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What's inSight Summer 2015

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$3.95 Summer 2015 GUANGZHOU CHINA AN INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR JACK LOHMAN OUR LIVING LANGUAGES UNSPOKEN MESSAGES, UNEXPLORED PATHS INTANGIBLE HERITAGE CELEBRATES THE ENERGY OF LIFE
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  • $3.95

    Summer 2015

    GUANGZHOU CHINA AN INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR JACK LOHMAN

    OUR LIVING LANGUAGES UNSPOKEN MESSAGES, UNEXPLORED PATHS

    INTANGIBLE HERITAGE CELEBRATES THE ENERGY OF LIFE

  • MANAGING EDITOR

    Jennifer Vanderzee Marketing & Sales Manager

    MAGAZINE COORDINATOR

    Kathryn Swanson Membership & Marketing Coordinator

    MEMBERSHIP EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

    Erika Stenson Head of Marketing & Business Development

    David Alexander Head of New Archives & Digital Preservation

    Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Officer

    Gerry Truscott Publisher

    Jenny McCleery Graphic Designer

    Shane Lighter Photographer

    Whats inSight is an electronic magazine released four times annually, in March, June, September and December, by the Royal BC Museum.

    In the interest of keeping our administra-tive costs low and our carbon footprint small this print version is provided to members without computer access only.

    ONE MORE WAY TO GO GREEN

    Contact Kathryn Swanson to request a digital version of Whats inSight 250-387-3287 [email protected]

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    SUMMER 2015

    FEATURE Intangible Heritage

    Celebrates the Energy of Life

    FEATURE Guangzhou China: An Interview with

    Professor Jack Lohman

    Species at Risk Travelling the Province

    Gold Rush! Developing the Exhibition

    FEATURE Our Living Languages

    Unspoken Messages, Unexplored Paths

    Aboriginal Cultural Festival Returns to Royal BC Museum

    Celebrate a Season of Sesquicentennials at Barkerville Historic Town

    Raise a Glass for the Miners

    Facing the Front Line Centennial Trench Exhibit

    GOING DIGITAL Volunteers Help Transcribe

    Historical Records

    A CLOSER LOOK A Puzzling Gap

    Rushing to New Lands Early Chinese Immigration

    Gold Rush! Comes Alive

    Revelstoke A Kiss in the Wind

    STAFF PROFILE Ann ten Cate

    Speakers Bureau Preview

    Cover Image

    Professor Jack Lohman, CEO of the Royal BC Museum, Mr Ni Jun-Ming, Associate Librarian of the Sun Yat-Sen Library of Guangdong Province, and Ms He Le, Administrator of the Sun Yat-Sen Library of Guangdong Province, examining documents held within the Librarys vault. March 3, 2015.

  • Dear Friends,

    We all know that extinction is a natural process and the fate of all species over time, but around British Columbia and the world at large, species are currently going extinct at an alarming and unnatural rate. Biologists, paleantologists and archaeologists are working together to relate mass extinctions of the past to the trends we see today.

    Our new travelling exhibition called Species at Risk looks at the subject of extinction and provides a very personal encounter with rare, threatened and endangered species in British Columbia. It highlights all shades of rarity, from Barn Swallows to the flowering Pink Sand Verbena, a species that stands truly on the edge of extinction. And we showcase species from across British Columbia with a focus on the southern part of the province where the effects of human habitation are highest. Can you do anything? It turns out that you can the exhibition presents ideas that we hope will empower visitors to make some small but significant changes in their lives. Small changes can have a big impact in every community and on the thousands of species living in British Columbia.

    We are all connected in some way, and this travelling exhibition will tour the province to connect you to the species in your region that need our help. See our website for the exhibition tour dates and learn more about Species at Risk in British Columbia.

    Yours,

    Professor Jack Lohman, CBE Chief Executive Officer, Royal BC Museum

    Powered by

    Presented by

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    Presented by

    B r i t i s h C o l u m

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    SPECIESAT RISKA T r a v e

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    B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a s

    SPECIESAT RISKA T r a v e l l i n g E x h i b i t i o n

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 1

  • Intangible Heritage Celebrates the Energy of LifeBy Nicholas Tuele, Art Consultant

    Arthur Vickers mother was a Canadian of English ancestry and his father was First Nations of Tsimshian and Heiltsuk lineage. He spent his childhood in the Tsimshian village of Kitkatla on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. It was here he was taught about his native heritage from his grandfather, a fisherman and canoe carver. Arthur learned to carve as a youngster, and after some years as a fisherman and carpenter, he began his artistic practice full-time in 1989. As an artist, Arthur has mastered many media, from carving and serigraphy to one-of-a-kind creations using a variety of materials, such as gold leaf and grey ghost cedar.

    The Leadership Desk is an example of the latter. In 2009 the artist gifted the

    Province with an astonishing and unique desk for the Premiers office. After years of searching for recovered old growth red cedar or grey ghost cedar, Arthur created the desk in the shape of a very large bentwood box. All the surfaces are covered with First Nations iconography, painted in red and black, which reference the responsibilities of leadership, not only for the current generation but for generations to come. When the desk was gifted, the artist said, In my creations I draw from my experiences of living in BC and I am always inspired by the signs of nature that so often guide us.

    All of Arthurs work, regardless of medium, is inspired by what he calls the signs of nature and he espouses a profound knowledge of nature and the

    interconnectedness of all life. Recently Arthur was asked to talk to Royal BC Museum staff about his work Intangible Heritage which had been selected by CEO Professor Jack Lohman and Deputy Director Kathryn Bridge for inclusion in the exhibition Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC. The staff and a few guests sat and listened raptly as Arthur, the storyteller, recounted stories his grandfather had told him when he was a child.

    When he was about six years old he was at a feast sitting on his grandfathers knee. Prior to eating, drums started beating and in came dancers wearing beautiful button blankets. The chief wore a stunning headdress and an eagle blanket depicting who he was and what family he came from. Arthur recalls saying, Grandfather I want a blanket just like that. To which his grandfather replied, Grandson, when you were born the creator gave you a blanket. You just cant see it. Yours is really beautiful. It goes all around your body and its gold. He gave you that blanket for a purpose. And that purpose is to keep all the good thoughts and feelings inside you and all the bad ones out.

    This was a profoundly important episode in Arthurs early life, although it would be much later before he fully understood the implications of his grandfathers wisdom and insight. The elder had introduced his young charge to the idea

    Arthur Vickers with Intangible Heritage in the Royal BC Museums Paintings, Drawings and Prints vault. Photo courtesy of Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist.

    2 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • of aura, or the invisible emanation or field of energy believed to radiate from a person or object. Arthur commented that many cultures feel everything has an energy. For example, in philosophy chi is the circulating life energy inherent in all things, something the artist firmly believes. Arthur went on to say he has spent his life thinking, feeling, visualizing and trying to make manifest the energy or aura of human beings. Intangible Heritage is the result. He feels that this work of art encompasses all the heritage we learn in our childhood and continue to learn as adults.

    Over all, Intangible Heritage is a reference to a button blanket covered with various figures and design elements, with a Coast Salish cedar hat at the top. Arthur identified the iconography of Intangible Heritage starting with the three frogs in the hat. Frogs play a prominent role in First Nations lore. When the frogs stop talking at the start of winter and go to sleep, its time for the people in the Big House to begin the ceremonial season. Frogs are able to live in two worlds, that is, on land and in the water, and by extension they live in the spirit or ancestors world and the world that

    we experience through our five senses. They are the conduit between these two worlds.

