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Daly News Summer & Fall 2020

This Edition

  • Welcome Back!
  • WE NEED YOUR HELP!
  • Upcoming Events & Cancellations
  • Thank You Sylvia Barr
  • Staff Update - Summer Intern Alex Lints
  • The Victorian Garden Grows Once More
  • Rain Barrel Fundraiser
  • Paranormal Investigators to Visit Daly House
  • Collection Highlights - Antique Doll Donations
  • Become a Member

Welcome Back

Hand sanitization station at the museum front entrance

On March 16, we closed our doors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Staff responded by finding new ways to offer museum services behind closed doors. For example, staff created videos of exhibits such as Mutter’s Store and the Sigrid Green Dollhouse, which were posted on Facebook.

When the province announced that museums could open in May, the board and staff decided to take that month to prepare the galleries in order to provide a safe and enjoyable visit. Daly House Museum welcomed visitors back on June 2nd with reduced hours. In July, the museum returned to normal hours Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 am to noon and 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm when summer intern Alex Lints began working. While our visitor numbers have been significantly reduced due to the closure and continuing pandemic we have had an upsurge in research requests and the use of the garden.

As we work our way through the pandemic the museum will investigate virtual tours and creative strategies for sharing the collections in order to bring the museum into people’s homes. The museum currently has 108 archival collections available to be viewed online through the Manitoba Archival Information Network.

To ensure visitors have a safe and fun experience, the museum has developed a comprehensive procedural list. Here are some of the key safety measures:

  • Anyone displaying symptoms of COVID-19 will not be admitted. Visitors are asked to take the Manitoba COVID-19 Screening Tool.
  • Visitors are asked to wear a mask before entering and limit their numbers to six visitors at a time
  • Floor markings and way finding signage is in place to regulate visitor numbers, directions and physical distancing
  • Visitors are asked to refrain from touching displays, interactive exhibition elements have been modified to become touch free or made temporarily unavailable.
  • A regular cleaning and disinfecting schedule is maintained and hand sanitization stations are in place at the front entrance. All visitors are asked to sanitize their hands upon entering the museum.
  • QR Codes have been placed in each exhibit so that visitors can learn about the exhibits as guided tours have been suspended temporarily
  • Visitors are asked to pre-book their tours by calling 204-727-1722 or using Eventbrite.ca
  • Special visiting hours are offered for immune-compromised visitors. Please contact dalymuseum@wcgwave.ca for more information.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

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!

Upcoming Events & Exhibits

The Radio Show and Dinner originally scheduled for March 19 and postponed due to the pandemic has been officially cancelled. We thank everyone who purchased tickets and have made arrangements for refunds. You can still support the museum by making a donation, renewing or purchasing a membership and making a donation to the museum's Heritage Trust Fund.

The museum's Annual General Meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday August 27th at 7:00 pm in the garden has been postponed due to the recent restrictions placed on Brandon by the Province. A date for a virtual AGM will be announced.

The Museum will be closed from September 1st to September 16th for staff to enjoy a late summer holiday with family. We will return to our regular fall hours September 17th.

October 16th, 1798 was the date that the first Hudson's Bay Company Post named Brandon House was established near the mouth of the Souris River. In honour of that event the museum is planning on opening the exhibit "The Brandon House & the Pre-History of Manitoba" on Friday October 16, 2020. The exhibit is a Manitoba 150th exhibit funded by the Manitoba Heritage Grants. It features rarely seen paintings by Peter Rindisbacher of life in Manitoba in the 1820s and artifacts from Brandon House No. 1 on loan from Manitoba Historic Resources. We're looking forward to sharing this fascinating piece of local history with you.

Thank You Sylvia Barr

After a decade of dedicated service to Daly House and to the Victorian Garden, Sylvia Barr decided that with the disruption caused by the pandemic that it was time for her to take a break from her activities at the museum. As a volunteer, Sylvia served as the president of the auxiliary, a board member, the chair of the garden committee, and a master gardener in the Victorian Garden.

