Louise Manny & Lord Beaverbrook
Dr. Louise Manny
Louise Manny was born in Gilead, Maine, in 1890. At the age of 13 she moved to Newcastle with her mother and father where she was educated at Harkins Academy. She later went on to study at St. Mary’s Academy, Halifax Ladies College, the Ursuline Convent in Quebec City and McGill University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and Honours in French and English in 1913.
Dr. Manny briefly returned to Halifax Ladies College to teach before returning to Newcastle to assist her father, who was in failing health. It was then she began her life’s work of collecting and preserving books and writing about shipbuilding on the Miramichi; Kent County and Bathurst.
At the insistence of her old friend, Lord Beaverbrook, and with his assistance, Dr. Manny began collecting folk songs and folklore in 1947 as they both had an interest in preserving the musical heritage of the area. She would travel up and down the River with her ‘portable recording machine’ coaxing shy and reluctant individuals to pass on their words and music.
She began hosting a radio show every Wednesday to great success. Wednesday however, was a work day and various managers were finding that their personnel would be missing for the hour the show was on. The show was then changed from Wednesday to Sunday, which helped it to gather an even bigger audience.
Manny’s radio show planted the seeds for the Miramichi Folk Song Festival, which has evolved into the longest running folk song festival in Canada.
When Lord Beaverbrook undertook restoration of ‘The Enclosure”, his gift to the Province, he entrusted Dr. Manny with the task of making sure the natural beauty was preserved.
After buying back his boyhood home, Lord Beaverbrook had it refurbished and donated it to the City of Miramichi. He also supplied several thousand books sent over from England, and it became recognized as “The Old Manse Library”. Dr. Manny served as the librarian from 1953 to 1967.
In 1968 Manny wrote a book in collaboration with Dr. James R Wilson called “Songs of Miramichi” with the aid of a Canada Council Grant.
Because of her immense contribution to the preservation of Miramichi’s heritage, Dr. Manny was awarded two Honorary Doctor of Law Degrees by the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University. She was also one of eleven Canadian women to be awarded a Centennial Award by the National Council of Jewish Women at Expo ‘67.
In July 1969 the New Brunswick government named a mountain, Mount Manny, in the Historians Range in her honour.