BARRHEAD- The Barrhead Centennial Museum is looking for the public's help.
Currently, the museum is in the process of undertaking a massive catalogue project where they properly archive all of its artifacts so they can be better utilized.
As part of the process, the museum is looking for items and stories to round out future displays. One of them being First World War (WWI) artifacts, most notably uniforms and pictures of local service people. The other, community cookbooks, the older the better.
Regular visitors to the museum may recognize that for several years, the display has remained fairly static, without much variation.
However, in the last two years, the Barrhead and District Historical Society started a major renovation project to not only freshen up the look of the displays but change how they are presented.
Historical society president Anna Churchill said they started work about a year ago.
"We want to make sure the history we have for the artifacts align," she said.
The work started in Exhibition Hall A (the first room when patrons enter the museum) with volunteers removing everything from the displays, after which it received a thorough cleaning, before being rearchived to ensure each item had the most up-to-date information.
Barbra Churchill, the museum archivist, interjected that through this process several items that were part of various displays were removed because they were not accurate to the time, or did not help tell the narrative that the display was trying to portray.
For example, she said as part of the museum's old display on the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), the forebearer to today's RCMP, included what they believed what previously archived as a pair of handcuffs.
It turns out the handcuffs were a pair of hand-made leg irons from the American Civil War.
"It made sense why the item was included in the police display," Barbra said. "It was donated by Bill Stutchbury, whose father was a judge, and it was part of the Alberta legal system."
But something was still amiss, so Barbra continued to research and through an on-line auction website specializing in antique artifacts she found out that they were not the item they believed them to be.
All totalled between Barbra's and then subsequent Anna's effort it took them over five hours to attempt to get the story behind the leg irons and even then, as of yet, they have only unveiled a small part of the story.
Unfortunately, Barbra noted the leg irons are only one of the countless items she is working on tracing, identifying and archiving.
In some cases, as with the leg irons, they will be stowed away with the several other "neat things" as Anna characterized it until their story becomes known and they can become incorporated into an overall display that helps tell a story about the region.
Anna said the museum is getting away from displaying items for the sake of displaying them, reiterating it is about imparting the relevance of the item in the residents of that particular eras lives.
"There might be a time when we want to and can do a display about the civil war widows and buffalo hunters who came up from the U.S. and settled in the Barrhead area," Barbra suggested.
In addition to not knowing the history of an item, the other issue the museum has is an almost embarrassment of riches.
"I am so impressed about the quality of our items," Barbra said. "In the 1960s, Barrhead rallied to get this museum off the ground and donated some truly remarkable items. Some of the items we have rivals what they have in the Alberta Royal Museum."
Regrettably, the quality and sheer numbers of items, although it is a good problem for the museum to have, causes other issues.
Most notably, how to display it all.
Quite frankly, Anna says, you can't and that is why
they hope to be able to rotate items in some of the permanent displays.
Of course, all of this will take time to plan, organize and properly archive which is one of the reasons why Anna plans to recommend to the historical society executive that regardless of COVID-19 that they remain closed.
Normally the museum, which doubles as an informal tourist information centre, opens in June and remains so until sometime in September, usually closing after Alberta Culture Days.
"There is too much to do and if we had to open this season, it would be too rushed," Anna said, adding the extra time would also be invaluable.
And as for their requests, they both noted that although the museum has several artifacts from the Second World War they are not as fortunate for the First World War.
Barbra is also planning to put together a display showcasing Barrhead's traditional foods in hopes of learning if the area has a common dish and if it has changed over time.
For more information about the museum contact Anna Churchill at (780) 674-5824.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
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