Whew!

I've spent most of my time these past couple of days scanning and photographing and typing out instructions - but our collection of Stitches in Time (needlework patterns from museum pieces) is almost complete!



There they are - eight of them, from cross-stitch to crochet, reproduced from objects in the Museum's collection by the ladies of the Creston Valley Embroidery Guild. Note I say "almost" complete, for two reasons.  First, I still need to scan and print two of the patterns (the hardanger placemat with the turqoise cover on the right, and the child's nightgown with the pink cover in the back left), and I want to revise that pink cover so it's not quite so ... painfully pink. It's not too bad in this photo, tucked in the back as it is, but in real life, seriously, it hurts.

And secondly, there are only eight objects reproduced here - and the Museum's collection contains, quite literally, hundreds of beautiful textiles. So there will be more coming - just not perhaps this week. The Embroidery Guild ladies who created these ones for us have all said they'd love to do more, after gardening season is over.

The original textiles, the Embroidery Guild's reproductions, and the completed patterns (along with a few other fascinating needlework bits from the collections) are all going on display right now.  Laura and Krista spent the day gathering things and arranging them in our Community Display Space, and it looks fantastic.  They'll finish up tomorrow, and the Stitches in Time exhibit will open on Friday.

I would like to introduce you to our summer staff - the people you'll see a lot of when you come down to the Museum this summer:



First, we have Laura Mann and Ethan Guthrie, in the centre. They're funded through Young Canada Works, and will be our primary front-of-house staff - the ones who will work with our volunters to give the guided tours, staff the gift shop, and plan our summer events.  You'll also see them helping set up the special exhibits we have planned, such as "Stitches in Time," which opens on Friday, or the ArtWalk show that's happening in July and August.

Naturally, everyone around here has to be prepared to give tours - that's the only way we can handle the really busy days. But a couple of our summer students only do that when needed - they have special projects that they'll be focusing on.

Krista McAlduff, on the left in the photo, is funded through BC Arts Council, and she'll be working on new exhibits in the Outdoor Shed. Over the years, with new donations coming in and a renovation a few years ago that required almost everything being moved out of the Shed, our collection of farm implements and other large objects has got pretty badly disorganised. Krista will help fix that, starting with four exhibits relating to the agriculture industries of the Creston flats. So right now, she's knee-deep in archival documents, trying to sort out the wild hay, peas, grain, and other things that have been grown out there over the years.

Christiana Samai is our last student to join us this summer. Her project deals with our artifact storage areas. Ideally, we should be able to find any object in the Museum's collections within five minutes - and we are almost there.  This summer, thanks to funding from Canada Summer Jobs, Christiana will be finishing an inventory of the storage areas, and updating the database, so we can (finally!) reach that goal!

That's a lot to accomplish in one summer!  Keep in mind that all of this is happening during the Museum's busiest season - so on top of all this, our summer students will be serving about 3,000 visitors.  Obviously, we couldn't possibly do all this without our summer students - and we couldn't hire them without funding.  So here's a huge thank you to the organisations who provide the funding for our students:

Young Canada Works in Heritage Organisations - Canadian Museums Association
Canada Summer Jobs - Service Canada
Co-op Placement Program - BC Arts Council

Murray Palmer brought in this photograph yesterday:



I've seen many photos of the trestle over the Goat River Canyon - we have several different ones, taken at different times, some with trains, some without, even one when the framework of the trestle was completely encased in a huge wooden box. But this is the only one I've ever seen in colour!

Even better is the caption marked in the lower right corner, though it's virtually impossible to see in this scan.  It reads "Goat Canon, below Elko."

Apparently, whoever took the photo wasn't real strong at either spelling or geography!

The Creston Museum is very proud to present:



Yep, that's right, we have the first three pattern booklets ready to go!  Well, the covers are being printed right now, and the booklets will be ready to go by Tuesday.

