Our Biggest Treasure

Where on earth did a whole year go?? I feel like I just started my position here at MSA Museum but I realized the other day that I’ve been here for over a year now. Summer students have come and gone, exhibits, too, have come and gone, and loads of events. We’ve hosted loads of fun events – Sweet connections, St. George’s Day, Heritage Fair, Nordic Spirit, Optimist Fun fair, the CPR Magic Lantern opening event, Trethewey House Autumn Wine festival, Halloween and just this past week, the Old Fashioned European Christmas Market, to name a few. The House has seen several weddings and some other rentals, and the Gallery has been booked for a variety of meetings and even a birthday party. We’ve also participated in off-site events hosted by others, such as Arbor Day, Abbotsford Police Family Day, Berry Beat, Canada Day, Agrifair and Abbyfest. We would not have been able to do any of this if we did not have volunteers to help us. Our volunteers are our biggest Treasure. We need help with everything from answering the phones and general office duties to hosting school tours to set-up and take-down before and after events. Since I started here, my Treasures have helped me move the whole collection, collapse, move and re-assemble the shelving (who knew Jerry Gosling was part monkey?! He is, I know because I’ve seen him climbing from shelf to shelf ten feet off the floor…), set up and tear down for all of the aforementioned events, pick up and return tents, fencing, lights and other equipment, picked up our recycling and returned our empties, tended to our plants, decorated for Halloween and Christmas, acted as docents, Father Christmas and one room school house teachers, not to mention scared the living daylights out of small children during Halloween. There are a million small tasks that need to get done, but when you add up all the small tasks, all of these little molehills become a substantial sized mountain. Without our volunteers, we’d run out of time to perform a huge chunk of our respective job descriptions. Then there are times when we just need raw muscle, and quite frequently we need someone with a truck larger than mine or, alternatively, someone who can wash linens without turning them pink. Either way, in short, we love our volunteers because they provide vital services to us, but I personally just plain love our volunteers because they are lovely people. Period.

My Many Hats

You know when you go to a party or some kind of event where you meet strangers who may or may not become your friends and/or acquaintances, how, invariably (unless, of course, you’re like me, and you wear your name tag at all times – my boss, Mrs Van der Ree taught me that trick!), the conversation always comes to a point where someone says ‘What do you do?” Well, I am one of those people who do more than one thing, so this becomes a bit of a tricky question... I am the event planner here at the museum, I am an archaeologist who does archaeological research and write articles and reports, and I am also the collections manager at the MSA Museum. So what is it that I do? Well, since you asked…(you did, right?)

As the event planner I am the one who plans special events here at the museum. This includes such things as booking any entertainment, the decorator, vendors and food, buying supplies and anything that we may need for concessions, planning arts and crafts- or interactive activities for the general public, putting together back boards promoting the museum, pitching tents and so on, as well as setting the time, date, place and all that important stuff for the event at hand. I also have to maintain the cost analysis for each event, search for sponsors, manage a float during the event, help a bit with some of the advertising and finding and managing the volunteers for each event, create a footprint of the site, create and stick to a time line, report back to my ED with all of these details and…there are probably a number of things that I’m forgetting to include! My most important tool for this job is probably my truck. I can drive to pick things up and meet with people, and I can haul big tents, signs and boxes and boxes of stuff we need for on- and off-site events.

Although I do wear three hats, I don’t wear a fedora. My name is Christina Reid, no relation to Harrison Ford whatsoever, actually, nor to some guy named Indy or some girl named Lara Croft. And no, I don’t “do” dinosaurs (people, seriously, I am an archaeologist, not a paleontologist).

As an archaeologist, at the moment I do mostly research in metrology, and mostly after I’m done my day here at the museum. Because I am working here at MSA, I don’t currently have a task that entails excavating, but I do use my skills in archaeology for this job, too. Archaeology entails an awful lot of interpreting objects, cleaning them and generally giving them TLC, and that I do do here. The archaeology training complements the conservation training nicely, as it is immensely valuable to know how to write a proper report, journal article or a paper, how to do a condition report, take a photo of an object in the correct manner, know how artifacts are best stored and cared for, how to draw an archaeological object and all of these other things that are drilled into you while you train to be an archaeologist.

It is through archaeology that I have learned how to do something called public archaeology, something that I draw from a lot in my work here. It is, among other things, how to present archaeology as a whole, but also how to present each artifact or object to the public, and how to present the context surrounding it in a valuable way.

