What's INSight Winter 2013

Winter 2013

What’s INSight

Google Art Project WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2013 EXPLORING THE ALPINE UNKNOWN

$3.95

MANAGING EDITOR

Jennifer Vanderzee Marketing Coordinator MEMBERSHIP EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

WINTER 2013 FEATURE

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013

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In a Picture of Light

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Exploring the Alpine Unknown in Northern BC

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Celebrate the Holidays with Us

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A CLOSER LOOK

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PHOTOGRAPHY

Carlo Mocellin, Andrew Niemann, Shane Lighter

First Google Art Collection from Western Canada Curious

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Staff Profile: Dennis J. Duffy

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Conserving Collections 10 in a Digital Age

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“The Land Itself with 12 These Small Exceptions”

What’s INSight is an electronic newsletter released four times a year by the Royal BC Museum Membership Department: March, June, September and December.

In the interest of keeping our administrative costs low – and our carbon footprint small – this print version is provided to members without computer access only.

ONE MORE WAY TO GO GREEN

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Ask for our email copy instead.

Donor Profile: 16 Tommy Mayne & Leona Taylor

Please contact: Jennifer Vanderzee Marketing Coordinator 250-387-2137 membership@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

Partner Profile: 17 Silk Road WHAT’S ON 18

Coming events & exhibitions

Angela Williams, Chief Operating Officer Erika Stenson, Head of Marketing & Development David Alexander Head of New Archives & Digital Preservation Sue Stackhouse Communications Specialist Gerry Truscott Publisher Stuart Wootton Graphic Design

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Cover Image: Cha-atl, Field with Pole, 1912.

Emily Carr, Ts’aa7ahl [aka Chaatl, British Columbia] Canada, Royal BC Museum.

Dear Friends

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ne of my favourite objects in the Royal BC Museum is invisible. Hundreds of thousands of visitors pass beneath it and rarely notice it and yet it counts among our largest and most impressive. It is above all specific to British Columbia and its outer coast. The skeleton of a Grey Whale hunted back in 1953 and suspended high above the entrance to the IMAX theatre is a reminder that not only is the landscape of British Columbia majestic and super-sized but so is its marine life. To me it’s a timely reminder of the journey Grey Whales make each year north to Alaska for food, from February to May, and then on their return south in September to December.

It is also a rather dramatic reminder for us that all life began in the sea thousands of millions of years ago, evolving in the oceans before setting out to conquer land.

This makes our marine specimens particularly valuable and significant – they serve as a brilliant introduction to understanding our environmental and cultural history.

The natural world is the background and the foreground for everything that is contained in the museum including, of course, the eagles, frogs, ravens and whales that are celebrated on the poles and masks in our collections. The whale skeleton is an extraordinary feat of object preparation too. The process of cleaning, preparing, soaking in cauldrons of alkaline and then drying is an art that was well practised in the museum in the late 19th century, soon after the museum was founded in 1886 and a tradition we still continue today.

As you go to enjoy our latest exhibition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, do look up and see this enormous whale specimen. In due course, I hope, it will become a centrepiece of our enlarged new entrance. I am grateful to the Natural History Museum in London for allowing us to open Wildlife Photographer of the Year concurrently with the show in London. And I am most grateful for all your support in helping me to bring this show to British Columbia.

I look forward to seeing you in the museum soon.

Professor Jack Lohman, CBE Chief Executive Officer, Royal BC Museum In 1953, our whale skeleton was one of only three on public display in the world.

www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

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Greg du Toit (South Africa) Essence of elephants

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 Overall Winner Greg du Toit (South Africa) Essence of elephants

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ver since he first picked up a camera, Greg du Toit has photographed African elephants.

“For many years,” he says, “I’ve wanted to create an image that captures their special energy and the state of consciousness that I sense when I’m with them. This image comes closest to doing that.”

The shot was taken at a waterhole in Botswana’s Northern Tuli Game Reserve, from a hide (a sunken freight container) that provided a ground-level view. Greg chose to 2

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use a slow shutter speed to create the atmosphere he was after and try “to depict these gentle giants in an almost ghostly way.” He used a wideangle lens tilted up to emphasize the size of whatever elephant entered the foreground, and chose a narrow aperture to create a large depth of field so that any elephants in the background would also be in focus.

Greg had hoped the elephants would turn up before dawn, but they arrived after the sun was up. To emphasize the “mysterious nature” of these

“enigmatic subjects”, he attached a polarizing filter and set his white balance to a cool temperature. The element of luck that added the final touch to his preparation was the baby elephant, which raced past the hide, so close that Greg could have touched her. The slow shutter speed conveyed the motion, and a short burst of flash at the end of the exposure froze a fleeting bit of detail.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is on now until April 6, 2014

In a Picture of Light

Norm Charbonnneau

By Kate Kerr, Exhibition Fabrication Specialist

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ildlife Photographer of the Year is a visually striking exhibition, but not only because of the remarkable images.

Each photograph is backlit, creating detail and brilliant colour in every frame. How is this effect achieved?

We asked Norm Charbonneau, our exhibition production manager, to explain.

Q. The first thing you notice when you walk into this exhibition is the colour and the near three-dimensional quality of the images. What makes the photographs glow like this?

All the images, including the text and maps, are printed on translucent Mylar sheets. The images are then backlit by an acrylic panel that’s specially designed with LEDs imbedded in the side. The panel has a layer that is etched with little grooves that act as “light pipes”. This allows a uniform amount of light to travel evenly across the surface. Without the images on them the lit panels look like a fine grid of glowing white lines.

Q. Apart from the vivid colour and detail this backlighting gives, what are the advantages of using technology like this for a photography exhibition?

First of all it’s low voltage. Most of these panels operate on 12 volts.

LEDs are very energy efficient and they last a long time. They’re not like regular bulbs. They have a longevity of 20,000 hours or longer and they can www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

be dimmed to control the light output.

Finally, they can be ordered in different colour temperatures; from 3500K to 5300K, from a warm look to a cooler light. The higher numbers start to look almost bluish.

