INVENTING CANADA: VICTORIAN INVENTORY SCIENCE AND CANADIAN NATIONBUILDING, 1830-1880

Science had close links with the nationbuilding process in Canada during the Victorian age. It provided organizing principles which altered the ways in which Canadians perceived themselves and their place in the world. This thesis seeks to analyze the contribution of inventory science (geology, terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and botany) to the idea of a transcontinental Canadian nation. These inventory sciences sought to identify the country's resources, thereby to assess its potential.;Part II deals with terrestrial magnetism and meteorology. These geophysical sciences placed Canada in larger Imperial and North American scientific networks. Both emphasized Canada's northerly geographic position. In geomagnetism, (Sir) J. H. Lefroy made unique Canadian contributions to auroral researches. He also convinced Canadians to undertake responsibility for the Toronto Observatory. In meteorology, Egerton Ryerson instituted a Grammar School network of observational stations which foreshadowed a wider British North American network. New theories of moderate Northwestern climate redirected Canadians' attention, superseding older beliefs that Canada's own climate would improve with cultivation.;Part III discusses botany and its growing emphasis upon the geographical distribution of plants. George Lawson founded the Botanical Society of Canada at Kingston in 1860. Rival botanists hoped to direct such work elsewhere in Canada. Botany formed an intellectual root of the myth of the North, permitting Canadians to justify their evolution away from their British heritage to unique Canadian forms moulded by their North American experience.;The thesis concludes that the achievements and ideas of science encouraged nationbuilding in Victorian Canada. Inventory science therefore gave a particular shape to Canadian national development.;The dissertation is arranged in three parts. Part I examines the contribution of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), directed by (Sir) William Logan. Logan's conclusion that Canada contained no coal expanded the horizons of Central Canadians who looked eastward and northwestward for the mineral bases of industrialism, especially coal and iron ore. Logan's work on the Laurentian Shield added to Canadians' appreciation of the antiquity of British North America. International prestige gained by the GSC reinforced Canadian national pride.