    Directly below the frogs is the Greatest Grandparent who expresses satisfaction that Mother to the right and Father to the left pull a tight button blanket around the central figure a representation of you and me. And then there is a little boy and little girl representative of the next generation. Arthur gives us a visualization of the continuity of heritage from our ancestors through our parents to us and then to our children. Note that the little girl is on the opposite side of the composition to her grandmother and the little boy is across from grandfather. The viewer is reminded, as we look at the intersection from left to right and vice versa, we all have aspects of the feminine and masculine within us and that these opposites should be in harmony.

    As our eyes move over the form lines, we discern other aspects of the iconography in Arthurs work. Upper right there is Eagle, ruler of the sky, who mates for life and thus symbolizes lasting spousal dedication. Upper left we see Raven,

    bringer of light, and amongst other attributes, he teaches us about life and right from wrong. Note, too, the double eyes of Halibut below Mother and Father. In some First Nations lore, Halibut is believed to have thrown off its skin and fins to emerge as the first Human after the Great Flood subsided. The final design element is a secondary one portraying two upside-down birds.

    Intangible Heritage is a compelling work of art deeply significant in the richness of its design and meaning. Arthur has visualized something that at one level is so palpable and yet cannot be touched. He has presented the viewer with an image of wholeness, of human beings living in the world that is shared with all the living things. And there is another world where Greatest Grandparent is the origin of all knowledge, customs, history and culture. We become who we are through the teachings of our ancestors as transmitted through our parents and we have a responsibility to pass this on to the next generation.

    See Intangible Heritage in the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, on now until October 31, 2015.

    Detail of 24K gold leaf used in the creation of Intangible Heritage. Intangible Heritage by Arthur Vickers.

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 3

  • Professor Jack Lohman and Mr Ni Jun-Ming, Associate Librarian of the Sun Yat-Sen Library of Guangdong Province, examining documents held within the Librarys vault. March 3, 2015.

    Professor Jack Lohman and Dr Wu Heng, Director, International Affairs, touring the temporary exhibitions of Nanjing Museum. March 6, 2015.

    4 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • envisioning a good society and a better or different life.

    Will the Royal BC Museum be doing more with the Sun Yat-Sen Library?

    We have agreed to continue our collaboration and we have planned joint publications, conferences and exhibitions.

    What was your favourite part of this trip?

    While the country is very familiar to me (I have been working with museums in China for more than a decade), China still fascinates me I never grow tired of its pace of change. I am particularly taken, like everyone else, by its deep classical traditions and how the country continues to search its ancient history for connections to the present. Visiting the vault in Guangzhous Sun Yat-Sen Library, where Chinas oldest printed books are kept, is really something special. Turning the scroll of the Diamond Sutra, a sixth century Buddhist text, is nothing short of breathtaking. It is the context of cultural sharing that has the greatest effect on me personally.

    Whats next for the Royal BC Museum in China?

    We open our exhibition in the Guangzhou Metro in October this year to mark the anniversary of the twinning of Vancouver and Guangzhou. Our Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition opens in the Museums of Chinese Living Abroad in Guangzhou in November 2015.

    How did the March 2015 trip to China come to be?We have been collaborating with China and its museums for some time now, through research, dialogue and mutual participation. Our Curator Dr Tzu-I Chung has been instrumental in this. I was delighted to work with Fudan University a few years back and more recently to chair a conference in Shanghai for UNESCO. This type of cultural exchange is a multidirectional process of collaboration that leads to very fertile relationships. And it makes sense to share our collections and see how others view them. Our collaboration with China is not about exporting and importing culture but about genuine engagement.

    Travelling to China sounds expensive; how was the trip paid for?

    I am most grateful to the BC Ferries Exhibition Fund for supporting this work.

    Why is the Royal BC Museums relationship with China so important?

    We dont lack information about China and its cultures, and China does not lack information about British Columbia, but that does not necessarily translate into better understanding or a greater knowledge. By taking our archival photographs to Guangzhou, we are allowing members of the public, through empathy and imagination, to enter into the subjective life of those Chinese who came to Victoria. This type of exhibition opens up understanding and presents the experience of emigration to Canada

    and how that shaped displacement. It shows what happens to culture when people move to another place and how happiness was envisaged in British Columbia by new immigrants. There is, of course, a much bigger reason why we are involved with China. We all know China will emerge as the largest and most powerful economy in the world. This is something that will affect all of us and our future economic partnerships. The soft power of culture will play an increasingly vital role in giving meaning to economic relationships.

    The Tradition in Felicities exhibition was the first Royal BC Museum exhibition to open in China. Why was this such a special event?

    Every exhibition opening is a special event, a moment to celebrate the work that often takes many years. As our first exhibition in China, Tradition in Felicities, which opened at the Sun Yat-Sen Library, has particular significance. This is not the sound of one hand clapping but an orchestration of work on both sides of the Pacific.

    How was the exhibition received by visitors in Guangzhou?

    It will be interesting to gauge the feedback from 20,000 visitors a day in due course, when the exhibition closes, but from the reactions of those visiting when I was there it was clearly seen as engaging. And in conversations with visitors I sensed that they were conscious of our efforts to increase the awareness of the experience of those Chinese who had come across the Pacific to Canada

    Guangzhou China: An Interview with Professor Jack Lohman

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 5

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    So, what would you save?

    Learn more about this exhibition at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/speciesatrisk

    Powered by

    Supported by the John and Joan Walton Innovators Fund.

    Species at Risk Travelling the ProvinceBy Chris OConnor, Family and Schools Program Producer

    What would you save? This is one of the questions well be asking as the Royal BC Museums Species at Risk exhibition a three-year pilot project hits the road this summer. In a province so rich in biodiversity, there are an alarming number of species threatened with extinction (when a species is gone for good) or extirpation (when a species is no longer found in BC). Habitat loss, competition from invasive species, over-harvesting, pollution and climate change are pushing the survival of certain species to the brink. What can we do about it? Why should we care?

    Usually with a travelling exhibition, you pack up crates of objects and text panels and send them to a particular location. The host then puts them up, and thats that. What we envision with Species at Risk is a little bit different.

    This summer the exhibition will be housed in an eye-catching teardrop-

    shaped trailer, and driven by skilled and personable interpreters to the Okanagan, north Vancouver Island, and the lower mainland. At each stop, interpreters will lead summer camps for kids and weekend and evening events for learners of all ages. We are working together with local museums and community centres to co-create event and learning opportunities.

    Approaches to learning will also be shaped in unique ways. We lead by asking questions, large and small, inviting participants to inquire, study, consider, make meaningful connections and wrestle with the big questions of responsible stewardship and environmental sustainability. In this way, we create a community of learners who all have something to contribute and something to learn.

    Species at Risk is an opportunity to engage with ideas and work together for change.

    We believe that education is key to ensuring the safety of our species at risk. This travelling exhibition helps us educate people across the province. If you would like to support the Royal BC museum so we can continue to develop outreach programs like this, visit us online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/support, email us at [email protected] or call us at 250-387-3102.

    Examples of species at risk that will be featured in the exhibition. Visit the learning portal at learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca to learn more.

    6 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Gold Rush! Developing the ExhibitionBy Dr Scott Cooper, Vice President, Exhibitions Innovation

    Y ou may have explored Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC already but have you ever wondered what it takes to create a feature exhibition? You need three things. The first is a compelling story of the past that resonates in some way with the present. From mass migration and resource extraction, to the loss of ancient territories and the making of a new province Gold Rush! encompasses issues that we continue to rehearse to this day, and though the story is over a century old it could hardly be more relevant.

    The second is a remarkable collection. In this respect Gold Rush! is astonishing with objects on loan from more than 20 separate institutions and private lenders, including 137 spectacular examples of pre-Columbian treasures from the Museo del Oro in Bogot, Colombia.

    The third is a committed and energetic team, and again the museum and archives is fortunate in employing a remarkable group of curators, writers, collection managers, project managers, interpreters, registrars, designers, conservators, artists, technicians and fabricators, all of whom have worked as one to bring the exhibition together.

