Daly News Winter 2014 1

P. 1 Contents

P. 2 AGM Dinner - Theatre

P. 3 Images Exhibit

P. 4 Upcoming Events

P. 5 Grants—Mystery Quilt

P. 6 Franchesca in China

P. 7 Harry Potter Exhibit Renovations

P. 8 Membership Application

Volunteer Opportunities

CONTENTS

The Daly

News

Thank you to our Volunteers!

To those who have helped with Christmas

decorating, baking, fundraising projects,

tours, office backup, and those who give

time and support to the Daly House, thank

you! We are extremely grateful to have

your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Daly House Museum Staff and Board of

Directors

Daly News Winter 2014 2

Theatre night!

By popular demand we are once again sponsoring a night of theatre with a

Canadian theme. Actors from 7 Ages Productions will present “Ten Lost Years” at

the Lorne Watson Hall at Brandon University on Saturday, April 19, 2014. The

show begins at 8:00 PM. “Ten Lost Years” is a collection of stories about the Great

Depression based on true events. Tickets are $20 for general admission. Daly

House Museum members get a special discounted admission of $17. Buy your

tickets in advance at the Museum or at the door on April 19. All proceeds go

directly to Daly House Museum. Please support this project and bring your friends

and neighbours, as this is a major fundraiser for Daly House.

Enjoy a delicious roast beef dinner and support the Daly House Museum. This year's dinner will be held at the Ukrainian Reading Association Hall at 1005 Assiniboine Avenue on Thursday, March 13. Dinner will be at 6 PM followed by a special presentation by Shaun Cameron featuring the film “End of the Line: The Brandon Railway Company.” After the film Shaun and Bob Booth will answer questions about Brandon's old streetcar system. Audience members are invited to share their memories as well.

During dinner you will have a chance to play our trivia game and take

part in a 50-50 draw. All proceeds will go towards Museum projects such as

special exhibits. As members, you are cordially invited to stay after the

presentation for our Annual General Meeting. If you've attended dinner at the

Hall before, you know that the food is exceptional – traditional home cooking.

Tickets are only $22.50 and must be purchased in advance from the Museum.

Fundraising Dinner

Daly News Winter 2014 3

IMAGES — Rural and

northern Archives Exhibit

Visit Daly House over the next six weeks and enjoy a series of photographs that will take you back in time as the Museum is proud to present Images - a unique window into Manitoba’s recreational past from February 17 to March 31, 2014. The exhibit includes 28 photographs gathered from various rural Manitoba community archives, including Daly House Museum, for the Rural and Northern Archives Special Interest Group.

Restored by artist Lorne Coulson, each black and white image focuses on the games and recreational activities which roughly 15 rural Manitoba communities participated in between the late 1880s and early 1950s. Many of them are whimsical, revealing how people of the past had fun in spite of primitive sports facilities or lack of means.

“This exhibit is the perfect opportunity for people to pause in the middle of their busy day and reflect on how people used to have fun and unwind,” says curator Eileen Trott. “These images let us see just how far we have come and how aspects of some recreational events and activities have remained the same over the years.” “Images” was originally planned as a two-year exhibit to raise awareness of the photograph collections in community archives. Because of the great interest it generated, the exhibition tour is now entering its fourth year after touring the entire province from Le Pas to Altona. It also spent a month at the Keystone Gallery at the Manitoba Legislature. Unfortunately this little window into the past will only remain in Brandon until the end of March and will soon be out of circulation.

“After this, the photos will be going on to perhaps two more locations in the province, and then the tour will be discontinued,” says Trott. “It has been a wonderful opportunity for all the rural archives involved to highlight the importance of preserving our collections to tell the stories of past generations.”

Daly News Winter 2014 4

Keep Your Calendars Open for:

The Daly House Museum Board of Directors:

President: Murray Graham

First Vice President: Bob Booth

Second Vice President: Stephanie Doerksen

Treasurer: Fred Eslinger

Directors:

Gary Palmer

Shari Dressler

Alex Essery

Trish Buri

Nikhil Kulkarni

Staff: Eileen Trott, Curator

Upcoming Events:

February 17 to March 31,

Images: Rural and Northern Archives exhibit

March 13 6:00 – 9:00 pm Annual Fundraising Dinner and AGM

April 19 8:00 PM at the Lorne Watson Hall “Ten Lost Years”

May 10—Mother’s Day Tea

May 15 6:30 - 8:30 First Weeding Party of the year!

