The Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives presents “Honour 100”

Guest blog post by Sharna Brzycki

Hi everyone! As this is my first post here on the ICH blog, I thought I should start by introducing myself and how I became a part of the very special world of folklore, specifically within the public sector. My first experiences with the discipline began during my undergraduate studies at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts in Manhattan while earning my BA in Culture and Media. During this time I learned how to document the cultural vibrancy of the city through mediums such as film and audio production.

In my last semester of college I serendipitously ended up taking a course with folklorist Hanna Griff-Sleven called “Oral Histories of the Lower East Side”. For three months we learned about the discipline of folklore (something that was new to all of us!) and were given a crash course in fieldwork. These skills were ultimately used to create a short film exploring food traditions found throughout the neighborhood. My experience in this final semester of college is what led me to realize that all of my previous endeavors and passions were, in fact, forms of public folklore. After graduation I spent some more time gaining folklore experience through volunteering for projects with the Museum at Eldridge Street, one being the annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams street festival, a celebration of the Chinese and Jewish communities of the Lower East Side. I was given a taste of the life of the folklorist, which is what ultimately led me to move to Newfoundland to study for my MA in Public Sector Folklore.



Ralph Carey and I posing with beautiful whale tusks during the Witless Bay field school, September 2014. Photo courtesy of Andrea McGuire.

This summer I have the pleasure of working with Alanna Wicks and Mary Ellen Wright at the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives (ANLA). In honour of the one hundred year commemoration of World War One we are devoting a large portion of the season to identifying related archival materials across the province, ultimately promoting the use of these materials for the public and honouring our history.

We began Honour 100 by contacting each of ANLA’s member institutions to establish what archival holdings they may have from the years 1914 through 1919. These holdings may either be directly related to the war (i.e. draft papers or a photograph from Beaumont Hamel) or considered as “home front”, which is any holding from those years despite a direct connection to the war itself. We are currently in the process of discovering the extensive range of WWI holdings there really are throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, from soldiers’ helmets to war diaries of the Newfoundland Regiment to photos from the seal hunt. Once this inventory of items is complete, we will have a roadmap of pertinent WWI archival holdings across the province. This roadmap will allow us to explore various ways in which we can provide further description of the declared items as well as possible digitization for public access.

“On the Way to Gallipoli” - Courtesy of the Trinity Historical Society

The next step is to establish a plan to produce a project that will promote the use of these materials. There are a variety of methods through which this can be done. While the final outcome of the project will be determined by our preliminary findings, some approaches we are currently considering are possible exhibits, digitization and inclusion in ANLA’s provincial Archival Resource Catalogue.

Are you a member of an archive in the province? Know someone who is? If you or anyone you know is interested in getting involved please let us know! We can be reached by email at anlahonor100@gmail.com.  We hope to hear from you!

-Sharna Brzycki

Living Heritage Podcast Ep001 Christine LeGrow, Spindrift Handknits

It is official! The new Living Heritage Podcast is up and running, and ready for a listen!

Living Heritage 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 heritage alive at the community level. We talk about their work, their passions, and the day-to-day safeguarding of culture and tradition.

Ep. 001 - Christine LeGrow - Spindrift Handknits

Christine LeGrow is the owner of Spindrift Handknits. Christine was born and raised here and has a keen interest in the people, places and things that make this island of Newfoundland unique. In this interview, Christine talks about learning knitting skills, traditions related to craft, patterns, socks and trigger mitts, sources of wool, and her wishes for the future of heritage in Newfoundland.



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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. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

The Memory Store: The first public library in Newfoundland and Labrador...

This week’s Memory Store video is filmed in the Bishop’s Library where the Basilica houses a museum and archives. Anne Walsh, treasurer of the Basilica Museum and Historical Committee, describes the Bishop’s Library which was the first public library in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Watch the video below or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the building's history and architectural style.
If you missed our initial post explaining the concept of the Memory Store clip here to go back to our first blog post with the introduction video or check out our YouTube channel at ICH NL.

Stay tuned for more short stories about historic places in the province, in the form of short oral history interviews conducted with the people who care about those places and if you have a personal memory about a historic place in Newfoundland and Labrador, and want to add your voice to the Memory Store project, let us know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca, terra@heritagefoundation.ca or 739-1892 ex. 5.

