Today's Red Ochre adventure: from bucket to board, an experiment!

We've been doing some research here on the traditional use of red ochre (you can read our preliminary research right here) and how people used to mix it with some type of oil (linseed, seal, or cod liver) as a paint for outbuildings in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A while ago, Heather Fifield, the Coordinator of Laboratories and Services at the Department of Biochemistry at Memorial University, emailed me about some seal oil that Dr. Fereidoon Shahidi's lab no longer needed. So today, I picked up a bucket of the stuff and carefully transported it back to our office.

As an experiment Michael Philpott in our office treated one side of a piece of wood with the pure oil, and then we mixed the oil with some powdered red ochre I had been given by Pete Porter of Change Islands. Michael coated the other side of the board with the red ochre/seal oil mix, and now we'll see how long it takes to dry. Even just a small amount of oil and ochre gave us a beautiful first coat stain, and we're looking forward to seeing how it looks after another coat.

We've been floating around the idea of doing a bigger project, mixing up a larger amount of red ochre paint and testing its effectiveness on an outdoor project like a stage or store. Stay tuned!

If you've got a memory of red ochre (or have some in your shed) send me an email at dale@heritagenl.ca

Check out this amazing carved wooden butter stamp! #FoodwaysFriday

We continue our #FoodwaysFriday theme of wooden kitchen implements with this fantastic piece from Robin Dooley of Frederickton, NL. Robin writes,

This is a butter stamp that my grandmother, Olive Sanger 1929-2017 of Lewisporte, gave to me when I went out on my own. Although we didn’t make much butter (only as a science experiment), we did use it to stamp the homemade play dough or shortbread cookies nan would often make for us. And I let my own daughter do the same now. 

My nan was born Olive Boone Of Burnt Head, Cupid’s. Her parents were Arthur Roland (Rolly) Wilson Boone and Diana Carolyn Bishop. She grew up in the last house on the right before you go up around the loop, there is a shed at the end of the driveway that once was her families shoppe. The house was bought by Mrs Ingeborg Marshall in the '60-'70s and then bought again in the 2000s and restored by a Miss Mackey and her husband. 

Apologies for not knowing her married name. I wish my nan was still here as I am not 100 sure where exactly this came from. She used to say her own great grandmother used it and it was probably around even longer than her! The house was full of treasures when it was sold, I often wish we had more of them to remember her with.

Robin also included the photo below, of her nan in the early 1930s in front of her family store. She writes, "The store sign was a porcelain Sunlight Soap sign and used to say A R Boone and they were in the process of mounting it when this photo was taken."

If any of you have stories or photos to share of Burnt Head or Cupid’s and the Bishop/ Dawe/Boone families, Robin would love to hear or see them. And, as always, if you've got a beloved hand-made kitchen implement, send us a pic and story we'll share it here. Email me at dale@heritagenl.ca

Old Salts (and Herself) - help ID these mystery photographs! #TBT

P10768 Man in winter

Do you recognize this person? Please help us put a name to these faces!

The Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (MMaP) at Memorial University is putting the final touches on a website dedicated to the folksongs collected by MacEdward Leach between 1949 and 1951 across Newfoundland and in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We need your help to identify the people in his photo collection!

Please contact Gale at leach@mun.ca (or comment below!) We'll update captions here if we find out more information.

P10773 Woman on porch

P10779 Unidentified men on boat

P10781 Sailor smoking pipe 

P10780 Men and Boys on the dock

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.

Hobby Horses, Makerspaces, and Digital Literacies

Group displaying their completed horses.

Last week Dale and I led a hobby horse workshop as part of the SSHRC Conference on Makerspaces and Digital Literacies. The goal of the conference was to engage in scholarly discussion around how making is central the way that people practice literacies in their own lives. These can be both tangible and intangible objects and are very relatable to material cultures.

Pieces the horses together.

The aim of the conference was to consider how making and literacy can come together through the use of material culture to engage communities with concepts of citizenship. This conference also focused on how makerspaces can be developed in interesting and innovative ways through cultural institutions such as The Rooms and The Geo Centre.

Finishing touches.

As part of the conference Dr. Anne Burke asked Dale to give a presentation on intangible cultural heritage, and the work of the ICH office. We also led a very quick hobby horse workshop for the participants who came from different places around the world. Participants from the UK were familiar with hobby horses, and those from Finland recounted stories of a different breed of hobby horse which are ridden instead of worn. (If you want to learn more about the hobby horse revolution in Finland click here to watch a short video clip.)