    To give you a sense of behind the scenes of Gold Rush! heres a snapshot of what went on during the final weeks leading to opening:

    The arrangement of every showcase was precisely mapped on layout drawings

    Exhibition Fabricators work together to place a stagecoach, on loan from Historic OKeefe Ranch, on its customized plinth.

    Graphic panels were printed and fabricated

    Showcases were assembled and walls constructed

    Multimedia productions were created including three animated shorts, two live action films and a host of computer interactives

    Elegant mounts were hand-made for over 300 remarkable objects

    Recording sessions were arranged to capture gold rush era songs

    Marketing signs, banners, leaflets and digital media were produced

    A dedicated exhibition microsite was created

    Learning resources were created for the Royal BC Museums Learning Portal

    A book was published that features articles and essays from Royal BC Museum curators and other world-leading scholars

    Public lectures were coordinated and guided tours developed

    And even before the exhibition opened, arrangements were made for its relocation to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec in 2016.

    Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC is on now until October 31, 2015.

    Visit the Gold Rush! microsite at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/gold

    Gold Rush! El Dorado in British Columbia is organized by the Royal BC Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada, in collaboration with Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, QC, CanadaRue vers lor! El Dorado en Colombie-Britannique est ralise par le Royal BC Museum, Victoria, Colombie-Britannique en collaboration avec le Muse canadien de lhistoire, Gatineau, Qubec

    Lead Marketing Partner Sponsored by

    In Collaboration With / En Collaboration Avec

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 7

  • Our Living LanguagesUNSPOKEN MESSAGES, UNEXPLORED PATHS

    By Michelle Washington, Our Living Languages exhibition manager for First Peoples Cultural Council

    As Our Living Languages: First Peoples Voices in BC celebrates its one-year anniversary this month, it is important to reflect on where we have been and to use those learnings to create a path to where we are going. It is a good time to share how this work has touched visitors from around the world, as we look forward to the next two years of its run.

    Inspired by a new global focus on the importance of intangible heritage, and with BC identified as one of the worlds five language hotspots for linguistic diversity, the Royal BC Museum embarked on a partnership with First Peoples Cultural Council, which holds the Provincial mandate for Heritage, Language and Culture. This collaboration was to begin a new era and framework for change in how we celebrate the living knowledge systems and the true richness of First Nations languages and cultures found nowhere else on earth. The Royal BC Museum provided a wonderful space to host the work of 34 language groups, their beautiful languages, and the work of cultural advisors, writers, producers and artists, who generously shared content from their unique perspectives.

    The proposal for this exhibition listed important legacies for the next decade including a revitalized Royal BC Museum mandate and way of working with a model for shared curatorial authority and authorship. Part of this legacy is that First Nations will begin efforts to support museum and archives professionals in a variety of areas, to not only enhance the exhibition, but to reimagine the First Peoples Gallery and the visitor experience and education overall.

    This idea came from the realization that First Nations are the experts in their teachings and protocols, and knowledge comes from generations of a deeply personal understanding of their cultures and territories that cannot be replicated.

    In the quest to create a powerful, engaging experience for our visitors, we chose the stories carefully. It was all about balancing representation, and finding a way to make people understand we are still here and we are still connected to our culture and our territory; were not just artifacts to be studied or objects to be collected. Our stories have remained unspoken for too long. This First Nations world view

    belongs beside the settler history that has been taught in this province, to depict a full picture of our current realities and our future path together.

    In this time of environmental change, globalization and social media, it is even more critical that organizations address the neutral territory concept: even though we are in the middle of a city, our languages connect us to our ancestral lands and to the responsibilities we bear as custodians to our territory. Place names mark the owned areas where the ancestors of a people have existed for thousands of years. That is still as important here as it is to cultures around the world. Imagine visiting another country without finding out a little about their customs, culture and history and all that goes with it.

    During the build of this exhibition, a great Songhees elder told me protocols have become something people write on an agenda as a formality. They are really teachings passed down about our responsibility to each other and how we respect the customs of the Nation whose territory we do business on. It is our responsibility to teach our young ones to

    In partnership with

    8 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Aboriginal Cultural Festival Returns to Royal BC MuseumBy Paula Amos, Director, Partnerships & Corporate Initiatives, Aboriginal Tourism Association of BC

    The provincial capital will again host the Aboriginal Cultural Festival, a three-day celebration of Aboriginal peoples, arts and culture, beginning on Friday, June 19 and wrapping up on Sunday, June 21 National Aboriginal Day. The festival is hosted on the traditional territory of Esquimalt and Songhees Nations in Victoria.

    respect this teaching wherever their spirit carries them.

    We wanted visitors to connect with the message and the similarities in their own experience; to create a dialogue and not be afraid to ask honest questions of each other. Many visitors have shared they were initially drawn here by other exhibitions, but ended up loving Our Living Languages the most. Some have seen for the first time what the current political and cultural realities are for First Nations beyond the headlines. Many have asked that this remain a permanent exhibition that continues to be updated for educational purposes, both locally and internationally. Many school groups have come specifically to see the exhibition to assist in their curriculum delivery. Our Living Languages has been described as a template for partnership.

    As this country struggles with how to acknowledge the mistakes of the past and how that has shaped the present reality what will change in our path towards a mutually respectful shared future?

    Museums have a large role in creating accessible spaces for awareness, real connections and opportunities to rethink what we know. Culture and language are resilient and evolving and I think this is a journey worth continuing to learn from. Emawheega (Until we meet again) Siemthlut (Michelle Washington) was the Our Living Languages: First Peoples Voices in BC exhibition Manager for First Peoples Cultural Council and now continues work with the Royal BC Museum Learning Department as Cultural Program Coordinator.

    The Royal BC Museum will host the outdoor event, which will feature a main stage for more than 30 scheduled performances, including those by three-time hoop dance world champion Alex Wells. Performers will gather from around British Columbia to showcase their unique styles.

    In addition to the main stage cultural performances, the festival will also feature an artisan craft fair, showcasing arts and crafts certified by the Authentic Indigenous Arts Program. The ever-popular culinary options are returning for 2015, with an outdoor dining area where visitors can purchase food including West Coast clam chowder, wild Sockeye salmon and salad and fry-bread.

    Along with hosting the Aboriginal Cultural Festival, the Royal BC Museum is featuring the Our Living Languages: First Peoples Voices in BC exhibition, which celebrates the resilience and diversity of First Nations languages in the face of change. Visitors are encouraged to learn more about what First Nations communities throughout the province are doing to help their languages survive and flourish.

    The Aboriginal Cultural Festival was created in partnership between Aboriginal Tourism BC, the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations, the Royal BC Museum, Tourism Victoria, the Robert Bateman Centre and the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.

    Three-time hoop dance world champion Alex Wells will be performing at the 2015 Aboriginal Cultural Festival at the Royal BC Museum.

    Generously sponsored by

    Our Living Languages: First Peoples Voices in BC is the winner of the 27th Annual American Alliance of Museums Excellence in in Exhibition Competition.

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 9

  • The Royal BC Museum greatly appreciates the vital and ongoing financial support of the Province of British Columbia, the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and the Royal BC Museum Foundation. Their core support makes our work possible.

    This past year, 58 percent of our operating budget came from the Province, and another 25 percent came from memberships and admissions. This meant we needed to raise the remaining 17 percent approximately three million dollars from other sources, which included donations, grants and sponsorships.

    With the help of our supporters, we were able to undertake vital conservation work on precious objects in our collection (one of the largest collections in Canada); open the award-winning exhibition Our Living Languages: First Peoples Voices in BC; open overseas exhibitions in England and China; create learning programs for 35,000 school children, and make important research discoveries. Together, we are building a world-class museum and archives a dynamic forum for exploring both our shared history and future.

