Shédiac Historique/Historic Shédiac

Richard Wilbur is author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and H.H.
Stevens, 1878–1973, and co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story. His latest book is Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs:
Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Bruns

This latest volume in the Images of Our Past series presents the text in
both of New Brunswick’s two official languages, which is especially
appropriate for what is probably the most bilingual community in the
province. Following the well-established series format, the two Acadian
authors give a brief history of their community, first in French and
then in English, an approach that is faithfully reflected in the photo
captions—some of which are so brief that many pages are half blank.
The more elaborate explanations include the five pages illustrating the
1933 visit of 24 Italian air force hydroplanes, which touched down in
Shediac’s well-sheltered bay en route to and from the New York
World’s Fair. A few years later (1937–39), Shediac Bay was the
regular stopover for trans-Atlantic flights of Pan American Airways’
giant seaplanes. The book’s seven sections are of varying lengths from
11 to 27 pages and cover chronologically Shediac’s transition from a
small coastal port, to a rail junction, to what has become a bustling
summer cottage and tourist centre that its boosters proudly call “the
Lobster Capital of the World.”