library work, commitment to her community and her church, her travel, or her doll-collecting, she reveals her belief in our common humanity. While she is never didactic, perhaps Eileen Wallace is hoping that other adults will see what she has seen: that children's literature speaks to people of any age, rooting all cultures in the liberating, optimistic world of childhood. For her lifelong commitment to literacy, childhood education, and humane values we salute Eileen Wallace.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
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