These are embroidery, sewing, and crochet patterns inspired by some of the beautiful textiles in the Museum's collections. The Creston Valley Embroidery Guild designed the patterns, and reproduced the pieces, and turned everything over to us to compile them into booklets. In addition to the one shown above - which is a cross-stitch sampler - we have booklets finished for a colourful griffin (also cross-stitch) and one for a baby's bib, which includes both the embroidery pattern (shadow-work or satin stitch) and the sewing pattern to make the bib itself.

Other patterns that are about to be turned into booklets are: a Christening gown or child's nightgown (sewing and embroidery), a crochet round pillow cover, two beginner-level embroidery designs inspired by ladies' handkerchiefs, and a more elaborate embroidery motif taken from a bedspread.

Future projects - and there are many - include Ukrainian embroidery, redwork, more cross-stitch, many tablecloths and runners, and a stunning crewel-work fireplace screen that I've been itching to tackle for a few years now.

Check them out in our gift shop - in person or online! We'll also have the original pieces and the Embroidery Guild's reproductions on display in the Museum throughout the month of June.

And, of course, a huge thanks to the ladies of the Embroidery Guild for their enthusiastic and very skilled support!

Congratulations to the Quilts for Kids' ladies who quilt at the Museum!



They have achieved a major milestone in the donation of quilt number 1001, which, along with four others, was brought up to the Creston Valley Hospital yesterday.

That's one thousand and one quilts made for sick children (and occasionally other people in need) in local and regional hospitals, Children's Hospitals, Ronald McDonald houses, on First Nations reserves in two provinces, and even Guatemala.

Did I mention the ladies have made all those quilts in less than five years - since moving into the multi-purpose building at the Creston Museum in August 2007?

Wow!  Way to go, Quilts for Kids ladies!  (Who told me they would really, really, really like to thank their supporters in the community - John Kettle for the annual grants, and all the people who have donated money or quilting fabrics or batting or who have driven quilts to their destinations.)

I told my summer students that there'd be some days when hardly anyone came in to visit the Museum. And I told them that there'd be some days that are so busy, they don't get a chance to sit down and breathe between tours. I don't think they believed me about that last one - but they sure do now!

There's nothing like a long weekend to get people out of the house and doing stuff, and nothing like a festival to get them doing stuff in their own town.

In other words, we had a pretty busy weekend here at the Museum - and about half of those visitors came in yesterday. So I would just like to say congratulations to summer students Laura and Ethan and volunteer Elva, who handled a crazy-busy day in style! Great job, everyone.

One question that came up for them yesterday was that of group rates - who gets it, and when? We do have a group rate of $2 per person, and we offer that to any group of five or six or more people.  You don't have to be a formally-organised group, and if you have name-tags or some other identifier, you don't even have to come in all together. So if you've got a family event or school reunion or even just a whole bunch of company arriving at once this summer, give us a call and we'd be happy to arrange something special just for you!

I hinted the other day that there was lots of new stuff down here at the Museum, and promised to tell you more about it - so here you go:

We have new artifacts in the collection, including this beehive that Lew Truscott brought in, which will soon be part of a new display on the beekeeping history of the Creston Valley:



We have new things in our gift shop, and more new things arriving shortly, including a book published by the Rossland Museum about the West Kootenay Power electrical line across Kootenay Lake:



We have new summer students, who I'll introduce to you properly next week, who are ready to show you all the other new things down here (this is Laura showing a good sized group the model railway this afternoon):



and we have four new signs about to get put up, to help you and everyone else find us:



So, really, you should come visit. It might be full of old things, but there's all sorts of new things down at the Museum!

You know that expression "You learn something new every day?" Well, these last few days, it seems that every time I turn around I'm learning something more about local history.  Here are a few examples:

In 1919, there was something called "Miss Candy's Hospital." I learned about that one in a birth announcement I looked up for a visitor. I don't know where it was, but in the 1920s there was a maternity hospital on 10th Avenue North, in the building that until recently housed Nadan Nessie's.  Maybe they were the same thing - that's something I'll have to check out, one of these days.

