The Halifax Explosion had become a taboo topic, and survivors of the momentous 1917 tragedy needed someone like Janet Kitz to finally chronicle their stories, insists historian David Flemming.
“Janet really brought to light an important part of this province’s history because people didn’t tend to talk too much about the Explosion when I was growing up in Halifax,” recalled the former director of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
“A lot of the survivors were carrying a lot of grief, and Janet was not only really good at interviewing people about a sensitive subject but they became her friends. She became their friends.”
Kitz’s 1989 book, Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery, became the foremost comprehensive authority on the disaster, encompassing dozens of unpublished stories, photographs and documents on the historical event.
“All of the sudden a lot of people who had been survivors or were children of survivors saw these stories and wanted to share their stories with the museum,” said Flemming.
“People would call the museum and say, ‘We saw Mrs. Kitz’s book and we have a story to tell.’”
So she kept going, following up her debut book with Survivors: Children of The Halifax Explosion. Kitz became the leading expert on the topic and sparked a surge of spinoff books on the topic.
The Scotland native would dedicate her life to promoting and preserving Halifax and the province’s history, earning many accolades along the way, including the Order of Nova Scotia, Fellow of the Nova Scotia Historical Society and a Canada 125 Medal.
Kitz died at the age of 89 at her Halifax home Friday.
“Janet left her mark on the province, and I think the province of Nova Scotia is much better for it,” Flemming said.
A native of Carnwath, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, she emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1971 after marrying Leonard Kitz, a former mayor of Halifax. The pair had met in Scotland and tied the knot after a six-month relationship.
The school teacher enrolled in Saint Mary’s University anthropology program and quickly zeroed in on the Halifax Explosion. She discovered a forgotten collection of survivors’ personal possessions that were stored in the basement of Province House.
She saw the items as a historical treasure and went about chronicling them, forming the foundation of her forthcoming work. The items would be showcased in the 1987 exhibit A Moment in Time at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
“She found out about bags of this stuff in the basement of Province House that no one had ever looked at,” recalled her stepson, John Kitz.
“It was never a secret that it was there but no one had gone at it.
“Bags and bags of clothes and even locks of hair. She had done archeological digs, and she was sufficiently trained to deal with this stuff.”
She put on the exhibit with Flemming, an experience that left a lasting impression on him.
“These survivors had these memories and all they needed was something or someone to trigger them, and Janet was just amazing at being able to do that, to get them to share very intimate details. She respected the information and she respected them a great deal.”
Kitz was not someone to savour her accomplishments. But there was one in particular, her Doctor of Letters from Saint Mary’s University, that served as a feather in her cap.
“She was proud to get the doctorate from Saint Mary’s because it was a great acknowledgement of her work,” said Kitz.
“She was not a tenured professor writing papers, but that she had that academic recognition of her work and it being well-researched and popular was important to her.”
Kitz remained close to the dozens of survivors she interviewed. Every year she would invite them to her home for tea, and they’d embark on an annual harbour cruise together.
She kept working and chronicling, writing numerous newspaper and magazine articles. She wrote four books, including A History of Point Pleasant Park, which she co-authored with Gary Castle.
The former teacher also devoted a lot of her time to sharing her expertise with school children.
She had other loyalties. Besides being a member of the Halifax Explosion Memorial Bells Committee, Kitz was also a board member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Women's Auxiliary of the Isaac Walton Killam Hospital for Children. She is perhaps best known for her constant commitment to the Point Pleasant Park Commission, where she served as chair.
She set an example that not all important historians have to be academics, insists her stepson.
“She wanted people to know properly disciplined, properly hard-working people can be reputable historians. Yes, they need some training, some peer review, but I think the idea that only tenured professors can write history is not true. I think she proved this.”