    Please join us in thanking the following individuals, corporations and foundations for their generous contribution to our work.

    Royal BC Museum SupportersApril 1, 2014 March 31, 2015 $500,000+

    Royal BC Museum Foundation

    $100,000 $499,999

    CHEK Media Government of Canada gouvernement du Canada

    Teck Resources Limited

    $25,000 $99,000

    AnonymousHumberto and Gretchen BautaBC Transit Black Press Community

    News Media

    Clipper VacationsCTV Vancouver IslandHelijetHSBC Bank CanadaImmediate Images Inc

    The Francis Kermode GroupJim Pattison Broadcast GroupLamar Advertising CompanyPattison Outdoor Advertising

    $5,000 $24,999

    Andrew Mahon FoundationThe Bay CentreBlack Ball Ferry LineGary and Susan BraleyCanadian Geographic

    Enterprises Canadian Imperial Bank

    of Commerce

    Canadian Museums Association

    Garth EvansGeorge FetherlingFrannys Cultured Cow

    Products LtdGlobal BCGoldcorp Inc.

    History ChannelIMAX VictoriaBob and Marjorie JohnsElizabeth KennedyLyall and Susan KnottStefan and Magdalena OpalskiGwendolyn PageSave-on-Foods

    $1,000 $4,999

    Eric and Leonda AdlerPatrick and Anne AndersonAnonymous (2)Howard Armstrong in memory

    of Ronald ArmstrongArt Gallery of OntarioHannes and Claudia BlumJocelyn BraithwaiteCanadas History

    Joyce ClearihueDaphne Corbett Heidi Dale-Johnson and

    Kareem AllamDerek EllisFlight Centre Andrea HenningThe Honourable Darla Hunter

    and Chuck Wilson

    Insight Vacations Robert and Devi JawlProfessor Jack Lohman CBERon and May Lou-PoyTommy MayneJohn McAslan and

    Partners, LtdMountain Equipment Co-opPaul Merrick and Sabine Orlik

    $500 $999

    AnonymousBC FerriesDaphne BaldwinHelen BuckPaula Carey and Nick WemyssWilliam and Jean CaveJames and Jean CosgroveCarol Cullimore

    Fernand and Suzanne EllyinRobert and Marianne EngThe Fairmont EmpressJean E. Field and

    Roy A. RichfordBarbara FieldsJoyce FolbiggJoe and Linda Harvey

    Hemlock Printers LimitedSusan HermanHotel Grand PacificAudrey JohnsonTiit Kdar in memory of

    Jean Elizabeth KdarSusan K. McMillanC.N. and M.J. Moser

    If you have been inspired by this list of dedicated supporters, and want to make a financial contribution to support the important work of the

    Royal BC Museum, please contact us at [email protected] or 250-387-7222 to donate today. Thank you!

    10 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Gifts to the CollectionsMany of the items in our collections are accessioned as gifts from generous museum and archives supporters who want to see a favourite piece live on forever and impact future generations. The Royal BC Museum is grateful for objects that help us further our provincial mandate to advance new knowledge and understanding of British Columbias natural and human history.

    Acquiring a new object is just the beginning of the story. Through professional conservation, protection measures and display consultations, our highly-skilled conservation staff ensure that each piece is properly cared for and preserved. Conservation efforts are at the core of the important work we do, and the end result is that another integral piece of British Columbias history is shared with the world.

    We wholeheartedly thank those who generously donated to the collection during the past fiscal year.

    Agriculture and Agri-Food CanadaAndrea Carol AndersonBruce ArchibaldBC Conservation Data CentreRob CanningsBruce ChambersCaroline CookClaudia CopleyJim CosgroveNancy DekelverPauline DempseyJoseph Lloyd DobbieHarry R. EastonMatthew FairbarnsBarbara FieldsRalph A. FowlerGarry Oak Ecosystems Recovery

    Team SocietyRaymond GrahamGavin HankeDavid HarrisonGord HutchingsRick JamesKen JohnsonGrant KeddieRoy and Karen LeesonJohn Livingston

    Every effort has been made to ensure our supporters are recognized accurately. If you notice an error or omission, please call the Royal BC Museum Development Department at 250-387-7222.

    Frank LomerYvonne MacKenzieJoshua McInnesSandy McLachlanNancy MeyerMelanie MillerMinistry of Forests, Lands and Natural

    Resource Operations, Heritage BranchMinistry of EnvironmentDean NicholsonHarold PageSally PankratzRobin PattersonJune PlintRick RossDouglas S. RuthBob SnyderSue StackhouseDavid StarrLeah SuntokSteve SuntokOlivia ThornburnRosita TovellBob TurnerJohn VeilletteGordon Wille-StewartAaron Zelmer

    $500,000+

    Royal BC Museum Foundation

    $100,000 $499,999

    Tourism Victoria W. Garfield Weston Foundation

    $25,000 $99,000

    W. Anthony and Darlene Southwell

    TelusTimes ColonistThe Victoria Foundation

    John and Joan Walton Innovators Fund

    $5,000 $24,999

    Memorial Centre Shaw Media Inc Socit francophone

    de VictoriaVancity Savings

    Credit UnionVeterans Affairs CanadaVictoria Airport Authority

    Viking Air LimitedJack and Bev WallaceJohn WaltonWesterkirk CapitalJohn and Susan Williams

    $1,000 $4,999

    Jim and Isobel MerstonDavid and Dixie ObeeRaymond and Sheila ProttiProvincial Employees

    Community Services FundPauline Rafferty and

    Bob PlecasSuromitra Sanatani and

    David Turpin

    Silk Road TeaSharon SmithTricom CanadaVictoria Symphony OrchestraRene and Allison WeirAngela Williams

    $500 $999

    Sandy PrattMatthew RainsberryShelley ReidErnest and Adele RobertsRoyal Scot Hotel and SuitesDonald and Anne RussellJohn and Fern SpringMark and Elizabeth Taylor

    Betty ThackerAlan Tompson in memory of

    Anne TompsonTrudy UsherAngela WesleyWildPlay Element Parks

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  • doing so help keep the spirit of British Columbias earliest days prosperous and full of life.

    Barkerville Historic Town is gearing up for an eventful 2015 season filled with education, entertainment, and three sesquicentennial celebrations: the 150th anniversaries (1865-2015) of Barkervilles Cariboo Sentinel newspaper, the Cariboo Amateur Dramatic Associations first public performance (in a saloon) and completion of the legendary Cariboo Wagon Road from Yale to Williams Creek.

    But thats not all. The Royal BC Museums exhibition Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC will bring tales of unfathomable Barkerville riches (along with Billy Barkers very own pocket watch) to nearly half a million visitors in Victoria between May and October before heading out to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec and several additional ports of call in 2016 and beyond.

    We are very pleased to have partnered with the Royal BC Museum on its Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, and look forward to future collaborations, said Barkerville CEO Ed Coleman. The Royal BC Museum and Barkerville Historic Town have signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding.

    As bookends to British Columbias Gold

    Celebrate a Season of Sesquicentennials at Barkerville Historic TownBy James Douglas, Manager, Visitor Experiences, Barkerville Historic Town

    By the time English boatman-turned-Cariboo prospector William Billy Barker arrived at the boomtown of Richfield in summer of 1862, all the good ground was gone. Refusing to believe Williams Creek had proved up all of its bounty, Billy and his crew staked their claims below Black Jack Canyon. They sank test shaft after test shaft until, on August 17, 1862, 50 feet of worthless gravel gave way to the biggest gold nugget bonanza British Columbia had ever seen. Barker & Co. struck it rich, and the gold rush settlement of Barkerville was born.