Q. What are other potential uses of this technology?

In the museum and archives we use backlighting for many signs in general because it saves us from having to light externally. I find backlit signs easier to read, especially in a dimly lit gallery. These panels can be made to many custom sizes for different purposes and they’re tough. I’ve seen panels used as a stage where they put a car on them.

Q. Is this backlit effect something that people can create at home with their own photographs?

There are light boxes available on the internet and a people can print their images and make their own panels. You can get an 11 by 14 inch light box for anywhere from $60 to

$100. In the higher quality range, the ones we use are 24 by 24 inches and they cost about $385. Quality varies.

You have to do some research on it.

And you’ll have to tweak the images on your computer. You might run into problems associated with the different colour temperatures of the panels. In other words, if you printed a nice picture of your house and put it in front of the panel you may see the colours shift a little. It’s the same thing as when you look at something under indoor light and then go outside and it looks like a different colour. The other problem with backlit images is that they don’t reproduce black very well. Because the light is coming through the images the black tends to shift to grey. Again, that’s something you may be able to tweak on your computer but you’ll have to play with it. We develop specific colour profiles when we print images to use in front of our LED light boxes so that the colours come out as close to the original as possible.

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Exploring the Alpine Unknown in Northern BC

Tsatia camp.

By Richard Hebda, Curator of Botany and Earth History; Erica Wheeler, Botany Collections Manager; Marji Johns, Paleontology Collections Manager and Ken Marr, Curator of Botany

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ritish Columbia is one of the most diverse places on earth when it comes to landscapes and habitats. Of these, the alpine zone, the land above the trees, is poorly explored especially in the north. As a consequence, the distribution of many plants and the occurrence of fossils are unknown and there may be some exciting surprises. In order to meet the Royal BC Museum’s mandate to increase our knowledge of the distribution and occurrence of animal and plant species in British Columbia, we have been collecting plants from alpine habitats of northern BC since 2002.

Our botanical studies to date reveal that these remote mountains are home to more species of plants than one would expect, including ancient lineages of hardy survivors such as Mountain Sorrel (Oxyria digyna).

Mountain tops also expose large areas of bedrock, some of which are fossil-bearing sedimentary layers.

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In such locations it is possible to make collections that document BC’s remarkable ancient heritage. This year we aimed to fill major geographic gaps in our plant and fossil collections.

In late July, during a 15 day fieldtrip, Marji Johns, Erica Wheeler, Ken Marr, Will MacKenzie and Richard Hebda flew by helicopter to four mountains.

At each mountain we collected, pressed and dried plant specimens.

For selected species we preserved tissue that we and a researcher in Japan will analyze using DNA markers.

The goal of this study is to attempt to reconstruct their migration in the northern hemisphere before, during and after the most recent ice age.

We found fossils at each location and fossil-bearing slabs of rock were carefully packaged for transport.

The trip began 140 km from the nearest highway in the eastern reaches

of the Spatsizi Plateau. This region is sometimes called the “Serengeti of the North” because of its large mammal populations. On the open windblown tundra of Tomias Peak and the ridges north of the Spatsizi River we collected more than 175 species of vascular plants. We were surprised to find so much diversity in a landscape that at first appeared to be nearly devoid of life. These plants and the lichen mats that form a ground cover in some alpine tundra habitats, provide forage for wildlife such as Caribou and marmots. Their flowers provide nectar and pollen for insects that are in turn fed upon by birds.

Conglomerate beds and sandstones of Late Cretaceous age (70-65 million years old) form scarps within the undulating landscape. These rocks yielded intriguing plant and animal fossils which will be the subject of study for the next year.

We spent the second half of our expedition closer to civilization, in the high country southeast of the Tahltan community of Iskut. Here, weathered rolling fragments of a once continuous landscape have been deeply cut by rivers and glaciers, reminiscent of the mesa lands of the US southwest. The surface is covered by boulders, gravel scree and turf. Steep cliffs expose hundreds of metres of sandstones and shales. To our delight we found sparse but rich plant communities composed of our most treasured plants: rare species of high alpine tundra and harsh northern arctic climates. Within a minute of landing at 2100 metres elevation near Tsatia Peak, the rare Ice-Grass (Phippsia algida) showed itself scarcely 10 metres from the helicopter. Ten years ago, we were the first to discover this arctic species in BC. Nearby we found hundreds of individuals of the fascinating mustard, Eschscholtz’s Little Nightmare (Aphragmus eschscholtzianus), so named because of the hard to pronounce species name. The scree below steep cliffs supported hundreds of the even rarer in BC and stunning Pale Poppy (Papaver alboroseum).

We chose this mountain because it is known to have abundant fossils of Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods (160-100 million years ago) and we were not disappointed. Perched above a steep cliff and in sight of most impressive Tsatia Peak we discovered black shales rich in plant remains.

The next day while dodging a pesky thunderstorm we excavated rich fossil shell beds at 2200 metres. The real pay-off came on the following day when we collected hundreds of kilograms of shale slabs full of remarkably preserved clam, belemnite and ammonite fossils.

Many of the clams had weathered out intact making easy pickings. A special helicopter lift was needed to haul out the wonderful specimens from a narrow creek bed. We also discovered an intriguing piece of trunk from a primitive plant, possibly a giant tree-fern. www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

Expedition members at Tomias Mountain Spatsizi Provincial Park.

Left to right: Will MacKenzie from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Erica Wheeler, Ken Marr, Richard Hebda and Marji Johns from the Royal BC Museum.

For our final site we landed on the ridge north of Eastman Creek. Slightly lower than previous locations, the landscape is covered in rich lichenbirch tundra interrupted by patches of delightful wildflowers. We were entertained by a handsome porcupine hardly concerned by our presence.

Eschsoltz’s Little Nightmare (Aphragmus eschscholtzianus), a tiny plant in the mustard family that is rare in BC and otherwise grows in the Yukon and Alaska.