May 24 10 am to 3:00 pm – Daly’s Daisies Plant Sale

March 13 – Annual Fundraising Dinner—more information on page 2

April 19 - “Ten Lost Years” theatre night—see page 2

May 10 – Mother's Day Tea—details in the next newsletter

May 24 – Daly's Daisies– buy your bedding plants and support Daly House

“harry potter’s World” exhibit

Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine, a special travelling exhibit, was hosted by Daly House Museum from November 23 to December 23, 2013. The exhibit featured information about the scientific culture that J.K. Rowling used as the basis for her series of novels. The six banner exhibit, interspersed with artifacts on medicine, school days, and early pharmacies from the museum’s collection, was well received by the public.

“We were very excited to host this special exhibit created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine,” says curator Eileen Trott. “It was an opportunity to bring something new and exciting to the fans of the Harry Potter series and to the citizens of Brandon.”

Daly News Winter 2014 5

grants

Solving a Mystery

Over Christmas 2013 a unique and interesting quilt was dropped off on the museum’s doorstep. While we don’t encourage the public to drop off items anonymously, as we need the potential donors to give us legal custody of any item donated to the museum and the history behind the object, we felt that this quilt was an interesting piece of Brandon’s history. Originally stitched in 1924, it features various panels of red embroidered wheels with names stitched inside the spokes. One of the names on the quilt included Lillias Burchill, the wife of William Burchill who built the Yukon Block on Rosser. After placing an article in the Brandon Sun, we received a phone call stating that the quilt had been donated by Mary Donovan of Brandon. She had won the quilt as a four-year-old child when her grandmother put her name into a draw at a bazaar. Unfortunately she could not tell us anything more about the fundraising effort for which the quilt was made. Perhaps we will still be able to determine the exact purpose of the quilt; at least now we know who owned it and how they acquired it.

Daly House Museum has been awarded the following grants from Manitoba Heritage:

Hats Off – The influence of History in Fashion. This future exhibit will look at the social, political and economic influences on the fashion industry in our province.

Gowen’s Brandon – Then and Now. This future exhibit in partnership with the McKee Archives will provide a unique perspective on the changes that have occurred in Brandon by using historical photographs taken by a local photography business Davidson and Gowen that are currently held in both Daly House and the McKee Archives. The exhibit will compare the photographs of Brandon street scenes taken in 1912 to how those locations look at present. The process of creating the exhibit will also be filmed as a documentary for MTS TV. The exhibit is scheduled to open in early 2015.

Did You Know? Daly House Museum’s Magnacca Research Centre contains many archival

holdings that can be of assistance to researchers and genealogists. Our archives contain vital

statistics from the Brandon Sun, City of Brandon Electoral Lists, Southwestern Manitoba Loyal

Orange Lodge Records, Records of the IODE, Brandon Woman’s Civic Association, Women’s

Institute, plus much more!

Daly House Museum would also like to thank Manitoba Heritage for their assistance in creating storage boxes for the Orange Lodge Banners and

documents.

Daly News Winter 2014 6

My Chinese Pottery Adventure

By Franchesca Hebert-Spence

On September 7th, 2013 I boarded a plane in Winnipeg to fly overseas. I wouldn’t return to Canadian soil until December 15th, a little over three months later. I had enrolled in West Virginia University’s study abroad China program that provided ceramic students an opportunity to study in the porcelain capital of China. Pottery Workshop was a China-based company that had partnered with WVU to provide accommodations, food and various services to make our trip as productive as possible. We travelled to Shanghai, Jingdezhen, Xi’an and Beijing. I made a personal trip to Hangzhou over the Fall Break with my free time.

Our group consisted of 12 students, 3 instructors, and an instructor’s wife. As Jingdezhen is the porcelain capital of China, many contemporary ceramic artists were passing through the Pottery Workshop as well as designers from Europe. We were taught Chinese Art History by Walter Ostrom who recently came to Brandon for an artist talk. Lenny Dowie and Bruce Cochrane were studio professors, although Walter and his wife Elaine provided constructive and thoughtful criticism alongside them. There was a culture and language course integrated in the program to help us become more independent. Phrases taught to us focused on food, times, and necessary words in ceramic production.

