Manitoba Living History Society

The New Settlers Committee has now completed plans for our long-anticipated visit to the COSTUME MUSEUM OF CANADA.

DATE: SATURDAY, APRIL 19TH
TIME: 1:00 P.M.
EVENT: 1 HOUR GUIDED TOUR OF THE CURRENT DISPLAY – Shoes from the BATA SHOE MUSEUM in Toronto
AND: ADDITIONAL TIME IN THE STORAGE COLLECTION to examine two or three garments to study construction methods
COST: $7.00 per person

MINIMUM of 15 people required for the special MLHS guided tour.

PLEASE confirm your attendance with JANET before April 14th. Contact her directly or use the “Contact Us” form.

This is a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes what is stored at the CMC and how items are stored and displayed. Our guide will display a few study garments for us to look at up close. I hope this will provide us all with insights into what people wore over a hundred years ago and how they wore their clothes. I hope you can support this tour.

THERE WILL BE A LAST MINUTE PUBLIC AWARENESS WALK-ABOUT IN COSTUME.

DATE: THURSDAY, MARCH 27TH – TOMORROW!!!

TIME: 7:00 A.M. TO 9:00 A.M.

PLACE: ON MAIN STREET – ADJACENT TO THE FORT GARRY GATE, AND POTENTIALLY IN FRONT OF THE VIA RAIL STATION.

COSTUMING: cover the gamut from 1817 (Fort Gibraltar II) through to the 1870s. The more colorful, the better.

Sorry for the last minute wake-up call, and even more sorry for the fact that the organizers want participants on site between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Please advise as to whether or not you can fit it in to your busy schedule.

I have rebuilt the site after data loss last month.

I have made some changes (including the two column look) and made most of the corrections by hand, so there might be issues that are still remaining. If you see ANYTHING that you think might be a bug, or a problem, or just looks weird, please contact me!

The photo galleries are back and updated with some new photos, so check them out, too!

–Kirby

The site was wiped out a short time ago. I have restored from an older backup, but we lost a lot of content.

No images were lost, but the links and index were, so I’ll be recreating that as quickly as I can.

Thank for your patience!

–Kirby

The Kent State University Museum is apparently a museum dedicated to fashion and textiles. It has a list of past and present exhibitions, most containing pictures with closeups. All of the pictures appear to be of upper class outfits, but present quite a bit of information that would be useful for those of us portraying the working class.

Here are a few to start with:
The Right Chemistry: Colors in Fashion, 1704-1918
Lace: The Art of Needle and Bobbin
Of Men & Their Elegance
The Hours of the Woman of Leisure (not that women on the frontier had much leisure time!)

MLHS has been invited to be part of this canoe arrival event.

DATE: MONDAY, JUNE 11

TIME: 4:30 p.m. for a projected 5:30 canoe landing.

PLACE: Parks Canada Dock near Provencher Bridge – this subject to change depending on water level on the Red.

OUR ROLE: Welcome the canoes with “David Thompson” and “Charlotte Small” – make noise – whoop and holler

Join the procession to the Scotiabank Stage where there is free food and a cash bar.

COSTUME: Selkirk Settler – fur trader – every day clothes. We will not be setting up any tents or static displays as we will be moving from the dock to the Scotiabank stage. Bring men, women and children. Bring interesting portable artifacts.

ALSO: Also participating will be La Compagnie de La Vérendrye and possibly the Forces of Lord Selkirk.The canoe landing and ceremony will take place at the main dock at The Forks Market area – the large dock at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. There will be a ceremony with peace pipe, and other ceremonies – there will be Oh Canada in Cree – some speeches by dignitaries – and then we parade to the Scotiabank Stage for mix and mingle and food.

We are to be at the dock at 4:30 with the landing slated for 5:15 p.m.

I am late getting out a debriefing for everyone on this year’s school program on May 23rd. Ohmygoodness, that is only a week ago, but it seems like long ago. It sure has been busy with the Upper Fort Garry Gate project press conference over the last few days. [The “attack” on the St. Boniface Museum site, if you will reflect, was another of those in camera “it’s a done deal” activities highly similar to what is happening at the Upper Fort Garry site.]