Trimming up his chin.

For those who weren't familiar with hobby horses Dale gave an overview of the tradition and some of the mischief the horses were likely to get up to while mummering such as snapping clothes, stealing table clothes, turning off lights, and "eating" snacks. We split the group of fifteen into three smaller groups and led them through the process of creating and decorating a hobby horse from this template. The group had a lot of fun and were creative in the decorating process with one team adding braces to their hobby horse's teeth. If you want to learn more about hobby horses check out the Mummers Festival page, or keep your eye out come December and take in one of the hobby horse workshops offered by the festival.

Dentistry work.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep151 Field to Flight

In September 1913, flying was very new, very risky, and very exciting. Records were made, then broken. No one had ever flown across the Atlantic nonstop. Lord Northcliffe, the owner of Britain’s Daily Mail, wanted to change that with a contest. Many teams were ready to try in 1914—then the Great War broke out and the contest was put on hold. In November 1918, just three days after the Armistice, the race was back on. The right departure point would be key. For a few exciting weeks in the spring of 1919, the teams set themselves up here in Newfoundland.

2019 marks a century since the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic and Admiralty House is creating a new exhibit titled "Field to Flight". The exhibit will highlight some of the major players of a historic race and feature Margaret Carter, a St. John’s women and her perspective on the race. We chat with Museum Manager Sarah Wade about the air race, but also manage to talk about Twinkletoes the cat, fur coats, and beer!

Download the mp3

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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Now a #FoodwaysFriday tradition, another rolling pin! The Fahey pin, Chapel’s Cove

Another Friday, another hand-made rolling pin! This one comes to us from Linda Lewis, who writes:

This rolling pin has been at the Fahey Farm (est 1789) for many generations. It was either made by my husband’s grandfather Edward Fahey (1869-1925)or his father also named Edward Fahey (1826-1884) from wood from the farm. The Fahey Farm is a Century Farm in Chapel’s Cove, Conception Bay.

Got a handmade rolling pin or other hand-crafted kitchen gadget in your cupboard? I want to see it! Send me a pic and your story, and we'll keep sharing them on Fridays. dale@heritagenl.ca

You can read a bit more about the history of the Fahey Century Farm here.

Looking for helpful household advice on what to do with your old rolling pin? Do you have lumpy salt? Have no fear, the St. John's Daily Star of 1917-01-04 has your back in the "Mrs. Newlywed And Her Woes" column:

Scanning St. John’s!

St. John's Harbour. IGA photograph collection. VA 94-105.1. June 1934. Photo courtesy of The Rooms.

Scanning St. John’s!

Are you a townie? Do you want to share family photos on Mother’s Day? Did you grow up in Georgestown or Rabbittown? Did you hang out on Ropewalk Lane, or shop at W.J. Murphy’s? Did someone in your family own a shop? If you did, and have photos of any of those things, Heritage NL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage office would love to see your snaps!

Of interest are old photos of St. John’s, 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 town.

“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 neighbourhoods.”

Heritage NL will be hosting two scanning parties in St. John’s. The first on Sunday, May 12th in the Community Room at the St. John’s Farmers’ Market at 2pm, and the second on Tuesday, May 14th at the Lantern at 7pm.

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 x 2 or email dale@heritagenl.ca

Sunday, May 12th at 2:00 p.m. at the Farmers’ Market
245 Freshwater Rd, St. John’s, NL A1B 1B3

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

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

Drown'd by the stroke of a whale, 1782: the grave of Jonathan Webber

Recently, I came across an intriguing headstone inscription on the Stone Pics website, for the community of Harbour Grace, Conception Bay. It was for a young man who was killed by a whale, and who lies buried in St. Paul's Churchyard. The stone reads:

In memory of Jonathan the son of Henry & Elizabeth Webber. This stone is erected by his sorrowful parents. He was a dutiful child, a loving brother, his parents chief hope of children, was drown'd by the stroke of a whale the 12th & found 16th July, 1782, aged 18 years and 9 months, and lies interr'd here.

