Exploring the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador

The rocky shores of Newfoundland and Labrador has created a bond between Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and the sea, as well the fishery that sustained it for centuries. Generations of fishermen relied on the boats right here at home using traditional methods to provide for their families and ensure their survival at sea. These wooden boats were the workhorses of the fishing industry and the designs were often unique from one outport community to another. The transmission of this knowledge has declined in the past half-century, but in Winterton, one organization is working to safeguard this knowledge and pass it on to future generations.

The Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador. Photo by Katie Crane, 2019.

A small fishing community in Trinity Bay, Winterton has a long tradition of boat building. In the 70s and 80s folklorist David Taylor conducted fieldwork as a graduate student in Folklore at Memorial University in the community, taking extensive photographs and notes on the construction and design of the unique boats built in this community. It was this information that inspired the Winterton Heritage Advisory Board to create what they thought would be a temporary exhibit for Come Home Year in 1997. The display proved to be so popular that it was converted to a permanent exhibit, and eventually expanded to celebrate wooden boats not just in Winterton, but across the province. The Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundlandand Labrador was established as a provincial museum in 2008 with its headquarters in Winterton. Its mandate is to connect wooden boat builders and wooden boat enthusiasts across the province and to encourage sharing the knowledge and skills associated with traditional wooden boat building.

Three piece mould once owned by boat builder Marcus French. Photo by Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2018.

Through a mix of on-going exhibits and hands-on workshops with descendants of boat building masters, the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador is working to both safeguard and transmit the knowledge and history of wooden boats in Newfoundland and Labrador. They still keep to their roots with a folklorist on staff. Crystal Braye works to document people still making wooden boats today and their knowledge of wooden boat construction, as well as other traditions of boat building across the province. Listen to her talk about what her research includes in this episode of the Living Heritage Podcast.

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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.

Let's take a peek inside the Green Family Forge, Trinity

When Ada Green approached the Trinity Historical Society in the 1990s about opening her family’s forge, abandoned since it closed almost 40 years earlier, as a museum exhibit she never could have dreamed that today it would be a working forge once again.

The Green Family Forge has operated in some way since the 1700s. The current forge was built around the turn of the century to replace an older forge. It is unusual because of its size, large enough to have two fires. Though people often associate forges with agricultural tools, the Green Family Forge also supplied metal parts, including anchors, for the fishing industry in Trinity. When it closed its doors in 1955, all the blacksmith’s tools, some of them homemade, were left inside and remained untouched until the forge reopened as a museum in 1991.

Green Family Forge, Trinity NL. Photo by Dale Jarvis, 2019.

Current blacksmith Wade Ivany transformed the forge from a static exhibit into a living history museum based on a social enterprise model. Today, as a member of the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Green Family Forge makes and sells letter openers, candle holders, fireplace pokers and more with the help of apprentice blacksmith Devin Hookey. These sales help to keep the forge operational.

Blacksmith at work, Green Family Forge, Trinity, NL. Photo by Dale Jarvis, 2019.

But to the blacksmiths and the members of the Trinity Historical Society, it’s not about the money. It is about passing on valuable traditional skills which have been in decline for half a century. Jim Miller of the Trinity Historical Society says, “those living history skills of the trades are very important to us overall for our operations and will be, I think, going into the future. That seems to be the market now where visitors are even wanting to see those things demonstrated and, even more so, wanting to take part.”

Visitors watch blacksmith Devin Hookey at work, Green Family Forge, Trinity, NL. Photo by Dale Jarvis, 2019.

The Green Family Forge is open from April to November and is one of the must-see tourist attractions in the Trinity area. Visitors are encouraged to stop by and watch a demonstration by the blacksmiths working to keep this tradition alive. To learn more about blacksmithing in Newfoundland and Labrador, check out this episode of the Living Heritage Podcast.

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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.

Heritage NL and The Rooms launch Covid-19 NL Oral History Project, and want your stories.

What have Covid-19 shutdowns meant for you personally? Have you been learning how to bake bread or sew? How are you staying in touch with family and friends? Local heritage organizations want to know!

Heritage NL, in partnership with The Rooms, is collecting personal stories for an oral history project about the experiences of living through a pandemic.  The “Covid-19 NL Oral History Project” invites Newfoundlanders and Labradorians living in the province or away to document their memories and thoughts about what is happening to them or in their communities during the current novel coronavirus situation. 

The project is designed to document how the virus is affecting the lives of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and to archive their collective memories. Interested volunteers can request to be interviewed over the phone or web, can self-record a voice memo or video, they can interview a family member, and submit their file by email, or complete an online questionnaire.

The collected material will become part of a permanent online archive for future generations of students and researchers and may be included in a future physical or online exhibit at The Rooms. 

