Active History

Art, Taxidermy and Notebooks: The University Art Gallery As Site Of Cross-Disciplinary Exploration

March 25, 2020 No Comments

Laurie Dalton

As as the Director/Curator of a university art gallery that holds a permanent collection of art, I often think of ways in which objects can be displayed and understood in new contexts. Typically, museum collections are siloed, as are the displays. For example, at a natural history museum you rarely see visual art being used as a counterpoint to understanding scientific specimens. With the exhibition, the Boundless and Framed, I wanted to see how material culture collections might be displayed together, and how this might in turn inform and encourage a more cross-disciplinary understanding of the objects on display.

Installation view, The Boundless and the Framed, Acadia University Art Gallery

Universities often have several collections, typically housed entirely separately and rarely presented together. These collections may be hard to access, or rest solely under a department’s purview. This post shows the fertile ground for research and exploration in university collections – and demonstrates how they can function to expand our knowledge and understanding across disciplines and material culture. The exhibition, The Boundless and Framed, gathered objects from three seemingly disparate collections and displayed them together for the first time. The exhibition highlighted how artists, writers and scientists have represented, reflected and responded to the cultural, social and scientific realm of birds.

The first set of objects came from the permanent collection of art and formed the central focus of the exhibition in the art gallery. Artwork included well known Atlantic Canadian artists such as Alex Colville, to Inuit sculptures and works on paper, Asian imperial rank badges, and works by women artists. The second set of objects came from the Esther Clark Wright archives. This included archival documents such as the notes of ornithologist and conservationist Robie Tufts. The third set of objects came from the Acadia Wildlife Museum, a natural history collection that is predominantly used for teaching and learning in the biology department. Material in the exhibition from this collection included a selection of natural specimens of the same birds depicted in the artwork on display.

The exhibition explored the ways in which birds have been understood through these collections: as artistic study, as symbolic representation and as scientific inquiry. It showed how material culture objects can inform each other and how thematic connections move away from a binary timeline and expands context in which an object can be understood. Continue reading →

Giving Deaccessioned Museum Objects A New Home And Purpose

March 25, 2020 No Comments

Cara Tremain

Students in ANTH 1195: Museum Studies handling the ethnographic teaching collection. Photo by author.

In 2018, the Kelowna Museums Society (KMS) announced their decision to deaccession various ethnographic objects from Oceania via the BC Museums Association listserv. The KMS consists of three museums that together aim to reflect the culture and community of the Okanagan region. Thus, the deaccessioned objects were not relevant to their mandate of focusing on objects of local significance. With an eye to creating a new ‘Museum Studies’ course, and to provide students with opportunities for hands-on learning, I proposed that the Anthropology laboratory at Langara College, where I work as an instructor, give a new home to some of these objects. My enthusiasm for creating an ethnographic teaching collection was matched by the college, and I was given permission to co-ordinate the transfer.

Langara College is a post-secondary institution located in Vancouver, on the unceded territory of the Musqueam First Nation. Langara provides a foundation to further education and career development, with many students choosing to study at the college prior to transferring to other higher-education institutions. The variety of academic courses at the college include those offered by faculty in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, including several hands-on focused classes that make use of equipment and resources in the Anthropology laboratory.

The number of objects being deaccessioned from the KMS far exceeded the resources of our Anthropology laboratory and I only requested a portion of the available objects for transfer. I envisioned the teaching collection being comprised of objects that would make for interesting tactile experiences, yet small enough that they could be easily stored in our laboratory. As a result, the objects I requested include several body decorations and other items of wearable material culture such as pendants, armbands, a vest, and a koteka (a sheath worn to cover male genitalia). The objects also include small-scale items such as flutes, basketry, a bag, and a ceramic bowl. Continue reading →

Materiality and Theatre History at the Stratford Festival Archives

March 24, 2020 1 Comment

Stephanie Johns and Stephanie Vaillant

Items from the Stratford Festival collection including: snake candelabra from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968, directed by John Hirsch, designed by Leslie Hurry), garments worn by Zoe Caldwell as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (1967, directed by Michael Langham, designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch) and chandelier from The Country Wife (1983, directed by Richard Cottrell, designed by Desmond Heeley, performed at the Avon Theatre). Photograph by Stephanie Vaillant.

