Fleming Street photos from the 1950s and 1960s

Tonight is our Georgestown Scanning/Mapping Party, where we are encouraging people to come share their neighbourhood memories and stories. We start at 7pm at The Lantern on Barnes Road.

To get you in the mood, here are a few photos of Fleming Street, sent to me by Channing Holland (formerly Catherine Channing) who grew up on Fleming Street.

Above is a photo of her sister and brother at the front door of 70 Fleming Street in 1955.  She writes, "The entrance changed in later years when the side windows were replaced by full length panes in a sort of rippled pattern." Today the entire front entrance has been replaced, but similar entranceways could be found all along that row of houses, known collectively as Maple Terrace.

The second one is again of her brother, sitting on the front fence.  She notes, "The cement fence was a much later addition sometime around the '60s I think." The bay window immediately behind the boy is 68 Fleming Street, which still has the same configuration in 2019. The open porch on 66 Fleming has been enclosed.

Finally, an interior photo of the living room of 70 Fleming, circa 1956. The mantel and tile surround remains in the house as of 2019.

At the time of these photos, the house was owned by James G Channing, civil servant, Companion of the Order of Canada, and cabinet secretary under Joseph Smallwood. 

Bring your neighbourhood photos to The Lantern tonight! We will share some of what we find in future posts.

You are invited to the Georgestown Scanning and Mapping Party!

Georgestown Scanning and Mapping Party
Tuesday, May 14th at 7:00 p.m. at the Lantern.
35 Barnes Rd, St. John's, NL A1C 3X1

Did you grow up on Barnes Road or Maxse Street? Did you hang out at Rawlins Cross, or shop at W.J. Murphy’s? Did someone in your family own one of the old Georgestown shops? If you did, and have photos of any of those things, the Georgestown Neighbourhood Association and Heritage NL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage office would love to see your snaps!

Of interest are old photos of the neighbourhood, anywhere from the 1880s to the 1980s. Photos could be family snapshots, old photos showing parties, games or sporting events, cars decorated for weddings, or of any of the old shops and stores that once dotted the area.

In addition, there will be large maps available to mark the location of informal place names and neighbourhood landmarks, everything from sweet shops and barbers to dance studios and that special spot where you met with your buddies, where you played certain games, or brought your special friend.

“We want to see those photos Nan kept in the old biscuit tin in the closet,” says folklorist Dale Jarvis with Heritage NL. “Sometimes photographs from the 1970s and ‘80s include things like storefronts or shop signs that are now long gone, so even if they aren’t ancient, they can still help us document changes to the neighbourhood.”

Heritage NL staff will be on site to scan the photographs and ask questions about who or what is in the photo. If you bring your own USB flash drive, you can take home a digital copy as well as your original photographs.

Photos will also be shared online with the owner’s permission, and a copy will be uploaded to Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is indexed and archived for history buffs everywhere.

Questions? Call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 x2 or email dale@heritagenl.ca

Facebook event listing right here.

Photo of the Newfoundland Brewery Ltd colourized by http://www.thephotomender.com

Lassy Days Photo Scanning Party, Spaniard's Bay

Church of the Holy Redeemer, Church of England, Spaniard's Bay, with car leaving church grounds, circa 1947.
The Rooms VA 15D-25.3.

Do you have an old photo album that might include images from Spaniard’s Bay?

During the town’s Lassy Days celebrations, the Spaniard’s Bay Heritage Society is hosting a scanning party, to help save and share old photos for all to see.

The society is looking for old photos of Spaniard’s Bay, from the 1880s to the 1980s, including anything showing old buildings, garden parties, family reunions, or cars decorated for weddings. The event will be hosted in partnership with the intangible cultural heritage office of Heritage NL.

“We want to see those snapshots Nan kept in the old biscuit tin in the closet,” says folklorist Dale Jarvis with the Heritage NL. “Sometimes photos from the 1970s and ‘80s include buildings or structures that have been torn down, so even if they aren’t ancient photographs, they can still help us document changes to the community.”

Jarvis and Spaniard’s Bay Heritage Society workers will be on site to scan the photographs and ask questions about who or what is in the photo. If you bring your own USB flash drive, you can take home a digital copy as well as your original photographs.

The digital copies will be used by the society, shared on Facebook with the owner’s permission, and a copy will be uploaded to Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is indexed and archived for history buffs everywhere to see.

So go ahead and dig out those old photos, and come out Wednesday, August 8th, at 7pm for tea, treats, and a chat. The scanning party will take place at the Wesley Gosse Heritage Museum, located in the former United Church, 6 Church Hill, across from the Harold Gosse Park and Gazebo.

#CollectiveMemories Roadtrip to St. Lawrence

Terra Barrett and Kelly Drover with the material to be digitized!