    Three years later, Billys namesake city was considered by some to be the largest north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. It was a wooden metropolis in the wilderness, and before long

    Barkervilles multicultural community was making culture of its own. The Cariboo Sentinel newspaper printed its first edition in June of 1865. One week later the Cariboo Amateur Dramatic Association presented its first play. The Cariboo Wagon Road from Yale to Richfield was completed in November of that same year, bringing even more population, industry and opportunity to the goldfields of BCs central interior.

    It also paved the way for Barkervilles physical preservation. Declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924, and later a Provincial heritage property in 1958, Barkerville is now the largest living museum in western North America. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world still travel the Gold Rush Trail every year, and in

    Barkerville Interpreters. Photo by Thomas Drasdauskis.

    12 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • much to explore. With three significant anniversaries at hand, this season looks like the perfect time to plan a visit.

    Royal BC Museum members receive 20% off admission to Barkerville Historic Town and more than 25 cultural organizations. To view the entire list visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/reciprocalpartners

    Raise a Glass for the MinersBy Shawn Embree, Sales Coordinator

    When the Royal BC Museum began curating for the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, we followed the historic gold rush trail in search of rich partnerships. It wasnt long before we found our first nugget in the form of a craft brewery in Quesnel. The idea was hatched to partner with Barkerville Brewing Co. to create a signature beer for our feature exhibition and Mucho Oro lager was born.

    Based in Quesnel, near the center of the province, Barkerville Brewing is a craft brewery whose beers tell the story of the historic Cariboo gold rush. The original Barkerville Brewery was built in the 1860s, located in a hotel between Barkervilles drugstore and Masonic Hall. More than 150 years later, the brewery has risen again, in a downtown Quesnel building that has seen many incarnations over the years: restaurant, pool hall, nightclub, gas station and shelter for 40 tree planters.

    Staking claim to the opportunity to be

    the only craft brewery in the Cariboo, this latest iteration of the Barkerville Brewing Co. was opened February 4, 2014 by entrepreneur Russell Ovans and head brewer Troy Rudolph. Featuring a lineup of ales that includes 52 Foot Stout, Hound of Barkerville Brown, Prospectors Peril Blonde, and Wandering Camel IPA, Barkervilles beers are available throughout the province of BC. Within a few short months of opening, their flagship 18 Karat Ale won a silver medal at the 2014 Canadian Brewing Awards.

    The brewery operates a storefront tasting room at 185 Davie Street, where patrons can sample the beers, fill growlers, tour the brewery, and buy Barkerville Brewing-branded merchandise.

    Yes, there was Mucho Oro to be found in the Cariboo, but no one said it would be easy to get. Just like the elusive gold nugget, however, this easy drinking golden larger is worth the effort. Brewed in honour of this formative historic event, raise one for the miners who suffered,

    sweated and sinned their way to a whole lot of Gold.

    Stake your claim to BCs historic beers and share a taste of the past while making future memories that last. Look for Mucho Oro in liquor stores around Victoria and all the way up the gold rush trail. Like the gold rush theres only a finite amount to go around. Mucho Oro will only be produced through the duration of Gold Rush! May 13 October 31, 2015. Ten per cent of the profits of Mucho Oro sales will be donated to the Royal BC Museum Foundation and Barkerville Heritage Trust. Always drink responsibly.

    Mucho Oro is a New Caledonia Common summer style, pale lager. Design by Bully Creative Co.

    Cariboo Amateur Dramatic Association. Photo by Thomas Drasdauskis.

    Rush Trail, Victoria and Barkerville have been integrally connected for more than 150 years, he added. By exploring and promoting this relationship, both provincially and internationally, we bring our communities closer together despite our perceived geographical distance.

    Never one to miss a party, Barkerville Brewing Co. of Quesnel, BC has produced a special Mucho Oro lager to commemorate the Royal BC Museums Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, and partial proceeds from the sale of

    each bottle will benefit both the Royal BC Museum and the Barkerville Heritage Trust, the stewards of Barkervilles modern-day legacy.

    With its unique streetscape of more than 130 heritage buildings, authentic displays, satellite museums, restaurants, shops and accommodations, Barkerville has so

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 13

  • Facing the Front LineCENTENNIAL TRENCH EXHIBIT

    By Guy Black, McKnight Centennial Trench Volunteer, Port Moody Station Museum

    One thousand volunteer hours and 1,000 sand bags have gone into what might become one of Canadas most unique and authentic exhibits to commemorate the centennial of the First World War.

    An unused back yard with compost piles, overgrown bushes and a garden shed at the Port Moody Station Museum has been transformed into 70 feet of corrugated metal and wood-reinforced communication and firing line trenches. Facing the front line is no mans land, complete with an extensive barbed wire defensive field pitted with shell craters,

    scattered debris and torn earth.

    The Centennial Trench exhibit began with much research and planning, relying on a 1921 Manual of Field Works as an indispensable guide. Construction started on September 20, 2014 and took six months to complete with volunteers digging, moving soil, filling sand bags, laying timber walls and building special features such as a concealed observation post, metal roofed elephant shelter, firing step and an endless path of trench boards.

    The exhibit, on now, is something very

    special and a tribute to everyone who contributed to it including those who donated their sweat and aching muscles, and those who provided essential materials, like Mill and Timber and Tree Island Industries.

    It is also an important and tangible way for Port Moody residents to commemorate WWI and remember one of our first town engineers, Lieutenant Augustus McKnight, who was fatally wounded in Belgium on August 11, 1916.

    Learn more at portmoodymuseum.org/trench

    Cadets of the 6 Field Engineers, North Vancouver, assist with the fortification of the McKnight Centennial Trench. Photograph by Jim Millar.

    14 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Lieutenant Arthur Douglas Crease and J.C. Bridgeman in France. July, 1917.

    Arthur Douglas Crease. 1890. Photographer: Elsden and Son.

    Another notable collection presents the lively correspondence of Deborah Florence Glassford. Between 1914 and 1919, Deborah received hundreds of letters and memorabilia from more than 20 friends and acquaintances involved in the war effort overseas. Many of these friends came from Vancouvers elite and most of the men were officers, with notable names including Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 4th Baron Ebury, Arthur Hussey Fitzgerald, James Pemberton Fell and Clarence Marpole.

    In late February, the Friends of the BC Archives helped test the new site, providing valuable feedback. If you didnt get a chance to participate, dont worry: we would love to hear from you. Send your feedback to [email protected]

    Learn more at transcribe.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

    This spring the Royal BC Museum launched Transcribe, a crowd-sourcing website that allows the public to transcribe valuable historical records. The project aims to improve the museum and archives public accessibility by turning handwritten, audio and video records into searchable data. By donating their time to transcribe letters, diaries, journals and other materials, volunteers can help share BCs history from the comfort of home.

    Crowd-sourcing is an increasingly popular way for archives and museums to harness audiences to improve the accessibility of their collections. The concept behind Transcribe is simple the Royal BC Museum provides digital photographs of archival materials alongside a blank text area, and users type exactly what they see. Anyone with access to the Internet can participate; volunteers simply visit the website, choose a collection and start transcribing, all on their own time. Once the finished transcriptions have been approved by Royal BC Museum staff, the data will become searchable on the Transcribe site.

    The project was initiated by the New Archives and Digital Preservation department and Archivist Ann ten Cate. We wanted to enlist the help of volunteers to make our collections more accessible, said Ember Lundgren, Preservation Manager. Theres a huge, untapped resource of talented and enthusiastic volunteers just waiting to help out. Transcribe will help us use that resource. Plus, its fun! Lundgren is quick

    to point out that visitors are not obligated to transcribe work; they will also have the option to view the materials as an online exhibition and browse existing transcriptions.

