Tuesday's Folklore Photo - Somebody's Home

Photograph of a heritage structure submitted by Teri Delaney.

A few weeks back Teri Delaney stopped by our Springdale office to drop something off. She noticed a photograph on the wall of one of our designated heritage buildings. She said that she took a photo of that same building, and hadn't realized that it was a provincially recognized structure. I asked her to send along a copy to share on the blog. Her photograph "Somebody's Home," reminds us that many of the province's surviving historic buildings once served as year-round homes for families. This one, it seems, is still in use. Thanks for sharing your photograph, Teri.

-Lisa

Well, Well, Well, a Google Map

Last summer when I was doing wells and springs work, I not only measured wells and photographed them, but I also recorded their GPS coordinates. I though it would be neat to look back after the fact at the distribution of some of the wells I'd seen. I was able to record the location of 35 wells over my summer of fieldwork, and have finally had the time to do something interesting with the information.

Google maps works really great for this, because you can create your own personalized maps, and store them either privately or publicly. Creating a map is incredibly simple - you can type either the address or the GPS coordinates to the points you want into the search bar, and then add a pin to mark that space on your map. Pins are customizable, so you can pin multiple types of spots onto a map, and then hide or show layers, depending on what you want to see.

If you want to take a look at the interactive Wells, Springs, and Folklore Google map you can find it here! Some of the points have links to videos or other information - and of course, all the wells and springs photos and information can be found on the DAI.

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

It's Cold Outside...Let's Keep the Bogey Going

During an oral history interview with 95-year-old Alice Mercer, originally of Bay Roberts, I asked her to share some memories from her school days. She talked about having to go outside in all kinds of weather to use the washroom, and how it was hard work for the teacher to keep the classroom warm.

"We had stoves in all the classrooms. Teachers had a time to try and learn us something and keep the bogey going. One of the boys would come with a handful of splits in the morning and the bucket of coal. Used to buy the coal from the coal shed. He’d light the fire and it was up to the teacher then to keep it going. sometimes the teacher would forget it and it would go out. Then we’d get cold."

Wait, "...keep the bogey going"? What's a bogey? From the context of the conversation I could see that with her use of the word bogey, she was referring to a stove for heating, but since I hadn't heard that word before, I checked the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, just to make sure. It states:

bogie n also bogey, bogy. PARTRIDGE bogy 4 'a stove for heating'; SND ~ 'cooking galley on a fishing boat (1916); DC Nfld (1916-). A small stove used originally on a fishing schooner; applied generally to any small coal- or wood-burning stove.

This was the word that Alice and her family would have used for a wood stove when she was a child. But do people still use it? And are there regions of the province that it is more widely known?

(The above photographs of two variations of small stoves, or bogeys, were taken from the Geography Collection - Historical Photographs of Newfoundland and Labrador on MUN's Digital Archives Initiative.)

If you have an experience with this word and its uses, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know. lisa@heritagefoundation.ca.

- Lisa

Folklore Photo: The Cupids American Man circa 1930

Today's folklore photo comes courtesy of the Newfoundland Historical Society archival collection. The photo shows the "American Man" - a cairn of stones located at the top of Spectacle Head, in Cupids. The original photo was taken by A.C. Hunter, and the back of the photo has an inscription which reads:

Photo by A.C. Hunter, about 1930
The "American Man" on the hill between Cupids +
Clarke's Beach. Mrs Hunter in photo
There was another one between Brigus and Cupids.
They were used as landmarks for Vessels
coming in, we supposed. We also wondered if
they came from "Marking Man"???
                             Muriel H. Hunter, 1976
Negative of this is in the A.C. Hunter Collection, Memorial Univ.
                                                                                Audio Visual.

The cairn, which has been rebuilt several times since the 1930s, is much taller today, and a secondary, smaller cain has also been constructed nearby.  I've heard it referred to as both the "American Man" and the "Merican Man," and have also heard the theory, given by locals, that it is indeed a corruption of "Marking Man."

Here is how the structure looked during the Cupids 400 Celebrations in 2010. I believe the photo is by Dennis Minty:

At some point after the 2010 celebrations, the structure was damaged by vandals, and rebuilt by local volunteers. Here is what the cairn looked like on 13 October 2013. Note that it is slightly more symmetrical here, than in the 2010 photo.