The Stratford Festival, located in Stratford, Ontario, is North America’s largest repertory theatre that focuses on performances of Shakespeare, the classics, musicals and new works. The Stratford Festival Archives, housed at 350 Douro Street, is responsible for collecting and caring for the Stratford Festival’s history in its many and varied forms. As a way of understanding the material culture held by the Stratford Festival Stephanie Johns, Education Associate (Teaching Focus), interviewed Stephanie Vaillant, Cataloguing and Digitizing Archivist, to explore why this type of object-centred archival collection is an integral part of Canadian theatre history. Their interview follows:

What does the collection consist of?
We have a multi-faceted collection at the Stratford Festival. Our materials date back to our first season in 1953, with a few pieces from 1952. We have done our best to document the evolution of the Festival from an idea into the thriving company it is today. This evolution is documented through all sorts of materials – everything from press clippings and administrative records to selected prop and costume pieces. In addition to capturing our administrative history, we strive to collect everything required to recreate each and every one of our past productions.

Why maintain this kind of collection?
The Stratford Festival has had a massive impact on the Canadian theatre scene. Going back to the 1950s, when very few professional theatre companies existed in Canada, you had this little dream that grew in a small town and, in doing so, bred opportunities and created artists who have gone on to either create or work in theatres all across Canada. Essentially, the Stratford Festival played a prominent role in creating a national theatre industry. That kind of impact is well worth documenting.

Theatre is ephemeral: you see the play once and then it closes. In your opinion, how does maintaining this collection help lengthen the understanding and experience of theatre in general but also the work Stratford is producing?
Theatre by its nature is an artistic compilation: it cannot be created in isolation. In fact, some of our main user groups are artists who wish to consult the work of those who have previously created something they are currently trying to create. For example, we often have actors come in to consult recordings of performances – they want to see how others have interpreted roles they are undertaking in the upcoming season. Designers frequently come in to see how their fellow professionals have approached a certain production or time period, and directors do likewise. Essentially, preserving how other people have approached material enables others to build on those ideas. It’s the old theory of ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ – you build off what has already come before you. Continue reading →

Stitching our World Back together – Material Culture Revitalization at Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig

March 24, 2020 No Comments

Mitch Case

Bead night at Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig.

“Everyone has the right to feel good about who they are, and for us, with all that we have been through since the coming of the visitors to our island, this place given to us by the creator – it’s been a long time that we have not felt that way, but everyone, and there is no exception to this, everyone has the right to feel good about who they are” – Onaubinisay

This statement, while seemingly uncomplicated, is a profound expression of an important aspect of the Anishinaabe worldview and serves as a guide for how we as Anishinaabe peoples can heal the wounds in our communities. As a result of the legacy of the Residential School system, the loss of land, language and culture, and other unresolved trauma – Indigenous peoples collectively and individually – have existed for a long time without the ability to feel good about who we are.

For Anishinaabe peoples, material culture carries so much meaning. Moccasins don’t just cover our feet, they connect us to our mother the earth – they are how we leave spiritual tracks for our descendants to follow. Our floral beaded vests aren’t just for warmth, they express our appreciation for life. Our medallions are not just jewelry, they express our spiritual identities and let creation know something about us before we even say “Boozhoo.” Items and objects which in other cultures would just be tools or accessories, are for us living beings, they are our relatives, we dress them up, to protect them and to show our appreciation for the work they do for us.

Beadwork on Display From Mitch Case’s collection. Includes beadwork by numerous makers.

Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig is a unique and beautiful Anishinaabe educational institution, located in Bawaating (Sault Ste Marie). Shingwauk is the embodiment of the vision of Chief Shingwaukonse (1773-1854) who spoke of a “teaching wigwam” where the children of his community could learn the skills and tools of the new society that has come to our lands. His vision was taken over and corrupted by church and government officials and it became a sad period in our history. Located on the site of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School, and in partnership with Algoma University, Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig offers two, one-of-a-kind undergraduate degree programs, Anishinaabe Studies and Anishinaabemowin. Continue reading →

Memory and Objects: Family History, Local Economy, and Hook Rugs

March 23, 2020 3 Comments

Stephanie Pettigrew

Rug made as a gift for my Great-Aunt Stella and her husband, Yvon, by my grandmother, Marguerite-Anne Lefort. Photo provided by Stella Michaud/Lisa Michaud-Sheffar.

I would like to thank all of my family members who participated in helping me put this together, particularly my sister Debbie, my great-aunts Cecile, Stella, and Sophie, and my cousins Yvonne, Lisa, and Laura, who helped immensely with photos, by sharing memories, and spending hours chatting with me about what were sometimes difficult topics. Thank you.

I need to start this with a disclaimer: this was a difficult, emotional post for me to write. I had to get up, walk away, and feel many feelings before I could get back to writing. When I proposed this, all I could think about was the excitement of discussing the beautiful textile work done by the women in my family, especially my grandmother. I really should have foreseen the emotional impact of discussing my grandmother’s death. The emotional impact of my grandmother’s hook rugs on me might be one of the best testimonies of the significance of material culture on memory.

When my sister and I imagined ourselves getting married as kids, we imagined our Mémére being there, just as she had been for all our moments, big and small. Mémére was everything for us. Mother, protector, teacher, and provider. My memories of her as a child are wild and varied, and would likely not align with most people’s archetypal French-Canadian “grandmother” figure. I remember her chopping wood in the backyard. I remember her teaching me how to cook an egg and crêpes. I remember the enormous meals she would prepare for company, and the time that I got stung by a wasp and she grabbed the wasp’s nest with her bare hands and threw it into a fire out of pure spite. But most of all, I remember watching her hook rugs in the evenings, after the day’s work was done.

A hook rug frame, containing many balls of different coloured yarn. Photo provided by Yvonne Lefort-Goosens.

Cheticamp hook rugs are somewhat famous, and not just in Nova Scotia. Queen Elizabeth II had her portrait done by a Cheticamp hook rug artist, Elizabeth Lefort. There is a Cheticamp hook rug hanging in the Pauline Vanier room of Rideau Hall. The Vatican even has a hook rug, because of course the extremely catholic women of Cheticamp would send a hook rug to the Vatican. My own grandmother made a rug for the sacristy of the church in Cheticamp, a donation of not only materials but hard work and hours of labour. Continue reading →

Material Culture Theme Week Introduction

March 23, 2020 No Comments

Krista McCracken

My love of material culture is tied to my love of textiles. In particular, I love embroidery and I am interested in the use of textiles to explore personal and community connections to the past. I put the call out for this theme week with the hopes of bringing together posts that explored the impact of material culture on our understandings of the past. I also had the not so secret hope that someone might write about textiles.

Someone did write about textiles, but this week encompasses much more than textiles as material culture. The submissions to this theme week came from a huge range of professional, personal, and regional perspectives. The posts bring together perspectives on material culture from both inside and outside academia and the range of posts really speak to the breath of the field of material culture.

So, what exactly is material culture? At the most basic level, material culture is the study of the objects that are used by people and communities and how those objects reflect a community or inform the identity of a community.

The study of material culture is incredibly diverse and encompasses a range of disciplines including history, sociology, anthropology, fine art, and others. People who study and preserve material culture exist in a whole range of places – museums, academia, archives, and communities. Despite the abundance of people who work with material culture, material culture tends to be underrepresented within academic historical dialogue. This series bridges academic and practitioner divides and encourages readers to reflect on how material culture interests with history, daily life, and our understand the past.