    The site currently features diaries, letters and other materials from WWI. As the project grows, new collections and media will be introduced. The first batch of images includes the letters of Victoria lawyer Arthur Douglas Crease, who described the war in letters to his family. In one particularly poignant letter, Crease writes it seems doubtful if I shall ever be able to write or talk about what we have been through on the Somme. You know I came out the only officer in our company out of six. The battalion is covered with glory and wounds. Arthur survived the war, and his letters became an important part of BCs history.

    GOING DIGITAL

    Volunteers Help Transcribe Historical RecordsBy Meagan Sugrue, Web & E-Commerce Specialist

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 15

  • A CLOSER LOOK

    A Puzzling GapBy Dr Ken Marr, Curator of Botany, Dr Richard Hebda, Curator of Botany and Earth History, and Dr Erica Wheeler, Botany Collection Manager

    Each summer, Royal BC Museum biologists make collections to understand the distribution of plants and animals in British Columbia. Each year some surprising discoveries are made, as is to be expected in this vast, diverse and unique province. Royal BC Museum field collections contribute to the knowledge needed to provide sustainable stewardship of the remarkable plants and animals that share British Columbia with us.

    For the past 13 years, Royal BC Museum botanists have made collections from rarely visited mountains and plateaus of northern BC, places so remote that some mountains remain unnamed. Vegetation may appear sparse in these alpine habitats, but more than 400 vascular plant species live here. We have collected more than 15,000 specimens from over 80 mountains, most from alpine sites never investigated by botanists.

    In 2014, several significant collections were made during a two week fieldtrip to four Provincial Parks in the northern Rocky Mountains, north of Williston Reservoir. One of the most interesting plants found was Icegrass (Phippsia algida), 200 kilometres east of any previous collections and the first from the Rocky Mountains. In 2004 we made the first collection from BC of this species. Since it has been found in 12 locations (Figure 1). Icegrass has a more or less continuous distribution in northern BC and northwards. In southern BC and southwards, there are large gaps in its occurrence (Figure 2), even though suitable habitat is available. That habitat

    is quite specific, but common: mossy seeps below melting snow.

    At least 12 other species have a similar geographic distribution. Each of them occurs in northern BC and northwards, and then far south in the Beartooth Plateau, at the Montana-Wyoming border and most occur in the alpine heights of Colorado. Among the other species are Oeders lousewort (Pedicularis oederi) (Figure 2), and Alpine avens (Geum rossii) (Figure 3).

    Other species also have significant gaps in the southern portion of their distributions, although their southern occurrences differ from the 12 above. Pink campion (Silene repens) (Figure 4), an endangered species, is one such species. Our 2014 collection documents only the third known population from BC (Figure 4). Hopefully, as more surveys are completed, more populations of this showy species will be found.

    What is the explanation for this puzzling gap in the distribution of these alpine plants? Is it complete chance, or are there underlying, historical causes for the similarities in these species distributions?

    One possible explanation is the seeds of these species were dispersed by wind or animals great distances from one population to the next site of occurrence. This seems unlikely because most of them do not have seeds adapted for dispersal across such great distances. And in any case, why would they all have spread to the same area leaving a gap inbetween?

    A more likely explanation is these species once ranged continuously in western North America, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years ago but their habitat and range was disrupted, leaving the current pattern. Fossil pollen and other remains reveal that species distributions vary over time, usually in response to changes in climate. Our species of interest are tundra plants of cold, open and, for some, somewhat moist habitats. During cold periods of the Ice Age, these species must have spread widely when tundra-like habitats occurred at low elevations and mid latitudes. For example we know that tundra occurred as far south as Arizona as recently as the end of the Pleistocene 13,000 years ago. Tundra zones were certainly disrupted and even obliterated by expanding continental ice sheets. Following the end of the most recent ice advance, more tundra habitat was lost with warming climate and expansion of forests and deserts.

    This second explanation doesnt fully explain why these species do not occur in southern BC, an area from which there is a good record of plant distributions. Why do some other tundra species such as moss campion and mountain sorrel, occur continuously from the southern end of the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, northwards to the Arctic Ocean? There is much more to learn about the flora of British Columbia and to do so we must visit those regions that have been poorly collected.

    To put this work in a modern perspective, past changing geographic patterns show how important climate is in shaping the distribution of plants and animals. At this time of global climatic change we are likely entering a major re-organization of the distribution of plants on the globe.

    Field work supported by Teck, Lead Partner in Biodiversity.16 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Figure 1 Icegrass (Phippsia algida), growing in Northern BC. Map: Distribution of Icegrass in western North America.

    Figure 3 Alpine avens (Geum rossii ) growing near Cascade Lake, north of Dillingham, Alaska. Map: Distribution of Alpine avens in western North America.

    Figure 2 Oeders lousewort (Pedicularis oederi ) growing in Redfern-Keily Provincial Park. Map: Distribution of Oeders lousewort in western North America.

    Figure 4 Pink campion (Silene repens), growing in Redfern-Keily Provincial Park. Map: Distribution of Pink campion in western North America.

    Legend Recent collections made by the Royal BC Museum

    Previously documented occurrencesroyalbcmuseum.bc.ca 17

  • Rushing to New LandsEARLY CHINESE IMMIGRATION

    By Dr Tzu-I Chung, Curator, History

    In the spring of 1858, news of gold in the Fraser Canyon transformed Fort Victoria from a quiet fur trade outpost of the Hudsons Bay Company into a booming town.

    Hop Kee & Co. of San Francisco played an instrumental role in the first wave of Chinese to Victoria. On June 24, 1858, it commissioned Allan Lowe & Co. to ship 300 Chinese men and 50 tons of merchandise to Victoria at the cost of $3,500. Most men departed for the gold

    fields soon after arriving. Throughout the summer of 1858 and 1859 Chinese immigrants continued to arrive from the United States and by 1859 clipper ships were bringing hundreds more directly from Hong Kong.

    Initially, unlike Californians, British Columbians were tolerant of the Chinese. Few Caucasians perceived the Chinese as a threat to their wellbeing; some regarded them as useful or valuable members of the communities who shared

    Kwong Lee & Co. store on Cormorant Street in Victoria, BC, next to the Chinese arch in honour of Governor General The Earl of Dufferins visit in August 1876.

    the goal of making money, often providing useful services such as restaurants, laundries and fresh vegetable grocers, and whose presence might lead to the growth of a profitable trans-Pacific trade.

    When Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862, 300 people, about six per cent of the citys total population, were Chinese.

    Since 1858, Victoria had served as the major port between Canada and Asia and had the second largest Chinese

    18 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Left: Nan Sing, a fresh produce grower and provider in the Cariboo, circa 18801900.

    Above: Kwong Lee & Co. advertisement from the British Colonist, April 6, 1864.

    population in North America. After the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, Vancouver was established as its western terminus, and economic activities gradually shifted to Vancouver.

    A few Chinese, however, benefitted from the booming trans-Pacific trade and Victorias Chinatown also prospered, along with a network of subsidiaries and agencies in the gold rush towns of BC.

    The trans-Pacific network enabled Chinese to contribute much to the building of British Columbia. In the 1860s and 1870s, besides mining, Chinese men also worked on many public projects such as erecting telegraph poles, constructing the 607-kilometre Cariboo Wagon Road, building trails, digging canals and reclaiming wastelands.

    Lee Chang, manager of Kwong Lee & Co., was one of the few Chinese immigrants

    wealthy enough to have his family join him. On February 29, 1860, his wife and two children arrived in Victoria; Mrs Lee Chang became the first Chinese woman to settle in Victoria.

    Lee Chang also represented the Chinese community before government. OnMarch 7, 1860, Lee Chang and two other Chinese merchants went to see Governor James Douglas after hearing a suggestion to impose a poll tax on Chinese immigrants.When Governor Arthur Kennedy arrived in Victoria in April 1864, Lee Chang, Tong Kee and Chang Tsoo called on him to express concern about the unfair treatment of the Chinese and the governments plan to modify the colonys free trade policy.