The board, staff, and garden volunteers wish to thank Sylvia for her dedication to giving our community a beautiful garden and heritage site. She was always willing to be there for us whenever we needed assistance. We wholeheartedly appreciate all Sylvia had done on our behalf and wish her the best in the future.

Staff Update

Summer Intern Alex Lints

I am please to return as the Exhibitions Assistant for the Summer of 2020 and I am very excited to help bring the new exhibit on the Brandon House trade post to life. I am ready to improve upon my work from last year’s exhibit - Sites of Grieving, Sites of Memory- and do what I can to help tell the story of Brandon House and the Pre-History of Brandon to the public.

The significance of Brandon House in both the history of Manitoba and, to an extent, the history of North America, has surprised me. Each journal I read and every story I hear only increases my excitement over this exhibit.

Alex is a history student currently enrolled at Brandon University. He is majoring in History with the goal of working in the heritage sector upon completion of his degree. His position at Daly House was funded through Canada Summer Jobs.

The Victorian Garden Grows Once More!

The Victorian Garden got off to a slow start this year due to the pandemic shut down and the cold spring. However, thanks to our group of dedicated volunteers we were able to get the garden growing again for a number of weddings and other events this summer. The garden was the site for six weddings, a memorial service, and numerous photographs.

The Victorian Garden late summer 2020

With the resignation of Phil Weiss as garden committee chair, Tim Wiebe stepped forward to help curator Eileen Trott organize volunteer work parties and other activities in the garden. Thanks to the City of Brandon and Tracy Timmer for donating twenty plus flats of flowers at the end of June. The extra flowers enabled our garden volunteers to plant the Children’s Garden at the front of the museum, fill in the flower beds with annuals, and plant hanging baskets to adorn the front of the house. The City also donated three beautiful hanging baskets for the veranda and under the Daly House sign.

Thank you also to Westman Gardeners for purchasing flowers and soil to create another two hanging flower baskets for the veranda.

Over the summer months numerous bees and butterflies were seen enjoying the plants in the garden. Volunteers Jane Neil, Aly Wowchuk and Kim Poppel's dedication to the museum's Pollinator Patch is much of the reason these important insects have enjoyed the garden.

The robin's nest with eggs on the fire escape (left) and a bee enjoying a daisy in the Pollinator Patch (right)

Due to the need to social distance in outdoor settings the community has used the garden as an outdoor gathering spot for coffee with friends and family. Rock hunting for painted rocks was popular with families once more.

A family hunting for painted rocks in the Victorian Garden

Thank you to past volunteers Sylvia Barr and Phil Weiss for thinking of the health of our over 100 year- old elm trees. Sylvia and Phil during their tenure with the garden made sure that the elms were pruned regularly. Thanks to their diligence and the work of Blake Hamilton from Arbour Barbers our elms withstood the extreme weather events we experienced this summer with only one large branch breaking off one of the trees near the front fence during the August tornado event.

Special thank you to all our garden volunteers for making the garden look beautiful once more We’re looking forward to seeing what our volunteers will accomplish next year.

Rain Barrel Fundraiser Sale

As the museum had to cancel the Old Time Radio Show and Dinner originally scheduled for March 19th, the board decided to host an Rain Barrel Fundraiser to benefit the Victorian Garden. The museum partnered with Rainbarrel.ca to sell rain barrels and accessories. The orders were placed online through Rainbarrel.ca. On August 6th, the barrels arrived at Daly House Museum to be picked up by the customers. Through this fundraiser the museum raised $580.00 which will cover the cost of replacing one of the new trees in the garden that was damaged earlier this spring.

If you missed the rain barrel fundraiser sale the museum has a limited quantity of extra barrels available. Barrels are available in the colors terra cotta, blue, grey, and black. The cost of the barrels is $60.00 each. Call Eileen at 204-727-1722 or email dalymuseum@wcgwave.ca to order your barrel today!