-Terra

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: Birch Brooms In Our Midst

Today’s Tuesday Folklore photos are of Mr. Joshua Young demonstrating how to “run” a birch broom. Last Thursday afternoon after a successful first interview for the radio show/podcast Living Heritage with Christine Legrow, Dale and I took a trip to Mount Pearl to talk with a gentleman who grew up in Grey River on the South-West Coast of Newfoundland near Burgeo. Mr. Young learned how to make birch brooms from his family members and continues to teach his grandchildren how to make the brooms today.

Mr. Young explained the different between white and red birch trees and how to find the right piece of wood to carve into a broom. While explaining and discussing broom making Mr. Young made a small birch broom in under an hour as a simple example of how to make a birch broom. He sent us back to the office with the sample he made as well as one of his larger brooms which he wasn’t completely satisfied with due to the crook in the handle. The broom now hangs on the wall in our office and is the first thing you see when you step inside.

Mr. Young also makes model wooden boats and explained his process of crafting and painting these as well. It was an excellent afternoon and I hope I am able to join Dale when he goes back in August for a more hands on demonstration of broom making.

-Terra

Booklet Launch - There Was No Pavement Then

Please join us for the launch of our new booklet:

There Was No Pavement Then: Memories of Growing Up in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove

Thursday, July 9th, 2015

7:00 pm

Watershed Café, Petty Harbour.

“There was no pavement then, it was all dirt road and we would play in the schoolyard,” remembers Betty Cheeseman. “We would draw out the hopscotch with our sticks in the sand and we had lots of time and lots of fun.”

Cheeseman was one of several current and former residents of Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove who took part in the 2014 Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove oral history project.  Their memories and stories are part of a booklet “There Was No Pavement Then: Memories of Growing Up in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove,” edited by Memorial University folklore graduate student, Terra Barrett.

“The booklet focuses on growing up in the community, the children’s games played in the area, folk beliefs, seasonal activities, and community events,” says Barrett, currently a public folklore intern with the Intangible Cultural Heritage office of the Heritage Foundation of NL. “The booklet contains transcribed excerpts and portraits of community members, comical local stories, and memories about fishing for tomcods and cutting cod’s tongues.”

The booklet was laid out and designed by local graphic designer and artist Graham Blair, and was funded by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Helen Creighton Folklore Society.  

The Heritage Foundation of NL will be hosting a booklet launch at the new Watershed Café, in Petty Harbour, on Thursday, July 9th, 2015, at 7 pm. The Watershed Cafe is the blue building, right on the harbour front, three buildings up from the convenience store.  All are welcome!

Light snacks, coffee and tea will be available for purchase.

For more information please contact:

Terra Barrett

(709) 739-1892 ex. 5

terra@heritagefoundation.ca

On the Air: Living Heritage with Christine LeGrow.

We have been working on a new project, and it is launching today!

“Living Heritage” is a production of CHMR Radio 93.5 FM at Memorial University, in collaboration with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Living Heritage 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 heritage alive at the community level. We talk about their work, their passions, and the day-to-day safeguarding of culture and tradition.

Our first show airs today on CHMR at 6:00pm. You can tune in and listen to our interview with Christine LeGrow, local knitter and owner of Spindrift Handknits, as we talk knitting, craft production, and the importance of maintaining local tradition.

Living Heritage will be a regular weekly program on CHMR, broadcasting every Thursday at 6:00pm. It will also be a podcast published biweekly, and will be available through iTunes. When our first episode is ready, we will let you know here, and give you information on how you can subscribe.

In the meantime, tune in tonight! Thanks to Christine to being an easy first guest!

If you think your heritage organization or project might be a good fit for our show, email us at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

- Dale Jarvis

The Memory Store: They used to put the windows in molasses to keep them from sliding around...

This week’s Memory Store video is a clip of Elisabeth Laverty from the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Elisabeth explains the story of the only surviving stained glass window prior to the great fire of 1892. Elisabeth also mentioned the way large stained glass would have been shipped during the time period – in barrels of molasses!

Watch the video below or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the building's history and architectural style.
If you missed our initial post explaining the concept of the Memory Store clip here to go back to our first blog post with the introduction video or check out our YouTube channel at ICH NL.