I asked Matthew McCarthy, the Economic Development Officer for the  Town of Harbour Grace if he knew about it, and he ventured out to the churchyard and took the attached photos. The stone lies approximately here.  Thanks to Anne Gosse, who sent along the entry on findagrave.com, which you can view here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/179594281/jonathan-webber

"Whaling was an exceptionally dangerous business both physically and economically," reads the New Bedford Whaling Museum website, "In the Yankee whale fishery injuries and death were common to almost every voyage" (1).

As one example, the brig Emeline, of New Bedford, sailed from port on the 11th of July, 1841. The captain, Captain Wood, was killed by a whale in July, 1842 (2).  Consider also this dramatic report published in The Patriot And Terra-Nova Herald 1851-12-22, about the fate of the whaleship Ann Alexander, also of New Bedford, on 20th of August, under the command of Captain Deblois:

...while in pursuit of whales, two of his boats that were out in pursuit were attacked by a large sperm whale, and completely demolished. The captain promptly ordered a third boat, and proceeded to the assistance of the men, who were thrown into the sea by the destruction of their boats. He succeeded in rescuing all of them, and reached his ship in safety. But the whale becoming  more frantic with rage, immediately directed his course for the ship, and struck her abreast of her foremast, injuring her so badly that she instantly filled. All hands took to the boats on the 22nd, and were subsequently picked up by the ship Nantucket... (3)

While it isn't explicitly stated on the stone, it is likely that young Jonathan Webber was engaged in the whale fishery of the time. The whale fishery was well-established in 18th-century Newfoundland.  By 1750, the Webber family of Boston set up business in Harbour Grace and made strenuous efforts to promote a whale hunt in Conception Bay; in 1766 Governor Hugh Palliser oversaw regulations for preventing disputes amongst whalers that arose from claims to a share in any whales. The whaling factory in Harbour Grace closed circa 1913, but memories of it lived on well past that date: the Harbour Grace Regatta was established using whale boats for the races, a tradition that persisted up to 1971.

Works cited:

(1) https://www.whalingmuseum.org/learn/research-topics/overview-of-north-american-whaling/whales-hunting

(2)  http://mysite.du.edu/~ttyler/ploughboy/starbuck.htm page 149.

(3) http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/the_patriot/id/1638/rec/9 page 3.


Got a whaling story from your community? Let me know at dale@heritagenl.ca

Another handmade rolling pin for #FoodwaysFriday, this one from Labrador

We are on a roll with these photos of hand-made rolling pins! So far, we've seen ones from St. Phillip's and Sibley's Cove.

Today's is from Labrador, with a possible Harbour Grace connection. Cindy Gibbons (a former Heritage NL board member) sent me the above picture, and writes,

My mom, Linda (Yetman) Gibbons inherited this from my great grandmother Eliza (Ryan) Gibbons. Great grandmother was born at L’Anse au Claire and married great grandfather Walter Gibbons in Red Bay in 1908. Mom says she remembers grandmother saying it was already in the house when she moved in, meaning that it was used at least by my great great grandmother Janet (LeGrow) Gibbons. She was from Harbour Grace and married James Gibbons at Red Bay in 1879. She died in 1898.

Got a handmade rolling pin, or another handmade kitchen object? Drop me a note and photo at dale@heritagenl.ca. We'll continue to share these for #FoodwaysFriday!

Nets, Fish, and Fences - help identify these mystery photographs! #TBT

P10707 Young woman along a fence. Nets drying, looks like a riddle (wriggle) fence to the left.

The Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (MMaP) at Memorial University is putting the final touches on a website dedicated to the folksongs collected by MacEdward Leach between 1949 and 1951 across Newfoundland and in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We need your help to identify the people in his photo collection!

Please contact Gale at leach@mun.ca or comment below. We'll update captions here if we find out more information.

P10756 Older couple ready for an evening out (or church?). Love that bowtie!

P10777 Sailor in doorway. Note fish drying above roof.

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

Deborah Strong Squires's Rolling Pin, Sibley's Cove. #FoodwaysFriday

Last week, we posted a photo of a handmade rolling pin from Portugal Cove, and asked if anyone had one similar.  Florence Button of Carbonear responded with the photo above of a rolling pin that had belonged to her Great-Grandmother, Deborah Strong Squires.  Deborah was born 1833 at Old Perlican, and she and husband Charles later moved to Sibley's Cove.

Deborah Strong Squires passed away in 1920, but Florence didn't know of the rolling pin until she received it a year ago. Today, it is one of her most precious possessions, even if she cannot use it because of the split along the side.