The Canadian Pacific Railway changed the colour of the smokestacks on its steamships.  Prior to 1908, the smokestacks were black; after that, they were painted buff with a black band at the top.  And, after 1942, the Nasookin had a black smokestack with a white band around it, about two-thirds of the way to the top. Also, the Kuskanook started life with a tall stack, and later got a shorter one (I don't know why - that's something else I'll have to look up!)  Do you know how many hundreds of photos of steamships I've looked at, and never noticed the different colours?

The barges that the CPR used on Kootenay Lake, to transport box cars, originally had little houses mounted on the posts of the barge.  These little houses were required because the tug boats, that pushed the barges all over the lake, were too low - they only had a single deck, with the wheel house on top of it. As a result, the captains of the tugs couldn't see over the box cars, and that caused a few problems when they were trying to bring the barges in to a wharf. So one of the crew members would go up into the little houses, which, because they were on the posts, were considerably higher than the tugs, and guide the captains in to the wharf.  Later, the CPR began building their tugs with a second deck, which eliminated the need for the barge houses.

Among the last boxes that Wynndel Box and Lumber produced in its box factory were ammunition boxes for the US Army - during the Vietnam War.

The Depression-era relief camp near Gray Creek is one of the very few in the province that can still be seen.  The Gray Creek Historical Society is working on putting up a sign to tell people more about it.  One of these days, I hope to take a closer look at the old camp - so far, I only have to take Tom Lymbery's word for it.  But, since his family has owned the Gray Creek store for the last century, and Tom himself remembers the relief camp, I think that's a pretty good authority.

And, by the way, today (May 18) is the day that the first outbreak of foul brood in bees was detected in a local apiary - that of J.W. Head of Lister. Foul brood is a nasty bacteria, easily spread from one part a hive to another and from one hive to another, and can live for up to forty years so it's extremely difficult to get rid of. That was back in 1921, and I think they've long-since dealt with the threat - but it seems ironic that I read about foul brood only one day after Lew Truscott was in talking to me about the current challenge of Colony Collapse Disorder. I think there's an I Love Creston article coming up on the issues facing beekeepers, now and in the past.

Well, it has been a busy couple of days, and I have lots of new things to tell you about - new signs, new students, new information, new artifacts ... but all that will have to wait because I've got some more important things to say, first.

As you know, we opened our Great Depression exhibit on Saturday, and that's something that would not have happened without the help of some pretty awesome people.  First, Kathryn Holmes spent hours and hours and hours over the winter, going through newspapers, gathering information about how the Great Depression impacted the Creston Valley.  If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have the exhibit at all.

Secondly, a big part of any opening event is the food - and the food we had on Saturday was definitely a huge hit with everyone who attended.  It looked fantastic, tasted even better, kept the Great Depression theme going throughout, and was even made from recipes out of cookbooks published in the 1930s.  Ann Day did the baking, with some notable contributions from Helen Lankhaar.

And, finally, we need to thank all the people who contributed to the exhibit in so many ways: The local long-timers who provided information and some very moving stories; Vicki and our summer students who helped install it; John Dinn for contributing the name; and everyone who came out to the opening on Saturday.

Thanks, everyone, for making a great afternoon possible!

It's not just me - everyone gets sidetracked around here!

This morning, Chuck T. came in looking for a newspaper article about a fire at the Palm Confectionery. He knew it happened on July 1, but wasn't sure of the day. We looked through four years, going straight to the first issue of July in each year, which means we looked at a grand total of four newspapers, before we found the article in 1947.  But we still managed to get Chuck sidetracked three times.

And this afternoon, I was showing my summer students how to find information in the archives collection, and gave them a little family-history request to answer - one birth announcement, and one marriage announcement. They also got sidetracked almost instantly by the old newspapers; here they are, reading them:



They found the birth announcement, then started reading all the little jokes and stories, the horoscopes, the articles on cooking with microwaves, and the ad for a "hydroponic farm" for sale. It said it was growing vegetables and herbs, but this was in 1977, so naturally, we were all wondering just what kind of herbs they were talking about...