    In the late 19th century, one of the main complaints against the Chinese presence was the perception that they

    were sojourners who contributed little to the local economy before moving on to another gold field or back to China. Yet, as the example of Lee Chang shows, for some the gold rush migration pattern of the Chinese paralleled that of European settler communities along the Pacific Rim.

    The pioneer merchants helped write a significantly transformative chapter in trans-Pacific and Chinese Canadian history and demonstrated not all Chinese were labourers or sojourners.Many of these early migrants contributed to the building of British Columbia.

    Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC is open through October 31, 2015. To learn more visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/gold

    Dr Tzu-I Chung is a Curator of History at the Royal BC Museum, specializing in the multicultural and intercultural history of BC.

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 19

  • New Book from the Royal BC Museum

    New Perspectives on the Gold Rush presents 10 insightful essays by historians, curators and heritage professionals offering different views on familiar stories about gold and the Fraser River gold rush. The authors introduce new ways of examining this pivotal time in Canadas history, and they explore how the people who stayed behind after the gold rush helped build the province of British Columbia.

    Catch Gold Fever! For the ultimate golden experience, be sure to get a IMAX/Royal BC Museum combination ticket.

    Inside the world famousRoyal BC Museum(250) 480 4887

    Imaxvictoria.com

    New Perspectives on the Gold RushEdited by Kathryn Bridge

    $24.95 Paperback, colour and b/w photographs, 192 pages.

    Order online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/shop or purchase from the Royal Museum Shop or your local bookstore.

    20 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Gold Rush! Comes AliveBy Kim Gough, Adult Learning Developer

    One of the Royal BC Museum values is to work in partnership. Through thoughtful collaboration, we can facilitate meaningful programs and experiences, providing multiple perspectives and unique access to expertise from around the province. Finding our partners is an interesting alchemy of intent, luck and timing.

    Last June, an advertisement for a tin-type photo booth in a local paper caught my eye. Turns out this analogue photo booth is just one of the many opportunities offered by LUZ Studio for people interested in historic camera techniques. The creative team of Quinton Gordon and Diana Millar use historic methods such as wet plate collodion process, silver gelatin and photopolymer gravure printing to produce modern works of art.

    Following a visit to their studio, Quinton and Diana came to the Royal BC Museum to meet with me and our Curator of Images, Don Bourdon, to discuss how we could work together to illuminate not only the art but the process of early gold rush photographers.

    Gold Rush Photographers: A Living History on June 2 will be a talk and demonstration presented by Don and LUZ Studios. Don will highlight the best gold rush images in our collection and Quinton and Diana will demonstrate the technology used to capture the images. By combining both expertise participants, we will reveal a more complete story of these historic photographs.

    Another partnership has us collaborating on Gold Fever Trail Walking Tours. John

    Adams, well-known for his Discover the Past Tours, will help create these experiential tours around Victoria that will put participants in the shoes of early gold rush characters and have them making choices that will affect their fate. Tempt fate and join us this July and August as Johns talented team delivers these one-of-a-kind tours.

    Continuing into the fall, we will work with a variety of partners to present a fast-paced, evening event called the BC Gold Rush Fact Fest. This lively event gives leading experts three minutes to reveal

    a fascinating insight in an interactive informal atmosphere. Topics will include the vital multi-cultural story, women on the trail, arrival stories and hardships revealed. The presentations will include examples of music and poetry from the time and much more. Quench your thirst with gold rush inspired beverages and sit back and enjoy the rounds.

    See our events calendar online for details on these and other Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC events and programs.

    Visitors gold panning at the Royal BC Museum.

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 21

  • Death Registration of Angelo Conte.

    in the process, record his journey. The result is a documentary called Revelstoke A Kiss in the Wind, partly filmed on location at the BC Archives last year. The documentary will be completed later this year, but you can watch the teaser here: vimeo.com/82448782.

    This story is only one of hundreds we hear every year. Archives can be a treasure-trove of information for the budding genealogist. Vital event registrations, city directories, newspapers, probated wills and divorce orders are only a few of the documents waiting to be found. A simple start on any genealogy journey would begin with searching the Genealogy database on our website. If a relative was born, married or died in BC within a certain time period, their vital event registration might just be found in the database. Registrations can contain a wealth of information as they often

    Revelstoke A Kiss in the WindA JOURNEY IN THE BC ARCHIVES

    By Beverly Paty, Access Specialist

    At his home in Italy, researcher Nicola Maruzzi discovered letters written by his great-grandfather, Angelo Conte, and sent from British Columbia at the turn of the century. These letters describe his life and working conditions in BC and his love for his wife back in Italy.

    The letters prompted Maruzzi to investigate further. Maruzzis family knew little about what happened to Conte after he emigrated, but after an email to the BC Archives and assistance from an Access Specialist, Maruzzi discovered his great-grandfather died at the age of 28 working on the CPRs Connaught Tunnel near Revelstoke. Contes death registration revealed that a coroners inquest had been performed and a copy existed on microfilm at the BC Archives. After receiving copies of all of the records, Maruzzi decided to visit BC to retrace his great-grandfathers steps and,

    Coroners inquest into Angelo Contes death.

    Did you know that the Royal BC Museum also includes provincial archives? Help us keep our archives strong so that people all over the world can learn about their heritage, just like Italian film maker Nicola Maruzzi was able to do. If you would like to support the Royal BC Museum visit us online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/support, email us at [email protected] or call 250-387-7222.

    provide addresses, marital status, next of kin and occupation. Find out more at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/genealogy

    22 Whats inSight Summer 2015

  • Ive worked in a number of different types of archives across Canada (municipal, religious and provincial), most recently as a Reference Archivist at the BC Archives. Im now assisting with the development of the upcoming exhibition Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC, and continuing my outreach work. Working on identifying archival items for the Gold Rush exhibition has been an exciting chance to look at records Ive never seen before like a sad little diary written by a man called Samuel Hathaway, who died trying to get out of the Cariboo in 1862 before the winter

    snow trapped him. These types of records are so evocative of a time, place and a mans struggle to survive in a very hostile environment they draw you in. I felt like I was with Samuel every step of that horrible journey. And of course, these records are primary sources the diary you will see in the exhibition is the actual diary that was found on his body. My passion for archives began as a kid when a package of tea from Sri Lanka arrived at our home, wrapped in crumpled and torn pages from an old tea plantation ledger. I painstakingly taped it all back together with Scotch tape

    (apologies to all paper conservators out there!) and felt enormously proud of my efforts to preserve an archival record. I have learned to leave that sort of work to the professionals, but have never lost my enthusiasm for archival records, and what they can tell us about the past.

    STAFF PROFILE

    Ann ten CateBy Ann ten Cate, Archivist

    Plants of BC, from Museum Collections: Their Significance and Value to a Salmon Walk and Talk. As experts from every area of the museum and archives have been invited to participate, the breadth and depth of expertise available to you is impressive.

    As the Speakers Bureau program grows, we will continue to add speakers and speaking topics. For the time being, the range of the speaking engagements will be limited to South Vancouver Island, but we may find a way to use technology in the future for remote access presentations no matter where you live.

    Well keep you posted!

    One of the best things about working at the Royal BC Museum is having day-to-day contact with smart, passionate colleagues and hearing what theyre up to. While youre riding the elevator, sitting in the lunchroom or walking to meetings you learn about topics as varied as recent research in Alpine fields, the conservation challenges of sweat stains and the uses of cold storage.

    These are usually unscripted, chatty updates about what folks are working on. But sometimes museum and archives staff build fascinating narratives out of these vignettes, creating really interesting connections to the big picture, which is always about furthering our

    understanding of BCs human history or natural history.