“Recording oral histories is one way to better understand the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects it is having on the lives of ordinary people,” says Heritage NL folklorist Dale Jarvis. “To create a historical record of how everyday people are responding to this event, we have developed sample questions and easy ways for people to share their stories.”

While all personal stories of the pandemic are of interest, Jarvis is particularly curious about the informal stories of health care workers and those working on the front lines of the pandemic: nurses, emergency responders, home care workers, grocery clerks, and the like. 

The oral histories are part of a longer ongoing project that The Rooms curatorial staff is engaging with the community on to gather materials related to people's experiences of the pandemic. These materials may be integrated into an exhibition, collections, or social media at a later date. The Rooms is looking for materials that reflect the culturally specific ways that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are dealing with this global event.

If you have a memory or story to share or want more information on the project, contact either Dale Jarvis at covid19@heritagenl.ca or visit the project website at www.hfnl.ca.  To submit a physical object for consideration, email Maureen Peters, Curator of History at MPeters@therooms.ca. 

Basketry Summer School in the 1930s - Musgravetown and Bonavista

I recently came across the following photographs in Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative (DAI).  The first two are from Musgravetown, presumably in 1937. The photos are from the H.M. Dawe Photograph Collection of the United Church of Canada - Newfoundland Conference Archives.

The third photo is from Bonavista, taken two years previously. The photo is from the Maritime History Archive - Forbes Family Photograph Collection.

I'm not certain, but I suspect the Summer School in question was a training program for Newfoundland teachers, where they could acquire skills to take back to their classrooms in September.  Support for this comes from a clipping from the Western Star, 1936-05-06:

If you have information on this program or similar schemes to teach basketry skills in Newfoundland and Labrador, or photos of any baskets that might have been produced in this way, email dale@heritagenl.ca 

Heritage Update - New Designations, Virtual Museums, and Heritage post Covid-19

In this edition of the Heritage Update, Jerry Dick discusses Post-COVID-19 and Economic Stimulus – An Opportunity for Heritage; Michael Philpott introduces the new heritage designations; Dale Jarvis takes you on a virtual heritage tour of historic Bay Roberts neighbourhoods; and Andrea O'Brien gives an update on what's happening during the pandemic shutdowns.

Download the pdf here.

"I live in Bug Town" - Mapping out the heritage assets of Deer Lake

Before the Covid-19 lockdown, Heritage NL assisted the Town of Deer Lake with one of our People, Places, and Culture workshops, helping identify heritage assets in the community. The workshop involves people writing out recipe cards like the one above, noting things like placenames, historically interesting people, old shops and stores, or places where things used to happen. Then, we put them on a big paper map, and start to figure out clusters of places for future research and planning. I always love finding out some of the local informal neighbourhood names which you would never know if you didn't live there (like Bug Town!).

Since then, I've started to put some of that information on a Google Map, and have been compiling a list of names of people (past and present) who are of cultural or historical interest.  This is a very preliminary list, with a lot of gaps in it. If you have information on any of these people, or have suggestions for other Deer Lake people who should be included, email dale@heritagenl.ca or comment below.

Family Name	First Name	Notes
?	?	War Veteran Farmers
Ball	Ralph	Blacksmith
Barrett	?	Store owner
Basha	Mike
Basha	Frankie
Bearsley	?	Manager of Power House, wife was involved with Girl Guides possibly?
Bolos	Dan	Blacksmith
Brownie	?	farmer
Butt	Joe	Gas station
Chaulk	Bill	Bowater superintendant
Coish	Amos	Harness maker in the 1930s
Critch	?	Store owner
Critch	Becky	Store owner
Critch	Mose	Store owner
Dinney	Elias	worked as a carpenter on penstocks in early 1920s
Eddy	?	Store owner
Feltham	Abraham	original settler at Junction Brook, worked on Main Dam, farmer
Green(e?)	TM	First doctor
Hayden	Victor	had second operation in Deer Lake hospital - appendix
Hinton	?	Mrs.?
Hodder	Phil	Rec Centre named for him
Housell	Mamie	lives on Hancock's Road, housed moved from Junction Brook, daughter of Abe Feltham
Hruse (?)	?	teacher
Lung	Jim	Owner of first Chinese restaurant in Deer Lake, on Main Street
McDonald	?	Doctor, made house calls, after hour visits, no set office hours for patients
Morey	Melva	Grade 4 teacher
Morey	Doug	farmer
Nicols	?	Original settlers, farmers, fishing and hunting guides
Osmond	?	Store owner
Prowse	?	Had farm on Humber River near upper bridge
Reid	Alexander (Sandy)	towed houses from Junction Brook to Newtown in Deer Lake during the 1950s in preparation for the airport
Schwartz	Sam	Shop keeper, businessman. Job interview -you had to break the twine, if you broke it, you were hired
St. George	?	Hotel owner
Stuckless	?	Store owner, 5th Ave
Wight	Harold	Long time employee of Deer Lake Airport
Williams	?	Store owner

Carved By The Sea: Bay Roberts Virtual Museum project launches today!

