Susanna McLeod
Special to Ontario Construction News
Constructed with regal stateliness, Canada’s Parliament Buildings convey solemnity, authority and strength. However, a closer look at the Centre Block on Parliament Hill alleviates the sober impression. The sturdy walls are softened by a cultural treasure chest of images: animals, plants and trees, plus statues and carvings of Canadians in action. Building on artistic achievements of her male predecessors, Eleanor Milne was the first woman to be appointed the Dominion Sculptor. Her contributions are unparallelled.
Chief architect John Pearson (1867-1940) had a vision for Centre Block, rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1916. Managing all aspects, Pearson “conceived the building as a total work of art,” said Senate of Canada in “Visionary Genius,” October 13, 2020. Selecting “a cream-coloured limestone with a subtle mottled texture and occasional fossil traces,” Pearson’s carvers complained that the stone was too coarse for carving. The architect switched to Indiana limestone for several sections, “a smooth stone with virtually no grain,” for the finer artwork.
Launching the creative program in the 1930s, Cleophas Soucy was Canada’s first stone sculptor with a crew of carvers. The men created “major carvings in the Senate, the Main Hall and at the base of the Peace Tower” between 1936 and 1940, said Ken Desson in “Parliamentary Carvers” in Canadian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 1982.
Paused during WW2, carving was restarted in 1947. On Soucy’s death in 1950, professional sculptor Karl Oosterhoff was hired as the next Dominion Sculptor. By this time, skilled stone carvers were in short supply and Oosterhoff instituted on-the-job training. However, the workers could not produce the same level of exciting images as past teams… until Eleanor Milne was hired.
Devoted to art and carving, Milne (born New Brunswick, May 14, 1925) enrolled at Montreal’s School of Art and Design at Museum of Fine Arts, training under some of Canada’s finest artists such as Group of Seven’s Arthur Lismer. Graduating in 1945, she continued to hone her artistic talents at McGill and in London, England. Well-rounded, Milne gained skills in anatomy drawing as well as wood sculpture.
Entering a national competition, Milne “edged out 21 competitors,” said Desson. As the third Dominion Carver and the only woman to reach the prestigious post, Milne soared. She planned an expansive 16-panel frieze for the House of Commons foyer, titled ‘The History of Canada Series.’ The ambitious wall measures over 36 metres in length.
Canada’s history evolved from hard stone, beginning with the emergence of Indigenous peoples. The arrival of European explorers and colonists progressed into United Empire Loyalists making Canada home during the American Revolution. Due to each panel’s massive size, carving was done onsite rather than in the studio; Milne and her team frequently “worked late at night, on a narrow scaffold twenty feet [over 6 metres] above the floor.”
Initially designing plaster models, Milne advanced to preparing master drawings for the breathtaking stonework. The sculptor “draws them full scale in charcoal onto the stone, in readiness for each of us to do our part in transforming the lineal image into three dimensions,” Milne writes in Captured in Stone: Carving Canada’s Past (Penumbra Press 2002). The carving team and assistants used pneumatic tools to bring the drawings to life, with Milne adding the final touches with chisel and hammer.
Encouraging her team’s freedom of artistic expression, “Milne gave the men verbal clues as to the details, allowing them to contribute their own ideas that Milne feels added to the vitality of the works,” stated “Eleanor Milne Album’s Carvers and Assistants,” Library and Archives Canada. Well-trained, the creative team carving “decorative details at which they are fully competent, [and] design and execute some of the non-human, non-floral elements called for in the Parliamentary sculptures,” Desson noted.
A fountain of creativity, Milne temporarily put her chisel aside to produce 14 large-scale stained glass windows in the 1970s. The colourful Gothic-style windows were produced by Russell Charles Goodman for the House of Commons.
Receiving an honorary degree from Carleton in 1987, Rose Eleanor Milne was awarded Member of the Order of Canada the next November for her work as “Canada’s Official Sculptor,” and “acknowledged expert in restoration and gold-leaf work, stained glass windows, bronze casting, wood carving, and steel and wood engraving.” On retirement in 1993, Milne’s successor was Maurice Joanisse. In 2005, Phil White took up the carving tools, and the Dominion Sculptor today is John-Philippe Smith, leading the government’s exquisite carving projects. The inspiring Eleanor Milne died on May 17, 2014.
Experiencing the magnificent carvings highlighting Centre Block is an immersion in Canadian culture. Inside and outside, historical faces peer back at visitors; squirrels, beavers, flowers, maple leaves, and flawless scroll work present a magical story of Canada, much of it Milne’s enduring legacy in stone. Presently closed for renovations, the engaging Centre Block will reopen in approximately 2030.
© 2025 Susanna McLeod. Living in Kingston, Ontario, McLeod is a writer specializing in Canadian history.
Sources:
“Carvers and Assistants: Eleanor Milne Album,” Library and Archives Canada.
Retrieved from https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/milne/carvers.html?nodisclaimer=1
Desson, Ken. “The Parliamentary Carvers,” Canadian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 1982. Retrieved from https://revparl.ca/5/3/05n3_82e_Desson.pdf
“Member of the Order of Canada: Ms. Rose Eleanor Milne, November 17, 1988.” The Governor General of Canada. https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-3064
Milne, Eleanor. Captured in Stone: Carving Canada’s Past, Penumbra Press 2002.
“Visionary Genius: The artisans who built Centre Block in stone, wood and iron,” Senate of Canada. Retrieved from https://sencanada.ca/en/sencaplus/how-why/visionary-genius-the-artisans-who-built-centre-block-in-stone-wood-and-iron/#:~:text=Paul%20Beau%20was%20an%20iron%20master%20who,Medieval%20flourishes%20*%20Canadian%20plants%20and%20animals
