This Edition
- Daly House Museum Re-Opens
- Thank You to Phil Weiss, Garden Committee Chair
- Membership Survey
- Collection Highlights
- Manitoba Heritage Trust Fund
- Brandon House Established
- Become a Member
- Thank You Nikhil Kulkarni & Fran Perrin
Daly House Museum & Garden Re-Open
Daly House Museum re-opened to the public for tours on June 2, 2020 after being closed for three months due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
As the public’s health and safety are important the Museum’s board of directors has introduced some new cleaning processes and procedures to limit the spread of COVID-19 including requiring all staff to wear masks and gloves for visitor protection, new sanitation and cleaning procedures in place before, during, and after visitor arrivals, and asking all visitors to sign in at the front desk with their contact information.
Signs, barriers, and directives have been placed in the galleries requiring 6 feet or 2 meters of social distancing. The Museum has also installed signs and directions on visitor pathways through the galleries. These signs will allow for physical distancing and flow through the exhibits.
In order to limit the number of visitors the Museum will be open for reduced hours in June from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm Tuesday to Saturday. Starting in July the Museum will reserve 10 am to 11 am daily for seniors, vulnerable people and first responders to visit.
As Museum visitor numbers will be limited, Daly House Museum asks the public to book an admission ticket with a specific entry time to avoid crowds and lines. The Museum encourages visitors to book their timed ticket online or on their cellphone prior to coming to the Museum. Timed tickets are available at www.eventbrite.ca and searching for Daly House Museum Tours based on your location.
“We understand the devastating affect this pandemic has had on everyone and we want to make sure that Daly House Museum can be open for limited hours, to provide the important social service of bring hope to our community through our heritage.” stated Curator Eileen Trott, “We are excited to be re-opened and look forward to seeing our visitors again. We truly missed being able to show our community’s history.”
The Museum has extended the run of its last exhibit Sites of Grieving-Sites of Memory: Remembering the Great War over the summer months in order to make sure everyone had a chance to learn the history behind how many of the Great War Memorials around Westman were established.
The Museum’s Victorian Garden has also re-opened to the public and the Museum asks that all visitors practice social distancing while visiting the garden. The garden is available for rental for those who wish to hold an outdoor event such as a small wedding. For more information on booking the garden or assistance with booking the garden or a tour of the Museum please contact the Museum’s curator Eileen Trott at 204-727-1722 or dalymuseum@wcgwave.ca.
Daly House closed to the public to limit the spread of Covid-19 on March 16th. The Victorian Garden was also closed at that time in order to help limit the spread. We are very glad that both the Museum and Garden are now open to the public.
Thank you to our volunteers for coming out and getting our garden ready for the season! We couldn't have done it without you!
Thank you to the City of Brandon for providing the social distancing signs in the garden.
Due to the pandemic we had to postpone our planned fundraiser - An Old Time Radio Show and Dinner. We hope to be able to bring the play and dinner to our members as soon as we possibly can.
Join us on Facebook or Instagram for updates on the Museum and when we will be hosting the Old Time Radio Show and Dinner. .
Thank You Phil Weiss
As I pen this note, our garden is closed indefinitely as public safety is most important to all. It looks like Mother Nature will be in charge this summer as the closure will likely be extensive. The garden will be on its own to shine without our fluffing, pruning, deadheading, and a careful watch. A natural refresh. However, gardening is still a great positive for wellness, especially now.... we'll soon get out in our private garden and dig that dirt with a smile!
Adversity creates opportunity. The extended pause at the garden has told me this is the time for me to leave the Committee, recharge and refocus soon at other community volunteer places. Our Committee is experienced, full of energy and ideas to grow the garden and I am leaving knowing the “step up and help” motto in Manitoba will prevail in our garden. New leadership, fresh ideas and always looking for improvements…together we prosper.
It was a fun three years… Daly Museum Board, Curator Eileen and our Committee, boosted by energetic Westman Gardeners support, carried us forward. The City of Brandon has also been with us in partnership. The future is bright. Thank you all. Upwards and on wards and never forget our garden motton... "Firm flexibility" - Phil Weiss
Thank you Phil for your expertise and dedication to the Victorian Garden over the last three years. We wish you to best on your future en devours and hope that you will stop by to enjoy the garden in the future. - Daly House Board of Directors, Staff and Garden Volunteers.
Membership Survey
The Museum is due to re-negotiate our five year funding agreement with the city and WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please take a moment to fill out the online membership survey and let us know what you think about Daly House Museum!
Collection Highlights
Vintage 7-UP Sign c.1960s
Here is a piece of memorabilia from Daly House's Mutter Brother's Grocery Display.
7-UP was started by Charles Leiper GRigg in 1929. The product was originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" and it was launched two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
The original formula contained a mild dose of lithium citrate, a mood stabilizing drug and was initially advertised as a cure for hangovers. In 1948, the lithium was removed from the product.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s advertising campaigns such as "You Like It...It Likes You" (as printed on the sign pictured) were often accompanied by psychedelic artwork.
