KNOWLEDGE
Research at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
Spring 2005
Knowledge is the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s new electronic newsletter for the media. It features news briefs on the Museum’s research in the fields of archaeology, ethnology, history and culture. The texts can be used integrally, or can be expanded upon by adding information gathered through interviews with the researchers.
Subscribe now! Knowledge — Research at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
mailto:sylvain.raymond@civilization.ca
Stone Tools Help Reconstruct PEI’s Past
Recent archeological finds on Prince Edward Island are shedding new light on the Island’s human history, while raising some intriguing questions about its earliest inhabitants. Ancient submerged beaches in Northumberland Strait indicate that aboriginal people could have walked to PEI from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as early as 11,000 years ago, when a land bridge — the original fixed link — offered a convenient connection to the mainland. People were attracted by abundant marine life found along the Island’s north shore. Distinctive stone tools discovered by archaeologists from the Canadian Museum of Civilization, as well as by local Island collectors, are made of materials from various geological sources in the Maritimes, and even from Ontario and Labrador. Researchers hope further research will answer a key follow-up question: Were the tools brought to the island by their makers — suggesting long distance travel — or did they arrive through a system of trade? Either way, the answer will tell us much about the history of both PEI and the First Peoples of Canada.
Museum curator unearths design treasures
Although it doesn’t require a strong back and a sharp spade, it can take a lot of digging to find the historical gems of Canada’s design industry. Just ask Alan Elder. He was hired a few years ago as the first-ever curator of craft and design at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He has been labouring ever since to build the museum’s collection and to raise public awareness about the richness of Canada’s design history. A recent focus of his attention was the 1960s. That’s barely yesterday in the museum’s normal time horizon, but far enough in the past to make our knowledge sketchy and some objects hard to find. To unearth a range of design treasures — including chairs and tea sets, stereos and telephones — he used the skills of an archaeologist and gave them a slight twist. Instead of poring over ancient manuscripts, he studied old magazines of home décor. Instead of excavating burial sites, he went browsing in thrift shops and in cyberspace. The success of his sleuthing is reflected in a special exhibition, Cool ’60s Design, which runs at the museum until November 27, 2005.
Old shoes, new clues
Several years ago, Quebec archaeologists unearthed more than 400 fragments of late-seventeenth-century shoes near the bank of the Saint Lawrence River. On loan from the City of Québec, these artifacts are currently the subject of an in-depth study by researchers at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. This footwear find is as unusual as it is fascinating. For one thing, there are very few shoe collections in Canada. For another, the shoes were worn by women, men and children. These leather fragments offer a unique opportunity to take a few steps forward in our knowledge of daily life in New France. The CMC researchers will also try to solve a mystery surrounding this discovery. Were these shoes left behind by a shoemaker who went out of business? Or were they thrown off a vessel by passengers? Some clues have already begun to surface, and we plan to investigate further.
Art curators seek input from Aboriginal Elders
Curators developing an exhibition of Aboriginal art are turning to Native communities for information and advice. The exhibition will explore the impact of Christianity on the Indigenous peoples of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The lead Canadian on this tri-national project is Lee-Ann Martin of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. “People in the communities — especially Elders — are a vital source of information on a project like this,” she says. Martin and her colleagues are tapping into that wellspring as part of their overall research. She says Aboriginal artists have created a large and considered body of work on this issue, and choosing just a few pieces is a big challenge. “But it’s what I call good curating: you do the proper research and then make thoughtful selections. And that’s what we’re doing now.” The exhibition, Jesus Loves Me, This I Know, is scheduled to open in 2007.
To interview CMC researchers, media can contact:
Rachael Duplisea
rachael.duplisea@civilization.ca
(819) 776-7167
Gabrielle Tassé
gabrielle.tasse@civilization.ca
(819) 776-7169
New research publications from CMCThe Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World, by Robert McGhee. Co-published with Key Porter Books.
Mailboxes: Urban Street Furniture in Canada, by Bianca Gendreau.
Clifton Royal: The Wetmores and Village Life in Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick, edited by Judith Baker.
The Ideal World of Mrs. Widder’s Soirée Musicale: Social Identity and Musical Life in Nineteenth-Century Ontario, by Kristina Marie Guiguet.
Archeological Research in the Lesser Slave Region: A Contibution to the Pre-Contact History of the Boreal Forest of Alberta, by Raymond J. Le Blanc.
The Late Palaeo-Indian Great Lakes: Geological and Archaeological Investigations of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Environments, by Jackson, Lawrence J. and A. Hinshelwood.
Contributions to the Study of Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos, by Patricia Sutherland.
Beads of Life: Eastern and Southern African Beadwork from Canadian Collections, by Marie-Louise Labelle.
Made in Canada: Craft and Design in the Sixties, edited by Alan C Elder. Co-published with the Design Exchange and McGill-Queen’s University Press.
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