Stay tuned for more short stories about historic places in the province, in the form of short oral history interviews conducted with the people who care about those places and if you have a personal memory about a historic place in Newfoundland and Labrador, and want to add your voice to the Memory Store project, let us know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca, terra@heritagefoundation.ca or 739-1892 ex. 5.

-Terra

Tuesday's Folklore Photo - Heritage Video Screening

I spent Monday morning attending the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives' annual general meeting and today's folklore photo was one I snapped quickly during yesterday's meeting.  I was invited as a representative from the ICH Office as ANLA and the Heritage Foundation are partners and sister heritage organizations.

It was interesting to learn a little more about the organization and to hear some of the triumphs and challenges the organization has achieved and overcome in the past year and where they want to take the organization in the coming year.  One thing which ANLA has been promoting recently are their online webinars so be sure to check out their website for upcoming workshops!

The picture above is from the presentation which occurred during the lunchbreak.  Jenny Higgins from the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website introduced a series of short films which she has been working on recently.  The videos were on difficult subjects and were incredibly moving.  One touched on the 1914 sealing disaster, another on the great fire of 1892 and the last on the battle of Beaumont Hamel.  Check out some of the videos on their website and stay tuned for more.

-Terra

The Leida Finlayson Memorial Scholarship 2015 winner - Sarah Hannon.

On Monday, June 29th, I was tasked with handing out the 11th Annual Leida Finlayson Memorial Scholarship as part of the NL Historic Trust's annual Southcott Awards, and saying a few words about Leida. Here is the text of that short speech.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, award winners, it is my privilege tonight to speak on and present the 2015 Leida Finlayson Memorial Scholarship. Robyn Pike asked me if I would come and say a few words about Leida and the scholarship that bears her name. I am very happy to do this, and I think it is a very appropriate thing. We are in the business of preserving heritage, and I am delighted to be asked to act as the bearer of memory and witness to our own organizational history.

I suspect that some of you here tonight didn’t know Leida Finlayson, who was the first general manager of the Newfoundland Historic Trust.

I was wondering how I might, in the exactly three minutes that Robyn has allotted me, to give you a sense of a person’s life.

I met Leida in what was, in retrospect, a typically Leida way. We met by letter. Letters today are rare and precious things, and of all the people I know, it is fitting that Leida is the only person in my circle of acquaintances that I met by way of a carefully and delightfully worded piece of correspondence. I regret that I don’t have that letter, but I still remember it. She was witty, clever, and engaging. In one word, she was charming, even on paper. 

Indeed, I think that was one of Leida’s greatest gifts: she was absolutely charming, possessed of the ability to make pretty much anyone fall in love with her. If her time with us had been longer, she would have made a perfect diplomat.

I am delighted that the awards presentation tonight is back in the Newman Wine Vaults Provincial Historic Site, because I have great memories of Leida here in this space, long before there was anything as glamorous here as plumbing, or electricity, or even a floor. She swept in here before the restoration was even complete, and set about organizing a series of fund-raising teas, one of the first public events held here in the vaults, which were very popular, even in the darkness and dust.

Leida shone in those types of events. She had an old-fashioned glamour, and loved any excuse to dress up. She loved high heels, long gloves, and makeup. She wore fabulous hats. These were things which were something of a mystery to her parents, Duncan and Renee, who had been part of the back-to-the land hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Leida was more high-fashion than homespun. Duncan swears they weren’t really hippies, but as Leida said, at that time, in the rural Newfoundland where she spent her girlhood, “a little hippie went a long way.” 

While her fashion sense was different from her parents, she shared many of their ideals.
She wrote political commentary, was intensely interested in history, heritage, politics, and social justice. She was smart, passionate, and interested in the world. 

When Leida passed away in 2003, we established a scholarship in her memory. It was determined that the scholarship would be directed to a Memorial University student of history or political studies, two of Leida’s passions, and that it would be presented annually as part of the Trust's Southcott Awards. 

I am very pleased tonight to present the Leida Finlayson Memorial Scholarship to Sarah Hannon, one of our community’s next generation of smart, passionate young women. Congratulations Sarah on your academic work, and on behalf of the Trust, I commend you and encourage you in your pursuit of excellence. And on behalf of Leida, I would also encourage you to take every opportunity you have to wear a fabulous hat.

Sarah, if you would come forward, I would love to present you with the Leida Finlayson Memorial Scholarship.

- Dale Jarvis