Showing posts with label heritage inventories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heritage inventories. Show all posts

Monday, August 24, 2015

Oh! You Nasty Nazi Man: A WWII Novelty March Song from 1940s Newfoundland



Those of you who follow the ICH blog know that we are often uploading information and interviews to the ICH Inventory on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. It is an amazing resource for people conducting historical and folklore research, and the ICH Inventory is only one small part of the entire collection.

There is a recent uploads page for the DAI, which showcases some of the more recent items uploaded. While checking it out today, I came across this peculiar gem, a novelty march song from Newfoundland entitled "Oh! You Nasty Nazi Man" - a call-to-arms of sorts with a chorus that starts "Oh! you nasty Nazi man, Way over in Berlin, You know you haven't got a chance, This blinking war to win."

Words and music are attributed to A.J. Dee, and copyright is attributed to one A.S. Donnelly, of 20 McKay Street, St. John's. If you know anything about this piece of music, or the author, let me know, or leave a comment below!

You can view the sheet music on the DAI, or download a pdf here.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Old gates in historic Harbour Grace, Newfoundland

I spent a couple hours this morning, walking around the heritage district and surrounding neighbourhood of Harbour Grace, Conception Bay. I'm giving a presentation to the town tomorrow on cultural mapping and inventorying of heritage resources, so I just wanted to see what I could see.

One of the things that jumped out at me was how many properties still maintain their old gates, some of which are of a very similar style. Some of these were possibly constructed by Art Tapp, a blacksmith who "fashioned many of the iron gates and fences in the district" (Harbour Grace Heritage District Report, HFNL, 1992).

A very preliminary walk-around revealed a large number of wrought iron gates and fences standing, some possibly Tapp's work, others of later periods. To give you a sense of numbers and variety of styles, a selection of photographs follows, taken today, 6 May 2015.