Explore art and history through a photographic art show and lecture by Barry Hillman, a professionally trained photographer and artist with works displayed in Europe, Canada, and Hawaii.
In talking about this exhibit Barry said:
“In this exhibition, I have taken bits and pieces of flowers and combined them in a new photograph to create something different from the original subject. In the creating of new photographic images from the original, hidden images and shapes begin to appear. These images and shapes are what I refer to as flower spirits hiding in the garden.”
This free programming is made possible through Safe at Home Manitoba.
Join Charlotte Taylor for a visit through her grandparent’s (William Brown and Charlotte Omand) 1856 Red River Frame House.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Join Charlotte as she explains the process of buttermaking.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Take a peek at the collection of the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia as our staff highlights artifacts from our collection.
During WWII, ration coupons were just one element of a national nutrition campaign that encouraged efficient production and consumption of food, creative cooking, and the creation of the first Canadian food guide.
Canada was a major supplier of food for overseas allies and this required rationing on the home front. By the end of the war, Canada was suppling 57% of the wheat and flour consumed in Britain, as well as 39% of bacon, 15% of eggs, 24% of cheese, and 11% of evaporated milk. Government regulations on Canadian farms ensured that the products that were needed overseas and at home were produced.
For the most part, Canadians were eager to contribute to the war effort by participating in the many food-related campaigns. Sugar, coffee, butter, and meat were regulated with coupon rationing and a universal price freeze guaranteed stable food prices. Canning and creative recipes were promoted in women’s magazine and newspapers. “Canada War Cake” was made without eggs, milk, or butter. A fat and bones collection campaign repurposed animal waste for munitions production.
All of these programs were accompanied by propaganda that convinced Canadians of the importance of food production and consumption. Products that couldn’t be sold overseas, such as apples and lobster, were branded as patriotic to increase Canadian consumption. Non-essential purchases, like candy or pop, were described as a purchase for the enemy. Donald Gordon (chairman of the Wartime Price and Trade Board) gave a radio address before implemented the universal price freeze in which he echoed this rhetoric: “You, who are listening to these words, will be going into the fight next Monday…In this fight against inflation you cannot be a neutral. You will either be helping to save yourself, your family and your country from a terrible calamity – or you will be working for the enemy.”
Despite the many restrictions on food, many Canadians ate more and better than they had during the depression before the war. The first food guide, called Canada’s Official Food Rules, was created after significant numbers of Canadians were rejected by the military for medical reasons. The rules promoted balanced consumption of six food groups: milk, cereals and breads, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat and fish. Food consumption in Canada decreased after the war and didn’t return to its wartime highs until the late 1950s.
Join Charlotte as she tells us the story of her father’s blacksmith shop.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories
Blacksmithing
Blacksmiths played a vital role in the development of the pioneer economy in Assiniboia. During the frugal and thrifty lifestyle of the settlement era, the blacksmith was gainfully employed mending occupational equipment such as plows, pitchforks, butterchurns, vehicle parts and fittings. Blacksmiths came into decline in the 1900s, because they could not compete with modern factories to produce tools and hardware cheaply.
The musuem’s Interpretive Centre contains an original blacksmith’s forge, anvil, bellows and various tools. As the blacksmith works, the coals are kept hot in the forge to heat the metal which is then shaped on the anvil. The purpose of the bellows is to pump air into the fire to keep it at a steady temperature. It the temperature starts fluctuating, it weakens the final product.
Those training to become a blacksmith would work as an apprentice. The apprentice’s first task would be to pump the bellows (to build muscle). After that, they would have to make a thousand nails before they were allowed to make anything else.
The blacksmith display also includes a branding iron from the Honourable John Taylor, who was William Brown’s (original owner of the 1856 Red River Frame House) son-in-law. John Taylor was the first Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba.
Our display also contains several horseshoes, however, initially horseshoeing was a craft that was distinct from blacksmithing (as was goldsmithing, silversmithing, and swordsmithing).
For over 100 years, paper dolls were a widely popular children’s toy, method of advertising fashion, and feature in women’s magazines. This paper dolls was based on the hand-tinted fold-outs, showing the latest fashions, in Godey’s Lady’s Book. This women’s magazine, published in Philadelphia from 1830-1878, was the most popular and influential of its era. The magazine also featured needlework projects and patterns, recipes, articles on household care, health and hygiene, and sheet music.
Download the instruction pamphlet and paper doll cut-outs below.
Quilts and the activity of quilting were extremely important in the lives of early settlers in Manitoba. In the winters, quilts protected settlers from the cold drafts that snuck through the cracks in their Red River Frame houses, and quilting bees were a productive and enjoyable summer social gathering.
The craft below shows how patchwork quilts were constructed. Squares or rectangles of purchased fabric, old clothing, or cotton flour and sugar bags were stitched together in various familiar or unique patterns.
The Museum has several contemporary quilts on display made by Dorothy Rohne, as well as an antique crazy quilt and log cabin quilt.
Join Charlotte as she tells the story of her grandparents’ house and teaches us about the Red River Frame style of architecture.
Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.
Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories
Red River Frame House
Red River Frame houses, also known as post on sill, were common throughout Western Canada during the nineteenth century. The precise origin of the technique is unknown, but it was likely adapted by the Métis people from house designs along the Saint Lawrence River in eastern Canada.
Upright posts were erected along the sill, a log running horizontally along the foundation of the house. These upright posts included grooves into which square logs were fitted to form walls. Since the logs were fitted into place, there was little need to use nails in the construction. Walls were then chinked with mud and straw for insulation.
An advantage of the Red River Frame house was that it could be easily dismantled and re-assembled in a new location. Red River Frame houses were durable and eliminated the cost for expensive nails. One disadavantage was that as the wood expanded and contracted, cracks in the chinking could occur, making the building quite cold.
The Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia is home to a two-storey Red River Frame house, the original home of William Brown and Charlotte Omand (grandparents to Charlotte). The house was moved from Headingley, where it was built in 1856, to the museum at 3180 Portage Avenue in 1973.