My most important tool for this part of my job? Sorry, dear beloved precious, well cared for and massively expensive Trowel, but it’s my knee pads. I can excavate without a trowel, but I can’t walk afterwards without my knee pads. I love them almost as much as I love my dog. (I have the best supplier of knee pads ever: my mom. I love her more than my dog, though!)

Obviously, the collections manager does a lot of research and a lot of conservation work. Conservation work includes such things as taking care of the objects in the collection in general, making sure they don’t suffer damage while they are in my care, cataloguing them all, setting up environmental controls and monitoring humidity, temperature, light and so on, installing and maintaining certain software programs and some hardware for the computers, tracking and recording all the objects within the collection and their details along with a number of other things that are made much easier in this day and age because we now have machinery of all sorts to help us complete the tasks. The research revolves around the objects themselves, the original owners, the time and place that it was created and used in and so on, but it also entails assembling the kits that I’ve written about before and the research around them, plus purchasing objects, ephemera and so on for them, all of which gets put into lesson plans and written documents that are gathered up in a big binder that goes with each kit full of artifacts. Then, of course, there is the planning, mounting and dismantling of the exhibits. That includes creating a layout of the display and a number of exhibit notes and programs as well as transporting the objects to and from our storage facility. In the past, it has been my job to plan and arrange that storage facility together with a number of great volunteers. We’ve still got some fine tuning to do, but it’s livable now!

In my case, I try to plan an event to go with the exhibit, or an exhibit to go with the event. For International Museums Day the internationally flavoured Nordic Spirit photographic exhibit was teamed up with a complementary exhibit of objects and ephemera from our collection along with a living history event. At Christmas we will be doing an old fashioned European Christmas market and tea with the House all decked out for Christmas, and for Remembrance Day I try to create something in honour of out veterans and their fallen comrades.

Most important tool? The computer. Can’t live without it. Or maybe it’s out volunteers, but then again, far be it from me to call my volunteers tools…I’ve learned that in Canadian, that’s not a nice thing to call someone!

So, Dear Reader, what does your hat look like?

Reduce, reuse and recycle – and when in doubt, call me before you throw it out!

I think I already told you I am the collections manager around here. That means that I am the one whom people call when they want to donate something. Most of the time the general public will only call me if they think that have something especially valuable to donate, like very old handcrafted tools or hand crocheted bed spreads. When they come here with their objects, and we chat as we fill out paper work and I look their things over, they often tell me stories like “My grandmother made that for my parents as a wedding gift. I forgot I had it. It was in a box full of Grandmother’s other junk, like costume jewelry, some old toys and an old diary. Stuff with no value, you know? I threw it out a coupe of days ago”. People, please don’t do that! One man’s junk is another man’s (or in my case, collection manager’s) treasure. Obviously, I love things like your great grandmother’s hand made quilt and that single tea cup left from Aunt Edna’s Limoges, but to me there is great value in your old junk. Please don’t assume that it’s junk to me – I am, after all, trying to furnish a complete 1920’s household. There are two beds in the house, but I bet I have at least three bed spreads for each bed. What I don’t have is the “junk”, as in the pillow cases and the bottom sheet and the blanket that goes under those bed spreads. People throw those out, because they have been used and look the part, and people have no idea how valuable they are to us here at MSA. But if there is hand tatted lace on the pillow case, someone took the time to make it, and if someone stitched the pillow together, it’s still special to me. A strip of lace like that takes just as long to make as some of the quilts in my collection. Night shirts and bloomers take a long time to make, too, and I am not embarrassed when you bring them, either… And besides, what’s a bed without at least one sheet, and back then, who would have slept in it without night shirts? And ladies, men’s things other than tools are also valuable (I have very few items in my collection that have anything to do with the things that men did, unless they are tools and work related objects – I know pioneer men did not have all that much free times to pursue hobbies, but surely there must be a harmonica or at least a whiskey glass somewhere out there?). I would love to have your old 1920’s costume jewelry. Why? Well, because it shows fashion of that era, and it’s the kind of jewelry that Joe Blow’s wife would have been able to afford to wear to church. Diaries show the stories of regular people. As an archaeologist, I know that many, many everyday activities are now lost in the mists of time because they were so everyday that it was assumed we’d always remember how to do them. If we found a diary of a lady who lived in the 1200’s, we’d know skyr. Bet you don’t know how to make skyr. I do, but only because I studied the topic and did experimental archaeology type things with the material, and because I got my greedy little hands on someone’s old diary! I love your old monogrammed kitchen towels – and bathroom towels, too, for that matter. Again, not that I don’t love your fancy marble busts, I really do, but you know, it’s really nice to have knick-knacks that everyday sort of people would have had in their homes, too. So next time, before you throw it out, call me!