Again, we collected over 150 plant specimens including several that are rare. Near camp, in a saddle on the ridge, a stream had sliced into the soil, exposing an old lake bed and peat deposits. Such deposits are exceedingly rare and provide an opportunity to reconstruct past vegetation communities. This exposure was carefully sampled in 10-cm-thick blocks whose plant remains will be analysed in our lab. These blocks will be sliced thin, and their pollen and macroscopic fossils extracted and studied. Hopefully these deposits will date to as far back as the last ice age and will provide a record of the origin and history of the local alpine plant communities.

Our expedition was exceptionally successful in its geographic scope, the number of specimens acquired, the number of rare species documented and the quality of the material. The weather was excellent and allowed us to cover much terrain. The landscape beckoned us into the distant history of our remarkable province to discoveries yet to be made in this alpine land that is still poorly known due to its vastness and difficulty of access.

Field work supported by Teck, Lead Partner in Biodiversity The elusive Pale Poppy (Papaver alboroseum), a rare species with fragile pink petals, thrives in the rugged alpine landscape on Tsatia Mountain.

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Celebrate the Holidays with Us

Christmas in Old Town The sights and sounds of Christmas long ago. Marvel at the 4.5 metre Christmas tree, visit the wood-cobbled streets laced with festive garlands and see the shops decked with seasonal finery.

November 14, 2013 to January 7, 2014, 10 am – 5 pm Free with admission or membership

Father Christmas comes to the Royal BC Museum

Helmcken House Old-fashioned Christmas

Can you imagine a more magical place to visit with Father Christmas than the decorated street of Old Town? Share your holiday wishes and have your photo taken to preserve this special moment.

Helmcken House comes alive with the spirit of Christmas in Victoria.

Visitors will discover the Christmas traditions of early Victorians and enjoy decorations and a craft activity.

December 6 to 22, Friday – Sunday 11 am – 4:30 pm Free with admission or membership Photos by donation

December 21, 2013 to January 7, 2014 12 – 4 pm By donation or with admission

Christmas Shopping Online Check out our new online store for unique gift ideas. Every purchase supports the Royal BC Museum and the work we do.

See royalbcmuseum.bc.ca for details 6

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Untitled 1960.

Chief Nakapankam, ´ Mungo Martin.

A CLOSER LOOK

First Google Art Collection from Western Canada

By Sue Stackhouse, Communication Specialist

he first Google Art Project collection from Western Canada was launched on October 8. The Royal BC Museum joins five other Canadian institutions and is only the second museum in Canada to be featured among the most famous art collections in the world.

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26 works selected from our huge Emily Carr collection include her beloved forests and First Nations villages, but also samples from her ‘funny books’, arts-and-crafts pieces, portraits, an ink sketch, and two paintings from her time in France.”

in about 1910, when Charlie was a young patient at the Bella Bella Hospital. These intricate portrayals include salmon, grease bowl, shaman and copper, among others. Together, they tell the Kwakwaka’wakw story of Soogwilis.

The initial batch of high resolution images includes 81 works created between 1778 and 1960, selected from our vaults.

Other artists featured in this project ´ launch – Chief Nakapankam, Mungo Martin and Charlie George Sr, Xalxidi – are not as well known outside British Columbia, but their works, stories and contributions are exceptional.

The “details” tab includes brief but interesting entries on these First Nations artists. google.com/culturalinstitute/project/ art-project

“We are thrilled about working with the Google Cultural Institute in the UK to make a significant part of our collection immediately accessible to the world,” said Professor Jack Lohman, Chief Executive Officer. “New, dedicated onsite gallery space is part of our masterplan, to share more of the thousands of artworks in our collections, but we actively pursued this Google Art partnership as another way to share the diversity in our collections.”

Paintings created in British Columbia

by Louis Comfort Tiffany (of art glass fame), Emily Carr, E.J. Hughes and Frederick Varley are among the first works in the museum’s Google Art Collection. Don Bourdon, Curator of Images and Paintings, wanted to represent the range of one artist, “The www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

“Mungo Martin was a great master of Northwest Coast art,” said Dr Martha Black, Curator of Ethnology.

“His individual style and sophisticated technique are evident in the few works we selected for this project.” When he was about 72 years old, Mungo Martin became chief carver at what is now the Royal BC Museum. He created more than two dozen poles and built the bighouse, Wawadit’la, in Thunderbird Park, where he gave the first legal public potlatch at its opening in 1953, soon after the law against potlatching was dropped from the Indian Act in 1951.

Charlie George Sr, Xalxidi created the set of coloured pencil drawings for the Reverend Dr Richard Large,

The earliest image shown is a 1778 watercolour of King George’s Sound by surgeon and artist William Ellis.

This type of work was often collected by archivists and is appreciated for its artistic value but also as a modernday equivalent of a photograph, documenting a vista or culture new to Europeans at the time.

Users can zoom in at brushstroke level, learn about the artists, and build their own collections to share with others. Special features enable work on collaborative projects. The “compare” feature allows examination of two pieces side-by-side to see how an artist’s style changed over time, to connect trends across cultures, or to delve deeply into two areas of the same work.

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Curious

By Eric Espig, Digital Manager

Museum content often focuses on collections, programming and exhibitions, with the occasional development story thrown in for good measure. Rarely does a museum pull back the curtain and reveal its inner workings.

Pulling back the curtain is what the Royal BC Museum is doing with Curious, an innovative project that offers a platform for museum and archives experts to discuss what they do and what gets them excited. This content is displayed two ways: profile pages on the museum and archives corporate website that allow staff to blog, tweet or post images, video or research papers; and a free online magazine app that will aggregate this content and push it to subscribers monthly. Curious features the faces and personalities of people doing important work in the Royal BC Museum.

Internationally, the museum community has yet to completely integrate the more conversational form of communication common to the web.

Communications to the public from curators, archivists and collections managers have been one-way, in the form of books, papers published in refereed journals, and articles posted on their museum’s website – many of these have been mediated by other museum staff responsible for content or learning. A few museums have encouraged their experts to develop online content on the familiar and isolated platform of the blog, but so far, no institution has attempted to offer a forum for their experts en masse to exchange information and ideas with the general public. The Royal BC Museum is hoping it can become a trendsetter among museums 8

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by providing unprecedented access to museum and archives staff and content. As other museums follow suit, the potential to reach new and larger audiences in new and larger ways is an exciting possibility!

