#Folklorephoto Collection of Tools in Charlie Pearcey's Twine Store. How Do You Display Your Collection?

A collection of tools from the 1900's to 1950's is displayed on shelves in Charlie Pearcey's Twine Store. The photograph was taken in 2006 by Rita Colavincenzo while visiting Mr. Pearcey and the Twine Store in The Battery in St. John's. The visit included the collection of many other photographs as well as an interview with Charlie Pearcey about the twine store, his family, and the area.

Are you a collector? How do you display your collection?

From Business and Birch Brooms, to Modernity and Mug Ups - Heritage News.

Main Street Windsor, 1944. Photo courtesy of Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society.

The January 2017 edition of the Heritage Update is a mixed bag, including articles on making the case for heritage as good business, an invite to our upcoming Memory Mug Up events for community elders, notes on drain sweepers and birch brooms,  digitizing the Admiralty House Oral History Collection from Mount Pearl, Modern architecture, and a notice of our booklet launch for the Merchants of Main Street project in Windsor on March 4th*.

***The launch previously scheduled in February has been rescheduled due to construction issues with the rental space.

Download the pdf here.

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Mug Ups with Martha MacDonald

This February, we'll be running some Memory Mug Up programs for seniors, as part of our Collective Memories project. The programs are designed to get seniors out and sharing stories, a type of community oral history sharing time, with a cup of tea and snack, of course!

Back in 2010, Dale Jarvis talked by phone with Dr. Martha MacDonald of the Labrador Institute about the Mug Up programs she had been running in Labrador communities. If you want to know more about how the programs work, and to get some tips and tricks for running your own version, make yourself a cup of tea, settle in, and listen in to their conversation here.

#FoodwaysFriday - Berries with Bridget Jacobs

Local blackberries - also called black crowberries, heathberry, earthberry, and curlew berry in some locations.

When we discuss foodways of Newfoundland and Labrador the first food that comes to mind is the codfish. Cod has played a major role in everything from the province’s economy to its culture. It is featured in many traditional dishes however it is not the only food tradition in the province. Seafood and fish, caribou, seal, sea birds, berries, root vegetables, and imported products such as molasses and tin milk all play a part in the province’s food traditions. In celebration of the diverse foods harvested, grown, cooked, and eaten in Newfoundland and Labrador we will be doing a #FoodwaysFriday feature on the ICH Blog.

This week we are featuring a series of photos and videos taken by Maureen Power with Bridget Jacobs of Joe Batt’s Arm. The collection features a number of local berries including blackberries, marshberries, tea berries, blackcurrants, goose berries, raspberries, partridgeberries, poison bush, blueberries, crackerberries, and blue herts. Maureen takes short video clips of Bridget showing her the location and type of berries. Bridget also gives little stories about the berries including the clip below where she describes how blackcurrant cured her niece when she was sick.

If you would like to see the full collection click here!

Share your stories and knowledge of food with the hashtag #FoodwaysFriday.

~Terra Barrett

 

#Folklorephoto Standing on the Roof Looking at All the Snow

This photo of the Taylor House in Woody Point was collected by Charlie Payne and donated to the HFNL as documentation of the Woody Point Heritage District. A unidentified woman stands on the roof of the house looking over the piles of snow surrounding the house. Date unknown.

To see more items from the Bonne Bay area visit the MUN Digital Archives Initiative

Memory Mug Up Events!

Join us for a cup of tea!

Share Your Stories at the Memory Mug Up!

Which of your memories would you like to preserve for future generations? What are your dearest childhood memories? What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? If you have answers to these questions, you are invited to attend the Memory Mug Up!

The Memory Mug Up is an informal story sharing session for seniors, where people gather, have a cup of tea, and share memories.

The Heritage Foundation of NL will be hosting three Memory Mug Up events for seniors this February, in Mount Pearl, Portugal-Cove St. Philip’s, and St. John’s

The goal of the program is to help participants share and preserve their stories. Whatever story is important to you, whether it a personal story, a story about a family member, or a story about your community, the Memory Mug Up program can help you to preserve and share it.