Pictured above: Rain Barrels waiting to be picked up at the Museum's Rain Barrel Fundraiser sale August 6, 2020 and summer intern Alex Lints and board member Matthew Gray moving barrels for customer.

Paranormal Investigators to Visit Daly House Museum

Daly House is pleased to annouce that we will be welcoming paranormal investigators from APTN's The Other Side to investigate the museum for paranormal activity. The Other Side is a half-hour doc series in it's seventh season that follows a team of paranormal investigators who, with the guidance of an Aboriginal Elder, seek the truth behind Canada's real life ghost stories. Staff and volunteers will join the investigators over a three day period of filming at the museum near the end of September. We'll keep you posted about when the Daly House episode airs.

Collection Highlights

Antique German and Japanese Made Dolls Donated to the Museum

This summer the museum received two very special antique dolls to add to our collection. One doll was a German made Armand Marseille bisque doll c. 1894. The second doll was a Japaneses Nippon bisque doll c.1918.

The 1894 doll was donated by Shirley (Switzer) Bleackley of Brandon (pictured left). The doll was originally owned by Shirley's aunt Mary Esther (Maimie) Switzer - who received the doll as a gift at a Christmas Concert around 1900.

Maimie Switzer and her doll c.1900

In the 1940s, Maimie (Switzer) Mitchell gave the doll to her niece, Shirley Switzer. In later years, Shirley's father, Willard made a glass-front case to display the doll, while it was on a short- term loan to the newly formed Carberry Plains Museum.

In 2002, the doll was taken to Carousels & Dolls outside of Brandon, where Diane Willey, MDM, restored it. The restoration of the doll included restringing its arms, adding a new pate and mohair wig to replace the original time-worn mohair wig, and new stockings and black patent shoes were fitted to replace the lost clothing items.

While at the Carousels & Dolls, research was done to identify the doll's origin. The markings on the back of the head indicates that the doll is a German made bisque or porcelain head doll by Armand Marseille c.1894.

Armand Marseille of Sonneberg and Koppelsdorf, Thüringia, Germany was one of the worlds largest and best known bisque doll head manufacturers. It is estimated that Marseille produced 1,000 bisque doll heads a day from 1900 to 1930. The company manufactured bisque heads from moulds for their own dolls and for other doll-makers. Interestingly they never made the composite doll bodies but brought them in from other manufacturers.

C.1918-1920 Nippon Bisque Doll

The Nippon bisque doll (pictured above) was donated by Sylvia Liscum of Courtenay, British Columbia. The doll belonged to her mother Vera (Underhill) McKay of Rapid City, Manitoba. Vera received the doll as a gift when she was seven years old. Her daughter Sylvia wanted the treasured family heirloom to return to Manitoba close to where her mother grew up.

The doll was made in Japan during what is known as the Nippon Era (1891-1921). During this period the Japanese produced a wide variety of bisque dolls that imitated French and German bisque dolls . The majority of these dolls were made for the North American market from 1915 through 1921 when French and German dolls were not available due to the First World War.

The Underhill doll has not under gone the extensive restoration work as the Switzer doll. Therefore, one can see the wear and tear it has gone through after many years of loving from both Vera and her daughter Sylvia. Perhaps some day it too can be restored.

Curator Eileen Trott is thrilled to be able to add these two strikingly different dolls to the museum's collections as they show the range of bisque dolls available in the Canadian market during the early 1900s.

Become a Member

Do you enjoy museums? Do you think it is important to preserve heritage for the next generation — and to share it today? Do you agree that history is more than a thing of the past? Join Daly House Museum, and connect with other people who feel that way too. Members, volunteers, and donors help us inspire a community to be alive with its history, connecting people and place. In addition, members enjoy special events, and are the first to hear about events, programs and other museum news.

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

Get Your Membership Today and Support Your Community Museum!

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 Your Community Museum!

Credits:

Daly House Museum

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