PRHMA | WINTER 2022 | PAGE 5
An Afternoon with Stewart Alsgard By Joëlle Sévigny This last Saturday afternoon, I made my way to Stewart Alsgard's home to receive a new donation on behalf of the museum (fyi: we currently have a moratorium on object collecting, but this does not include archival material). Doug Mobley, volunteer at the museum and a friend of Stewart's, was also invited to join for this chat back down memory lane. Over the next hour, Stewart proceeded to share with us the various items that make up his father's, Al Alsgard collection, as well as the stories connected to them. This collection of archival material that Stewart has begun donating to the museum, will eventually become an archival fond. For those of you who might be new to museum lingo, an archival fond is a group of documents that have been naturally accumulated over time by an individual or organization. In this instance, it will become the Alsgard Family Fonds.
The Alsgard's house on Church Street in Powell River.
Al Alsgard
The incredible documents in this donation gives a glimpse into the busy life of Al, who's story is significant to the history of Powell River. Al Alsgard was born in Alberta in 1909. In his early twenties, he came to Powell River and settled in Cranberry. There he opened Alsgard's Hardware Store and also worked in the mill. In 1925, in the attic of his house on Church Street, he began printing the first editions of the Town Crier newspaper on mimeographs. A mimeograph, also called a stencil duplicator, is a low cost duplicating machine that operates by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. His son, Stewart and his friends, would then deliver the newspapers to the different neighborhoods.