A healthy respect of history, especially art history, is ingrained in Chinese culture. Private and public museums were everywhere! This accessibility gave artists, foreign or local, endless sources of inspiration varying from imagery to color palate to techniques. There were so many opportunities to learn and so much information it was difficult to decide what to focus on. We were taught techniques such as blue and white, low relief carving, over glaze enamels, and transfers and were shown how to make Yixing teapots.

I eventually focused on blue and white painting, which ironically is the most familiar icon in Chinese art but was actually made popular during the Yuan dynasty when the Mongols ruled China. I used the porcelain from the area that’s measured by its whiteness, dubbed middle-white and super-white. Conceptually I was reflecting on the sense of community I observed and used this to decorate my forms. Also because of my limited vocabulary I became aware of the power of body language, I have joked that it felt like three months of playing charades.

The food in Jingdezhen is for a spicier palate (Still nowhere close to the diet in the Sichuan province, but still quite spicy.) The large amount of veggies, fish and rice combined with the process of learning to eat with chopsticks makes China a great destination to minimize your waistline.

All jokes aside, as a Fine Arts major China was beyond beneficial to my practice and knowledge about art. I participated in two shows while I was away, too. The Pottery Workshop has effectively reached out to the community and made a positive difference in their city. That goal I respect not only as an artist but also as an employee of Daly House Museum. I look forward to returning to China in the future!

Daly News Winter 2014 7

Between the “Harry Potter’s World” exhibit and the upcoming “Images” exhibit, Daly House has been undergoing some renovations. Thanks to the City of Brandon and Manitoba Heritage, the basement flooring which had been crumbling over the past few years has been repaired, repainted, or recovered with subflooring and linoleum. This upgrade has given the basement a new life and improved the warmth of the back area.

The city is also repairing a water bubble in the ceiling of the second floor bedroom. This water bubble formed due to leaks in the roof which were rectified when the museum’s roof was re-shingled a few years ago. The third floor will also be getting a face lift with a fresh coat of paint after our curator, Eileen Trott, has organized our extensive Orange Lodge collection.

Check the images below – and come see for yourself.

Just look at us now!

2nd Floor Guest Bedroom; Sanding and repainting 2nd Floor Guest Bedroom; After renovations

Basement; Another coat of paint and the Butcher shop will be good as

new

Daly News Winter 2014 8

Daly House Museum Membership Application

Membership Benefits Include: Free admission to Daly House

Four issues of our quarterly newsletter

10% off in the Museum Gift Shop

Advance notification of upcoming exhibits and events

Eligibility for service on the Board of Directors

Voting privileges at the Annual General Meeting

We offer several membership levels!

Friend (Individual $20, Student/Senior $15, Family $35)

Sponsor (Family $60)

Includes benefits above plus two extra admission tick-ets

Patron (Family $120)

Includes benefits above plus 4 extra admission tickets

Builder (Family $300)

Includes benefits above plus 6 extra admissions

Benefactor (Family $500)

Includes benefits above, 6 admissions, and gift mem-bership

i

Please check the Membership level you would like

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Make a cheque payable to Brandon Museum Inc.

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Memberships

Daly House Museum

122-18th Street

Brandon, MB

R7A 5A4

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If you would like to help us save money by receiv-

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stead of through the postal service, please let us

know!

Renewal time?

Did you know that Daly House has an active

and supportive Auxiliary? We thank them

for all they do – serving refreshments,

sewing garment bags, knitting slippers, and

standing in at the office. We couldn't do

without them.

Recently, the auxiliary held their annual

meeting at Remington's. Their new

executive are Sylvia Barr, president; Linda

Evans, vice-president; Shirley Bleackley,

secretary; and Mavis Johnston, treasurer.

They are always looking for new members.

If you would like to help with their projects

and get out to meet some wonderful people,

call Sylvia at 204-727-5249 for information.

Thanks, Auxiliary

Volunteer opportunities

We are always looking for volunteers.

Consider the following:

Tour Guides

Cataloguing

Exhibit maintenance

Special events

Garden maintenance

Training provided. Call Eileen at 204-727-1722.