her hometown of Burk's Falls. Historical status She remains the longest-serving mayor in the history of Webbwood, which was dissolved into the larger municipality of Sables-Spanish Rivers in 1998. Hanley's daughter, Ella Clifford Scutt, maintained a scrapbook of her mother's career accomplishments, which she donated to the Laurentian University archives in 1967. Due to a fire at Webbwood's municipal building, the town's own records from Hanley's time in office have been lost, and the Laurentian holdings are the main extant source for primary documentation of Hanley's career. In 1967, Webbwood's then-mayor Dallas Wood confirmed to The Globe and Mail that the town had never undertaken any serious effort to commemorate Hanley's historic significance, such as naming a street after her or declaring a special event in her honour. He did indicate that he planned to write a letter to the provincial government requesting the installment of a historic plaque in front of the town's new municipal office. A community billboard along Highway 17 at the entrance to Webbwood currently commemorates Hanley's status. In the early 2010s, Canada's federal government rejected a proposal to formally designate Hanley as a Person of National Historic Significance, on the grounds that simply being the first of something was not necessarily a sufficient condition by itself for being named to the registry. Her historic significance has sometimes been overlooked by media as well, with both Marjorie Hamilton in Barrie (elected 1950) and Charlotte Whitton in Ottawa (elected 1951) having been erroneously credited as Canada's or Ontario's first woman mayor. Mike Commito, a history instructor at Laurentian University, was commissioned to write an article about Hanley for The Canadian Encyclopedia in 2015. References 1882 births 1959 deaths Mayors of places in Ontario Women mayors of places in Ontario People from Sudbury District Ontario school board trustees Nipissing University alumni 20th-century Canadian women politicians