Dr. James (Jim) A. Burns has long loved bones, especially those of Ice Age vintage, but he also has a soft spot in his heart for words... and history.
Jim has combined the two in his book Fire, Folly and Fiasco: Why it took 100 years to build The Manitoba Museum (Woolly Mammoth Publishing, 2020). It worked! He was the recipient of the 2021 Margaret McWilliams Award for local history from the Manitoba Historical Society
After high school, in his native Toronto, Jim earned a B.A. in Zoology from the University of Western Ontario, followed by an M.A. in Physical Anthropology at the University of Toronto. The latter course fostered a never-ending interest in bones—both human and animal—from archaeological excavations, but it became too routine. Seeking higher adventure in 1974, he joined the late Prof. Alan Bryan, an archaeologist at the University of Alberta, to analyze animal bones from two caves in the Rocky Mountains. The antiquity of these remains (>22,000 years) gave them another dimension, and exposed Jim to the world of Ice Age paleontology. His fellow student and colleague, Dr. Phillip Currie—the noted dinosaur hunter—found his inspiration in the bottom of a box of Rice Krispies; whereas, Jim found his in the bottom of a mountain cave!
Expected to study medicine like his father and grandfather, Jim opted for an almost heretical alternative, pursuing instead a doctorate in paleontology at the University of Toronto. You don’t need to cultivate “bedside manner” to be a palliative caregiver to ancient bones.
Jim was soon appointed Curator of Ice Age paleontology at the Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, renamed Royal Alberta Museum in 2005 by HRH Queen Elizabeth (in person; she’s shorter than you might imagine). From 1983 till his retirement in 2006, Jim—a.k.a. Dr. Indiana Bones—indulged his passion for bone-fondling, amassing what was then Canada’s largest collection of Ice Age fossils. In the process he wrote or co-authored more than 35 scholarly papers and book chapters on Alberta’s fossil record.
His long-time love of words was also put to work during those years at the Museum, first editing the Museum’s newspaper, newsletter, and scientific publications—the Occasional Papers series of monographs, and later all gallery texts for new Museum exhibits. This spawned a concurrent career editing books—20 and counting—on natural history and other themes.
Jim wrote a novel about life in the Ice Age of Alberta for a juvenile-age audience. Of course it was rejected! Numerous times. But it planted the seeds for future writing projects after he married journalist, theoretical physics buff, and “news junkie”, Sheilla Jones. About that time (2008), a virulent disease called familiae genealogia struck, and it nearly killed Jim. The genealogy was so consuming that all else was left in abeyance. However, with both parents long deceased and many secrets to unearth, Jim had little but the likes of www.ancestry.com and a slew of city directories, newspapers and the Internet to consult. And what a rush!
Jim discovered relatives who had dedicated their lives to the Salvation Army in its formative years in North America. His great-grandparents, John and Jennie Southall, had devoted more than 40 years each to the Army, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Growing up next door, Jim saw his great-grandfather often—and remembers him well—though “the Colonel” was a reserved gentleman with Parkinson’s disease, prone to introspective contemplation, who seldom spoke—his voice small and raspy from decades of “public oratory”. Eight-year-old children have no sense of history; so Jim was only vaguely aware that the Colonel had been a Sally Ann officer. And what was that, anyway? It never occurred to Jim to ask the dignified former officer about his career and that of his by-then deceased wife of 58 years. And then this weary warrior for God—he, too, “laid down his sword”, at 91.
Salvation Army Brigadiers John and Jennie Southall with their children, 1902, Winnipeg.
Five years of research into his family’s careers in the SA provided Jim with enough information to write a book about the Southalls and their families (privately published), which immediately proved inadequate, given the volume of new information that kept popping up. However, it offered a rich historical background that inspired Sheilla and Jim to create a murder mystery series with a quirky, intriguing, initial premise. Jennie Southall’s mother, Ensign Matilda Langtry, is the inspiration for the central character and protagonist of the “Blood and Fire” mystery series. By sheer coincidence, great-great grandmother Matilda “was promoted to glory” from Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1901 and was laid to rest there, in Jim’s current hometown.
The saga of Jim’s great-(step)-grandfather, Martin J. Downs, also has provided essential ingredients for a future plot. Downs has been described as the most famous Canadian circus owner ever. Jim had heard from his mother only that Downs was involved in the circus: nothing more. The Downs circus saga, as it turns out, is as much fun to research as a top-flight circus performance is to watch. It has also been written that Downs’ circus gave considerable competition to the likes of the Ringlings and other large circus companies in the early 1900s. Thus, a hardy new shoot of family pride has peeked through the dust of the past, in a family never disposed to talking about its progenitors.
Jim’s editing career continues. He was editorial assistant for In Search of Canada's Ancient Heartland (Heartland Assoc., 2015), and edited The ROM Field Guide to Ontario Butterflies in 2014 for the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. His fingerprints are all over the journal Manitoba History, where he is the copy-editor and an occasional contributor. His interest in murder mysteries continues, too. Having all this fascinating family history to work with, Jim and Sheilla are set to bring whodunit fans some unique mysteries involving the Salvation Army during the final cowboy days of America’s Pacific Northwest. It may sound like an odd place for two Canadians to set a story, perhaps, but the impetus is borne on experiences of real-life people—the dramatis personae, forsooth—behind our unique stories.
Fire, Folly and Fiasco: Why it took 100 yeas to build The Manitoba Museum, Woolly Mammoth Publishing, 2020
Jim Burns, as a dapper gent in costume on the back lot in September 2014, gets a behind-the-scenes look at the shooting of the syndicated TV series The Pinkertons as an extra. The Pinkertons is a historical Western drama set in 1869 Kansas City. The first season was in production from September 2014 to March 2015, and aired on WPIX (CW).
It's all butterflies! The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto showcases The ROM Field Guide to Butterflies of Ontario in the gift shop following launch of the book in July 2014. Jim is the proud editor.
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