Cape Breton Personalities and People
X.114.04
This mural depicts the many individuals who have helped build and shape Cape Breton over the years.
Centre: counter clockwise from bottom: Sister Margaret Beaton, founder of the Beaton Institute. Fr. Moses Coady helped establish the Antigonish Movement. Rev. Norman MacLeod led a large contingent of Highlanders to first settle in Cape Breton. Rita Joe was a celebrated Mi’kmaq poet and activist. Fr. Jimmy Tompkins helped establish the Antigonish Movement. JB McLachlan, wearing a red tie as a nod to his dedication to socialism and workers’ rights. Katharine MacLennan helped champion the restoration of Fortress of Louisbourg. Angus L. MacDonald, was the 12th Premier of Nova Scotia. Ann Terry MacLellan, radio broadcaster and media star. Clarence Claire Gillis was an MP for Cape Breton South from 1940-1957. Canon George A. Francis was the Archpriest at St. Philip’s African Orthodox Church in Whitney Pier. Simon Gibbons was Canada’s first Inuit priest and in 1877 he established an Anglican mission in Cape BReton. Dr. C. Lamont MacMillan served as a physician and politician in Baddeck.
Centre left: Alexander Graham Bell, world renowned scientist and inventor, with Mabel Bell and family at their estate, near Baddeck.
Centre right: Guglielmo Marconi, broadcasting the first official transatlantic radio messages at Glace Bay in 1902.
Lower left, top to bottom: Nate Nathanson, of CJCB radio, with author Hugh MacLennan. Lillian Crewe Walsh, poet and creator of the Cape Breton Tartan. A.J. Moxham beside his residence, known as Moxham’s Castle. Winston Fitzgerald, renowned Cape Breton fiddler. Henry Melville Whitney, an American industrialist who established the Dominion Steel Company. J.G. MacKinnon, Gaelic scholar and editor of the Scottish Gaelic newspaper, Mac-Talla, and Hon. William MacKeen, the first Legislative Counselor for Inverness County.
Lower right, bottom to top: Dr. Malcolm MacLellan, the first president of Xavier Junior College, beside the former University College of Cape Breton (UCCB) crest, and Bishop J.R. MacDonald. Captain John Parker, Master Mariner and maritime historian. Rev. Ranna Cossit, one of the founding settlers of Sydney, depicted with the historic Cossit House. Also featured are Judge’s Laurence Kavanagh and John Handley. The final figures are Johnny Miles who won the Boston Marathon in 1926 and 1929, and Englishtown’s Giant Angus MacAskill, known for his feats of strength.