The Manitoba Museum is home to over 2.6 million artefacts and specimens. One role of the Collections and Conservation staff is to maintain records for each item from the time it is offered to the museum, accepted into the collection and then accessed for research and exhibits or loaned to other institutions. While the numbers may be smaller, the same Collections Management practices are used in community museums throughout the…
Monthly Archives: September 2011
“Paperwork is my life”:department staff offers Collections Management training for Association of Manitoba Museums
Posted in Collections & Conservation, Collections Management Comments closed
Doreen Romanow
“I want people to bring their grandkids to MY museum.” Museum Donor/Volunteer for over 41 years, and recipient of The Lieutenant Governor’s Volunteer Service Award. Dedication and Consistency towards the Museum is a contributing factor to the creation of a strong sense of community. Doreen has donated countless items to the Museum’s collections from her family business to assist with the fundraising efforts of the Museum. She is a strong…
Posted in Donor Profile Comments closed
The Birch Bark Canoe Step 2
I woke up at 6:00 AM to get a good start on the day. Grant was already up and we decided to get out to the spruce bog early to gather roots. We needed to gather 250 feet of roots to make 500 feet of finished split roots. The estimate was 5 feet of roots for each rib, 40 ribs require 200 feet and the seams to be sewn would…
Posted in Archaeology, News Comments closed
When is a human like a bison?
A lot of conservation initiatives around the world involve fencing off areas to “protect” the wild species contained within. Although that strategy can work well in ecosystems that are rarely disturbed, like tropical rainforests, it doesn’t work as well in ecosystems that evolved with natural disturbances. North American prairies used to contain migratory herbivores (e.g. bison, antelope) that consumed large quantities of the vegetation. Bison are unique in that they…
The Latvian Rolling Pin
It’s a simple tool: a rolling pin made from a single piece of wood, fashioned into a two-foot long rod tapered at both ends. Sometimes these are called French rolling pins, but this one was made in Latvia over one hundred years ago and made its way to Winnipeg in 1909. A young woman named Rytze (1885-1962) followed her married sister to Canada, and the rolling pin was part of…