The other thing that comes into play is stuff like family Bibles. I recently had to turn one of them away. It was a beautiful example of a family Bible, with terrific tie-ins to the community and it was in pristine condition, to boot. The catch was that if I wanted it, I had to display it permanently. I have had similar offers for uniforms and other such things. Here’s the problem: A. If you display something in the wrong humidity, the wrong temperature and/or the wrong type of lighting 27/7/365, your precious object will suffer damage. Not immediately, but over time. Also part of the equation is that if I displayed all the items that had been offered to me under the condition that I display them permanently in this small museum, the walls would explode and collections objects would spill out onto the street. I just can’t do it, folks. Not right now, anyhow. B. Family Bibles and uniforms are of great sentimental value to you, but in terms of a museums collection, they may not have anywhere near as much value to us as they have to you. Then they should stay with you. Last week when I was searching for yet another good home for yet another exquisite Bible, I was told by more than one archivist that family Bibles are the scourge of museums and archives. I wouldn’t put it so harshly to the people that come here and offer up their beloved family heirlooms, but sometimes what is valuable to you is not to me, but the box that you stored the item in, although junk to you, merely a container, may have been of great value to me – until you threw it out. So, again, please don’t throw it out before you ask me. I love your old junk!

Lament of a Lonely Collections Manager

All my summer students are gone for the year. Not that I don’t enjoy working with the other staff, but it sure is quiet around here…

This blog was set up by “my” summer students, as I affectionately call them. I really enjoyed working with these ladies. I am the collections manager around here, and I was their immediate supervisor. Of course, I have my own supervisor, so I hope that between us, we were able to provide the students with some new valuable skills. Although I was the one that kept pushing for a blog this last year, the technology was all new to me. It didn’t take the students very long to familiarize themselves with this whole thing and set it all up, though. I suppose I will have to try my best to upkeep this blog so that it can be used by next year’s students, too… Anyhow, the point I am trying to make is that they taught us just as much as we taught them. People tend to think that summer students come to a position to learn skills and gain something valuable to put on their resumes, but that is a one-sided view. One mustn’t forget the valuable skills that they bring to the employer. Each student that walked through our door this year brought their unique personalities with them. It has been my pleasure to learn from them to the same degree as they have learned from us.

Each person in this world will have a different take on one topic. Most of the time, we try to fit in, be alike, because that’s the best way to get along, or even get ahead. Occasionally, however, it is beneficial to focus on the things that make us individuals. At MSAMS we have tried to bring out the differences in the students. We were fortunate to be able to work with a group of students that had very diverse backgrounds, interests and skill sets. Between them, they spoke five different languages. Each student was studying a different subject at school. Vineet wants to become a doctor, while Cassandra wants her career to be in geography! Each student was uniquely connected within their own community, and so, each student could provide us here at the museum with new contacts to groups that we had never come into contact with before, and they made suggestions of groups that we would otherwise never have thought to contact. These new contacts were happy to participate in a variety of ways form volunteering to performing at events.

These differences that the girls brought were put to use in updating our educational kits. The kits consist of objects that have been donated or purchased by the staff, photographs and other ephemera along with historic research, lesson plans, interviews and so on. These kits can be rented by teachers, scout leaders or other persons interested in teaching children about history and heritage. The idea is that children can “touch and feel” the objects and photographs to enhance the learning experience. Since we at the museum wanted to update the existing kits, I asked the girls to contribute something to a given kit. I gave them basic guidelines of what I wanted, provided them with some basic tools and told them that these kits were their kits. I wanted each kit to have a unique flavour of whoever put them together. That way, more than one person can contribute to the same kit, as each person will have a different take on the same subject. For example, Vineet and Linda worked on the same kit, but chose two completely different topics.

The girls went all out with the idea of the kits. At the end of the summer, I now have three truly spectacular kits to add to the already existing ones, and three more are on the way. The experience was so successful that I have expanded the group of contributors to include our volunteers. We are still collecting historical objects that we can use in them, so if you, Dear Reader, would like to contribute something to them, either an object or a write up, here is your chance. Just contact me at the museum and I will make arrangements to have this happen!

-Christina

Celebrating Arts and Heritage in Mill Lake Park August 28th and 29th.

As most of you are aware, Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley are homes to many different cultures and religous groups and most of these groups share their culture with amazing arts, dances and music.

The MSA Museum and the Abbotsford Arts Council are happy to be hosting the Arts and Heritage Unity Festival at Kariton House at 2387 Ware Street.