This 7-UP sign found in the Museum's collection features a thermometer on the left-hand side. Come visit Daly House when we re-open to see it in person!
Denise Campbell, Program Specialist from Endow Manitoba notified Daly House that as of March 31, 2020, the BACF - Heritage - Brandon Museum Fund has received a total of $4,450.05 in matching and the contributed capital at that date was $13,350.15. Gifts received between October 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020 has generated $350.00 in matching leaving a balance of $20, 549. 95 in guaranteed matching funds by the Province of Manitoba.
The guaranteed matching is calculated and added to the Heritage fund twice per year, September 30 and March 31. Every museum, archive, or supporting organization is guaranteed a match of $25,000 for the first $50,000 in gifts to their fund. Any monies raised in excess of the $50,000 will be carried forward and stretched at the end of the program on March 31, 2021.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Manitoba Heritage Trust Fund. We appreciate your support in helping Daly House Museum continue to provide our services to the community.
If you are interested in contributing to the Museum's Heritage Trust Fund you can do so online at Heritage - Brandon "Daly House" Museum Fund or give the Museum a call at 204-727-1722 and we'll send you a brochure about the program.
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Brandon House Established
Even though we may be closed we are still planning our upcoming exhibit "Brandon House & the Pre-History of Manitoba" . Here is a little preview of what you'll see in the exhibit.
" all hands as yesterday self laying the foundation for the House, very cold weather at 5 PM I Baptised the house and call'd it Brandon House, treated the men with Grogg to drink the Company's health & succefs…" -Donald McKay, October 14, 1793, Brandon House Journal, Hudson’s Bay Archives.
To feed its brigades traveling to the Athabasca country, the Hudson’s Bay Company moved on to the eastern prairies in the 1790s to exploit the resources of what one historian has termed the “pantry” of the fur trade: the home of the buffalo, the northern great plains. The Bay was a newcomer, since the late 1780s, the North West Company had made commercial trade for pemmican – a potent mix of dried buffalo flesh, fat, and berries stored in a bag of buffalo hide - the engine of transportation for fur trade brigades in the Northwest.
To carry out this mission, the Honourable Company bet on a former Nor’Wester: Donald McKay. On July 30, 1793, McKay, a fierce Highland Scot soon dubbed “Mad” Donald by his North West Company competitors, and a crew of nineteen – eighteen Orkneys and one Englishman – set out from the Osnaburgh House on the Albany River west of James Bay for the Assiniboine River. In early October, they arrived at a bend of the Assiniboine River on the eastern prairies a few miles above the mouth of the Souris.
This was the center of a trading region that extended southwest to the Mandan villages on the Missouri River, northwest to the Qu'Appelle, and east to the forks of the Red and Assiniboine. Here on October 16, 1793, MacKay established Brandon House, the Hudson Bay Company's first inland trading post on the prairies and the headquarters for Hudson’s Bay Company operations there for the next thirty years.
Pictured right: The confluences of the Souris and Assiniboine Rivers just down stream from the original location of Brandon House #1
Become a Member
A Membership with Daly House Museum include:
- Free admission to Daly House Museum
- Four issues of our quarterly newsletter
- 10% off in the Museum Gift Shop
- Advance notification of new exhibits and events
- Tax receipt for the full cost of the annual membership fee
Membership Levels
Friend Level
- Individual ($20), Senior ($15), & Family ($35)
- Includes all the benefits listed above plus ..... eligibility to serve on the Board of Directors and voting privileges at the Annual General Meeting.
Sponsor $60
- Includes membership benefits listed above plus two additional free membership tickets for friends and family
Patron $120
- Includes membership benefits listed above plus four additional free membership tickets for friends and family and a certificate of appreciation
Builder $300
- Includes membership benefits listed above plus six additional free membership tickets for friends and family and a certificate of appreciation
Benefactor $500
- Includes membership benefits listed above plus six additional free membership tickets for friends and family
- A certificate of appreciation
- Free memberships for the individual of your choice (can be upgraded to a family membership for $15)
Get Your Membership Today and Support Local!
Thank You Nikhil Kulkarni & Fran Perrin
Daly House Museum board of directors wishes to thank retiring board members Nikhil Kulkarni and Fran Perrin for their service and dedication to Daly House Museum.
Nikhil Kulkarni (pictured far right with Donna Henderson and Shari Dressler) joined the Daly House Museum board in 2013. Over those seven years Nikhil served on a variety of committees and as the Museum's Vice President. We are sorry to see him leave the board and we wish him well on his future endeavors.
Fran Perrin joined the board in 2018 and she worked hard in helping Daly House host our fundraising events. We thank Fran for her dedication toward these events and wish her well.
If you would like to join our board please give us a call at 204-727-1722.
Credits:
Daly House Museum