Curious tries to do just that, by offering expert information in a variety of formats, across multiple platforms (web, phone, tablet) and allowing readers to post questions and comments to the authors. So far, Royal BC Museum curators, archivists and collections managers, as well as staff in conservation, learning and digital preservation have embraced the idea and created content.

The “front end design” philosophy gives us an opportunity to test what will work for both the content creators and the visitors to the site, and then change it accordingly. The first step in the process was to help staff feel comfortable with the interactions and dialogue available in social media.

The second step was for me and my colleagues, who act as content administrators and gatekeepers of the web, to trust the discretion of the staff creating the online content – to resist the urge to edit or interfere with the

content. It is this trust that has allowed staff to feel responsible for their own content and for us to feel comfortable with what they produce. While we may not be certain of the impact, we do know this is the direction in which the world and the information is moving (Open Access) and what online audiences have come to appreciate and possibly expect.

We believe that the Curious project will change the way experts at the Royal BC Museum interact with the public online and offline. According to our CEO, Professor Jack Lohman, museums should act as “cultural mash-ups” – they should collaborate with other cultures so much that the word collaboration disappears.

Curious continues this task by “mashing up” the museum and archives itself, turning the relationship between staff and public (and between staff and staff) on its head.

We are anticipating the launch of Curious this month. To follow our progress visit us at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/staffprofiles or to continue the discussion and ask questions find me @E5Pi6 or eespig@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

Staff Profile EDUCATION

Simon Fraser University: BA (1991) & Certificate in Public History (1992) BACKGROUND

I’ve been involved with the BC Archives’ audio-visual collections since the summer of 1978, when I was first employed as a summer student by the Aural History Program.

In the years following, I frequently worked under contract to the Sound and Moving Image Division as a writer, editor, researcher and archival consultant. I wrote or edited three books in the archives’ Sound Heritage Series and produced three of the documentary sound programs that accompanied the series. From 1982 to 1986, I was the main researcher for the BC Filmography Project, compiling data about films produced in the province. My publications for the provincial archives include “Imagine Please: Early Radio Broadcasting in

Archives

British Columbia” and “Camera West: British Columbia on Film, 1941-1965”.

From 1987 to 1995, I was contracted to work on the selection, acquisition, arrangement and description of new film and video collections. After working at another ministry for three years, I finally joined the regular archives staff in 1998. I was soon back to work on archival description, including two big database projects to consolidate all item-level descriptive information on our moving image and sound holdings. In 2008, I produced the Royal BC Museum DVD Evergreen Playland: A Road Trip through British Columbia, based on the archival travelogues I compiled for the Royal BC Museum’s 2008 exhibition, Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC. During that exhibition, I was a regular guest on the CBC Radio program All Points West. More recently, I have been involved with the museum and archives collection

Dennis J. Duffy Archivist

management systems and I continue to work on new archival acquisitions.

AREAS OF INTEREST

Archival moving images (film and videotape); archival sound recordings; history of filmmaking and broadcasting in British Columbia.

The Royal BC Museum Needs Your Support We’re proud of the work we do in preserving BC’s history and sharing it with British Columbians and the world. Next June, we’ll open a new exhibition on the languages and cultures of the First Nations in BC, Our Living Languages. We hope it will help to increase understanding of the importance of language to aboriginal cultures, while enriching the lives of all who visit. www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

Please help us to fund this project by making your donation to the Royal BC Museum. To learn more about this and our other exciting plans visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/about/vision or email donate@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca Thank you for supporting the Royal BC Museum.

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Conserving Collections in a Digital Age

By Kasey Lee, Conservation Manager

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igitization is the big buzz word in archives and museums these days. We can digitize documents, images, sounds, even whole objects and we can share them on the internet, in our galleries, in on-and off-site educational programs and in our reference room. The Royal BC Museum even has a 3D digital printer that uses high-tech laser scans to produce replicas of almost anything.

But is a digital facsimile really an exact replica of the original? Digital copies are created using a finite number of data points. These points represent samples of the surface of the original object. The more data points, the higher the resolution of the digital copy. It is impossible to gather every possible data point, so what you have is actually an approximation of the original, not an exact copy. There are many other reasons why a digital replica is not identical to the original: the colour might be a little different depending upon the calibration of the equipment; the texture can be slightly smoother or rougher, due to the method by which the software fills in missing information; the sound may be a little fuzzier or missing certain registers due to equipment limitations; even whole parts of the original might not be reproduced, by choice or by accident. These copying deficiencies are why it is so important to retain and preserve the original.

This is where the relationship between digitization and conservation comes in. Museums and archives do not seek to replace the original (except in very 10

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rare circumstances when the original object faces imminent demise), but rather to make copies as accurately as possible, even though they are incomplete.

machines required to play them no longer exist? For these reasons, digitization may represent the only means of saving large segments of our media culture.

Preservation copies of original materials may be made to save what is left of a rapidly deteriorating object. An example is magnetic sound recordings, which have a short lifespan. Many videotapes have an expected life of 30 years, less if they have not been stored and used in ideal conditions. Digital copies of videotapes and sound recordings may be the only surviving record in the near future. As you may have read in the previous editions of this magazine, cool storage can prolong the life of magnetic media, but because it cannot be frozen, the deterioration is only delayed, not halted. Adding to this problem is the obsolescence of formats and playback equipment.

Who remembers reel-to-reel tape recorders, eight-track music players or vitaphones? Even if the recordings survive, what use will they be if the

The conservator’s role is to facilitate digitization, to help make the collections more accessible. In rare cases an archival record or museum object is not appropriate for digitization. An item may be so large and/or heavy that it cannot be scanned or photographed safely with existing equipment. In the case of books, the text may extend into the gutter of the spine, so that the only way of exposing the information is to remove the binding – something rarely done, especially if it means damaging a historic book. If an item requires significant conservation work, digitization may not proceed until there is sufficient project time and funding to do the work.

Conservation is often the first stop in a digitization project. Before an original record is digitized, a

Close-up of the damaged and spine of a Dally album, suffering badly from red rot.

