Fonds F1498 - Roberta MacAdams Price fonds

Roberta "Berta" Catherine MacAdams, 1881-1959, was born in Sarnia, Ontario, and received a teaching certificate in domestic science from MacDonald Institute in Guelph, and a domestic science degree from University of Chicago. In 1911 she moved to Edmonton where she joined the government's agriculture extension service. In 1915 she was Superintendent of Domestic Science in Edmonton Public Schools and assisted in the introduction of home economics courses to Alberta high schools. She also prepared a government survey which led to the formation of Women's Institutes in Alberta.

During the First World War she was a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and served as a dietitian in a London military hospital. She was the first woman to be elected to the Alberta Legislature and was elected as the armed services representative, holding the seat from 1918-1920. In 1919 she was a women's counsellor for the Soldier Settlement Board. She married Harvey Stinson Price in 1920 and they had one son, Robert G. The Prices lived in Peace River and then settled in Calgary where Roberta was active in the Calgary Local Council of Women and other organizations. In 2016 a school in Edmonton was named in her honour.

For further information see Debbie Culbertson's article, "The Other Vote Goes to the Sister" in Beaver. -- vol. 82, no.6 (December 2002/January 2003), p. 28-33; and Give Your Other Vote to the Sister : A Woman's Journey into the Great War / Debbie Marshall. -- Calgary : University of Calgary Press, 2007.