This note is the first I've heard of a similar structure located between Brigus and Cupids. If anyone knows of that particular cairn's current or previous location, email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

- Dale Jarvis

UPDATE:

On 5 February 2013, Mike Sexton wrote me and noted the following:

"...years ago I met an Icelander in L'Anse Aux Meadows, he was on the hill looking for a third cairn at the viking site. He was an old mariner and he told me that there should be three if they were used for navigation. they always have the sky as a background,and you have to keep one in the middle for safe water. This one in the middle could be a considerable distance behind the ones closest to the coast. so you sail by, and when you have them positioned right you turn towards shore. (Safe water)"

Expression of Interest - Looking for artists and tradition bearers

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's Cultural Connections Strategy allows teachers throughout the province to apply for professional development in and through the arts and heritage. As outlined under the Cultural Connections Strategy there are a variety of projects (i.e. Arts and Culture Infused Curriculum (ACIC), Legacy and Learning Partners) available to meet teachers' arts related professional goals and learning opportunities.

To assist teachers and NLESD programs staff in finding qualified artists and tradition bearers in their local areas for submitted projects, the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD) is seeking artists who are interested in working with k-12 teachers.

For more information, look here!

ICH Mini Forum Video Collection

In the middle of December last year (Friday the 13th to be exact!) we had an Intangible Cultural Heritage mini forum, where people who are in the heritage and ICH world could come together and share what they had been working on over the past year. This was our first mini forum, but hopefully not our last!

There were a range of topics: from policy, to wells, to wart remedies, and more. There is a full list of all the presentations, with links to their respective YouTube videos, below!

Frank Crews and Dale Jarvis - Introduction

Andrea O'Brien - Heritage Places Poster Contest

Chris Mouland - Digital Initiatives Archive Tour

Lisa Wilson - Bay Roberts Folk Belief Project

Claire McDougall - The Emergence of ICH Policy and Programs in Newfoundland and Labrador

Sarah Ingram - Wells, Springs, and Folklore

Ed Millar - Rugelach on the Rock

Nicole Penney - The Baccalieu Trail Oral History Collection

Chris Brookes - Inside Outside Battery

Christina Robarts - Newfiki: The Celebration of East European Culture in Newfoundland and Labrador

Jason Ross Sellars - 2013 Mummers Festival

Folklore Photo: Box for 16 mm Film

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Office is often asked to assist community groups with digitization projects. Recently, we were asked for help digitizing some audio tape cassettes and 8 mm and 16 mm motion picture film. These items were created by and are now in the possession of the Presentation Sisters. Due to the unavailability of equipment, the film recordings have not been viewed in many years, leaving their content a mystery.

Working with the Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative, the ICH Office has begun repairing and digitizing these materials, allowing the content to be viewed and heard for the first time in decades. After review, the Presentation Sisters will provide the ICH Office with portions of these recordings to upload to MUN's DAI. Stay tuned for updates!

Away with the fairies! Resources on Newfoundland fairy traditions

Nicole Penney and I have been busy little elves, working on a project we both love: Newfoundland fairylore!

We have had some requests from people about the tradition of fairies in Newfoundland and Labrador, so we've pulled together some links to online material that we think might be useful to people doing projects or heritage fair displays on the faerie folk, fairy belief, tradition and superstition.

The best place to start, however, is Barbara Rieti's excellent book, Strange terrain: The fairy world in Newfoundland.   It is the go-to book for anyone starting research on fairy traditions. I believe it is out of print, but local libraries should have a copy. We've also included a link below to Dr. Rieti's dissertation below, which is available online.

Another good-but-out-of-print book is Fables, Fairies and Folklore of Newfoundland by
Alice Lannon and Mike McCarthy, also possibly available at local libraries. We've included a great recording of Alice telling fairy stories in 2010.

Another good print resource is Peter Narváez's article “Newfoundland Berry Pickers ‘In the Fairies’: Maintaining Spatial, Temporal, and Moral Boundaries Through Legendry.” The Good People: New Fairylore Essays. Edited by Peter Narváez. University Press of Kentucky, 1997. Pp. 336-367.

If there is an important resource we've missed, email ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

Photo: detail from Newfoundland Faerie Ring sculpture by Morgan MacDonald.

