By Anja Binkofski, Chloe Utting, Sydney Wildman
In “Nothing Shocking: Black Canada,” Katherine McKittrick writes that the discovery of a Black presence in Canadian history often leads to a sense of surprise, which is “is followed by an experiential curiosity, wonder” (93). This sense of wonder is “inevitably attached to new sensations, new ideas, that were previously unavailable” (93). We applied this notion of “wonder” to our research on the Bollen family in Guelph, which revealed them to be an upper-class, interracial family who has resided in Guelph since the 1800s. This unexpected discovery of the Bollens demonstrates a different narrative of Black life in Guelph from 1860 to 1960 that counters assumptions of Black identity and experience.
We first discovered that Charles Bollen –the oldest known generation of the family to live in Guelph – owned around 5 properties on Toronto Street and owned his own barber shop. An interview with Shirley Heal, a descendant of the Bollen family, in 1997 discussed how Charles himself was Puerto Rican, and therefore the Bollen family was interracial from the 1880s. In the next generation, his daughter Evelyn married John Duncan, a black man, which lead to a generation of Bollens that were visibly interracial rather than passing as white. In the interview, Heal discusses a dispute between Evelyn and her family regarding her marriage with a visibly Black man which led to her exclusion from the family. This discovery of an interracial family in this time period led us to uncover an unexpected narrative of interracial mixing and cooperations shaping Black life in Guelph.
Charles’ profession as a business owner, with multiple properties, led us to discover that in addition to being an interracial family, the Bollens had an upper-class status which seems to have continued through generations. This contrasts with the data we found in the Guelph census of 1861, 1871 and 1881 (above) which shows a majority of Black people were working-class, employed as labourers, servants, whitewashers, butchers, and barbers. We can infer that because of the Bollen family’s ability to be business owners, they were economically better off than the rest of the Black community in Guelph.
The Bollens’ class status is further shown in the family portraits we found in the Guelph Civic Museum archives. These photographs situate the Black family in a manner that echoes 19th century upper-class, British portraits. These portraits assert the sophistication and luxury of the family, as signified through their formal appearance and the background of the home they were taken in. These photos allow the family to visually assert their Black and upper-class status – two notions that are not typically linked in the 1900s in Guelph and beyond.
We discovered a fascinating photo of Bill Stickland, a close family friend to the Bollens and the husband of Rita Bollen. The photo shows Bill in 1930, standing in front of an airplane he built himself. We found this to be an unexpected – and interesting – discovery. For Bill to build this plane he would have had money to purchase the materials, access to a mechanic shop and high technology tools, and knowledge of mechanical engineering. This photo further implies the class privileges and social status of the Bollens and, again, highlights the contrast the life experiences and opportunities between the Bollens and the average Black individual and family in Guelph. A life story like Bill’s challenges the view of a single shared Black experience in Guelph.
With our collected data from the directories of 1975-1960 we mapped out the addresses of black families in Guelph and found the Bollens’ properties on Toronto street were across the river from the rest of the Black community’s residence. Most of Guelph’s black residents’ homes were on Essex, Durham and Nottingham Street, surrounding the BME church which was a community hub. This special discrepancy leads us to wonder why the Bollens were separate from the Black community. One possibility is that their financial, and interracial, status allowed them to assimilate or integrate with the white Guelph community, while other Black individuals were marginalized or segregated to the same, specific neighbourhood. This visual map helped us to further situate the Bollens’ narrative in relation to the other Black members of Guelph.
We believe that retracing the forgotten histories of Black lives is important to challenge the stereotypical view of Guelph as a predominantly white, rural space. Families such as the Bollens show how blackness has always been present, and integral, to Guelph’s community. In addition, the Bollens offer an unexpected narrative of Black life in Guelph and demonstrate there is no monolithic narrative of black experiences as each family is unique. With our research we have uncovered a potential way of reading one family’s incomplete history. We now ask you to consider what else can be uncovered about this family. What other histories could be discovered if more people engage with the recovery of black history in Guelph? Start wondering!