Last Thursday Dale, Kelly and I took a drive down the Burin Peninsula to meet with the St. Lawrence Historical Advisory Committee. When we arrived on Thursday afternoon we stopped in to their office in the town hall where we sorted through the material they needed digitized. We ended up taking 20 VHS, 21 CDs and DVDs, 4 cassettes, 4 Kodak slide carousels filled with slides and a small box of assorted slides. This material will be digitized over the next little while and will certainly keep Kelly busy. After this successful visit we drove to Burin in order to take a couple of photos of the designated buildings in the community. We also stopped in to the Heritage Café for a delicious supper.

Public meeting on oral history projects.

In the evening we met with community members in the St. Lawrence Public Library in order to discuss how to do an oral history project. Dale gave an introduction to oral history interviewing including how to focus the interview, reasons to conduct an informal “pre-interview” and the sort of questions to ask. We also ran through the basics of consent forms and how to process the material once you collect it. This included an explanation of tape logs and suggestions of ways to use the material such as booklets, audio clips, etc.

ThérèseSlaney and Dale Jarvis.

Reviewing Herb Slaney's plans.

The following morning we had an interview with Thérèse Slaney about growing up in St. Pierre, her move to St. Lawrence and marriage to Herb Slaney, a description of the first autopsy performed in the community and its importance to miners, an explanation of how the tradition of Mardi Gras started in St. Lawrence, and her husband Herb’s work engineering the cross and grotto in the community. Thérèse was a wonderful woman to chat with and described delicious French foods over a cup a tea in her kitchen.

St. Lawrence's grotto.

The cross in St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Cemetery.

After our interview with Therese we had a look at the community’s grotto and cross engineered by Herb Slaney and visited a couple of graveyards. Our last stop on the drive back to St. John’s was to the community of Petite Forte to photograph another designated building and take a look at the beautiful harbour. All in all a very successful trip to the Burin Peninsula!

Petite Forte

~Terra Barrett

Digitizing the Mount Pearl Oral History Project. #collectivememories #oralhistory

Gaze in wonder at our high-tech digitization suite, converting micro-cassette tapes to WAV format recordings!

Our Collective Memories project is embarking on a new partnership with the Admiralty House Communications Museum to digitize its oral history collection, largely collected in the early 2000s. Here, we are digitizing an interview conducted January 16, 2001 with Steve Best, conducted by Lisa Abbott. The interview focuses on Steve's childhood memories of growing up in Gambo and later working for the Newfoundland Railway as a telegrapher. There is some focus as well on his memories of Mount Pearl in the 1970s.

We will be working with the fabulous Carla Watson at the Museum to place the collection online as part of Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. Stay tuned!

- Dale

8mm Film Reels from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society

For the past week I have been working on digitizing 18 reels of 8mm film from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society. Working with 8mm has been a learning experience for me, but it is wonderful to see the content of the reels that were previously unknown to the society. The films were created by Albert Hillier (1916-2004) in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Hillier was a commercial artist, photographer, and was a cartoonist who worked for the Grand Falls Advertiser for 40 years, producing the editorial page strip Our Town.

The footage involves public community events as well as home videos from Hillier's personal life. In the reels I have viewed so far, the activities of the Church Lads Brigade(C.L.B)  have been prominent, including parades and camp activities.

This first film shows a C.L.B parade, as well as activities at a church.

The second reel features various scenes of the C.L.B including swimming, camping, target shooting, sports, and other camp activities. You can also see footage of the boat Miss Newfoundland.

The third film begins by showing a road banner "Welcome To Their Excellencies." This reel was faintly labeled "Visit by Lt. Gov." Can you identify these visitors?

Do you recognize any locations or individuals in these films? Please contact Kelly at 1-888-739-1892 or email kelly@heritagefoundation.ca

~ Kelly

Boxes Under the Bed? Digitization and Oral History

Grand Falls-Windsor Oral History Collection

Have an oral history collection you don’t know what to do with?  Need help digitizing these collections?
The Heritage Foundation is looking to help you out!

Maybe they’re in your storage room, or in your bottom desk drawer – those shoeboxes of cassettes, CDs or reel to reel tapes that were collected by a summer project, seniors’ group or JCP worker. These were the recordings that were going to preserve the voices of the past – but here they sit with no voice at all! You don’t know what’s on the recordings, you don’t know much about who made them – maybe you don’t even have the equipment to play them!

As part of the Collective Memories project the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is looking to help community organizations, municipalities, and church groups digitize their oral history collections to make them accessible for future generations. Collected stories will be made available through Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is a free, public website where the HFNL stores the photos, videos, and interviews it collects.

The Collective Memories project is part of HFNL’s ongoing Intangible Cultural Heritage program. The program works to safeguard the living heritage of the province for present and future generations everywhere, as a vital part of the identities of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and as a valuable collection of unique knowledge and customs.