The events are free! You bring a memory of growing up, we’ll supply the tea and biscuits, and we will all have a chat. 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.

Portugal Cove- St. Philip’s Memory Mug Up
Friday, February 10th, 10:00am
Recreation Center (next to the Town Hall)
1119 Thorburn Road, Portugal Cove- St. Philip’s

Mount Pearl Memory Mug Up
Monday, February 13th, 10:30 am
Mount Pearl Public Library
65 Olympic Drive, Mount Pearl

Marjorie Mews Memory Mug Up
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2:30pm
Marjorie Mews Public Library
12 Highland Drive, St. John’s


The Memory Mug Ups are part of the Collective Memories Project, an oral history initiative which invites seniors to record their stories and memories for archiving and sharing. It is a project of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL), the Provincial Advisory Council on Aging and Seniors, the Interdepartmental Working Group on Aging and Seniors, and is funded through the Department of Seniors Wellness and Social Development.

For more information on how you or your community organization can get involved, email Dale Jarvis at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or call (709) 739-1892 x2.

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Life on the O'Brien Family Farm

Photo of young Aloysius with two puppies in 1921

Many people in St. John's will have memories of Aly O'Brien and the O'Brien brothers, and their fabulous heritage farm and farmhouse, Thimble Cottage.  The O’Brien Farm is situated within the City of St. John’s between Mount Scio Road and Oxen Pond Road. The thirty-two acre property is located within Pippy Park and is adjacent to the MUN Botanical Gardens.

The O’Brien family immigrated to St. John’s from southeastern Ireland. John O’Brien (1791-1857) established a farm in Freshwater, two miles west of St. John’s, in or around 1818. From its establishment, this farm was operated by O’Brien family for 190 years until the family’s last descendant, Aloysius Patrick O’Brien, passed away in October 2008.

In 2010, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador acquired the farm to be developed as an historic site. In 2011, the O’Brien Farm Foundation was founded to manage, preserve and develop the property as a sustainable historic resource and visitor destination. The O’Brien Farm as an historic site focuses on a number of themes: Irish settlement in Newfoundland; Irish-Newfoundland culture and tradition; farming history in Newfoundland; sustainable farming practices; and the story of the O’Brien family.

Between 1992-1994, Dr. Jo Shawyer, Department of Geography, Memorial University, conducted a series of interviews with Aly O’Brien.

You can listen to the first of their chats here, where Aloysius talks about the farm and the life in the past. Topics include the acquisition of the land, the history of Irish immigrants, the neighbours, carts, horses, cows, and farm life.

The remainder of their conversations, along with photos and other documents about the farm, are all online on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

#Folklorephoto Children with Sleds in Woody Point. Do You Have Memories of Sliding?

This photograph of "Bruce and Harry" ready to go sliding in Woody Point, is part of a collection of snapshots taken by residents of the Woody Point area. Images were collected by Charlie Payne and donated to the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador as documentation of this Registered Heritage District. To see more items from the Bonne Bay area visit the MUN Digital Archives Initiative

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Growing Up in a Cable Town

As part of the Heart's Content Cable Conference, Saturday, September 10th, 2016, we recorded a funny, charming, and nostalgic look back at growing up in a cable town. The talk was an on-stage conversation between Ted Rowe and Wallace Rendell, recorded at the Heart’s Content Regional Centre for the Arts (Heyfield Memorial Church). 

The two gentlemen swapped stories about the family histories of the Rendells and Rowes; differences between cable staff families and local families; the cable station library and its impact on literacy and education; childhood pastimes and swimming; card games; milking goats; memories of early televisions and TV sets; the post office and mail coming from Carbonear by horse and sleigh; and the impact of the cable station on town life.

You can listen to their chat, with an introduction by Joan Ritcey, right here.