Digitally reconstructed image of a Chinese Freemasons’ lantern as it may once have looked.

conservator will inspect and assess it to decide if it can go straight to the imaging studio or if it needs some minor repairs or preparation first or requires stabilization treatment before digitization can take place.

Simple preparatory work might include surface cleaning to prevent the spread of dirt to other parts of the object during handling or to make details of the surface clearer.

Occasionally a complex conservation treatment may be necessary before digitization. Broken bindings should be repaired and leather with red rot requires consolidation. Loose and torn pages must be secured, areas affected by mould should be cleaned and may require repair. Powdery or flaking pigments need consolidation.

Rolled documents and textiles may require humidification for flattening before digitization and custom supports are usually a must for threedimensional objects. The conservator may suggest specific support and handling techniques be used during the digitization process. A collection manager or preservation specialist may be required to assist or, in extreme cases, conservators may do all the handling themselves.

Conservation and digitization are related in other ways too. For example, digital facsimiles can be used to analyze and even enhance the original for research and presentation purposes. Conservators have used laser scanning and reflectance transformation imaging to examine and measure minute details of objects, including clues to manufacturing methods and changes www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

due to use and deterioration. As discussed above, 3D printers can also be used to reproduce objects so that they can be shared with more people and in vastly different locations and for different purposes, without compromising the original – an effective preservation strategy.

Look to the Royal BC Museum’s website for another example of the wonders of digital facsimiles. The Chinese Freemasons’ lantern arrived at the museum and archives in such dilapidated condition that even heroic conservation treatment methods could not restore it to its former glory but could only stabilize what was left.

Further restoration would have been based on guesswork, and therefore not appropriate. Fortunately, a digital representation of the lantern as it may have once looked when the moving parts rotated, the coloured lights were

illuminated, and the paints and textiles were vibrant, presents the viewer with an amazing likeness of something that no longer exists. Digital imaging has also been used to replicate the unsalvageable decorative plastic film on the lantern, replicating the original pattern on a new, more stable Mylar material. The Chinese Freemasons’ lantern does not sit well on a flat surface, but rather is supported and secured with lead weights. In the future the Royal BC Museum hopes to use laser scanning and printing to build precisely fitting supports to cradle fragile objects on exhibit or to pack them gently inside a shipping crate.

Clearly, conservation and digitization are intrinsically linked in the world of museums and archives. The next challenge facing us is just how we are going to conserve all the digital information we are creating.

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“The Land Itself with These Small Exceptions” The Vancouver Island Treaties in Context

By Raymond Frogner, Archivist

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n his celebrated study History and Memory, French historian Jacques LeGoff observed that writing colonial history is “a struggle against the perspective imposed by the sources”.

LeGoff was citing issues of reliability and authenticity – the carnival of record inconsistencies, half-truths and ethnocentrism that characterize the reliability of colonial documents. If our histories of the colonial era are stories about the collision of indigenous and European societies, only one group documented the experience in text, preserved selectively in archives if saved at all. These colonial records were informed by a European colonial context: the political, legal, administrative, economic structures, culture, habits and myths of the British colonial settler.

A perfect example of this is the collection of documents commonly referred to as the Douglas Treaties.

The 14 Vancouver Island Treaties (1850-54) recorded the lands and identities of selected indigenous societies on Vancouver Island for the purposes of colonial settlement.

The documents confirmed British jurisdiction on Vancouver Island and recognized local indigenous people held a vaguely defined set of rights and title. These documents attempt to legally enshrine colonial settlement; they represent for First Nations their negotiated response to imperial sovereignty and settlement.

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The Vancouver Island Treaties were written over a period of five years from 1850 to 1854.

James Douglas, appointed governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1851, orchestrated the documents’ making under the direction of the Hudson’s Bay Company, for whom he continued to work. The first nine treaties were completed by a process Douglas described to London-based HBC Secretary Archibald Barclay as “a convention of the tribe”. First Nations groups were requested to visit Fort Victoria, where undocumented discussions were held concerning the transfer of rights to title, fishing, hunting and other rights over specific areas of Vancouver Island. An Iroquois/Métis trader, Thomas Williams (also known as Tomo Ouamtomy or Tomo Antione), facilitated discussion with a rough understanding of local indigenous languages. A variety of HBC goods were offered to the visiting native groups. The amount, in sums not matching the HBC’s private inventory but nevertheless accounting for a 300% mark-up for non-HBC employees, are stated in the text of most of the resulting treaties (with the important exception of the North Saanich treaty, which does not cite a

sum paid). Following oral agreements, the names of representatives of vaguely defined local indigenous groups were phonetically transcribed.

Once the transcriptions were made it is believed the register remained at the fort. This is confirmed by a letter Douglas sent to HBC Secretary Archibald Barclay on May 16, 1850, in response to advice from Barclay on keeping registers of land title. Several

months later, without indigenous participation, Douglas added the main text of the agreements to the documents. Using the same approach, Douglas journeyed to Fort Rupert and Nanaimo to obtain treaties from the local Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish First Nations in 1851 and 1854.

He brought back the treaties to Fort Victoria. Although Douglas was advised to return copies of land title documents to London, such copies have never been found in either the Hudson’s Bay Archives in Winnipeg or the British Colonial Office Archives in London. As is the case with many required legal processes, this appears to be one Douglas did not follow. He also does not appear to have made copies for the local First Nations groups, a usual and prescribed practice that occurred in the making of the Numbered Treaties on the Canadian Prairies, and in most other British colonial settings worldwide during the second wave of British colonialism in the 19th century.

What is one to make of such documents? The agreements are vague, promising indigenous communities the rights to pre-existing “enclosed fields” and “village sites”.

Apart from this and the continued rights to hunting and fishing on unoccupied lands, all the treaties read “the land itself with these small exceptions”, will remain with the “white people” forever. Taking LeGoff’s advice, it is difficult to infer www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

much from the biased content of the documents. And trying to elicit the indigenous perspective from the so-called “agreements” is like the proverbial Buddhist monk imagining the sound of one hand clapping.

Nevertheless, the treaties carry with them the spirit of an agreement; they are evocative of a time when British colonial policy was attempting to establish settler colonies around the globe. These colonies confronted the reality of indigenous communities living on the land with their own unique cultures as organized societies. The text of the Vancouver Island Treaties embodies the inherent contradiction of the mid 19th century British colonial project. The treaties attempt to recognize indigenous identity and rights while at the same time addressing the economic reality of colonial settlers requiring previously occupied lands. It would not be long after the Vancouver Island Treaties were created that settler policies began to forcefully assert their jurisdiction. This came most powerfully in the form of residential schools to assimilate aboriginal children, the Indian Act to manage daily aboriginal affairs, and reservations where aboriginal peoples were directed to reside. There would be no other similar treaties in this region of North America. In fact, the Vancouver Island Treaties cover only three per cent of Vancouver Island.

Over time, Canadian society’s cultural understanding of the Vancouver Island Treaties has evolved. The agreements have been recognized in Canadian courts and enshrined in our Constitution as treaties. Rather than a strict interpretation of the documents’ meaning, a general understanding of the unwritten negotiations and accommodation that went into the documents creation is now highlighted.

This is the perspective that underscores the Royal BC Museum’s application to have the Vancouver Island Treaties recognized in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Globally, the treaties memorialize indigenous peoples’ shared colonial experience and underscore UNESCO’s work to preserve indigenous languages, defend human rights and promote cultural diversity. In this view, the treaties are 19th-century signposts in humanity’s gradual recognition of human rights across cultures and empires. Written shortly after the British abolition of slavery, the humanist currents of thought that inspired these treaties form a taproot for human rights programs worldwide. Canadian courts rediscovered the Vancouver Island Treaties in the modern context of international human rights movements.

They have greatly influenced Canadian society and common-law jurisdictions worldwide.

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New opportunities to learn, practise and grow

C

ontinuing Studies at the University of Victoria has a new calendar of fascinating courses ready for you to unwrap – just in time for Christmas.

Royal BC Museum members share a passion for exploration and discovery with thousands of people who enjoy continuing education courses at the University of Victoria each year.

Spring at Continuing Studies comes early! New courses will be starting in January, and the Spring 2014 Continuing Studies Calendar is filled with dozens of learning opportunities that will further enrich your understanding of local history, contemporary issues, the arts, science and nature, languages, heritage and culture, and a whole lot more.

Continuing Studies is not just at the University of Victoria – there are field trips and courses held at various locations around the city and elsewhere on the island, as well as the popular free lunchtime lecture series downtown.

There are things to enjoy in the daytime, evenings and on the weekend.

The really adventurous might consider our series of Travel Study tours in 2014, including “Viking Iceland”.

We hope you’ll get to know them and try a course, perhaps something completely new or renewing an interest you’ve always wanted to explore more deeply.

We all have something in common – we love BC, we love Victoria and we love to learn!

Take a look at their spring courses. Visit: uvcs.uvic.ca/2013/royalbcmuseum/

SOCIAL MEDIA Aimee Ippersiel @Aimee_Ippersiel 9 Oct Congratulations @RoyalBCMuseum for being selected as one of the few Canadian orgs to be featured on @googleart!

Canadian Art @canartca 8 Oct Today, key BC artworks by Emily Carr and others were added to the Google Art Project by @RoyalBCMuseum & @TMCtoronto Adrienne Boyarin @AdrienneBoyarin 8 Oct Thanks to Leslie McGarry from @VNFCTWEET for teaching my son’s gr4 class some history today @RoyalBCMuseum. Honored to chaperone and learn.

Daniel Loxton @Daniel_Loxton 28 Sep Boy, it’s a wet one in #yyj. Paddled all the way to the @RoyalBCMuseum, then scuba dived all the way home.

Sara Park @SparkInVictoria 8 Oct Two Dozen Things We Love About This Place: @RoyalBCMuseum a playground for young minds @timescolonist #Love

Kids’ Club* is a free members-only program that introduces children to the museum and archival collections and exhibitions.

Morning Explorations December 15, 9 – 10 am

After School Explorations Every Wednesday**, 4 – 5 pm

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/join * Some exceptions apply ** See website for details

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STAY CONNECTED Subscribe to our E-Newsletter to receive updates on exhibitions, events and offers.

Email: membership@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca and follow us on

32 Views

By Chris O’Connor, Family & Schools Program Producer

H

ere in the Learning Department we are always on the lookout for new ways to engage with visitors and the collections. Both have interesting stories connected to them. But my colleagues and I don’t always have the time to slow down and listen fully to all the stories about the objects in the collections or the people who visit the galleries. So I wanted to change that. And as I was re-imagining my programming role with Kids’ Club, I saw an opportunity.

Instead of doing a craft-based Kids’ Club event before each Wonder Sunday (as we have for the last two years), we have decided instead to do a weekly “meet-up” – 32 of them in fact, over the course of the programming year.

This project, called 32 Views is an opportunity for kids and families to get to know each other and staff members throughout the museum and archives.

And I get to come along for the ride.

Actually I do more than that. My role is to chronicle the experience through posts to my profile page on the Royal BC Museum website. At the end of the year there will be 32 posts about 32 different staff members that were met by 32 different groups of Kids’ Club kids, providing 32 views into what makes our museum and archives tick.

oddities and extraordinary collections that make up the majority of the museum and archives … much of which is out of sight from the public galleries. So we travel around and check it all out.

Staff explore and share with kids what they find interesting about the place where they work. Throughout the year we’ll meet everyone from CEO Professor Jack Lohman to Head of Security Bill Chimko … and many, many more.

During these meet-ups, a camera gets passed around the group. Which means that all of the photos you see on our weekly posts online are taken by the kids, 6 to 12 year olds.

For our first week, or our first view, we met Curator of History Dr Lorne Hammond. Lorne explained to us that curators in museums help acquire the objects in the collections, and gather the stories that go with those objects. They then take those stories about individual objects to help tell the

overall story of the people and places and events.

He showed us lots of different objects in the collection, from fans to hats, cameras to clothes. But he focused mostly on the skateboard collection. (Who knew there even was a skateboard collection?) Lorne explained that he tries to get a new board every 10 years to show the changing designs and functionality.

Then it was on to the gallery. Lorne toured with us around the displays that he helped put together in Century Hall.

There were even more skateboards!

The kids seemed fascinated by the old computers and were curious about the different kinds of games that are old but still in use, Scrabble and My Little Pony.

Such a great group of families.

All with fascinating stories to tell.

Check out my profile page http:// royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/staffprofiles/ author/chrisoconnor/ to read about other views.

Kids’ Club kids see, move through, experience, question, discover, are surprised by, and wonder at all the www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

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DONOR PROFILE

Tommy Mayne and Leona Taylor

Leona Taylor, 15 year Archives volunteer.

Tommy Mayne, Retired Teacher.

By Jonathan Dallison, Major Gifts Manager

W

hat difference can an individual make to the Royal BC Museum?

The answer is: a significant one. The province covers only 63 per cent of our annual budget, while memberships and admissions earn us 21 per cent.

That means we need to generate an additional 16 per cent of our budget – $3,000,000 each year – from other sources, including individual donors.

Many volunteers and members recognize this and choose to contribute financially to help us: • further our leading-edge research • preserve and expand our collection • teach the next generation • remain accessible to as many people as possible Two individuals who have made an extra difference during the past year are Tommy Mayne, a retired teacher, and Leona Taylor, a 15-year volunteer in the archives.

Mr Mayne, who recently joined our new Francis Kermode Group, recounts his motivation for making the Royal BC Museum one of his philanthropic priorities: “I actually met Francis Kermode when I was a boy, and I’m thrilled to join this new patrons’ group in honour of the seminal work he did as director

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Winter 2013

back when the museum was located in the east wing of the Legislature and,” he smiles, “when there was a live rattlesnake by the entrance. I would stop in to see the exhibitions after school, and that’s when I developed the love of natural history and human history that I’ve carried with me my entire life.”

He adds: “The current vision for the museum takes it all to a new level. It encompasses the entire province, and there is a global standard to everything that is fantastic. The museum and archives are invaluable – I wish I could let everyone know how vital it is to support them. It just makes me feel happy to give to something that, in turn, gives back to everyone in perpetuity. That’s why I’ve remembered the museum in my will, too.”

Leona Taylor also has an emotional and intellectual connection to the Royal BC Museum that began at an early age.

She now gives back to the cause she loves as both a volunteer and a donor.

She wrote us a lovely note with her gift:

“I am very pleased to contribute to the learning program. I grew up in Victoria, in what was then a rural area.

Being a curious child I was always finding interesting rocks or man-made treasures. If no one at home was able to answer my questions I never hesitated to hop on my bike and head to the museum. I was always treated with respect and my questions were always answered. That was in the early 1950s and I have never forgotten my wonderful visits to the museum over my life. Thank you!”

Thank you, Leona and Tommy – and everyone else who has contributed to the Royal BC Museum this year. You have set an example that inspires us all.

For more information about options that can make giving easier or more advantageous (such as making a legacy gift or donating in monthly instalments), please contact Jonathan Dallison, Major Gifts Manager, at 250-387-3283 or jdallison@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.

Prospectus and the Printing Press

By Frederike Verspoor, Archivist

O

n June 5, 1858, four sisters of St. Ann and a laywoman, Marie Mainville, arrived in Victoria to begin educating children of the colony.

On Monday June 7, 1858, the former Morel cabin, now repurposed as the Sisters of St. Ann convent and schoolhouse, opened its doors.

However, as space was limited and few supplies were available, Sr M. Lumena was only able to teach catechism classes until November 15 when the addition to the building was completed and regular classes could begin.

On December 2, a hand-cranked French printing press that was already 100 years old when Bishop Demers brought it to Victoria from California was used to print the first school prospectus, a costly document printed on pale blue paper using gold ink. The actual date of the press’s arrival in Victoria is contested – most indicate

that it arrived in 1856, others suggest it was earlier. Count Paul de Garro, a political refugee from Paris, used the press to produce the first French newspaper Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Calédonie and the first book printed in BC. Then printed The Daily Colonist under Amor de Cosmos, a founder of Confederation and Premier of BC. After it printed a competing newspaper.

When that failed the press was carried to Barkerville at the height of the gold rush, to print the Cariboo Sentinel.

Bakerville burned to the ground in 1868, but the press miraculously survived. The machine migrated to Kamloops to print the Inland Sentinel.

Totally obsolete by 1908, the bishop’s press returned to Victoria, where it was on display at the Sisters of St. Ann Museum at St. Ann’s Academy, until 1971. The sisters gave the press to the provincial museum five years later, where it remains today, on permanent display in the Old Town print shop.

Prospectus, now on display in the BC Archives until January 2014.

cranberry and blueberry. The result is a refreshing taste of BC that can be enjoyed hot or cold!” said Daniela.

Proceeds from the sale of the tea will be donated to the Royal BC Museum

Foundation to support the work of the museum and archives.

The Royal BC Museum tea can be purchased at the Royal Museum Shop or at either Silk Road locations.

Printing press

PARTNERSHIP PROFILE

Silk Road O

n November 19th, the museum and archives and Silk Road launched the official Royal BC Museum tea. Tea Master Daniela Cubelic, owner of Silk Road, was inspired by British Columbia. “I used a black tea base and combined native species of Nootka rose, black raspberry and cultivated

www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

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What’s ON

There’s always something happening. Check our What’s on Calendar at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/events/calendar/ or pick up the latest program calendar, available in print or online.

Members enjoy a 10% discount and early registration on program and event tickets.

MUSEUM HOURS: 10 am – 5 pm daily. Closed December 25 and January 1.

Kid’s Club is a free members-only program. Register online.

“Squatters” Rights and the Archival Meridian of William Pearce, Director of the Dominion Lands Board

Morning Explorations

Raymond Frogner January 19

Kids’ Club

UPCOMING EVENTS Admission by Donation Week The Royal BC Museum is your museum.

For this week, admission by donation is our gift to you.

January 2 – 9, 10 am – 5 pm

Paying Attention to our Place Through Art and Photography Premier wildlife painter and nature advocate Robert Bateman will give a talk on how art and photography can reconnect us with nature. In partnership with the Robert Bateman Centre.

January 15, 7 – 8:30 pm $16 per person

Before the museum opens, join us in Old Town for a cozy morning event exploring the variety of winter celebrations throughout British Columbia.

December 15, 9 – 10 am

After School Explorations Activities include behind-the-scene explorations, workshops, guided tours and much more.

Every Wednesday*, 4 – 5 pm

*Some exceptions apply – see calendar for details.

SWAP Café Swap your ideas, questions and answers in our community dialogues with topic experts. Watch our website for more information.

Beginning February 2014 7 – 9 pm $5 per person Cash Bar

KIDS Family Day Spend Family Day with us enjoying events, activities and programs.

February 10, 10 am – 5 pm Free with admission or membership

Wonder Sunday Wonder Sunday is a free interactive, learning-based special event that happens on the last Sunday of every month*.

LECTURES Live @ Lunch Bring your lunch and enjoy this monthly exploration of engaging topics.

First Wednesday of the month.

Noon – 1 pm Newcombe Auditorium – Free

Christmas in Old Town November 14 – January 7 10 am – 5 pm Free with admission or membership

Father Christmas December 6 – 22, Friday – Sunday 11 am – 4:30 pm Free with admission or membership Photos by donation

Helmcken House Old-Fashioned Christmas December 21 – January 5 12 – 4 pm By donation

Jim Cosgrove December 4

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 November 29, 2013 – April 6, 2014

Stalking the Wild Onion: The diversity and evolutionary history of Allium species in North America

BC Archives: On Display Rotating displays 10 am – 4 pm

Erica Wheeler January 8

Shelley Reid February 5

Towns

Friends of the BC Archives A series of Sunday talks celebrating the intersections between archives, history and our modern lives.

2 – 3:30 pm Newcombe Auditorium $5 for non-members of the Friends of the BC Archives

*Excludes December, July & August

HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES

EXHIBITIONS

January 26 February 23

John Adams February 16

Birds & Beaches, Roadtrains and ‘Roos: The scenery and wildlife of southern Australia

Vancouver Island Explorations

Words

Victoria’s Black History

IMAX FEATURES Now Playing Titans of the Ice Age Hidden Universe Space Junk Polar Express Rolling Stones at the Max Flight of the Butterflies (Ends Dec 18) Kenya: Animal Kingdom (Opening soon) Great White Shark Polar Express (Opens Dec 5) For more information please visit www.imaxvictoria.com or call 250-953-4629

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Event tickets available online or at the box office. Prices are per person and include applicable taxes.

MEMBER BENEFITS

*

Make the most of your membership with these great benefits: • Unlimited admission to galleries and exhibitions • Express entry 10% discount on • Guest museum admission (up to two per visit) • Special events, programs and services • All items at Royal Museum Shop

20% discount on • Single-feature IMAX theatre tickets • What’s inSight magazine subscription

• Exclusive Kids’ Club program for members only • 20% discount on admission to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Vancouver Art Gallery, Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, Science World, Royal Ontario Museum, Maritime Museum, Museum of Vancouver, Victoria Butterfly Gardens and H.R. MacMillan Space Centre

SHARE your MUSEUM Are you a Royal BC Museum member enjoying all of the benefits it includes? Refer someone and if they join you will receive one free guest pass! See website for details.

• Regularly-priced items at National Geographic Store • Selected items at Museum Cafe

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/assets/ ShareYourMuseum.pdf

* Some restrictions may apply.

See website for details.

Yes, I am pleased to support the important work of the Royal BC Museum

Cut along dotted line

Admission fees and membership cover only 21% of the cost of caring for and sharing our collection.

Please consider making a donation to help us continue our important work.

Single Gift

Please send my charitable tax receipt to: (Please complete in block capitals)

 $25  $50  $100  $250  $500 $ _________ Other

Mr/Mrs/Ms Name: ________________________________________________________

 My cheque is made payable to Royal BC Museum Foundation, charitable registration number #118933241RR0001

Address: ______________________________________________________

Please charge my  Visa  MasterCard  American Express

City: ___________________________ Postal Code: ____________________

Card number: ________________________________________________

Telephone: ______________________ Email: _________________________

Name on card: _______________________________________________

Name for Donor Recognition Purposes: _____________________________

Expiry date: _____ / _____ Signature: ____________________________

Monthly Gift*

Thank you for supporting the Royal BC Museum.

Please return this form, along with your donation:

On the:  1st or  15th of each month, I would like to give:

The Royal BC Museum Foundation 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC V8W 9W2

 $10  $25  $50 $ _________ Other

By Credit Card  Visa  MasterCard  American Express Card number: ________________________________________________ Name on card: _______________________________________________ Expiry date: _____ / _____ Signature: ____________________________ All gifts are tax-deductible donations. * You may cancel or change your donation at any time by calling 250-387-7222.

Royal BC Museum Foundation Privacy Policy

Other Ways to Give, please contact me about:  Legacy Giving.  Gift of Publicly Listed Securities.  Making a gift in honour of a friend or family member to mark a special occasion or as a tribute.  I am a Provincial Employee and would like to make a gift through the Provincial Employee Community Services Fund (PECSF).

For more information please Phone: 250-387-7222 Email: donate@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca Web: www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/support

The personal information collected on this form is collected under the legal authority of the Societies Act (RSBC 1996, C. 433) and is subject to the personal Information Protection Act (SBC 2003, C. 63). The personal information collected will be used to update/maintain our donor list, issue tax receipts and publicly recognize your donation. Personal information collected will be shared with the Royal BC Museum to provide you with up to date information on current events/exhibitions.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/join * Some restrictions apply. This offer applies to in-person purchases made from December 1 – 31, 2013, only. It may not be applied to online purchases or to previously purchased memberships. The 50% discount will be applied to membership of equal or lesser value. Full contact information is required for gift membership at the time of purchase.

Not valid on gift card purchases. Not valid with any other offer.