Come learn about the varying culture groups in an open environment. Have you ever wondered the tradition behind the Sikh turban or the Kirpan? The Shan E Khalsa Gurmat Academy would be happy to explain it to you! We will also have representatives from the Muslim Mosque explaining Ramadan, Xay:tem longhouse sharing cedar bracelet making, The Abbotsford Genealogical society teaching the importance of a family tree and so much more!

Local musicians will light up the stage, from country, to solo guitar and traditional Indian instruments.
Sun hang do will be there to show you how to kick some butt, with a korean twist.

Come learn bhangra, weaving, wool dying, henna and rangoli in our demonstration tent for a hands on look at these beautiful traditionals that make Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley such a strong, blended community.

Let education bridge cultural gaps in a fun, interactive outdoor environment!
Saturday 11AM-8PM
Sunday 11AM-4PM

SEE YOU THERE!!

The prints from the CPR Magic Lantern Exhibit!

Hello!

Just in case you guys haven't heard. The Trethewey House is hosting an exhibit known as the Prints from the CPR Magic Lantern. I spent all of last week organizing our heritage home, preparing it for 50 large prints. I got the opportunity to hang the artwork myself, with the help of fellow student Pam. What a hard job when you consider that we cannot put any nails into our plaster walls from 1920! Thank goodness for J.O. Trethewey's extensive use of picture rails throughout the house (and Reta Trethewey for demanding it!).

These blown up digital prints were created by local artist Micheal Lawlor and will be dipslayed in our heritage home from August 15th to October 20th, 2010.

These prints were blown up from hand painted slides that were usually smaller than a 4X6 standard photograph (!!). These meticulously detailed slides were backlit by candlelight and shown to people worldwide hoping to evoke interest in settling in Canada.
All of the scenes and locations showcased were able to be seen or accessed via stops along the Canadian Pacific Railway. There's a stop specfically in Abbotsford!

Stop by between 9am-12pm and 1pm-5pm every day for a tour of our heritage home and to take a look at visions seen from the National railway that shapped our beautiful city in the country!!

-Kay

Day camps and Agrifair

Hello everyone. Last week was our first week of day camps and it was a success! Even though we only had four children, each day was educational and fun-filled. The kids enjoyed every activity that we had planned, although Tomb Raiders on Egyptian day seemed to be the most popular. The kids wrapped us (the leaders) up in toilet paper and tried to steal the "treasure" that the mummies were guarding in the gazebo. Even though I tried my hardest to catch the tomb raiders, they still beat the mummies every time! I feel as though the kids learned a lot each day, especially on Heritage day, when we gave them a tour of Trethewey house and concluded with a scavenger hunt. The children left MSA Museum with much more understanding on what every day life was like in 1920s Abbotsford.

photo cred: Pam

From July 29th to August 2nd, the MSA Museum had a booth at the 100th annual Abbotsford Agrifair & Rodeo. We were able to promote our upcoming exhibit-- Prints from the CPR Magic Lantern Slides (1885-1930) which will be on display at the Trethewey house from August 15th to October 20th. We were also able to tell people about our fall programming, which includes the free and family friendly Autumn Light Festival. This event aims to bring the community and families together while celebrating the wonderful tradition of light festivals. The summer students are lucky enough to be planning this event, but unfortunately we will not be around to see it come to fruition as we will all be returning to our respective universities for the fall.

We are also still working on our educational kits and are aiming to have them done by the time the new school year rolls around. Elementary school teachers will get to choose from a variety of kits, including but not limited to: School Days (what school was like for children in the 1800s), Crossing the Pacific (the story of Sikh, Chinese and Japanese immigrants to Canada), Outlaws and Heroes (self-explanatory). Thanks for reading and hope to see you here at the museum one of these days!

LB

Outlaws and Heros

Hey Everyone!

Lately, I've been doing lots of research for an educational school kit for children called Outlaws and Heros! This kit is going to be all about the pioneer era, focusing on a few infamous outlaws of the Wild West, some of whom, like Billy Miner, actually lived in B.C. in their lifetimes. Before this kit, I had never really been a Wild West fan, but what I've learned so far has really changed my mind. The exciting lives of these Western outlaws bring up countless important historical questions about the societies they lived in and the events that influenced their actions. Questions such as, who were these people? What brought them to break the law? What was the law system in the U.S. like in the late 1800s and early 1900s? How is it comparable to the justice system both the U.S. and Canada have now? How did the invention of trains effect their lives? What about the Gold Rush? How did the police force try and stop the crime? And of course, how did all these elements effect this area of the lower mainland? Those are only a few of the questions I will be answering in the school kit and the information will come with fun props and pictures to further illustrate what it would have been like to have lived in the pioneer era. If you have any information that you think would be fun for kids about the Wild West, the RCMP, or trains, I'd love to hear it!