    My feeling is that these stories are worth telling to a broader audience and worth listening to.

    Happily, were aiming to launch an online Royal BC Museum Speakers Bureau later this year. With an easy-to-use design, youll be able to see who at the Royal BC Museum is able to talk about specific topics. Youll be able to book a speaker online. And then youll be able to enjoy unfettered, in-person access to a lecture from the specialist of your choice.

    Available topics range from Preserving Your Family Photographs to the Invasive

    Speakers Bureau PreviewBy Erik Lambertson, Corporate Communications Officer

    royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 23

  • EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS

    FOOD TRUCK FESTIVALSummer-long EventRoyal BC MuseumMay OctoberLUNCH | BEER | DINNER | WINEroyalbcmuseum.bc.ca/foodtrucks

    Plant ID Workshop: Parts 2&3June 6 | 1 4 pmJune 13 | 1 4 pm$90 per person for both sessions

    Field Trippers: Beach SeineJune 14 | 9 11 amFree | Willows Beach

    2015 Aboriginal Cultural FestivalJune 19 21 | 11 am 6:30 pmPresented in partnership with

    Indigenous Languages in the House of MemoryJune 24 | 7 8:30 pm$16 per person

    Canada Day Old-Time Penny CarnivalJuly 1 | 1 3 pmFree with admission or membership

    Provincial Heritage FairJuly 5 | 10 am 3 pm Free | Clifford Carl Hall

    Summer Camps: Gold Rush!July 6 10 | 9 am 4 pmJuly 20 24 | 9 am 4 pmJuly 27 31 | 9 am 4 pmAugust 10 14 | 9 am 4 pmAugust 17 21 | 9 am 4 pm$224 per person | Ages 7 11

    Gold Fever Trail Walking TourJuly 11 | 10:30 am 12 pmJuly 25 | 10:30 am 12 pmAugust 8 | 10:30 am 12 pmAugust 22 | 10:30 am 12 pm$15 per person per tour

    Field Trippers: Dragonfly TripAugust 23 | 1 3pmFree | Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park

    EXHIBITIONS AND INSTALLATIONS

    Helmcken HouseOpen Daily | 12 4 pmJune SeptemberIncluded with admission or by donation

    Our Living LanguagesOn NowIn partnership with

    British Columbia Remembers: The Great WarOn Now

    Gold Rush! El Dorado in BCMay 13 October 31, 2015

    BC Archives on DisplayOn NowDuring regular hours of operation, enjoy public access to authentic, original records which help tell British Columbias story. Displays have included some of the worlds most unique and historically significant items from the provincial collection.

    SPECIES AT RISK

    Royal BC Museum Send-offJune 28 | 1 3 pm

    Penticton MuseumJuly 10 19

    Princeton MuseumJuly 20 26

    Merritt Recreation Centre / Nicola Valley MuseumJuly 27 August 2

    Oliver MuseumAugust 3 9

    Osoyoos MuseumAugust 10 16

    Summerland MuseumAugust 17 23

    Kelowna MuseumsAugust 24 - 28

    Check local museum websites for the confirmed dates and times you can view Species at Risk at these locations. Powered by TELUS. Supported by the John and Joan Walton Innovators Fund. In partnership with the Robert Bateman Centre.

    EMILY CARR HOUSE

    Fulfill the Moment: Carry OnSelect Mondays throughout the SummerActress and vocalist: Karen Lenz Presentation includes light refreshments For details visit [email protected] (250) 383 5843

    IMAX FEATURES

    Gold Fever

    Humpback Whales & more!

    For full film information, upcoming films and current schedule, visit us at imaxvictoria.com or call (250) 480-4887

    SUMMER HOURS: Open daily 10 am to 5 pm and open late to 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays from June to late September.

    For a full listing of whats happening at the Royal BC Museum pick up our 2015 Program Guide at the box office or view our calendar online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/calendarWhats on

    It pays to be a member! Royal BC Museum Members get 10% OFF Royal BC Museum event tickets.

    Information correct at time of printing. Subject to change. Please see website for most up-to-date information. Prices do not include applicable taxes.

    The Bay Centre is a proud long-time supporter of the Royal BC Museum. By partnering with the museum and archives, The Bay Centre is able to bring a sample of outstanding exhibitions to locals and tourists alike.

    You may have participated in our dinosaur

    FEATURE PARTNER

    The Bay Centrehunt, when prehistoric beasts were scattered throughout Victoria, including a display at The Bay Centre. Or perhaps you took a picture at the Viking ship in Centre Court. These are the types of opportunities that arise when like-minded community partners come together to create a more vibrant downtown and a stronger community base.

    Visit The Bay Centre, downtown Victorias premier shopping destination and curate your own summer collection. With more than 90 shops to choose from, our fashion galleries are always changing, bringing in new treasures to discover daily.

    thebaycentre.ca

  • Royal BC Museum Foundation Privacy Policy We want to keep you updated about the museum and archives. At the same time we value your privacy. The personal information collected on this form is collected under the authority of Section 4 of the Museum Act (SBC 2003, c.12) and will only be used to maintain our list of members and donors, process payments, and provide you with the latest Royal BC Museum news. If you have any questions about your privacy please contact the Manager of Information and Privacy, 675 Belleville St., Victoria, BC, V8W 9W2; [email protected] or (250) 356-0698.

    Become a Monthly DonorAdmission fees and membership combined only cover 21 per cent of our operational costs. Becoming a monthly donor helps fill the gap so that we may continue to provide care for the collections and tell BCs stories. Please consider being a monthly donor today.

    I would like to Give a Monthly Gift

    On the: 1st or 15th of each month, I would like to give

    $25 $50 $100 $200 $ _________ Other

    Please charge my Visa MasterCard American Express

    CREDIT CARD # EXPIRY DATE

    CARDHOLDERS FULL NAME

    SIGNATURE

    All gifts are eligible for a tax receipt. Please send my charitable tax receipt to: (Please print)

    NAME

    ADDRESS

    CITY PROVINCE POSTAL CODE

    TELEPHONE EMAIL

    NAME FOR DONOR RECOGNITION PURPOSES

    Other Ways to GiveIf you would like to make a one-time gift, visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/support or call 250-387-7222

    I would like to learn more about leaving a gift in my will for the Royal BC Museum Foundation. Please contact me to confirm that my wishes can be honoured.

    Thank you for supporting the Royal BC Museum. Please return this form, along with your donation to: The Royal BC Museum Foundation 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC V8W 9W2

    For more information please Phone: 250-387-7222 Email: [email protected] royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/support

    Having worked for non-profit charities around the country, Ive come to realize the best strategy a charitable organization can implement is one that is donor driven.

    This is yet another reason why Im so proud to be part of the Royal BC Museum family. We truly value the support we receive from our donors and strive to ensure we provide a simple and easy donation process.

    Our Monthly Giving program is our most cost effective way to collect and process donations and is also the most seamless avenue for you to send your donations to us.

    Heres how becoming a monthly donor benefits you:

    Its easy: Regular donations can be made in affordable monthly payments.

    Customize: You choose how much youd like to give monthly.

    Less work: Transactions are automatically made from your credit card each month.

    Save: Reduce postage costs and save time with automatic transactions.

    Flexibility: Donors can easily increase, decrease or stop their gift at any time.

    Keep Organized: A cumulative tax receipt is issued annually.

    Please consider being a Royal BC Museum monthly donor so that you can enjoy these great benefits. This type of donation also helps us keep our postage and administrative costs down. To join our Monthly Giving program, simply fill out the form to the right, call me at 250-387-3102 or email me at [email protected].

    How Being a Monthly Donor Benefits YOU!By Shaun Cerisano, Annual Campaign Manager

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