In carefully researched scenes and richly illustrated panels, a new graphic novel is bringing to life the hidden histories of eight women who lived on the margins of Saint John over a century ago.
Former SSHRC postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gemma Marr and Saint John-based artist KC Wilcox are uncovering the stories of eight women who worked in the sex trade in Saint John around the turn of the 20th century. Their work merges historical research with artistic expression, offering a compelling perspective on Saint John's history.
Writer and literary scholar Dr. Gemma Marr, coordinator of The Lorenzo Society and part-time instructor in the department of humanities and languages at the University of New Brunswick's (UNB) Saint John campus, recently completed a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship in UNB's department of historical studies, where this groundbreaking project began.
Marr's research on deviant sexuality in New Brunswick led her to records from an obscured corner of history what was known as one of Saint John's "unsavoury precincts.1
These findings are now being transformed into a graphic novel titled, There is a Moral in This, that tells partially fictionalized stories of women who lived and worked in the locale at the height of Saint John's industrial development.
"My postdoctoral research began with looking for any historical material related to supposedly deviant sexuality in New Brunswick," said Marr.
"I knew the easiest way to find this would be to go to institutional records, as often that's the place where sex workers would be most traceable."
This led Marr to the Saint John County jail records from 1880 to 1920.
"I began seeing the same names over and over again. There was a group of women being charged with things like breaking windows, vagrancy, swearing, drunkenness but their sentences didn't match their crimes," she said.
"They were jailed for upwards of six months rather than the standard month or two."
Following her interest in these women, Marr had a breakthrough moment when she found three of them listed in the 1911 census.
"They were inmates in jail at the same time. The census includes addresses, so as soon as I saw those, I realized they all lived on the same street."
And that's how Marr discovered Sheffield Street, now known as Broadview Avenue in Uptown Saint John.
"Sheffield Street is nearly impossible to find online, and it doesn't exist in many academic sources," Marr noted. "There's a reason for that: it had characteristics of what we may consider today to be a red-light district.
"Sex work history is extremely sidelined. This is also the history of an impoverished area. This is the kind of space people have wanted to ignore," she said.
While it's difficult to find information about Sheffield Street today, it grew to infamy after the Great Fire in 1877 and until construction began on the Armoury in 1911.
"It was in newspaper headlines all the time. Moral campaigners were constantly talking about it. Religious figures were constantly talking about it," Marr said.
"It was described as a boil on an otherwise healthy body.2
The women who lived and worked on Sheffield Street were very enterprising, Marr said.
"It was the perfect location [for the trade] with the exhibition grounds, soldier barracks, the port railway and dozens of factories nearby. There was a lot of male movement through this space."
Marr joked that she became obsessed with the women, combing through documents and compiling information to find out more about them, but there were limitations.
"There are almost no photos of the street. There are no first-hand accounts from the women. Every document we're working from is institutional, which comes with its own biases," she said.
Marr noted that the women were distilled into institutionalized markers in the records: hair colour, eye colour, age, crime, sentence, nationality. But occasionally, she would uncover pieces of their personalities.
"I found these little kernels. Margaret Sullivan, for example, after the Great Fire of 1877, walked up Sheffield Street, filled her aprons with rocks and threw them at windows in protest. She didn't like how the buildings had been rebuilt," Marr chuckled. "I just think that's so fiery."
These details provided a foundation for character development in the graphic novel.
"The question became, how do I use the real historical documents and turn them into something that holds true to the historical account, while also humanizing the experiences of these women?
"Instead of saying, there are gaps in the historical record,' is there a way that we can address the gaps, notice the gaps, and then try to imagine?"
Marr partnered with Saint John-based artist KC Wilcox to breathe life into these gaps through her artistry.
Last November, they travelled to London, England to present their work at the 14th International Illustration Research Symposium, held at the University of the Arts London. Their presentation highlighted the creativity and innovation inherent in their project, demonstrating how art and research can intersect to uncover and amplify the voices of vulnerable populations.
"I'm currently using fire insurance plans from the Provincial Archives to create a sketch model of the buildings on Sheffield Street," Wilcox said of her progress.
"Gemma and I are always discussing the details of the records. What was the material of the buildings? What did these women look like? How can we add details that reflect snippets of their personalities that Gemma has been able to extract? How can we tell this story so the women are well-rounded and distinguished characters?"
Wilcox believes graphic novels are a great entry point for learning and absorbing history.
"They allow us to relate to characters and to form empathetic connections across time," she said.
"The graphic novel creates this really fantastic opportunity to rethink what knowledge making and storytelling can look like in an academic context," added Marr.
The two hope There is a Moral in This will be accessible to a range of readers.
"I want somebody from the south end of Saint John to be able to pick up this story and say, Cool. This happened where I live,'" said Marr.
There is a Moral in This aims to preserve a piece of Saint John history while challenging narratives that have long been suppressed.
Marr and Wilcox wish to honour the experiences of the women of Sheffield Street, offering a nuanced and empathetic portrayal of their history a stark contrast to the aloof historical records.
"We're hoping to include copies of some of the institutional documents in the graphic novel, as a reminder that this is itself a document another retelling. It was created in response to an absence of information," Wilcox said.
Marr agreed.
"In the same way that we're addressing that this material is mediated through institutions, male gaze, etc., this graphic novel is mediated through us, and ignoring this fact would be doing the same thing in a different way," said Marr.
"It's important that we bring attention to this."
Weaving together research, storytelling and artistic interpretation, There is a Moral in This promises to shed light on a silenced population whose unique legacies have contributed to shaping the Saint John of today.
If you wish to follow along as the project unfolds, follow Gemma Marr (@gemeowl) and KC Wilcox (@kc.wilcox) on Instagram.
1 This quote comes from the Evening Times. The article was published in the September 25, 1906 issue, on page 4. The full quotation is: "[Sheffield Street] is a menace only to those who go out of their ordinary way to reach its unsavoury precincts."
2 This is a quotation from the St. John Star (also from September 25, 1906): "There is no question that Sheffield Street is a disgrace to Saint John, sticking up like a boil on an otherwise healthy body. But after all it may be better to have the impurity concentrated to one boil, than to have pimples breaking out all over the body."