Online Video Sources

• Taken by the Fairies, with Mary Flynn
• Newfoundland Faerie Storytelling Circle 
• Notes from the Fairy Path: The Woodcutter 
• You Must Believe in Fairies
• Cumby, Art. A video clip featuring Art's personal fairy story
• Martin, Emma part 3. Interview about growing up in Port Union
• Newfoundland Stories with Clarence Squires
• Bob Hallett OneFiveOh - A Story About the Little People (Kilbride)
• Fairies & Fetches - A Storytelling Session with Clifford George
  
• The Pouch Cove Fairies

Audio Files

• Adams, Ryan. Fairy story from Upper Island Cove. 4 October 2013.
• Carew, Pat. Interview about fairy lore in Witless Bay . 24 September 2014.
• Collective Memories Monday - Fairy Lore in Witless Bay.
• Gosse, Bill. Tapper's Cove. 
• Fairies, fetches, and blasts! Living Heritage Podcast, 5 September 2019
• Jarvis, Dale. The House on the Fairy Path. 3 September 2006. 
• Jarvis, Dale. Interview with Tina White and Samantha Gaulton. 3 January 2019. 
• Lannon, Alice. Good and Bad Fairies. 29 July 2010.
• Maddigan, Bernadette. Interview about fairy lore in Witless Bay. 23 September 2014. 
• Pearcy, Carl. North Head Trail Leprechauns. 

Online Articles

Bishop’s Cove: John R Barrett. John What They Call Jackie. Decks Awash, vol. 18, no. 02 (March-April 1989). Pages 42-43.

Bulman, Andie. "Risking abduction by fairies to modernize a 1905 Newfoundland blueberry cake." CBC Sep 01, 2019.

Fairies. The Collegian, 1914, vol. 20, no. 01. pages 17 and 18.

The floating dead: N.L. inspired 'zombie faeries' photoshoot arrives in time for Halloween.  CBC News · Posted: Oct 30, 2016.

Folklore: Folk Beliefs. Encyclopedia of NL. Vol 2. Page 245

Helesic, Day. The Fairy Folklore of Newfoundland. Canadian Living. May 2015.

Janes, Burton K. The fairies of Conception Bay. The Compass. September 10, 2012

Jarvis, Dale.

• A Conception Bay South fairy story, circa 1944, by Donald W. Smith. 19 Dec 2018
• The Lady in Blue - A Fairy Story from Spaniard's Bay. 10 July 2012.
• "Lugged off" by the fairies - A Quebec fairy story from Dr. Wilfred Grenfell. 29 Jan 2018.
• A story of the good fairies. And pancakes! 6 March 2013.

Kelland, Ariana. Meet the fairy caretaker of Airport Heights. CBC Aug 27, 2019.

Lyver, Emily. Fear the Fairies. Kicker, September 21, 2017.

Milley, B. Joan. Little Fairies. The Collegian, 1939, [02], Summer. Page 23.

Noseworthy, Kayla. Fairy-Tales: Berry Picking and the Fairy Lore Connection. The Overcast. 14 September 2016.

Poems About Fairies. Collegian, 1939, [03], Christmas. Page 34.

Robinson, Andrew. Harbour Grace writer looks to fairies with latest novel. Aug 02, 2019.

St. John’s man tells court he was carried away by the fairies. Archival Moments.

Silvester, Nicole. Blast Those Little Fellas: The Fairy Folklore of Newfoundland. 11 September 2012.

Wilson, Lisa, ed. Folk Belief and Legends of Bay Roberts and Area. St. John's: Heritage Foundation of NL, 2014.

Dissertations

Rieti, Barbara. Newfoundland Fairy Traditions: A study in Narrative and Belief. Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1990.

Silvester, Niko. There’s a Piece Wad Please a Brownie: A Comparative Study of Offerings to the Fairies in Traditional Cultures and Contemporary Earth Centered-Religions. Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Update: 
For those interested, Strange Terrain is still in print and was recently reprinted by its original publisher ISER Books, Memorial University. Their address is ISER Books, MUN, 297 Mount Scio Road, St. John’s A1C 5S7, (709)-864-3453,  iser-books@mun.ca , or www.arts.mun.ca/iserbooks/

Last Update: 19 December 2022 by Dale Jarvis