Florence also sent along this fantastic photo of her GreatGranny Deborah, with two of Florence's late Aunties, taken a year or so before Deborah passed.  Pearl Squires is on her lap; Annie is standing.

Do you have an heirloom kitchen tool that you still use? Send us a pic and a story, and we'll share it in an upcoming #FoodwaysFriday post!

email: dale@heritagenl.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep150 Till the streetlight comes on

We are starting a new virtual museums project with our partners in the historic town of Bay Roberts. In this episode, we talk about the places and stories that make Bay Roberts special, and ask for your help in identifying locations of folkloric and historic interest in the community.

First up, we talk about children's games and Cable Avenue verandahs in an interview with best friends Wanda and Roxanne, and then sit down for a chat with Sandra Roach of Coley's Point, and Margaret Ayad of Bay Roberts. Listen to the end, and you might pick up some tips on staying safe from the fairies!

• Download the mp3

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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Spinning and Stables - help identify these mystery photos #TBT

P10702 Woman #2 posing with spinning wheel

Do you recognize this person? Please help us put a name to these faces!

The Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (MMaP) at Memorial University is putting the final touches on a website dedicated to the folksongs collected by MacEdward Leach between 1949 and 1951 across Newfoundland and in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We need your help to identify the people in his photo collection!

Please contact Gale at leach@mun.ca or comment below. We'll update captions here if we find out more information.

P10732 Woman #1 posing with spinning wheel 

P10771 Preparing to ride horse drawn cart

P10772 Two women and a man posing with horse and cart 

A handmade wooden rolling pin from St. Philips. Do you own something similar? #FoodwaysFriday

Today's #FoodwaysFriday photo comes to us courtesy of Kim Ploughman. This hand-made wooden rolling pin once belonged to Edna Picco of Witchhazel Road in St. Philips, who passed away in 1995. The maker is unknown, but we'd love to know if you have something similar. Do you have an heirloom wooden kitchen tool that you still use? Send us a pic or story, and we'll share it!

email: dale@heritagenl.ca

Remembering 1942 - An account of the U-boat torpedoing at Bell Island

SS Saganaga

"Running to my sister's bedroom window which overlooked the eastern portion of the tickle, I arrived there before the debris flung in the air had settled back upon the water. The Rose Castle, deeply laden with her heavy cargo of iron ore was mortally wounded, but after only a few seconds she was hit by a second torpedo, tearing her apart in a blinding flash, and with bow and stern sticking almost vertically in the air she quickly vanished beneath the surface." 

- Lloyd C. Rees 

New on our website is a first-hand account of the torpedoing of the ore carriers S.S. Saganaga and the S.S. Lord Strathcona by U-boat 513 in the waters off Lance Cove, Sept. 5, 1942, and the similar dispatching of the PLM 27 and the S.S. Rose Castle by U-518 in the same location the following November 2nd.  It was written by the late Lloyd C. Rees, and we've been working with his daughter Catherine Rees to get it ready for re-publication. It has originally been posted online in 1999, but a few pages were missing. We've added it to our Field Notes series, and included a new introduction by Catherine, placing the work of her father in context.

You can read the full account here.

Or  download the pdf.

Looking for more info on the Adler Chocolate Factory, Bay Roberts

Atlantic Advocate, vol. 49, no. 08 (April 1959)

Candy and Chocolates 

The Adler Company... is the chocolate firm which is now also making hard candies. People who have visited this operation have all come away with the same impression about the cleanliness of the plant. It is spotless just as a food plant should be, no doubt it is a shining example of how clean a food-manufacturing concern can be. The plant is geared to greater output than at present and can produce tons of chocolates and candy every week. All ingredients are mixed by machinery so that the human hand does not come in contact at any tune with the product. The female help a!1 wear smocks and head and hand coverings. The Adler firm is now contemplating the erection of a potato-chip plant adjacent to the chocolate factory.

From:  The Newfoundland Journal of Commerce 1956-08, Vol. 23, No. 08 page 7 

As part of our new Carved by the Sea project to record stories about sites of folkloric and historic interest in Bay Roberts, we'd love to hear some of your memories of Adler's chocolates! If you remember the plant, the candies themselves, or the radio ads, leave a reply below, or send me an email at dale@heritagenl.ca

The Carved by the Sea project: What is your favourite place in Bay Roberts?

