KNOWLEDGE
Research at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
Summer 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.
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mailto:sylvain.raymond@civilization.ca
Canada's nursing history: honouring the heroes of A Caring Profession
Look up the word hero in a dictionary and you'll read about nobility, courage and achievement. It's the word Christina Bates uses to describe Canada's nurses, both past and present. For the past few years Bates has immersed herself in the history of Canadian nursing for an exhibition she's curating at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Along the way she developed a profound respect for nurses, who touch our lives from beginning to end. Bates has also come to appreciate the diversity and richness of Canada's nursing history, which spans the last 400 years. That history unfolded in operating rooms and homeless shelters, in army hospitals overseas and nursing stations in the Far North. Bates examined it all and "it was certainly a challenge," she says. "But this is the first national exhibition devoted to nursing, so I wanted it to be comprehensive and I wanted it to be done right." The exhibition, A Caring Profession: Centuries of Nursing in Canada, runs until September 4, 2006 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Contact: Christina Bates, Ontario Historian, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Curator draws on tobacco for insight into cultural history
Sheldon Posen smoked his last cigarette almost 30 years ago, but once again he's hooked on tobacco. Fortunately, the hook this time is intellectual rather than physical. Posen is exploring the history of tobacco use in Canada in his capacity as curator of folk culture at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. His research is now focused mainly on the years 1890 to 1930, when the cigar was king and the wooden cigar box was a merchandising mainstay. It's the packaging, not the product, which he finds captivating. "The lid on an early cigar box was like a billboard," he says. The cigars were made by independent entrepreneurs throughout the country and the colourful lithographs decorating their boxes reveal much about the interests and tastes of the time. Among the popular themes were Canadian symbols like the beaver and "Johnny Canuck," the military, sports, British royalty and — rather innocently by today's standards — the allure of the opposite sex. Cigar box lithographs, to Posen, are just one aspect of why tobacco and its accoutrements are worthy of collecting and study: they offer a unique window onto Canada's social and cultural history.
Contact: Sheldon Posen, Curator of Canadian Folklife, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Exploring the social dimension of First Nations basketry
Stephen Augustine sets the basket gently onto the palm of his outstretched hand. It's one his grandmother made in 1920. Woven tightly from strips of black ash and topped with a sweet grass rim, the basket is a fine example of a craft long practiced by the Mi'gmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples of Atlantic Canada. On this day, Augustine is admiring his grandmother's work in a secure storeroom at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where he works as a curator and is currently doing some ground-breaking research into First Nations basketry during the first half of the twentieth century. Traditionally, he says, researchers have focused on the baskets themselves and have ignored what he calls "the social-human dimension." Inspired in part by his own family history, he's gathering information about the people behind the products: the women who made and marketed the baskets to help support their families. Augustine says his research is certain to provide new insights into the lives and cultures of the Aboriginal peoples of Atlantic Canada.
Contact: Stephen Augustine, Curator of Ethnology — Eastern Maritimes, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Buried treasures at Fort Simpson
When researchers began archaeological investigations at Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories, they hoped to find the remains of Fort of the Forks, a former trading post that came to a tragic end. However, the work directed by Jean-Luc Pilon, an archaeologist with the Canadian Museum of Civilization, unearthed a few surprises — both good and bad. Fort of the Forks was established in 1802 by the North West Company, and abandoned in 1811 when four men stationed at the fort starved to death during an unusually harsh winter. Ten years later, the Hudson's Bay Company occupied this strategic site once more. The researchers were disappointed to learn that extensive ploughing at this time had greatly reduced the chances of finding traces of the fort. On the other hand, they made a discovery that sheds light on the manufacture and maintenance of boats that transported goods on the Mackenzie River. And that was just the tip of the iceberg! Fort Simpson is located on an archeological goldmine that could provide new info on its origins and on the traditional way of life of the Dene, the first inhabitants of the region.
Contact: Jean-Luc Pilon, Curator of Ontario Archeology, Canadian Museum of Civilization
To interview CMC researchers, media may contact:
Rachael Duplisea
rachael.duplisea@civilization.ca
(819) 776-7167 or
Gabrielle Tassé
gabrielle.tasse@civilization.ca
819) 776-7169
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