John English / Dictionary of Canadian Biography from Canada's History.
Established with a bequest from British-born Canadian businessman James Nicholson and launched by the University of Toronto and the Université Laval in 1959, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada (DCB/DBC) is the most important sustained research and publication project on Canadian History.
The DCB/DBC is published in French and English editions that are the same in content and that are published simultaneously. So far there have been fifteen print volumes, and book compendiums about Canadian prime ministers and Canadian entrepreneurs. The online version, available since 2003, provides access to the entire dictionary as well as to selected biographies from unpublished volumes covering the period after 1930. Attracting over one million visitors a year online today, DCB/DBC has made available over 8,400 biographies and is serving an increasingly broad audience.
Canada’s History, in granting the Pierre Berton Award for 2012 to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada, recognizes its contribution through the collaboration of philanthropists, universities, government, and historians to the popular appreciation of our past.
The DCB/DBC's achievement is its extraordinary combination of scholarship and accessibility, which has made it our country's most reliable biographical source of information on the great names of our shared past to three generations of Canadians.
Learn more about this award-winning project.
About the award
The Pierre Berton Award celebrates those who have brought Canadian history to a wider audience. The recipient(s) will receive a medal and a $5,000 cash prize at a special award presentation.
Canada's History established this award in 1994 for distinguished achievement in presenting Canadian history in an informative and engaging manner. Canadian writer and popular historian, Pierre Berton, was the first recipient and agreed to lend his name to future awards. The award continues to honour those who, like the award's namesake, have introduced Canadian characters and events of the past to the national and international public.
Read the criteria for eligibility
The Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media — The Pierre Berton Award will be presented at Rideau Hall by His Excellency, the Governor General of Canada in December. In addition to a medal, and an all-expenses-paid trip to the celebration events in Ottawa, the winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize from Canada’s History Society.
In the delicious fashion of home movies, host Marcel Sabourin and well-known personalities have presented family moments ranging from marriages, making maple syrup, and watching Rocket Richard in Madison Square Garden.
Steady scholarship, dry wit and an appetite for public debate are the qualities that made Professor Desmond Morton the 2010 winner of the Pierre Berton Award.
Fascinated with storytelling, individual experience, and Canadian symbols, Paul Gross, actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, in his multiple works, has been single-minded in highlighting subjects from the Canadian past.
In 2008, the group behind the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project won for their critical-thinking tool in the form of historical "cold cases." Launched in 1997 for Canadian secondary-school students, the site has become a major force in online education.
Mr.McKenna has consistently demonstrated his exceptional ability to tackle the challenges of communicating history through a modern media with originality, determination, and a deep respect for those whose stories he tells.
Historical biographer Ken McGoogan is a globe-trotting ex-journalist who survived a shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, placed a commemorative plaque in the High Arctic, and chased the ghost of Jane Lady Franklin across Tasmania.
The Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media: the Pierre Berton Award is presented by Canada's History.
When you visit Chapters-Indigo via our website links and make any purchase, Canada’s History receives a commission that supports our programs.