Advertisement for the short lived Adler chocolate factory in Bay Roberts. Opened in 1956, closed in 1960.

This morning Dale, and I headed to Bay Roberts for a meeting with Marilyn Dawe, of the Bay Roberts Heritage Advisory Committee, and Mayor Philip Wood. This was the start of the Carved by the Sea project which will identify and conduct oral history interviews on a dozen heritage places in the community of Bay Roberts, NL. Based on preliminary survey work, Heritage NL will work with the community to prioritize a dozen places for research, identify possible oral history subjects, conduct interviews, and then transcribe, edit, and make that material available and accessible through the Bay Roberts museum/archive, Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, and an online Virtual Museum of Canada Project.

The places identified by the community for folklore and oral history research will represent a variety of spaces. Some of these places are well known community landmarks that tell of the town’s long history, and which tie the present to the earliest days of settlement. The remaining potential heritage places are less well-known, and largely undocumented. They reflect neighbourhood oral traditions, local folklore and folk belief, and speak to Bay Roberts’ history as an early to mid twentieth-century commercial centre.

What is your favourite place in Bay Roberts? Do you have a story about the chocolate facory? Let us know!

Launching the Seniors Memory Mug Up at the Market!

What are your fondest childhood memories? Which local shop did you frequent? Do you remember the best hill for sliding? Heritage NL, in partnership with the St. John’s Farmers’ Market and the St. John’s Storytelling Festival, wants to know!

“We are looking for people’s memories about local shops, neighbourhood hangouts, skating ponds, and old paths,” says the organization’s public folklorist, Terra Barrett.

Heritage NL will be hosting the Mug Ups at the Community Room at the St. John’s Farmers’ Market the second Sunday of each month, from April 2019-March 2020 at 2pm, starting April 14th.

The Seniors Memory Mug Up at The Market is an informal story sharing session for seniors, where people gather, have a cup of tea, and share memories. The goal of the Mug Up is to help seniors share and preserve their stories. Whatever story is important to them, whether it a personal story, a story about a family member, or a story about the community, the Memory Mug Up program can help preserve and share it.

The events are free! Seniors bring a memory of growing up, organizers in partnership with vendors at the St. John’s Farmers’ Market supply the tea and local food, and everyone has a chat. Seniors will set the themes for each monthly storytelling session, and volunteer to act as hosts and moderators each month. Following the sessions, those who are interested can set up a time to have their stories recorded and archived by one of our story collectors. These stories will be edited into a booklet, which will be launched during the final storytelling session in March 2020.

Come for a cup of tea, a bite to eat, and share a memory or two! If you have any photos bring them along on Sunday, May 12th.

For more information please contact Terra Barrett with the Heritage NL toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5 or email terra.hfnl@gmail.com.

More (yes more) on Newfoundland Lych Gates for #MortuaryMonday

Yes, I've blogged before about my ongoing obsession with lych gates (read back if you dare).  I continue to find new pieces of information about this little-known NL tradition.

A lych gate is, as the Evening Telegram told us in 1922, "a churchyard gate, with a roof over it, under which, on the occasion of a funeral, the corpse and its bearers may await the coming of the officiating minister."

Well, I've got a few more gems from the Digital Archives Initiative. First up, above, is an advertisement that was run in The Daily News (St. John's, N.L.), 1955-07-06 page 16. I've written about this particular gate and its lettering here.  I still haven't figure out what the lettering says, so email dale@heritagenl.ca if you have ideas.

Next up, two notices about flower services at the same cemetery.

Evening Telegram 1921-08-06 Flower Service p4

Evening Telegram 1922-08-01 Flower Service at Anglican Cemetery p6

This adds a little bit to my understanding of the uses of the lych gates. While used primarily for part of the funeral service, they were also used in some English churches as part of informal post-wedding rituals, and these clippings indicate they were used, at least in St. John's, as a spot for collecting funds during flower services. Note that the 1921 article refers to this as the "usual collection at the lych gate" which suggests to me that this was a recurring practice.

As always, if you have any memories (or even better, photographs) of any of the NL lych gates, let me know! So far, I know of only four: Bonavista and Corner Brook (extant) and St. John's and New Perlican (demolished).  