The Heritage Foundation has worked with several groups around the province to help digitize their collections. This includes the School of Nursing, and Grand Falls-Windsor’s Hiram Silk Collection. Keep your eye on Memorial University’s DAI for the Cape Race and Grand Falls-Windsor collections which are coming soon!

How can you access to those voices from the past? How can you preserve and use them? Contact the Heritage Foundation! If you would like more information on how your group can get involved please contact Terra Barrett toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 6 or terra@heritagefoundation.ca.

~Terra Barrett

Living Heritage Podcast Ep016 Digitization How-To with Archivist Nicole Penney

Nicole Penney is a folklorist and archivist living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She holds a BA in Folklore / English Literature and an MA in Public Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. On this episode, we talk all about digitizing archival records, with tips for community museums and archives, as well as private individuals, about how to best digitize old photographs, print, video, and audio materials.

Tuesday Folklore Photo: Nan's Cookbook in the Digital Age

A recipe for light cake belonging to Bernice Miles,
 who attended the digitization workshop on February 22, 2014.

This past Friday, The Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives and The Intangible Cultural Heritage Office provided a digitization workshop in St. John's. This workshop focused on digitizing  family cookbooks and handwritten recipes and recipe cards.  Participants were encouraged to bring along their own family collections to share and scan.  Presenters Mary Ellen Wright (ANLA) and Nicole Penney (ICH-HFNL) led this hands on workshop, which taught participants how to create and preserve digital copies of their documents. We also discussed  how to best preserve the original copies of these important family and community heirlooms.

Mary Ellen Wright discusses preservation techniques
Photo Courtesy of: Sarah Ingram

Nicole Penney showing participants how to scan original documents
Photo Courtesy of: Sarah Ingram

We will be holding a similar event at the Cupids Legacy Centre on Friday March 21, 2014. Join us from 3-5 p.m. for some tea, buns and reminiscences about cookbooks and cooking. We’ll also talk about how best to preserve the original documents. Participants are encouraged to bring examples from their own homes or collections. The event is free to attend with coffee, tea and snacks provided.

Workshop participants Joan Mowbray and Amelia Reimer share their family cookbooks
Photo Courtesy of: Sarah Ingram

If you wish to attend the Cupids event, please RSVP to Sarah Ingram: sarah@heritagefoundation.ca or (709) 739-1892 ex. 5

Nan’s Cookbook in the Digital Age

Digitizing and preserving family heirloom cookbooks and recipe cards.
Date: February 21, 2014, 1-4:30 p.m.
Location: ANLA office, Suite 201, 15 Hallett Crescent, St. John’s

Presenters: 

• Dale Jarvis, Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer, Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Nicole Penney, Intangible Cultural Heritage Programs Assistant
• Mary Ellen Wright, ANLA Professional Development and Outreach Officer

Do you have your nan’s recipe cards? Did your mother keep a scrapbook of her favourites? Do family members reminisce about that old copy of the Cream of the West Cookbook with the comments and changes written all over its pages?

This workshop will teach participants how to create and preserve digital copies of these important family and community heirlooms. We’ll also talk about how best to preserve the original documents! Participants will be encouraged to bring examples from their own homes or collections.

Registration fee: $30
Registration deadline: February 17, 2014 Some financial assistance for transportation costs is available for ANLA

members: please contact the ANLA office for more information.

Mary Ellen Wright
Professional Development and Outreach Officer Association of Newfoundland
and Labrador Archives
(709)726-2867
www.anla.nf.ca

Digitizing Intangible Cultural Heritage : A How-To Guide

A while back, Lisa Wilson, one of our staff folklorists, worked for the the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador to prepare a guide to assist museums, archives and independent researchers, for the Canadian Heritage Information Network.

This manual assists museums, archives and independent researchers in digitizing their existing collections of intangible heritage-related material. Aside from providing step-by-step digital transferring instructions, it also offers definitions for heritage-related terminologies, as well as a significant number of technological terminologies. While this digitization guide aims to be user-friendly, familiarity with basic audio/visual equipment and media software is a prerequisite. Digitization instructions are provided for both Windows and Mac operating systems.

The guide is now out, and available online!

Folklore, fieldwork, and forgotten cemeteries

 

In the 2013 August/September issue of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update: students start the Folklore 6020 field school in Quidi Vidi; the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador launches its most recent publication, on lych-gates in Newfoundland; archaeologist Sarah Ingram gives an update on the wells and springs project; Nicole Penney reports on digitizing the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation Oral History Collection; we have a report on HFNL's recent tombstone rubbing workshop; and notes on a little-known cemetery in Clarke's Beach, Conception Bay.

Contributors: Dale Jarvis, Nicole Penney, Lisa Wilson, Sarah Ingram, Claire McDougall. Photo of the Isaac Snow grave marker by Claire McDougall.

The newsletter is available online as a pdf document.