Friday, I got the chance to look through old magazines and books from the early to mid 1900s. Some of them were even from the 1920s! I love looking through old literature to see what people thought, what people liked and what was in style almost 90 years ago. It's neat to think that while some things have changed, many things have definitely stayed the same!

Don't forget to sign your children up for a week-long MSA Museum summer camp! Everyday is a super fun but still educational theme! The dates are: July 26-30, August 9-13 and August 23-27. The camps are for kids who are 6-10 years old. It is $75 for the week, and only $65 if you are signing up two or more kids!

Pam

Summer fun

Hello again everyone!

Sorry that we haven't updated our blog in awhile, things just get so busy here during the summer! We'd like to thank everyone who came out to dig for treasure with us at Rotary Stadium on Canada Day. Even though the weather wasn't the greatest, we still had a blast! Also, Berry Beat on July 3rd and 4th was a great success! We really enjoyed face painting all the little kiddies and we hope that they had lots of fun gold panning with our awesome volunteer, Lydia. I know I did! Even though those fun-filled events are over, the planning continues. Unfortunately, our first week of day camps was cancelled due to low registration. However, the other three camps (July 26-30, August 9-13, August 23-27) are still going full steam ahead, it's still not too late to register! Give us a call at 604-853-0313. Also coming up next month is our CPR Magic Lantern Exhibit. This exhibit will feature over 50 framed prints taken from 1885-1930, a true showcase of Canadian history. We are very excited to host this exhibition, which will run from August 15th-October 20th. Come stop by for a visit!

Hope to see you soon.

LB

Optimist Family Fun Fair!

Hello all,

This is Kay and this is the first time I've written in this MSA Museum Blog. I'm the local summer student! I go to the University of the Fraser Valley while the other girls come from further instutions such as the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Concordia University in Montreal and University of Ottawa.

Thanks to all of those who came out to the Optimist Family Fun Fair this weekend. The weather was beautiful and there was a fantastic turn out. This free, fun family event had multiple acts like Sun Hang Do, The Magic Boyes, the FreeStyle Dancers, Brook Harris and many more performers that showed off the talented children we have in Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley. I'm so happy to be a part of such an active community and generous community as many of these acts were volunteers. It was wonderful to see a community work together to put on a fantastic fun-filled event.

A special thanks to the Optimists who had their hands full handing out free hot dogs and juice boxes. Without them this event would have been impossible. They truly reached their mandate on Saturday as the event brought out the best in many local children. :)

It was a wonderful feeling to plan a big event and have it materialize. One of the students was only able to stay for an hour of the day. Poor girl. After putting all of the effort into planning the fair, I'm so glad I was able to help it succeed the day of.

Thanks again to everyone involved in making the day wonderful. Volunteers, Optimists, performers and community booths. I hope to see you all again next year!!

-Kay

June 19th: The Optimist Family Fun Festival

This weekend we had The Optimist Family Fun Festival at the Trethewey House Grounds. It was a great hit with kids and parents alike. The hard work was definitely worth the resultant success. Children were giggling, dancing, and smiling their way to all the fun stations set up. The sun was bright and the breezy afternoon was perfect for such a fun day. The lineup of children, eagerly waiting with their families to play a game of bocce, to race at the obstacle course, to look through an astronomer’s telescope, get a turban tied and at dozen other stations was pleasure to see. Our staff at MSA Museum thanks all that attended the event and we hope to see you all again next year and those who couldn’t make it to the event this year, do not worry, our annual Optimist Family Fun Festival will be back again next year.

Sidhu

Some children enjoy the sack race.

Sun Hang Do had a very cool show for us, which also included brick-breaking!

 

Dixie Gold and his balloons were quite popular, he had a line-up the entire day!

NSM² Bhangra wowed us with their colorful and energetic performance.

Introduction

Hi everyone! We are Museum Assistants at the MSA Museum Trethewey House Heritage Site! We have started this blog to network within the community and inform everyone about upcoming events taking place at the museum. We will have posts about artefacts, kids camps and our experiences working here at Trethewey House. We will also post pictures and descriptions of past events. We invite you to leave your comments, feedback and suggestions for future events and exhibits. We hope to see you on a tour very soon!

Pam and Sidhu