What a fantastic afternoon!  Any day that we have thirty or forty people coming down to spend two or three hours at the Museum, checking out a new exhibit (and maybe some of the old ones), talking with old friends, sharing stories, and just generally having a good time - that is always a good day.

Here are a few photos from the opening reception for our new exhibit, "Getting By ... and Coming Through:"



Part of the exhibit itself - three of the six panels, each of which addresses a particular theme. One of the challenges with creating an exhibit on the Great Depression is that we're looking at a time period when people really didn't have much - and so the number of artifacts available to include in it is pretty small!  That's why we've made very heavy use of photographs, newspaper article,s and personal recollections on the panels.



The first few people to arrive for the opening - and within five minutes, they were talking to each other, sharing stories, and discussing what they were seeing in the exhibit - or, in many cases, what they remember living through.



And it was perfect weather to continue the conversations outside, on the patio, helped along with fantastic refreshments, all made from recipes from 1930s cookbooks. We owe a huge huge thank you to Ann for all her work making them, and to Helen for the very 1930s-inspired additions.  And double-kudos to Ann for the suggestion of serving everything in Depression-glass dishes - it made for a very lovely table:



If you missed the opening reception, don't worry - the exhibit is on all summer, and hte Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 to 3:30.

We're also going to be working on an expanded, online version of the exhibit - but you might want to come down and check it out in real-time, because that's going to take us a little while!

Today, I spent most of the day finishing up the last little bit of the exhibit we're opening on Saturday, and I'm very happy to be able to say - it's 90% done. We've just got a few last minute touches to do tomorrow, and then we're ready for Saturday!

Now, because I really want you to actually come down and see the exhibit, I'm not going to show you much of it here. But I can't help showing you one of my favourite parts of it:



This is a timeline that goes all the way across one wall of the exhibit (I know it looks here like it's on a folded piece of paper - that's because I had to take five photos to get the whole thing in). On the left is 1929, and 1940 is on the right. The blue line is the Gross National Product, and the green line is national income from farm production. Although we couldn't find statistics specifically for the Creston Valley, that green line is probably a really good indication of how dramatically local residents' income changed during the Depression years.

The accounts we've found in our research certainly seem to confirm this.  The worst year of the Depression for the Creston Valley, according to newspaper articles and other sources, was 1933; after that, things were steadily improving and the outlook was increasingly optimistic.  This is clearly echoed in the timeline - that green line hits its lowest point in 1933, when farm product income fell to only 15% of what it had been in 1929.

Want to see more?  The exhibit opens at 1:00 on Saturday! You can read a little more about it in this week's Creston Valley Advance or in May's I Love Creston magazine, too.

Seriously, with an exhibit to open on Saturday, I don't have time to get sidetracked.  But I did, today, try as I might to avoid it.  Here's what did it:



Click here to see a larger version of this photo and read more about it!

On Saturday, we had what I like to call our "Hands-On Day" here at the Museum.  I think that sounds better - more interesting, anyway - than "Clean-Up Day," but that's really what it is. It's the day we clear away a winter's worth of dust and cobwebs from the Museum's exhibits, and get the place ready for the summer.

We had eight volunteers down here, and the place looks fantastic!



Vicki and Cecile tackled the big rooms in the main part of the Museum; Norm swept the whole place, helped rearrange a couple of big artifacts, and dealt with the trapper's cabin (lots of bugs there, as you can imagine!);



Wendi and Bunny tackled the Founders' Hall - and let me tell you, renovating that building three years ago has made a huge difference to keeping it clean!  It used to take half-a-dozen people all day just to make it presentable (clean was out of the question) and on Saturday, Bunny and Wendi had it done in less than an hour, with plenty of time to vaccuum and dust the Loft.



Larry spent several hours cleaning the store display - always a big job because of the number of tins and containers in it - but look how amazing it looks now:



and Janet spent some time organising the gift shop:



One thing I'm noticing: not only are our volunteers awesome, dedicated supporters, but they're also camera shy - you may have noticed that hardly any of them are looking at the camera!