Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives
Museum Hours  
​Tuesday - Saturday      
10:30am-4:30pm     
​
  • Collections
    • Photograph Collection
    • Newspaper Archives
    • First Nations
    • Fishing for a Living
    • Marine Transportation
    • Telecommunications
    • George & Charlotte Gibson
    • Helen McCall - Early Photographer
    • Beachcomber Relics
    • Farrell Family
    • Early Logging
    • Early Agriculture
    • Inglis and Woodsworth Families
    • Howe Sound Cooperative Cannery
  • Learning
    • Podcast Features
    • Education Kit
    • Genealogy >
      • Cemeteries
      • Churches
      • Genealogy Links & Records
      • Places of Research
      • Schools
      • Societies and Support
    • Museum at Home
    • Museum School
    • School Classroom Visits
    • Historical Videos of the Sunshine Coast
  • Blog
  • News/Events
  • Shop
  • Sunshine Coast
    • Gibsons
    • Roberts Creek
    • Sechelt
    • Halfmoon Bay
    • Pender Harbour
    • Egmont
  • About Us
    • Contact Us!
    • History & Mandate
    • Museum Services
    • Make a Donation!
    • Membership
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
    • Staff & Board of Directors
    • Links

Research Requests: How Do They Work?

6/28/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
          Ever wonder how we track down information and/or items to answer research requests? Being new to the Museum, this in one of the first things I needed to learn. Let’s find out by following this picture through the process.
Picture
Step 1: Database
 
            The first step is to look into the database for the artifact, photo, or object that you are interested in. In our database you can do either a broad or specific search using keywords to match the description of the artifact/photo/object. In cases where we are following a research request we would use key words from the request (eg. place, date, event) to narrow our search. In this case the research request we received specified that they wanted information about past musical events, so I used keywords such as ‘orchestra’ and ‘regatta’. This photo, #284, is actually a postcard shot by Helen McCall that depicts a scene from the 1937 West Howe Sound Regatta. It is a surprisingly striking photograph for the technology of the day, and showcases some interesting content, so I was excited to follow this photo through the process of taking it out of the archives.
 
Step 2: Donor Form
 
            The Donor Form is an important part of the initial process of acquiring an artifact. Usually when a donation is brought in the donor form is filled out, and includes the relationship of the donor to the object, and the history of the item up until the point of bringing it into the Museum. This is an important step not only for museum administration, but for research purposes. If we know where the donation came from we can better understand its significance to the community!
           
            Unfortunately there is no Donor form for photo #284. With such a low number we can tell that this postcard was a very early acquisition of the museum’s, which means protocols for Donor Forms were not yet established.
Picture
Step 3: Looking in the Archives
 
            The next step is probably the most simple, but the most fun. This is where we get to physically go into the archive space and look for our item. Most of the time the photo is in the archives, but sometimes it is on display in an exhibit or is in the oversized archive storage.
 
            Photo #284 was in the archive right where it was supposed to be! Photos are always welcome additions to the archive as they don’t take up much space and can be stored closely together, as seen above.
Picture
Step 4: Examining the Photo
 
            Here we can see the photo comes in an acid-free folder, to prevent decaying of the photo, and that both the negative and a print of the postcard have been preserved. When the negative is preserved it is often referred to as the ‘original’, as reproductions (such as the postcard pictured) often look a little different than the negative does.              
 
            When handling artifacts as a museum employee it is important to always wear white cotton gloves and not to dawdle. Both the natural oils on your hands and prolonged exposure to light can damage the photo.
Step 5: You’re Done!
 
            After you’re done examining the photo, you simply put the picture and negative (if it has one) back into its acid-free folder and back into the archive from whence it came.
 
            There you have the process that a museum employee would take to pull an artifact, photo, or object from the archives. We do this most often when there are research requests, so please send your inquiries in! From artifacts to photos to newspapers, we have them all. If for some reason you can’t make it into the museum, take a look at our online photo and newspaper collections. 
​​
0 Comments

New Summer Student: Drew Beard

6/18/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
     Hi everyone!

     My name is Drew Beard (pictured above) and I am the new 2016 Summer Student for the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives. I am currently a student of the University of Victoria, and I am enrolled in my third year of an English Literature and Medieval Studies double major program. I grew up in the Elk Valley, which is a series of small towns in the mountains of BC – if you’re thinking Fernie or Cranbrook you are in the right area.
​
     Having only visited the Sunshine Coast a couple of times before, and not for very long periods of time, I was excited at the prospect of being able to spend an entire summer in this beautiful place by the ocean. Most of my excitement, however, has been reserved for working within the museum and working with the antique artifacts, photos, and books that are so closely tied to the Coast. My Medieval Studies degree – and the subsequent hours spent in Special Collections poring over manuscripts – introduced me to my love of preserving artifacts and the history they hold. The Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives is a great place for me to learn about the processes archivists take to keep their collections and exhibit spaces up-to-date and accessible to everyone. While it isn’t in Latin or written on animal skin (aka parchment), local histories are just as fun and mysterious as medieval manuscripts!

     That being said, this summer position is a great fit for me, and I hope I’ll prove to be a great for for the Museum as well. I will be putting out a blog post every week on varying subjects such as: The Renovation, Cool Things Found in the Archives, Things Learned This Week, How the Museum Works, and Research Stuff. Because this is the first and Introductory Blog Post, I’ll leave you with something Cool I Found in the Archives:

     While fulfilling a research request for a picture from the Halfmoon Bay Fall Fair I came across photo 553: an old man and his driving-horse all dressed up for the Gibsons Fall Fair in 1950. The description tells us that this picture depicts “[a] decorated entry in the Fall Fair parade at Gibsons Landing… Ernie Lowe in Ed Turner’s buggy drawn by Al Christenson’s horse”. While there were unfortunately no photos of the Halfmoon Bay Fall Fair, this photo (pictured below) was a nice find.
Picture
0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    BC Historical Newspapers
    Black History Month
    Book Launch
    Borrowed Body
    Canoe Culture
    Canoe Journey
    Collaboration
    Community Building
    Digitization
    Exhibit Exchange
    History Of Racism
    Immigration
    Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
    Japanese Internment
    Konishi Family
    Newspaper Digitization
    Open Mic
    Peformance Poetry
    Peninsula Times
    Performance Poetry
    Squamish Nation
    Sunshine Coast
    UBC Library

    Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

     Home     |     Collections     |     Learning     |     Events     |     Gift Shop     |     News     |     The Sunshine Coast     |     About Us     

© Copyright 2022 Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives
716 Winn Rd., Gibsons, BC. (604) 886 8232


Donate Now Through CanadaHelps.org!