Throughout this week we hope to deepen discussions between material culture professionals,historians, and those working in the community, so please be sure to engage and further the conversation in the comments section and on Twitter. You can reach us at @ActiveHist

Emergency Remote Teaching: A Post Secondary Reality Check

March 20, 2020 3 Comments

By Ian Milligan

They fell like dominoes throughout the week as the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic became unavoidably clear: first, Laurentian University suspended classes and moved them online on Wednesday, March 11^th;by the evening of Friday, March 13^th, every university in Ontario had suspended in-person classes and declared that winter term classes would be completed online (or via other alternative means). We are about to see Ontario engage with technology-mediated learning on an unprecedented scale.

The empty Hagey Hall of the Humanities atrium at the University of Waterloo on March 18th, 2020 (credit: Ian Milligan).

The warning bells are chiming. Some faculty are wary. The Canadian Association of Universities Teachers, for example, warns against workload pressures that would now require “additional support for staff, such as assigning teaching assistants,” and cautions that academic bodies “involved in monitoring the pedagogical effectiveness of temporary online instruction and to decide on adjustments or discontinuance.”

Dipping one’s toes into Twitter and you’ll see rhetoric as varied as how this devalues the hard work of online education, that it is an impossible task being given to instructors, and – in conspiratorial tones – how this might just be the first herald of a “neoliberal” move towards online education. Naturally, nobody would argue that any of this was ideal.

Framing this as a move to “online education,” however, is deeply misleading. Continue reading →

History’s Reputation Problem: The Sequel, History isn’t Humourless, is it?!?

March 20, 2020 2 Comments

By Thomas Peace

We’ve all heard it: History is boring.

Historians may rebut: We’re not boring! We’re serious!

A quick Google Image search suggests that both perspectives may be correct! Not only does history look boring and serious, it also looks White, Wealthy, Masculine, and Antiquated (okay: White, Male, and Stale). No wonder history has a reputation problem!

Frank, the Famous Historian. Does he represent us all?

Good news for historians: 2020 is proving itself to be quite a serious year. Perhaps it will turn out to be the year of the historian (Everything is coming up Milhouse!).

The other day, though, as I ventured forth from my haven of seclusion into our COVID filled world, I realized (just now!) that this image of the historian is wrong.

In response to this image of the historian, some might say that challenge ought be made to the problematic racialized, gendered, and class norms it presents, but on this day – for it was sunny – a more pressing issue crossed my mind: history isn’t always boring and serious, it can also be funny. Continue reading →

Talking History Podcasts, Vol. 2; or, The Podcast Lover’s Quarantine Survival Kit

March 20, 2020 1 Comment

Edward Dunsworth

For my post this month, I’ve decided to revisit a piece I wrote last year in which I shared some of my favourite history podcasts.

As many of us hunker down for extended periods of “social distancing” with the spread of COVID-19, we will be looking for ways to pass the time while at home.

And what better way than by listening to historical podcasts?!

Here are a few more favourites that I’ve started listening to in the last year or so.

The Keepers, by the Kitchen Sisters

The Keepers is a series created by the Kitchen Sisters, a radio-producing duo consisting of Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva. The series, which airs on National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States, chronicles the “stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians – keepers of the culture, and the cultures and collections they keep.”

The Keepers’ also features a “Keeper of the Day” on their website, including this one, no. 98, A Walking Library

Continue reading →

Bringing the Flu into the Classroom

March 16, 2020 1 Comment

By Thomas Peace

Who would have thought that almost exactly one hundred years after the Spanish Flu closed schools, churches, and other public gatherings around the world, that we would once again find ourselves in similar circumstances?

Death Statistics for London, ON. Compiled by students in HIS 2204G at Huron University College.

The Spanish Flu hit Canada in the fall of 1918 and, after an initial scare, persisted for nearly two years. Unlike the current pandemic, it was the young and healthy that it hit the hardest. In the end, about 50,000 Canadians, and over 20 million people worldwide, died.

Death Statistics for London, ON. Compiled by students in HIS 2204G at Huron University College.

From a more positive perspective, one of its most significant and lasting impacts, was the beginning of the federal Department of Health, and a consciousness about public health that – I think – continues to serve us well today.

As many of us find ourselves working from home, and teaching online, I want to use today’s post to share a replicable assignment I used last year to engage students with the history of the Flu and how to use primary sources to study the past. Continue reading →

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