This year’s school program got condensed into the morning when we had the cancellation of a large group of students in the afternoon. The morning was quite full with about 80 students – and despite on and off rain, it went well. We had to move several stations inside, with only Erle in his teepee, Birch in front of his tent, and Angela and Claire under the fly – doing their stations outside. Even candle dipping and The Canoe got brought inside. We had 24 of our people out to deliver the stations or assist in other ways.

New this year was the “Laundry Day” station, and by all accounts, it was great fun, with the kids looking at the ladies’ split drawers and saying “eeewwww” quite a bit. Carol James had made up 5 pairs of split drawers, and they were not sooner made than I had to ask her to rub them on wet grass, run over them with the car and in general, make them very dirty.

The other stations were: the story of Louis Riel; Aboriginal contributions; Weaving Dance; Wool Carding; Candle making; Fur Trade Goods; Native Bracelet; The Canoe; and Military Drill.

For next year, we have to increase our profile – awareness – for Grade 4 teachers. Olivia suggested a brochure with photos of some of the activities, that could be sent/delivered to the schools. It is our intention to have a presence at SAG in November this year.

There have been numerous concerns over the much diminished size of the St. Boniface Museum site, and the lack of parking. Any other suggestions would be welcome. Cindy and I will have a debriefing meeting and will want to have ideas for next year.

Thank you for your help – thank you for giving your time so willingly.

I am changing web hosts (moving this site to a new company’s computers), and I have no idea exactly when it will happen. It’s all dependent on when the two companies (old and new) get together and work it out.

The site may have some minor interruptions over the next week or two as things get sorted out. I can’t test anything on the new server until things actually go live, so any problems I run into will mean downtime.

Cross your fingers.

BAGGAGE TRAIN GET-TOGETHER!!! We’ve had enough break after FDV. Time to look forward to summer events.

DATE: SUNDAY APRIL 15TH
PLACE: McPherson Manor (email for details if you need it)
TIME: 10:00 A.M. SHARP!!

We have lined up a busy program for you for this Baggage.

10:00 a.m. – GHILLIES workshop. If you want to make a pair of ghillies – book your portion of the Hereford cow with me now. So far, Janet and Claire and I want a pair. I have the cowhide, and I think it should use about $25.00 a pair – I will measure it out more carefully in a few days and let you know more precisely. You will also need an awl, a strong leather needle and sinew, and later, something for laces . If you bring a tracing of your foot, that will jump-start the process. [Note to Michel: this would be a good time to get your quarter-cow.]

11:30 a.m. – BASKET seminar. Jo-Anne will give you information on basketry suitable for Selkirk Settler men and women, with examples.

12:30 – LUNCH – BRING something. I am going to put out French bread, paté and Camembert cheese (enough for about ten people), soft drinks. Need salad, dessert, wine, maybe more sandwich-y stuff.

After lunch – Barry will show a portion of the PowerPoint presentation we delivered at the Toronto Living History Conference. Then, continue working on ghillies and any other project you wish to discuss or work on.

PLEASE – CONFIRM ATTENDANCE FOR BAGGAGE.

REMINDER – get your newsletter items in to Jo-Anne NOW!!

So, the guy who owns the horses cancelled our sleigh ride out at Lower Fort Garry yesterday.

Jo-Anne came immediately to the rescue and offered her house so we could still have Roland Bohr speak to us and so we could still enjoy all the home cookin’ everyone had prepared. In the end, over 30 people squashed into the upstairs and the downstairs of Jo-Anne’s home.

While everyone was looking forward to Roland’s discussion of Aboriginal artifacts, several of us didn’t expect to have a great interest in the subject. How wrong we were! His talk, together with the bows and quivers and the arrows he has made and tested – were more than fascinating!! We dared not blink lest we miss an interesting point. Who knew there were so many variations on bows? Who knew arrows could come with a big fat lump at the end instead of a pointy thing at the end? Who knew certain bows curved in reverse until the string was made taut? After his talk, he had a hard time leaving for all the questions put to him.

And then the pot luck food!! I think I sampled it all and it was wonderful!! Following full tummies, the place didn’t stop buzzing with a variety of discussions and conversations.

So, despite another weather-related disappointment – we are a flexible bunch and we switched gears and had a truly scintillating time.

Thanks to all who came out anyways (plus a few more). Thanks, Jo-Anne!

–Ever in the Past,
–Judy Mcpherson