The community of Bay Roberts is rich in local history and folklore. Today, a selection of its stories go online as part of Carved By The Sea, an exhibition developed by the Town of Bay Roberts Heritage Committee and Heritage NL, with an investment from the Virtual Museum of Canada.

European fishermen visited Bay Roberts as early as the 16th century. Fishermen from Brittany and Normandy fishing the waters off the coast of Bay Roberts in the early 16th century named the harbour Baie de Robert. They established onshore fishing rooms where they dried and salted codfish, most likely near the end of Bay Roberts harbour.

By the late 16th century, Bay Roberts had become part of the English Shore, and West Country fishermen began to settle in the area. Seary's Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland states that families with the surname French arrived circa 1634 and the Earles and the Badcocks arrived in the 1660s. Families such as the Parsons, Mercers and Bishops arrived later, and a further wave of settlers from the Channel Islands arrived in the 18th century.

“This website is a great opportunity to share the stories of this place,” says Heritage NL folklorist Dale Jarvis. “Some of the sites featured are well known, while others are special neighbourhood locations that might not be well-known outside of the community, and all of them are available in both English and French.”

This exhibition was supported by the Virtual Museum of Canada investment program under its Community Stories investment stream, which helps smaller Canadian museums and heritage organizations work with their communities to develop virtual exhibits that engage online audiences in the stories, past and present, of Canada’s communities. Fieldwork support was provided through the Helen Creighton Foundation.

Originally consisting of five smaller communities: Bay Roberts East, Bay Roberts, Coley's Point, Shearstown / Butlerville, and Country Road, the town was amalgamated into the Town of Bay Roberts on February 24, 1951. Today, the community is home to about 5,300 people and serves as a commercial hub in Conception Bay. It continues to be home to many long-term residents who keep alive the folklore and oral history of the town.

English:
Carved By The Sea

Français:
Sculptés par la mer

Where are the Looms? Help HeritageNL track down the province's looms and weavers.

A new group is turning to social media to track down some old technology - the wooden weaving looms that might be hiding in attics or basements somewhere in the province.

“A loom is the apparatus used for the purpose of weaving cloth,” says textile artist and researcher Jessica McDonald. “Its rudimentary principle is to hold threads under tension. Whether it be a floor loom, table top loom, or tapestry loom, its main purpose is to facilitate the weaver in creating a cloth”

McDonald is a recent graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, who creates her own textile art, teaches, and researches weaving and craft in Atlantic Canada. She has recently created a woven piece for the “Newfoundland through a Window” Exhibition located at the Arts and Culture Center in Corner Brook.

McDonald’s work is the most recent chapter in a long history of weaving in Newfoundland and Labrador. From the days of the Grenfell Missions and the Jubilee Guilds, to the craft revival of the 1970s and the current makers movement, looms have been constantly busy in the background of the local craft scene.

“We want to find those old looms, some of which were hand-made, and figure out who the old weavers were,” says McDonald.

In addition to looking for old looms, the group is hoping to compile a list of living people in the province with weaving skills, as well as collecting old photos, stories, or memories of family members who used to weave.

“People who hold the knowledge of our various heritage crafts seem fewer in number, year by year,” says Heritage NL folklorist Dale Jarvis. “We want to document what has been lost, but also to record who still knows today how to make the tools and objects of yesterday.”

In response to what they see as a craft tradition at risk, Heritage NL has started up a Facebook group called “Weavers and Spinners of Newfoundland and Labrador” and will be hosting a “Where are the Looms?” online forum Thursday, April 9th at 11am, open to all interested in the textile heritage of the province, weavers and non-weavers alike.  The event is free, but pre-registration is required at www.heritagecraft.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep171 Blacksmithing in Newfoundland

Photo of blacksmith Devon Hookey at work in the Green Family Forge in Trinity, NL. Photo by Dale Jarvis, 2019.

In this episode, Natalie Dignam talks about the history of the blacksmith trade in Newfoundland and forges you can visit on the island today, including the Green Family Forge in Trinity, Pinkston's Forge in Brigus, and an exhibit on Littlejohn's Forge in Bay Roberts.

Visit a Newfoundland Forge:

Green Family Forge

Pinkston's Forge

Littlejohn's Forge exhibit at the Road to Yesterday Museum

Dragon's head door knocker at the Green Family Forge. Photo by Dale Jarvis, 2019.

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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.