In Memoriam: George Courage (1943-2019)

A dark-bearded George Courage with the board of the NHT, 1981! (Source: The Trident)

George Robert Courage
November 24, 1943 - April 05, 2019

I was saddened today to hear of the passing of George Courage, one of the great supporters and animators of the heritage conservation movement in St. John’s. I met George shortly after I started working at the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1996. It wasn’t hard at that point to cross paths with George in heritage circles; he seemed to be everywhere I went.  At that point, he had already been involved with the heritage community for decades.

In the 1980s, George had been one of the Newfoundland Historic Trust volunteers who had organized their downtown historic walking tours, and had helped organize the first Old Home Renovation Fair. He was a dedicated heritage volunteer, and I was fortunate to serve as a board member under him during his (second) time as president of the Trust. He served twice as president, at least once as treasurer, and fulfilled other committee positions. He was on the Association of Heritage Industries Steering Committee, was secretary of the Newfoundland Historical Society, treasurer of HFNL, and a volunteer with Doors Open.

I probably got to know George best a few years after I met him. In 1999, he headed up a project on behalf of the Trust for Soiree 1999 to commemorate the fiftieth year of Confederation. George had an idea to curate an exhibit of house models, and he roped me into his scheme. He scoured both Town and Bay to find models and miniatures of traditional Newfoundland houses and buildings: everything from doll houses and church models to pieces of folk art he convinced people to let him borrow off their lawns. He, along with Nancy Cook and Ruth Canning, wrote up a catalog with a history of each of these quirky pieces of art, and the whole thing went up on display at the old Art Gallery in the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre.  In 2001, George was awarded the Manning Award by the Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador for the exhibit, recognizing him for Excellence in the Public Presentation of Historic Places.  It was a lot of fun, and a great introduction to the sort of engaging programming that a young public folklorist like me might be able to do in the future.

For the past two decades, I was sure to run into George at heritage events, markets, downtown rambles, and city meetings. He was eternally active, engaged, and curious, and always had a moment to chat. He was a gentleman.

I’ll miss him, and his infectious grin. Thank you, George, for being one of my heritage mentors.

- Dale Jarvis

Reddin' lines and ochre boxes - how many of you have one of these in your shed?

photo courtesy David Boyd, Twillingate 

The primary use of red ochre by settlers to Newfoundland and Labrador was as a paint or stain colourant. One small example of its use as a colourant can be found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, which includes the compound word “ochre-box” meaning a “container in which ochre and water are mixed and a length of string dipped to mark timber for sawing,” also called a reddening box (Story et al. 355). In July 1964, Dorman Miles of Herring Neck described the use of such a box for researchers John Widdowson and Fred Earle:

They’d have the reddin’ lines, the used to call it. They used to strike the [log] with a marking line, with red ochre on it. That would leave the mark on the log where he wanted to come along and saw (Story et al. 408).

In July 1967, Raymond Morey, a resident of La Scie, described the box for the same researchers:

A red’ning box, you know, but some people call it a ochre box. This is a old red’ning line I was telling about lining the sticks. You use ochre in there and a drop of water (Story et al. 408).

Carpenters today are familiar with the more modern chalk lines that work in a very similar way. The handmade example in the photo above comes from the collection of Mr David Boyd, Twillingate, who runs the Prime Berth Fishing Heritage Centre (http://www.primeberth.com). If you drop by this summer, I'm sure he'll show it to you!

Work cited

Story, George, et al. Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Second Edition. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1990. 

Living Heritage Podcast Ep149 Warts and All

Dictionary of Newfoundland English Word-file for ‘fig’.  English Language Research Centre, Memorial University

Want to know how to get rid of warts using a snail? Or maybe you have too many freckles? And what to do with those varicose veins? We’ve got you covered. We’ve sifted through the archives for our favourite audio clips about folk cures, charms, and traditional medicines. Listen to stories and memories from Dot O’Brien of Cape Broyle, Judy Symonds of Carbonear, Ralph Barrett of Upper Island Cove, and Jeanette Russell of Spaniard’s Bay. It’s a podcast to cure all your ills!

Download the mp3

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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Digital Storytelling: "Here I am now, after all that time."

Left to right: Betty Moore, Mary Flynn, and Joanne Morrissey.

Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their own family and community history. Many people have stories about family members and local places that often go untold. Digital storytelling helps interpret and make community history accessible.

Watch below as Mary Flynn, originally from Shearstown and currently living in Otterbury, Newfoundland, tells the story of her birth:

Or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

If this video elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a digital storytelling workshop for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca