What's inSight 2015 Fall

Fall 2015

NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH ROUND UP CANADIAN WOMEN AT WAR 1914–1918 GILDED PLEASURE A TRIP TO COLOMBIA

$3.95

MANAGING EDITOR Jennifer Vanderzee Marketing & Sales Manager MAGAZINE COORDINATOR Kathryn Swanson Membership & Marketing Coordinator EMBERSHIP M EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

FALL 2015 FEATURE Gilded Pleasure: A Trip to Colombia

2

Striking Gold at the Royal BC Museum Gala

5

First Annual Director’s Tour

6

FEATURE Natural History: Research Round Up

8

12

Our Economic and Social Impact 14

Kyle Wells Communications Specialist

FEATURE Canadian Women at War 1914–1918 16

Gerry Truscott Publisher

A CLOSER LOOK Living Treasure: The Likely Potato 18

Jenny McCleery Graphic Designer

This Week in History 19 Roam with the Giants 20

Shane Lighter Photographer

STAFF PROFILE Melissa Sands 21

Curious: A Connection Through Time 23

12

What’s inSight is an electronic magazine released four times annually, in March, June, September and December, by the Royal BC Museum.

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.

FEATURE Internship at the Royal BC Museum 24 STAFF PROFILE Michael Barnes 26

ONE MORE WAY TO GO GREEN

A Modest Purchase, a Big Contribution 26

Contact Kathryn Swanson to request a digital version of What’s inSight 250-387-3287 membership@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

PARTNER PROFILE Helijet 27 What’s On Calendar 28

Cover Image Vertebrate Zoology Curator, Gavin Hanke, removes a rib from a Grey Whale that washed ashore on Wikaninnish Beach, April 20, 2015. The entire skeleton will be stored at the Royal BC Museum for scientific research.

David Alexander Head of New Archives & Digital Preservation Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Officer

Royal BC Museum Outreach 12

GOING DIGITAL Royal BC Museum Launch 22 New Archival Database

Erika Stenson Head of Marketing & Business Development

24

Dear Friends, Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2015 – which is hoped to deliver a universal, legally binding climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol – the Royal BC Museum is considering how it too can play a part in the conference agenda and complement the actions of others. This is an opportunity to provide input on the political and policy front on climate change by drawing on our rich collections and world-class research to consider various future scenarios and leverage positive action to address climate change. These are all knotty issues, but with our systematic approach to specimen analyses over the long term, we can merge the old world and the new, target research for the food, water and timber industries, and support an understanding of the vulnerability of coastal areas. There are lessons here to be drawn from past extinctions and climate crises that our collections can reveal and illustrate. And there is no danger of running out of examples.

Professor Jack Lohman presents at the 39th Annual BC Elders Gathering at the Royal BC Museum.

In the face of human-driven environmental transformation, ongoing research and a constant rethinking of our collections and displays is imperative.

Yours,

Intern Rafaela Mendes learns about Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents in the Invertebrate Zoology Collection at the Royal BC Museum.

Professor Jack Lohman, CBE Chief Executive Officer, Royal BC Museum

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 1

Gilded Pleasure: A Trip to Colombia

1 Overlooking Bogotá from Cerro de Monserrate.

2 A view across the mountain tops.

3 Candelaria district.

4 A white-bellied woodstar hummingbird sipping nectar from a red hot poker flower.

By Kasey Lee, Conservation Manager

A

new golden link has been forged between North and South America.

The Royal BC Museum and the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia, have joined forces to share their collections for the benefit of Canadians and Colombians through two brilliant new exhibitions.

1

2

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

When you visit the Allure of Gold gallery in our Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, you will see 137 golden artifacts the Museo del Oro entrusted to the Royal BC Museum. But how does one transport these cultural and monetary treasures from one continent to another?

That’s where I came in. I was fortunate to

act as a courier for this collection, along with two officials from the Banco de la República de Colombia. And so my South American adventure began.

I arrived in Colombia after a dull, cloudy trip across Canada, followed by a very scenic flight south over the US and Caribbean, during which I was able to

identify Cuba and Jamaica and dream about the beaches below. Surprisingly, Colombia is almost directly south of Toronto, even though it is on the Pacific Coast of South America.

Other interesting facts about Colombia: it has both a Pacific and Atlantic coastline; it lies directly on the equator and therefore experiences no seasons; the sun rises and sets at the same time all year around; it includes geographic regions of hot sandy beaches, cool and incredibly high Andean plateaus and steamy Amazonian jungle. The capital city of Bogotá is situated on an extremely high plateau, with an average elevation of 2,640 metres, or 8,700 feet. That’s higher than the summit of Whistler

Mountain. It sits in a bowl, surrounded by peaks reaching elevations of 3,100 metres, or more than 10,000 feet.

Overlooking the city atop one of these mountains is the site of Cerro de Monserrate. From this vantage point, accessible by foot, cable car or funicular, one may take in the whole of Bogotá, a sprawling city of about eight million people.

The grey, overcast sky is typical of this area, where it may rain any day of the year, and often does. The temperature is dictated by elevation, but is usually a comfortable 15 to 18 degrees celsius.

The lush vegetation produces an abundance of flowers and fruit throughout the year – a treat for any photographer.

Museo del Oro is situated in the historic Candelaria district of Bogotá. This neighbourhood is characterized by narrow streets, Spanish colonial architecture and imaginative graffiti. There are a plethora of museums and churches, as well as tiny restaurants and inns. It is alive with street vendors, backpackers and a cacophony of car horns.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel outside of Bogotá to Lake Guatavita, source of the legend of El Dorado. This crater lake is protected now, after the ravages of centuries of gold seekers, who even carved a channel through the surrounding mountain peaks in an attempt to drain the lake for the golden riches believed to be hidden

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 3

2

3

under the surface. The lake is located at an extremely high altitude, giving the surrounding countryside a mystical look, with low clouds enveloping the terrain.

My work at the Museo del Oro involved checking the condition of all 137 golden artifacts as they were packed into cases for travel to Canada. The Colombian conservator had been thorough, documenting every scratch, abrasion and flaw under microscopic magnification.

The process of verifying her reports was tedious, yet allowed for the kind of detailed examination that results in a deep understanding of the method of manufacture and use of each and every object.

This proved to be a treat for a Canadian conservator who rarely has the opportunity to work with precious metals from such distant cultures. Even the challenge of working in Spanish did not detract from the enjoyment of the process. Once it’s condition was reported, each artifact was then recorded with a unique number and meticulously

4

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

packed between layers of tissue and custom-shaped foam into one of four black nondescript carry-on suitcases.

Bringing priceless Colombian cultural heritage to Canada was no flight of fancy.

I discovered just how serious Colombians are about the protection of their cultural treasures during the trip from the Museo del Oro to the airport in Bogotá. I found myself in a motorcade that included the black SUV I rode in with armed guards, an armoured vehicle that housed the gold and two trucks full of machine gun-toting soldiers, all surrounded by motorcycle policia with sirens and lights blaring. In fact, each airline check-in stop, security screening point, customs station and flight stopover was meticulously choreographed by the registrars at the originating and destination museums.

I felt like a dignitary, until the President of Colombia arrived at the Bogotá airport, effectively delaying our departure. I enjoyed the wide-eyed look of the first Canada Customs agent after he read my Customs Declaration form with its seven figure number. Fortunately there were no

4

major obstacles. Everything arrived intact and was shortly thereafter installed into the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition by the Colombian couriers.

But the story doesn’t end there. While the Canadian public enjoys the Royal BC Museum’s Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, preparations are underway to send Canadian treasures to the Museo del Oro in Bogotá. In 2016, Colombians will enjoy, in their own venue, an exhibition of Northwest Coast First Nations art, including masks, other wooden artworks, textiles, jewellery and even a painting, courtesy of the Royal BC Museum.

This kind of international exchange of collections is rare due to the cost, time and risk involved, but has already proven to be popular with the public and fruitful in the exchange of expertise and information that inevitably results from such collaborative efforts. The Royal BC Museum is already in the planning stages of other international partnership agreements, laying the groundwork for a first class reputation around the world.

Striking Gold at the Royal BC Museum Gala

By Shaun Cerisano, Annual Campaign Manager

O

n May 13 the Royal BC Museum hosted our second annual Francis Kermode Dinner and Gala. This year, the annual gala celebrated the opening of our newest exhibition, Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC. As a new staff member still in my first year, I’m blown away by the Royal BC Museum’s international presence, and our annual gala was no different. Co-hosted by CEO Professor Jack Lohman and His Excellency Jairo Clopatofksy-Ghisays, Consul General of Colombia in Vancouver, our annual gala welcomed guests from all over the world. Diplomats representing Colombia, China, Poland, Ecuador and Tunisia were in attendance. We had provincial ministers and MLAs on hand, along with the Speaker of the House and the former LieutenantGovernor of British Columbia.

The night itself was magical and memorable. Guests received an exclusive opportunity to view the Gold Rush! El

Royal BC Museum CEO, Professor Jack Lohman, welcoming guests to the annual gala.

Dorado in BC exhibition and were treated to authentic gold rush-themed live music when arriving at the second floor gallery.

To call our guests to dinner we used an authentic 19th-century dinner bell, which added to the gold rush theme. Once seated, guests heard passionate speeches, enjoyed an incredible Colombian-themed dinner, and were even treated to a spontaneous live rendition of the Colombian national anthem. This was all to coincide with the Allure of Gold exhibition, a collection of

pre-Hispanic gold pieces from the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia. Allure of Gold is part of our Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition and yet another example of the Royal BC Museum taking its place on the global stage.

Judging by our recent annual gala, and the global reach we have with our museum partners, we are well on our way to being recognized as a top international museum and archives.

“Our annual gala this year was a true representation of the direction of our museum,” said Lohman. “Our guest list was diverse, influential and comprised of people from all around the world. We are grateful that our annual galas continue to put emphasis on the Royal British Columbia Museum being a truly international institution.”

Gala guests tour the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition on opening night.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 5

First Annual Director’s Tour

By Jonathan Dallison, Major Gifts Manager

1

A

gainst a backdrop of impossibly vibrant cathedral domes and Baroque, Classical, and post-Revolutionary architecture all criss-crossed by canals and lit by a midnight sun, the history of St Petersburg came alive. The Francis Kermode Group’s first Annual Director’s Tour took patrons to Russia this past June for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see one of the world’s great cultural centres. Our guests enjoyed local cuisine in internationally-renowned restaurants, watched a ballet performance at the world-famous Mikhailovsky Theatre,

6

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

crossed the Gulf of Finland by hydrofoil, and enjoyed shopping and sightseeing on Nevskiy Prospekt. Led by Professor Jack Lohman, our Chief Executive Officer, our patrons were afforded exclusive access to the unparalleled State Hermitage Museum (formerly the Winter Palace of the Tsars) on a day when it was closed to the public.

They were taken on a private curator’s tour that included the Romanov jewels, paintings of the Dutch Masters, beautiful sculptures and Orthodox iconography, the throne room (where the sale of Alaska was announced), and a chance to see the

famous, 18th-century “Peacock Clock” in operation – another rare treat not even most Russians get to see.

The group learned directly from the Hermitage’s expert staff, and also enjoyed an exclusive tour of the cutting-edge collections centre at Staraya Derevnya.

This storage facility is the equivalent of a small city and is every museum lover’s dream. There, our patrons saw an almost unbelievable range of treasures that included thrones, galleries full of Impressionist paintings stolen by the Nazis and repatriated by the Russians, diplomatic

gifts (including a huge Turkish tent that hadn’t been opened and set up since the 1700s because Catherine the Great so disliked it), and the Romanov carriages. The private tours also extended to the summer palaces, including Peterhof, where the English-and-French-inspired gardens rival any in Europe. In Pushkin, once the home of Russia’s most famous poet, the birch tree forests and country estates led to the Catherine Palace, which continues to be restored following heavy damage sustained during World War II. A unique tour of the Russian Museum of Ethnography followed, where the group explored a collection from Russia’s Far East (the area closest to British Columbia),

2

as well as a tour of the Moika Palace of the House of Yusupov – a family reputedly richer even than the Tsars. It was there that Rasputin was bunglingly and famously murdered. The final resting place of the Tsars at the Peter and Paul Fortress is fittingly ornate. There, the group saw famous names from history populate the cathedral, including Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. In a chapel just outside is Nicholas II (not included with the others as he was not, technically, a Tsar at the time of his death) and, despite the legends to the contrary, his daughter Anastasia. The group also enjoyed an exclusive dinner cruise and was taken around on private tours by local experts the Royal BC Museum arranged.

In terms of international relations, we are living at a time when cross-cultural understanding is more critical than ever.

It is part of our role to connect globally, to enhance our understanding of ourselves in relation to the world at large. Please consider joining us next year for the second Annual Director’s Tour of the Francis Kermode Group. Watch for details on our next exclusive, unique and richly rewarding experience in 2016.

For more information on the Francis Kermode Group, please contact Jonathan Dallison, Major Gifts Manager at 250-413-7756 or jdallison@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

3

Photos courtesy of Robert Kaszanits, President of the State Hermitage Museum Foundation of Canada and Professor Jack Lohman.

1 Francis Kermode Group members enjoyed a private tour of the State Hermitage Museum. Here they view a sculpture by Michaelangelo.

2 Dr Mikhail Piotovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, met with Professor Jack Lohman to explore future collaboration with the Royal BC Museum.

3 The Catherine Palace in Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo).

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 7

NATURAL HISTORY

Research Round Up ENDEAVOUR HYDROTHERMAL VENTS DONATION The Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents Marine Protected Area represents one of the extreme deep sea environments we have here off our gorgeous BC coastline.

Part of the Juan de Fuca Ridge system, Endeavour is 250 kilometers southwest of Vancouver Island and 2,250 metres below the ocean’s surface. The ridge is an active seafloor spreading zone where tectonic plates diverge and cold sea water interacts with the underlying lava to produce buoyant plumes of superheated, particle-rich fluid. These buoyant plumes

are known as hydrothermal vents and can reach temperatures of up to 300 degrees celsius. What’s amazing about these extreme environments is that they are host to a unique group of marine organisms. At hydrothermal vents, researchers have discovered there are whole ecosystems built on chemosynthesis (converting chemicals to energy) instead of photosynthesis (converting sunlight to energy).

Dr Verena Tunnicliffe, from the University

of Victoria (UVic), led a joint expedition in 1983 that documented the first discovery of hydrothermal vents off the west coast of Canada. Recently, Dr Tunnicliffe donated a collection of specimens collected during her career from the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents. This summer, intern Rafaela Mendes, from the UVic Biology Co-op Program, will learn about these unique ecosystems and the organisms they support as she adds this collection to the Invertebrate Zoology Collection at the Royal BC Museum.

Grey Whale at Wikaninnish Beach.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY The first half of 2015 has been eventful.

On April 20, a 10 metre Grey Whale washed ashore at Wikaninnish Beach, in Pacific Rim National Park.

Collecting the whale took a small army of people from Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Cetacea Contracting, Ltd., Strawberry Isle Marine Research, the Royal BC Museum and many 8

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

volunteers from the nearby communities of Ucluelet and Tofino.

We met on April 23 at about 8:30 am, and by 4:30 pm the whale had been reduced to skeletal remains and blubber, and the muscles and internal organs were dumped offshore to be recycled by nature. With limited time on the beach due to flooding tides and scavengers, the

whale’s skeletal remains were buried to allow any remaining meat to rot. Once this process has completed, the bones will be degreased and transported to the Royal BC Museum for permanent storage.

The Royal BC Museum houses thousands of Natural History specimens, and this new whale is one of the many additions to our collection that will be available to researchers worldwide.

1 1 Giant Green Anemones (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) and Purple Seastars (Pisaster ochraceus) are just two of the many colourful invertebrates that live along these shores.

2 Dr Melissa Frey (Royal BC Museum) and Tammy Norgard (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) collecting invertebrates along the North Coast of BC, May 2015.

INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY In May 2015, Royal BC Museum biologists boarded a Canadian Coast Guard research vessel set to sail along the remote shores of British Columbia.

For two weeks, Dr Melissa Frey, Heidi Gartner and Dr Gavin Hanke worked in partnership with colleagues from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, combing the remote seascapes of BC in search of living treasures. Over a thousand specimens – both “squishy” and “fishy” – were sampled and deposited into the Invertebrate Zoology and Ichthyology collections at the Royal BC Museum.

Associated tissue samples from these collections were submitted to the Barcode of Life initiative in Guelph, Ontario. Barcoding is a relatively new process to identify species that uses a barcode, or a very short genetic sequence from a standard part of the genome, the way a supermarket scanner distinguishes products using the black stripes of the Universal Product Code (UPC). The expectation is that resulting genetic data will help improve our knowledge of marine biological diversity in BC. Although researchers have estimated that the marine waters of BC are home to approximately 5,000 species of invertebrate and fish, the exact number remains unknown. Recent Royal BC Museum discoveries, such as a new species of clam and new records of fishes, suggest that we have much more to learn about what lives along this extensive coastline. Field expeditions and collections, such as these, are essential to new discoveries, and a better understanding of our ocean.

2

IMAGING THE TYPE COLLECTION Type specimens are the representative organisms researchers designate when they describe a new species (or any level of taxon) to science. They are donated to institutions with permanent collections where they can be accessed in perpetuity by future researchers.

These type specimens are irreplaceable to science and form the most valuable part of Natural History collections. In 2014 the Invertebrate Curator, Dr Melissa Frey, and the Invertebrate Collection Manager, Heidi Gartner, began the task of researching, updating the digital records, and curating the Invertebrate Type Collection. During the process it was recognized that imaging the Type Collection would be a valuable asset for the Royal BC Museum, to increase collection care and conservation by

minimizing future handling of the collection, while also creating a unique and innovative Royal BC Museum experience by sharing this collection online. In partnership with our colleagues in New Archives & Digital Preservation, we recently began the process of taking high resolution, scientifically accurate images of the Invertebrate Type Collections. This project will be on-going as there are over 300 type specimens in our collection.

Shell and aperture of a Paratype specimen of Neptunea stilesi.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 9

BOTANY The Vascular Flora of British Columbia!

Flowering plants, ferns and conifers are known as vascular plants; they have specialized cells that conduct water, minerals and nutrients to their tissues. We’re working toward providing professional botanists and interested members of the public with the most current and accurate information about the taxonomy, identification and geographic distribution of the vascular plants of British Columbia. This effort was initiated in the fall of 2013 when botanists from the provincial government, academia and the botanical consulting community met and agreed to work together. The Vascular Flora of British Columbia will replace the current standard for the province, the eight volume Illustrated Flora of British Columbia which is increasingly out-ofdate. The botany collections at the Royal BC Museum and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum will provide the baseline

information for species descriptions and distributions.

The primary author of the Vascular Flora of British Columbia is Jamie Fenneman, a PhD student in the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia.

Jamie writes draft taxonomic treatments including species descriptions and identification keys and sends them to Drs Ken Marr and Erica Wheeler at the Royal BC Museum. His species descriptions are checked for accuracy and improved based on Royal BC Museum specimens.

Inevitably it is discovered that some specimens have been misidentified in the past. These are corrected on the specimen labels and in the computer database, improving the quality and value of the Royal BC Museum collection over time. We’ll be working on this important project for many years to come so stay tuned for updates and developments!

Specimens of vascular plant species such as Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) will be reviewed by botanists at the Royal BC Museum and annotated to indicate that they were examined for the Vascular Flora of British Columbia.

ENTOMOLOGY Almost a million insect species have been named, but estimates of how many more are out there waiting to be discovered and described range as high as 30 million.

To give you some perspective, there are fewer than 5,500 mammal species and about 10,000 birds.

One of several reasons proposed for the immense diversity of insects is their small size, allowing them to live in specialized niches. And to really appreciate these new species waiting to be discovered, we need to think in even smaller terms than we normally do. Forget grasshoppers and butterflies – think small. Forget ants and lady beetles – smaller still. Think of a no-see-um – now you are in the range.

1 mm The new critical point dryer enables Entomology Collection Manager Claudia Copley to properly prepare micro-insects such as this tiny wasp.

10

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

When people see how small some of these specimens appear in the insect collection, they immediately assume that they are baby insects. But in entomology, in many cases, we have no idea what

PALEONTOLOGY the larva of even familiar species of insects look like or where they live. Just remember this general rule: once an insect has wings it is a fully grown adult.

This world of tiny is every bit as complicated and beautiful as dragonflies and butterflies, but these micro-insects often require special efforts to prepare them for study. Many tiny insect specimens are so delicate that if they were removed directly from the fluid they are stored in (ethanol) and allowed to air-dry, surface tension would cause them to crumple, deforming the features needed to identify them. This is where our new critical point dryer machine comes into action. This new automated machine replaced our “classic” manual model, which gave up last year after two decades of use. The new machine allows our entomology collection manager to set it and forget it, freeing up her time for other work in the lab.

But what does it actually do? Instead of air-drying micro-specimens, they go into the machine in the ethanol, and the machine replaces the ethanol with liquid carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide samples are then taken to what is known as the critical point: when the density of the liquid and gas phases of the sample are in equilibrium. After that point the carbon dioxide gas is removed from the samples and voilà, perfection.

The intricacies and beauty of these species can only really be appreciated through a microscope, which exposes a miniature world of metallic colours, micro-textures and elaborate antennae.

It is through these up-close views that there is still a whole world to discover.

Truck tires, sewer pipes, and flying saucers. These are the nicknames given to some of the most common fossil ammonite specimens found on Vancouver Island and provided by a group of avid collectors – each with their own approach to fossil hunting.

One anonymous collector in particular remembers his trips as real-life treasure hunts. Every outing is a rewarding experience, from the glory of a big ammonite find to reminiscence of a very first trip, or even sometimes walking away empty-handed. It is a passionate pastime that combines spending time outdoors with a love for adventure and the unknown as a way to understand some of the mysteries on Earth.

After four decades of fossil hunting, the size of his collection increased enormously to well over 20,000 fossil rock matrices. These were stored in a very limited space at his home. While he wasn’t quite ready to stop collecting, he could not imagine leaving the entire collection for his family to sort out.

He knew it was the right time for it to be shared with other fossil-philes. In 2008, he had a conversation with Joan Kerik – the former Royal BC Museum paleontology collections manager – and expressed his concern for such a large undertaking. As it turned out, it was a golden opportunity for both parties. It became the largest and most comprehensive ammonite fossil collection ever assembled by a private collector in BC and Canada. It was recognized for its significance by Heritage Canada.

The current collections manager, Marji Johns, says it is a unique collection based on the number of new and rare species, the diversity and number of specimens, which allow appropriate statistical and evolutionary studies, and

the completeness of the collection. It represents many sites from Nanaimo Group rocks on eastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, and thereby allows relevant geological analyses and comparisons to other collections and sites. It is truly a research treasure-trove for British Columbia, Canada, and the world!

Reflecting on the welcome the donor received from the museum and archives, he speaks in awe of the people who took on his collection, “I still find it peculiar that staff, researchers, and others are so enthusiastic about the fossils I found. I keep saying to myself – is there something wrong with these people?

They are as excited as I am about them!”

The work of cataloguing and preparing these fossil specimens has kept the paleontology collections buzzing with activity since 2008. Currently, his collection is being processed by volunteers and staff, including students interested in paleontological studies. The extensiveness of this collection and the many discovered species have elevated the Royal BC Museum’s fossil collections to new levels of research, education, and scientific leadership in Canada and abroad.

Article generously contributed by Selina Pieczonka, Royal BC Museum volunteer.

Hauericeras gardeni is a very compressed ammonite and has the nick-name “flying saucer”. It is about 80 million years old and was found by the donor on Vancouver Island.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 11

Royal BC Museum Outreach INTERNATIONAL Gold Mountain Dream!

Bravely Venture into the Fraser River Valley

金山梦!勇闯菲沙河谷 To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the twinning of the sister provinces of British Columbia and Guangdong, and the 30th anniversary of the twinning of the sister cities of Vancouver and Guangzhou, the Royal BC Museum will present a travelling exhibition, 金山梦 (Gold Mountain Dream!), a condensed panel version of the 2015 exhibition Gold Rush!

El Dorado in BC. It is scheduled to open at Guangdong Museum of Chinese Nationals Residing Abroad in November 2015.

This exhibition provides an overview of the 19th-century gold rushes and an in-depth look at British Columbia’s gold

rush experiences where – with their gold mountain dreams – Chinese played a significant role. The Gold Mountain Dream! exhibition represents British Columbia’s gold rush as a definitive chapter in the history of the province and its major impact in shaping today’s British Columbia, Canada and the trans-Pacific world.

The travelling exhibition will showcase 25 panels with images of rare Chinese Canadian artifacts. This exhibition reveals the origin of the long-term historical and cultural connections between China and Canada, and between the sister provinces of Guangdong and British

Chinese miner Ah Bau who gave his name to a lake, creek and railway station in the Cariboo.

Date unknown.

Columbia. It will promote a cross-cultural understanding of the importance and impact of 19th-century gold rushes and Chinese participation in reshaping the trans-Pacific world.

LOCAL Garbage Showdown

Field Trippers Walking Tours

Royal BC Museum staff joined local businesses for the Annual Garbage Showdown and spent the lunch hour picking up garbage in Beacon Hill Park.

Field Trippers was a series of six walks that took place over six months to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the first nature walks led by Royal BC Museum staff. Participants joined Royal

Royal BC Museum staff cleaning up Beacon Hill Park at the Annual Garbage showdown.

Field Trippers exploring nature with Royal BC Museum staff: Dr Melissa Frey, Curator, Invertebrate Zoology and Dr Gavin Hanke, Curator, Vertebrate Zoology.

12

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

BC Museum Natural History curators and collection managers, as well as community partners, and experienced the wild and wondrous natural history curiosities of Greater Victoria.

PROVINCIAL Species at Risk Travelling Exhibition

I

n partnership with schools, community centres and museums throughout the province, Species at Risk delivers a series of innovative programs supported by a small panel exhibition, digital interactives and a ‘teaser exhibition’, all contained within an inventively customized trailer. The trailer is accompanied by two interpreters, one from the Royal BC Museum and one from The Robert Bateman Centre, to help visitors discover and interpret the content.

Learn more about this exhibition at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/speciesatrisk

Using the inventively designed mini-museum, Royal BC Museum interpreter Rachelle Linde explores the bone structure of the Vancouver Island Marmot with students from Fort Rupert School in Port Hardy.

Powered by Supported by John and Joan Walton Innovators Fund Quality Foods The Robert Bateman Centre

Royal BC Museum and Barkerville Historical Town & Park Sign Memorandum of Understanding One of the keys to becoming an influential cultural institution is developing great partnerships.

On May 12, 2015, the eve of the opening of the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, the Royal BC Museum signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barkerville Historic Town & Park.

The MOU was signed by Royal BC Museum CEO Professor Jack Lohman and Barkerville Historic Town & Park CEO Ed Coleman, overseen by the former Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, the Honourable Coralee Oakes.

This three-year MOU came about through a mutual desire to strengthen and enhance the friendly relations between the two cultural institutions and to promote cooperation.

Among the many treasures and artifacts on display are two quintessential objects from Barkerville Historic Town & Park: Billy Barker’s pocket watch and poke containing 37 gold nuggets.

As a part of the understanding, we have agreed to develop a program of exchanges and have endeavoured to work together on cultural and educational opportunities.

The Royal BC Museum is looking forward to continued collaboration with Barkerville Town & Park, along with all of our other valued partners.

The fruits of this collaboration can already be seen in Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC.

Ed Coleman, Barkerville Historic Town & Park CEO, Professor Jack Lohman, Royal BC Museum CEO, Honourable Teresa Wat Minister for International Trade and Minister Responsible for the Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism, Honourable Coralee Oakes, former Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and John Massier, Barkerville Heritage Trust, Chair.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 13

Our Economic and Social Impact

536 active volunteers (over 38,000 volunteer hours)

April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015

801 full-time equivalent jobs created in the province linked to special exhibitions

650,000 25

visitors annually

archives researchers and students

online visitors

Our Community

35,000 school children in formal groups

123

Royal BC Museum staff

2,000,000

academic partnerships

3,838

Employment

300,000

16,000 members

IMAX visitors annually

10,000 three-day

free admissions on Family Day

annual aboriginal cultural festival

50

$9.3m

in tax revenues resulting from visitation

Giving Back

community events

14

What’s inSight

2,000

250

free admissions provided to charities for fundraising

books provided to charitable organizations

Fall 2015

Economic Impact

3

84 staff employed by on-site partners

7

partners with permanent offices on-site

2 hectares of Royal BC Museum precinct

research labs on-site

229,209 documents and images digitized last year

Our Precinct

Our Contribution The Royal BC Museum and Archives, our staff, on-site partners and volunteers have an impact on the economy and lives of the people of Victoria, the region and the province.

Our initiatives support all levels of government, the local and provincial tourism industry, international relations and education for peoples of all ages and stages of academia. We generate significant spending power within the province.

32 km 3,457

records in the BC Archives if they were filed end-to-end

audio video collections digitized last year

Our mission to take a leadership role in research and scholarship, develop world-class collections, and deliver innovative partnerships and programming, supports the city and communities around British Columbia.

Helmcken House

28,979 m2 of building area on the precinct

$45.1m incremental GDP generated annually

$3.8m in government tax revenues resulting from museum expenditures

St Ann’s Schoolhouse Thunderbird Park

Our Visitor Attractions

more than

830

2 floors of permanent exhibition space

IMAX Theatre

programs, tours and events presented last year

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 15

Canadian Women at War 1914–1918

By Dr Lorne Hammond, Curator of History

A

mourning Mother Canada looks out on the fields from the Vimy Monument, the tragic symbol of the cost of World War I on so many families. At home, women worked in industry, food production, education and training, and for the Red Cross. War also brought the vote for most, but not all, British Columbian women in 1917. Less well known is the story of British Columbian women who went overseas and served, and in some cases were wounded or killed in the theatre of war.

More than 2,500 Canadian nurses served overseas during the war. Most were young graduates but there were also experienced senior volunteers.

On August 21, 1915, 72 women marched down Government Street in the uniform of the Canadian Army Medical Corps.

These young nurses were graduates of programs at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, St Joseph’s Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital and St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Some volunteers came from hospitals as far away as Winnipeg.

Already professional nurses, they then went through military training at Macauley Point camp in Victoria, where they learned how to march and to treat injuries specific to war. Each held the rank of Lieutenant, to give them official rank above wounded soldiers.

Travel overseas was not without risk.

One BC nurse died in the sinking of the Lusitania. From 1914 to 1918 dozens of ships carrying Red Cross supplies, wounded soldiers or floating hospitals were sunk. Fourteen Canadian nurses

16

What’s inSight

Summer 2015

died when the hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed in 1917. Other nurses died at the front, in air raids or during the shelling of field hospitals, and some were gassed. They too are found in war graves in England, France, Salonika, Cairo and South Africa. Our Royal BC Museum and Archives collections keep their memories alive.

For every nurse who lost her life, many others were wounded. One such nurse was Gladys Muriel Carvolth, whose uniform we have. Gladys was 31 when she signed up in Esquimalt to join the No. 5 “Overseas” General Hospital in July 1915. She made arrangements to send her pay to her mother in Chilliwack and left for the war. She became an official casualty two years later with bronchial pneumonia in both lungs. After convalescing in England she returned to serve in the No. 5 Canadian Field Hospital in Salonika, Greece. Her health problems returned and she spent part of 1919 in a veterans’ ward in British Columbia.

Gladys married George Stewart in June of 1919, was demobilized that November and died in Saanich at the age of 93.

Ellanore Jane Parker was one of the first nurses injured by gas, inhaling it while treating soldiers during a poison gas attack. Her injuries were permanent. For the rest of her life she was confined to bed as an invalid. She made a living as a writer of novels and wrote a column for the Los Angeles Times. Until her death she was cared for by a nurse she met in France, Murney May Pugh. Murney, one of five members of her family who served, typed up her drafts and cared for her until

her death. In 1965 Murney sent Provincial Archivist Willard Ireland a small yellow trunk containing both nurses’ uniforms, Ellanore’s drafts, letters and a scrapbook of photographs of a nurse’s life in the field hospitals. Today, because of her gift of memories, we can share those images with you.

There are other echoes of these nurses’ lives in our collections. We have an artillery shell made into a trophy for the Nursing Sisters Foot Race at Salonika.

That field hospital was paid for by British Columbian donations and staffed by BC nurses. We have a Christmas note to them from Premier Richard McBride, whose own sister served there, tending wounded from as far away as Gallipoli.

These are just a few of the 2,500 Canadian women who served who we remember today through our collections.

If you would like to read more of their stories I highly recommend Maureen Duffus’ book Battlefront Nurses in World War I. 1

2 1 F irst Prize Trophy (former artillery shell) for the Nursing Sisters Foot Race, Salonika, 1917.

2 On the wards.

3 The “after the nightshift.” repose.

4 A home under canvas. Sister Pugh and Sister Parker.

5 N ursing Sister Lieutenant Murney May Pugh’s uniform. The belt has the names of each hospital where she worked.

5

3

4

17

A CLOSER LOOK

Living Treasure: The Likely Potato

By Dr Richard Hebda, Curator Botany and Earth History

eople bring all sorts of treasures to the Royal BC Museum.

P

could have remarkable value in breeding potatoes for the north.

In April 2012, Jim Gibson and Wendy Tuerlings of Likely, BC brought a container of peculiar sprouting potatoes with a Gold Rush story. With information from Jim, Wendy and other sources we pieced together this remarkable story.

I have grown and distributed these living treasures as part of a cross-Canada CropClimate study (heritagepotato.ca). I sent tubers to the Potato Research Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where they will be cleaned of virus, multiplied and

made available for breeding and further trials. I have had other reports and received a bag of tubers from the interior of what is probably the same variety. The gold rush may have brought us more than shiny metal and tall tales; it may have brought us a source of food for the future.

Captain Norman Evans-Atkinson, an English adventurer, was drawn to the shores of Quesnel Lake in 1921 by lingering accounts of the gold rush.

Near the abandoned town of Cedar City, trappers treated him to some “Russian” potatoes that resembled short fat fingers.

The trappers had collected the spuds from the wild along the lakeshore.

Evans-Atkinson dug up more potatoes from the wild and passed them around, including to Mr Morrison, a local cabin owner, whose grandson gave them to Jim and Wendy. In a 1978 BC Outdoors Magazine article Evans-Atkinson claimed, “They’ll grow anywhere, even in gravel. … They taste just like regular potatoes but they contain a lot of vitamins and when bears raid my potato patch they always eat the Russian ones first.” He concluded that the potatoes had long before been given to First Nations by Russian traders and found their way into the BC interior, perhaps during the 1860s gold rush.

The potatoes persisted until about 30 to 40 years ago in a large wild field about a mile from Likely. They must have survived in the ground during bitter winters, an unusual trick for potato tubers which normally perish with frost. If so, they

18

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

The Likely Potato which grew wild along the shore of Quesnel Lake in 1921.

This Week in History

By Kyle Wells, Communications Specialist

T

he Royal BC Museum and CHEK News are excited to be partnering again on the fourth season of the popular This Week in History series. Each week the show combs through the collections and knowledge of the Royal BC Museum and Archives to bring you insightful and entertaining tales of BC’s history.

New host Vee Cooper will take viewers behind-the-scenes at the Royal BC Museum to talk to experts, discover fascinating artifacts and reveal the stories that make a province. New episodes will explore the history of Grey Whales in BC, fossil hunting during the gold rush, edible plants, nurses in the First World War, Victoria’s Chinese New Year, mammoths and so much more.

Starting in the first week of September, brand new episodes of This Week in History will be premiering on CHEK News on Saturdays at 5:00 pm. The episodes will also be repeated on CHEK News on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm, and will also be available online.

New episodes of This Week in History will air once per week through until the first week of March. See episodes from the first three seasons by visiting royalbcmuseum. bc.ca/rbcm-channel/this-week-in-history/

A behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the fourth season of This Week in History, which will begin airing this September on CHEK TV.

Find your 2015-16 Program Guide online today!

Full of activities, exhibitions and special events for visitors of all ages.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/programguide royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

19

Roam with the Giants

By Kyle Wells, Communications Specialist

A mammoth skull that will be featured in the summer 2016 exhibition, Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age.

M

illions of years ago, giants roamed the earth. Sometimes standing more than 14 feet tall, mammoths and mastodons towered over the lands of Europe, Asia and North America from 1.8 million years ago to as recently as 10,000 years ago, during the Ice Age. And now they’re coming to the Royal BC Museum.

In June 2016, the Royal BC Museum will present the rare opportunity to see the larger-than-life exhibition, Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age, in partnership with The Field Museum in Chicago; this engaging

20

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

and interactive look at these magnificent creatures will transport visitors to a time when giants walked among us and humans struggled to survive in a world they had yet to conquer.

As visitors explore the exhibition they will discover the Proboscidean family tree – from woollies to mastodons to dwarves to modern-day elephants – immersed in a richly animated Ice Age panorama. The exhibition explores how mammoths lived and how early humans interacted with them, investigates how this incredible species died out, and whether it’s possible to clone them today.

Studies of ancient cave drawings give evidence of how early humans both hunted and honoured these massive creatures.

And visitors will have the opportunity to touch mammoth tusks and mastodon teeth, adding a level of interactivity. The mammoth story also stretches beyond these colossal creatures and takes a look at some of their fierce neighbours, such as dire wolves and saber-toothed cats.

Walk among these larger than life creatures with Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age in 2016 at the Royal BC Museum.

As always, this exhibition is included with admission or membership.

STAFF PROFILE

Melissa Sands

By Erik Lambertson, Corporate Communications Officer

T

he Royal BC Museum is very pleased to welcome a new member to its executive team: Melissa Sands, who joins us as the Executive Financial Officer.

Ms Sands has spent 25 years working with numbers to identify opportunities to make organizations more successful through the development of better financial and management systems. She holds a BA in Economics and an MBA. She is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Financial Planner.

Melissa is excited to join the Royal BC Museum where there is always something new and exciting to learn.

As Executive Financial Officer, Melissa leads and directs all aspects of financial

management in support of the vision, mission, values and goals of the museum and archives. She provides strategic advice in relation to financial planning, budgeting and forecasting, management of the Royal BC Museum’s financial resources and strategies for the Royal BC Museum’s capital investments.

She is the key point of contact with the Board of Directors with regard to financial and funding arrangements, and reports on financial performance and management issues to the Board of Directors, CEO and Executive, Treasury Board and other stakeholders.

from a four year adventure in Singapore where she was Director of Finance and Operations for a large retail company. Prior roles include Chief Financial Officer with a Victoria business, Principal Associate with an investment firm and Accountant with Price Waterhouse. She brings significant leadership experience and a proven track record of success in achieving measureable outcomes.

Learn more about Royal BC museum staff members at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/about/ people

Melissa and her husband recently returned

E X HIBI T ION ON DEC 4, 2015 – APR I L 4, 2016 Showcasing the world’s best images

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.

Purchase tickets at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/wpty royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 21

GOING DIGITAL

Royal BC Museum Launches New Archival Database

By Meagan Sugrue, Web & E-Commerce Specialist

H

ave you ever wondered what treasures the BC Archives hold? Did you know that the records in the archives would stretch 32 kilometers if filed end-to-end?

The archives help tell BC’s story through personal letters, photos, art, music, newspapers and film.

With a strong emphasis on the province’s social and political history, these records help us better understand our past, our present and our future. Take the Gold Rush!

El Dorado in BC exhibition for example: community petitions, photographs of mining sites and handwritten diary entries all help paint a richer picture of life in BC during the gold rush era.

The Royal BC Museum and Archives is an open institution; its mandate is to collect, preserve and share BC’s stories. While many researchers still utilize the Royal BC Museum’s physical archives, the need for digital access is increasing every day. In fact, virtual visits to the archives’ online search tool already exceed on-site visits by approximately 500 times. By increasing digital access to archival information, the museum and archives offers greater public access while protecting its historical records for future generations.

Offering this type of unfiltered, largescale access is a massive undertaking – and making improvements to the BC Archives’ popular database has been an ambitious process, but one with long-term advantages for Royal BC Museum and Archives staff and users alike.

22

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

Interior view of part of the BC Archives in Victoria, ca. 1925.

In August, the museum and archives marked a major milestone with the launch of a new archival database, BC Archives Collection Search. This is an innovative, web-based application created exclusively for archival description. The Collection Search is a resource that allows unprecedented access to the archival collection, including thousands of new records.

The updated, friendlier interface allows the public to browse or search archival descriptions and authority records (information about corporate bodies, people or families) like never before.

Because the BC Archives Collection Search is a relational database, the relationship between records is highlighted, encouraging dynamic exploration.

Additionally, it will allow archivists to update and add records more efficiently

and regularly, a huge benefit for Royal BC Museum and Archives users.

This new software was built by Artefactual, a BC firm that was also commissioned by the International Council of Archives, a close partner of UNESCO – a ringing endorsement by two global heritage authorities. AtoM, which stands for Access to Memory, is a standards based system, ensuring the best practices for BC archival records. Because it is open source, AtoM also promotes greater institutional collaboration and development.

Additionally, AtoM will allow archivists to upload photos and textual records, plus links to audio and video files. All these upgrades and new features bring the database in line with the Royal BC Museum’s reputation as an innovative organization that uses technology to its full advantage.

Start exploring today at search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

Curious: A Connection Through Time

By Ben Fast, Digital and Web Assistant

W

hen you visit the Royal BC Museum, you are connecting to the collective past of the province and the people who call it home. More than just objects and artifacts, the Royal BC Museum presents the province’s intangible collective memory so that visitors can make their own unique connections to the past.

In reading this latest issue of Curious it is my hope you will discover your own passion for ancestry through the work, enthusiasm and personal stories of the Royal BC Museum’s staff and our guest contributors.

Curious is available online as well as on your mobile device via iOS and Android apps.

Read the latest issue of Curious at curious.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

As our CEO, Professor Jack Lohman, suggests, “Memory … personalizes history such that any single visitor can feel that they have a connection to the matters discussed,” within the museum and archives.

In the latest issue of Curious, we explore all things to do with ‘Ancestry’, a broad overarching theme of connection through time.

More than just family trees and human history, the essence of ancestry is connection. Our contributors have rounded up another strange and wonderful menagerie of ancestral connection: family ties, immigration, genetic diversity, digital evolution and a glimpse of our Royal BC Museum forebears. The timeframes you’ll encounter span millennia, or amount to a few weeks.

You’ll find articles about new DNA technology that allows Curator of Archaeology Grant Keddie to understand the million-year genetic evolution of mammoths, and techniques used by Conservation Manager Kasey Lee to stop the spread of the quick-breeding and damaging casemaking clothes moths (Tinea pellionella). Curator of Images Don Bourdon traces his own family’s compelling story of migration from England to BC.

Cultural objects – like this Kwakwaka’wakw Sun mask that Charles F. Newcombe collected in 1913 – embody the strong connections between First Nations families and their ancestors. RBCM 1907.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 23

Manon Sauvage completes a conservation treatment on a Chinese folded paper boat by re-attaching and reinforcing loose components and constructing a storage box.

Internship at the Royal BC Museum

By Erik Lambertson, Corporate Communications Officer

O

ne of the nice surprises of the Royal BC Museum is the youthful spirit of the organization. Many departments are staffed with people in their 20s and 30s, the leadership has vigorous ambitions, and there’s a pervasive sense that doing our job right requires an acute understanding of young peoples’ behaviours and educational needs. All of this means that this mature

24

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

organization – one dedicated to the preservation of history – is in many senses vitally, keenly attuned to youth.

The presence of a whole cohort of interns every year certainly helps keep us thinking about the promise of youth, as well. This year, the Royal BC Museum is hosting interns from as close by as Victoria, and from as far away as Brazil, Japan and France.

The presence of high-calibre students, year after year, decade after decade, says something about the excellence of the professional training Royal BC Museum staff are able to provide.

Sakiko Matsuura, 31, was posted at the Royal BC Museum as a marketing and sales intern from March to June 2015.

While she interned, working alongside

Sales Coordinator Shawn Embree, she was finishing her Master of Arts degree in Tourism Management at Royal Roads University. Over the summer, she has completed her final research project.

at UBC, and liked what she saw upon first sight: it certainly helped that an image of conservationist Lisa Bengston, working on the Chinese Freemason’s Lantern, was prominently featured on the website.

She became interested in joining the Royal BC Museum after attending a tourism forum last year and meeting Marketing and Sales Manager Jenn Vanderzee. “I talked to her about my experience and about her experience,” said Sakiko. “I was interested in her role here: what she did and where she started, especially because she soon after became the Marketing and Sales manager.”

The fact that the Royal BC Museum includes the BC Archives also sold her on our merits. For a student who plans to specialize in three-dimensional paper conservation, there appeared to be many opportunities for learning here.

Before arriving in Canada for her studies, Sakiko volunteered in the marketing department in the prefectural government of Nara in Japan. Her long-term professional goal is to work in a developing country, helping build a sense of community. In this regard, she saw her experience at the Royal BC Museum as extremely helpful.

“I learned how the Royal BC Museum contributes to communities and how it promotes its products. Marketing is not just one thing. I learned a lot and hope to use some of this in my future work.”

In addition to helping the Sales and Marketing team, Sakiko also assisted the Communications department and membership coordinator. She coordinated the Royal BC Museum’s participation in an urban clean-up competition, which meant donning rubber gloves and heading into thick scrub in Beacon Hill Park on a sunny day – perhaps not an event to end up on her resume, but a valuable event in terms of promoting our organization’s core values.

Manon Sauvage, 22, is a conservation intern, working closely with Archival Conservator Betty Walsh. She is four years into a five-year-long Masters Degree program in Paris. When she began looking for an internship, she was referred to the Royal BC Museum by the Museum of Anthropology

She has been happily exploiting these opportunities. She has been expanding her knowledge of 2-D paper conservation, working on the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition and preparing Emily Carr drawings on loan to the Art Gallery of Ontario. With guidance from conservation and preservation experts Kasey Lee, Lisa Bengston, Kay Garland and George Field, Manon has also been able to work on 3-D objects, such as a Chinese paper fan featured in Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC, a Chinese lantern (made of gauze and paper) and paper-wrapped cigar boxes.

She already sees the value in her deep, tangible involvement in so many varied tasks. “Everything I’ve learned, even if not immediately related to conservation, will be valuable, and will help me in future jobs,” she said. “Everything will be helpful.”

Manon has been “deeply impressed” by the nature of the relationships between the conservation team members. “They all help as much as they can,” she said. She’s also been impressed by the teamwork across divisions when tackling big projects: “Archivists and curators are always willing to come and talk to conservators.”

Ben Fast, 24, a digital and web assistant, is another intern who’s talking to many different departments. As guest editor of Curious, he has solicited ideas about curiosity and exploration from across the Royal BC Museum for the next edition (see

page 23). Unlike Manon or Sakiko, Ben had little trouble with flight connections on his way to his internship – he was born and raised in Victoria, BC. He’s already worked at many other cultural sites in the region, including Craigdarroch Castle, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites, but (ahem) calls the Royal BC Museum “the highlight of Victoria.”

Ben had a sense of the museum and archives’ workplace culture after volunteering for a Night Shift event and the Creative Collections Workshop, both organized by the Learning department. “I already knew about some of the prevailing ideas and where the Royal BC Museum is headed,” he said. “It seems like there’s room for possibility and innovation here.”

Despite his sneak peek of working life here at the museum and archives, Ben was surprised to see so much interaction and collaborative effort between so many areas. He notes that the Royal BC Museum is an open place – people like sharing but also take pride and ownership in whatever their individual responsibilities are.

As for his professional development, Ben is hoping to hone specific skills during his internship and add them to his arsenal. “I already have some editing skills, but learning and using project management skills in a corporate culture will be very useful.”

We hope all three interns – and many more to come – will have terrific tenures at the Royal BC Museum, full of rich experiences, professional development and long-lasting friendships. With any luck (for us, primarily!), many interns will return sometime in the future as full-fledged employees.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 25

STAFF PROFILE

Michael Barnes

By Michael Barnes, Head of Exhibitions

I

have been working with the museum and archives on a contract basis providing project management services since 2013, when I was brought on to coordinate the development of the Our Living Languages: First Peoples’ Voices in BC exhibition. Since then I have been involved in managing Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC and the Species at Risk travelling exhibition. Now I am delighted and honoured to join the Royal BC Museum on a full-time basis as Head of Exhibitions.

I have a 25-year history of working with museums and cultural centres. I got my start in this field as a University of Victoria student where I worked as gallery technician and collection manager at the Maltwood Art Museum during the early 1990s. After graduation from university, I joined the exhibition design

firm André & Associate Interpretation & Design (AAID), where I started as an interpretive planner, but quickly transitioned into a project management role. Coincidentally, AAID was founded

by Jean Jacques André, the original head of exhibitions here at Royal BC Museum in the 1970s.

My 17 years at AAID provided an incredible variety of experiences, giving me the opportunity to work on more than a dozen major international museum projects. Clients ranged from First Nations groups to atomic weapons scientists, and projects were located from Texas to Alaska and from Milwaukee to Hong Kong and all points between. Personal highlights include working with Hong Kong Museum of History staff on the content coordination and interpretive planning for eight

major galleries comprising 75,000 square feet of new exhibitions. Project management of the design and build of the Smithsonian affiliate National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas also stands out in my mind as particularly memorable.

I was also deeply honoured to participate in the realization of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, Oregon.

This collaborative project of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people features nearly 10,000 square feet of exhibitions and an incredible calendar of events and cultural programs.

In my personal time, I am an enthusiastic (if slow) runner and participate in several five to 10 kilometre races per year. I also enjoy relaxing and travelling to warmer climates with my partner, Yvonne.

A Modest Purchase, a Big Contribution

By Shaun Cerisano, Annual Campaign Manager

S

tarting September 13, shoppers at all seven Country Grocer locations on Vancouver Island can support the Royal BC Museum while getting their groceries!

Gold Rush Shredded Potato Hash Browns.

This promotion takes place from September 13 to October 10, 2015 and is only available at Country Grocer.

Inspired by our Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, Country Grocer and Gold Rush Frozen Foods will donate 65 cents to the Royal BC Museum for every unit sold of

Funds from this initiative will support the crucial conservation work that makes possible exhibitions like Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC.

26

What’s inSight

Fall 2015

On behalf of the staff and volunteers at the Royal BC Museum, we would like to thank Country Grocer and Gold Rush Frozen Foods for partnering up to benefit our community.

lams)

PARTNER PROFILE

Helijet

Members Enjoy Discounts Around the World

Regardless of the result, each would needs to study a Flash your membership card at any of these locations to receive your special Royal BC tell an interesting story about deep-sea ther feasible nor fauna across the vast North Pacific: either alue of visiting a and valleys of this vast place and built he story ofcertain Britishspecies Columbia still connected than  Huble Homestead / Art Gallery of our Greater Victoria areismore Giscome Portage Heritage Socie  Barkerville Museum resource economy. being written, with each chapter previously thought, or these species, if menev was in the by theunique,  Kelowna Museums  Beaty Biodiversity Museum defined milestones that have marked have changed relatively little Our transportation and technology era of Northwest Coast Art group of clams  Kilby Historic Site Bill Reid Gallery the growth in since our province over the past divergence. began in the 1980s. Transportation was ters of the Bering  Mackie Lake House  Britannia Mine Museum 150 years.

Such visits to our natural history uril-Kamchatka the theme of Expo 86 inVancouver, the  Manitoba Museum Canadian Museum of Nature collections are not rare. In addition to the Surprisingly,As the Gold Rush!  Museum of Caribou Chilcotin – Crocker Art Museum year Helijet began flying its helicopters.

El Dorado in BC thousands of specimens sent out as loans r of speciesexhibition at the Williams Lake  Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Like those who first settled our province, Royal BC Museum shows year, more than 100 researchers hose living inus, theit was the each  Museum of Vancouver Chinese Garden Helijet navigates BC’s rugged terrain and lure of gold that brought from around the world travel to Victoria omparing his  Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre  Fernie Museum coastlines every day, connecting people thousands of people to BC, igniting a to use the Royal BC Museum’s collections within the Royal  O’Keefe Historic Ranch  Gallery2 Grand Forks with opportunity. population boom. Though the gold rush been the Province of BC’s approved air and ultimately, to answer important rate Collection,  Point Ellice House  Glenbow Museum eventually disappeared, the province kept ambulance service provider for 17 years. scientific questions, ranging from ether these  Quesnel & District Museum and  Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Today, the name Helijet is entrenched in growing.

Horseless carriages arrived, and traditional taxonomy and systematics same or unique.

Archives Society Historic Site our local vocabulary. Its service between In less than 30 years, Helijet has become soldiers from BC served in war efforts to biodiversity, species at in risk, invasive  Quesnel Museum  Haida Gwaii Museum Victoria and Vancouver has expanded to part of the overall fabric that is BC, and faraway countries.

Next expanded species andcame climate change.  Revelstoke Museum & Archives  Hope Visitor Centre and include Nanaimo, a charter service, and supports the Royal BC Museum and logging and mining, more port traffic, the  Robert Bateman Centre Museum Complex It is always a pleasure to host visiting flights on our scenic coast to famous fishing Archives in making sure we remember just arrival of big hydro dams and the building of Roedde House Museum  HR MacMillan Space Centre researchers. Our collections benefit lodges in Haida Gwaii. Helijet has also how we all got here in the first place. our road network, which linked the towns tremendously from the shared expertise and knowledge, and as researchers, we broaden our own scope and understanding. But perhaps more importantly, this is what the collections are for – to share, to study, and ultimately, to learn more about the Royal BC Museum members IMAXseason season Royal BC Museum members and &IMAX natural world. pass holders 10% all purchases. pass holders receivereceive 10% off alloff purchases.

T

Royal Museum Shop Intriguing and Unique

Dr Gennady Kamenev and Natalya Kameneva use the Royal BC Museum’s high-magnification microscope and image stacking software to examine and photograph details of a deep-sea clam.

Use coupon code: member Use coupon code: member

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/shop royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/shop Your purchases support the Royal BC Museum.

Your purchases support No Admission Required. the Royal BC Museum.

No Admission Required.

Shop hours 10 – 5 daily 250 356 Shop hours 10 am –Tel 5 pm daily0505

Tel 250-356-0505

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

What’s on LECTURES & EVENTS Live@Lunch First Wed of every month 12 – 1 pm FREE | Newcombe Hall Species at Risk Provincial Tour Highlights September 2 Rachelle Linde & Jenny Arnold, Species at Risk Interpretive Guides, with Chris O’Connor, Family and Kids’ Programmer Women on the Edge of Gold: Founding Fur-Trade Families Adapt to Victoria’s Changing Society During the Gold Rush October 7 Vanessa Winn, Independent Writing and Editing Professional and Author of The Chief Factor’s Daughter Discovering Victoria’s Great War at Home November 4 Paul Ferguson, Historical Researcher, Writer and Collections Advisor Early Photography: Through the Lens of the Royal BC Museum Collections December 2 Dan Savard, Former Audio/Visual Anthropology Collections Manager Predator and Prey: The Art of Chauvet September 11 | 7 – 8:30 pm Presented by Dr Jean-Michel Geneste, Chief of Scientific Studies of the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves Royal BC Museum Free | Registration required In partnership with the Consulate General of France in Vancouver and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia Wonder Sunday September 28 | 1 – 3 pm October 25 | 1 – 3 pm November 29 | 1 – 3 pm FREE with admission or membership

For a full listing of what’s happening at the Royal BC Museum pick up our 2015 Program Guide at the box office or view our calendar online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/calendar MUSEUM HOURS: 10 am – 5 pm daily.

Open from 10 am – 10 pm on Fridays & Saturdays from June to September

Floating Museum Series Family friendly sessions In partnership with Ocean Networks Canada Deep Sea Volcanoes September 12 | 1 – 3 pm Clifford Carl Hall Connect from museum to open ocean through this live streaming event.

Finding Museum Connections!

October 3 | 1 – 3 pm Clifford Carl Hall and Royal BC Museum Research Labs Gold Rush Film Festival September 18 & 26 7 – 9 pm $10 per person, per night $16 for both The Vic Theatre Fieldtrippers Nature Walk September 20 | 11 am Esquimalt Lagoon Guided by Entomology Collections Manager, Claudia Copley and Bird and Mammal Preparator, Darren Copley.

Golden Reads Book Club Live Discussion New Perspectives on the Gold Rush, edited by Kathryn Bridge.

September 30 | 12 pm Royal BC Museum Boardroom or log onto our Google Hangout Night Shift: Nightmare at the Museum October 31 | 8 pm – 12 am $30 per person in advance, $35 per person inadvance 19+ only, ID required Early Shift November 27 | 6:30 – 9 pm $10 per person, $30 per family (up to 2 adults and 3 youth) The museum collections come alive through museum exploration and play … and cookies and juice of course. It’s an early ‘evening shift’ of images, objects and the art of doing!

It pays to be a member! Royal BC Museum Members get 10% OFF Royal BC Museum event tickets.

EXHIBITIONS AND INSTALLATIONS Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC On now until November 1

James Cook; An Explorer for the Ages October 18 Robin Inglis

Gold Mountain Dream!

Location: Guandong Museum of Chinese Nationals Residing Abroad, China Opens November 2015

Researching Stewards of the People’s Forests November 15 Dr Bob Griffin and Dr Lorne Hammond

Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC Location: Canadian Museum of History Opens April 2016

REMEMBRANCE COMMEMORATIONS

Our Living Languages On now In Partnership with

BC Archives on Display During regular operating hours, enjoy public access to authentic, original records which help tell British Columbia’s story. View some of the world’s most unique and historically significant items from the provincial collection.

Emily Carr Timeline An interactive timeline featuring images of Emily Carr, her family and acquaintances, and digital images of her paintings, prints and sketches, all from the BC Archives. The timeline highlights specific moments in Carr’s life, with insights provided by Royal BC Museum curators and Emily Carr experts.

On now royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/ emily-carr-timeline Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 December 4, 2015 – April 4, 2016 See the World’s best images.

BC ARCHIVES EVENTS 2 pm | Newcombe Hall $5 per person Free for Archives Members

Naden Band Musical Tribute to the Great War November 10 | 7 – 9 pm FREE | Clifford Carl Hall Victoria Children’s Choir November 11 12:30 – 12:45 pm & 1:45 – 2 pm FREE | Clifford Carl Hall Story Theatre Company The Story Theatre Company and the Royal BC Museum have teamed up to present music, songs and poetry of the period mixed with letters from the front.

Supported by Veterans Affairs Canada Community Engagement Fund

IMAX® FEATURES Humpback Whales Found in every ocean and nearly extinct 50 years ago, Humpback Whales are making a slow but remarkable recovery. Join a team of researchers to learn why they are the most acrobatic of all whales, how they sing their haunting songs and why these intelligent 55-foot, 50-ton animals migrate up to 10,000 miles every year.

For full film information, upcoming films and current schedule, visit us at imaxvictoria.com or call (250) 480-4887

Managing the Cariboo Gold Rush September 20 Marie Elliott

Information correct at time of printing. Subject to change. Please visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/calendar for most up-to-date information. Prices do not include applicable taxes.

The Royal BC Museum Box Office Team: Tiffany, Maria, Rhiannon, Tiana, Karen, Tony and Suzan.

(From left to right.)

Add-A-Toonie to Support Conservation

By Shaun Cerisano, Annual Campaign Manager

T

hank you to everyone who donated towards the important work of our conservation team. Through our Add-A-Dollar program, we were able to raise $26,677 over a one-year period.

This has helped fund some of the tools our teams require to prepare, conserve and make accessible the collections of the museum and archives.

If you’ve been through the Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC exhibition, you would have noticed the exquisite Pemberton dress, or the 19th-century stage coach.

Items like these are able to be put on public display thanks to our donors, who help fund the vital work of our conservation department.

In the next year we will continue to focus on the integral work of the conservation team as we prepare to open our 2016 summer feature exhibition, Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Ace. In May, we introduced Add-A-Toonie and, wow, what a success. At the time this article is being written, you have already helped us raise more than $12,000 in only six weeks.

Next time you come to the Royal BC Museum to enjoy our galleries, exhibitions or the Food Truck Festival Event, please remember to Add-AToonie to support the conservation of our important collections.

Ask one of our amazing box office team members about this and our many other important programs.

Thank you to everyone for making Add-A-Toonie such a successful program.

PM42265026

Nightmare

at the Museum

Join us this Halloween as the Royal BC Museum comes alive with dancing, delicious drinks, live local music and activities. This is a night you won’t soon forget … even if you want to.

October 31 | 8 – 12 pm 19+ only, ID Required #RBCMNight Purchase tickets at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/night In partnership with