It has been just over a year since Susan Saunders Mavor delighted local residents with the launch of her book Westmount – The Tie that Binds the Twin Cities. Now Susan is embarking upon her next major research project as this year’s Edna Staebler Research Fellow. Her mission? To explore the life of the early local entrepreneur and industrialist Talmon Henry Rieder. 
“Rieder was responsible one hundred years ago for bringing Kitchener its most important 20th century industry, the rubber industry,’” Mavor explains. “Rieder also envisioned and planned the Westmount subdivision, destined to become the first planned neighbourhood in Canada.”
Drawing on “the recently discovered large cache” of Rieder’s papers, Mavor will tell, with fresh eyes, the story of Rieder’s life in a way that will enrich the community’s understanding of Kitchener and its industrial heritage.
To create Rieder’s biography, Mavor will also draw on archives found in the Library’s Special Collections and at the Kitchener Public Library.
The Edna Staebler Research Fellowship is awarded for a program of research judged to increase knowledge and expand understanding of the diverse cultures of the folk and founding peoples of Waterloo Region / Waterloo County.
As part of the program, Mavor will submit a final report at the end of the year and will present her findings during a public presentation during Heritage Week in 2014.
For more information, contact:
Head of Special Collections
Ext. 33122
University of Waterloo Library
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
519 888 4883
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