A $39,000 grant from The Calgary Foundation is allowing the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre the opportunity to undertake a project designed to solve mysteries.
The museum’s archive is home to a number of weird and wonderful artifacts, documents and photographs that often have one thing in common: staff have no idea what they are or how they were used, or, in the case of photographs, who or what is in the image.
Amanda Sittrop, museum collections manager, said as part of the Deep Research project the museum will first identify 50 to 100 objects and photographs that could benefit from a deeper look and from that hopefully have enough information to provide detailed history and context for each.
Also, many of these artifacts and photographs have no documentation, only questions, and it is all part of the growing pains the museum has experienced as it has shifted from a wholly volunteer-run organization to one with professional standards and staff.
As part of this project, the museum is involving life-long residents and local historians in answering questions, identify unknown items and help point out which artifacts, photographs and geological specimens are worthy of further research.
“We wanted to reach out to the community and get their information, to try and get a better, deeper understanding of our collection while at the same time connect with the community and build a deeper relationship,” Sittrop said.
A recent example of how well this can work surfaced during the annual Miners’ Day, when former Canmore coal miner Jimmy Fitzgerald identified a long metal rod with a hollow core as, in fact, a rock drill bit. Until then, the bit was simply a piece of rusty metal sitting on a shelf.
By better understanding the history and context of its artifacts and photographs, the museum can in turn provide the public with better information.
Sittrop is also looking for volunteers who enter data, conduct interviews or work with the collection.
“I would love to encourage eager volunteers that have a passion for history and want to make sure this town’s history is saved for future generations,” she said.
And having mysterious objects with hidden histories is not unique to the Canmore museum.
“The challenge of having artifacts without information is universal and missing provenance and gift agreements are very common,” said Sittrop.
In many cases, information has gone missing or wasn’t gathered at the time of donation.
“That’s why we want to go back and get information from community members,” Sittrop said, adding that without the grant, the Deep Research project would not be possible.
The museum is planning both a physical and an on-line exhibit based on the Deep Research project at the end of July 2012.
“We are a community museum and want to talk about this town’s history; if we don’t have the stories of the objects, we can’t really tell these stories.”
