Showing You the Door

Showing You the Door

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday December 31, 2012

By Dr. Graham Young, past Curator of Palaeontology & Geology

 

When I started this blog a couple of years ago, one of my main intentions was to share the various items and phenomena that are within close reach of my desk, here on the 4th floor of the Museum tower. With that in mind, and since at lunchtime on New Year’s Eve we have reached a point in the year where serious and scholarly content should not be expected, I have decided to provide you with an annotated view of my office door.

In general, this curator’s door is far from curated, in the sense of having organized content. Rather, it is an odd mixture of items that I have randomly decided to exhibit, pieces that other people decided should be placed on my door, and things that seem to have flown in and stuck there all by themselves. With that in mind, the following is an annotated pictorial guide to items that can be seen on my door right now.

An office door covered in various posters, photos, and stickers. Overlaid on the image are the numbers one through sixteen identifying each item.

1, 2. When I started work at the Museum almost 20 years ago, the “Curator of Geology” plate was already on the door. As I was a part-time term employee for the first few years, I didn’t think that I should waste the Museum’s funds by requesting a personal nameplate. After a year or so, however, we made a “temporary” plate by laminating a laser-printed output to cardstock. I am, of course, still using the temporary plate, as it works just fine and I still like to avoid wasting money!

3, 4. For some unknown reason, the door suggests that my office is both Room 417 and Room 418. The 417 is, however, struck through with pen, indicating that 418 may be the accurate number.

5. When I started here, the Museum was called the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, and the name and logo had been very nicely laminated to my door. I really like our new name, but I also like being surrounded by reminders of history.

A printed photo of a yellow sign reading, "Danger / Unexploded bombs in this area / Keep out".

6-8. My door seems to have acquired a variety of warning signs, perhaps in the hope that potential visitors will leave me to peacefully contemplate the riddles of the universe (note: these haven’t worked so far!). Actually, numbers 6 and 8 are copies of signs seen near Churchill, and are reminders of northern fieldwork. Number 7 is a joke sign produced by former Curator of Zoology Gavin Hanke, when he was making a “bear warning” sign for the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery. Some thoughtful person has, with a pencil, modified “Irate Curator” to “Pirate Curator”, which brings to mind all sorts of interesting images.  Arrr.

9. This sticker promotes the “International Year of the Reef 1997”. Sadly, evidence would suggest that this was one of the less successful International Years.

10. The definition of forthwith came from the brain of my friend Dave Rudkin. With this in mind, I am always happy to state that I will produce a document “forthwith.”

11. This lovely pen-and-ink sketch of the Ordovician branching coral Pragnellia arborescens is by Museum artist and preparator Debbie Thompson. It depicts the holotype of this species, specimen I-206.

A small sign bearing a definition of forthwith, reading, "adj. - from FOR-THWITH, originally meaning to be completed in time for THWITH, an ancient druidic feast of no fixed date; now used to refer to any unspecified moment in the future and hence to completion of any task for which it would be unwise to provide a deadline."

A pen and ink sketch of a coral with four branches reaching upwards.

12. A photo of the head (cranidium) of a Silurian trilobite from the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec is there to remind me of two things. First, it is an image I took 30 years ago using what is now ancient technology (a large-format film camera), and its tone and beauty demonstrate that new methods are not always the best methods. Second, since it is from a research project that I never completed, it is a reminder not to keep taking on new projects that I will not be able to finish!

13. The obligatory dinosaur cartoon.

14.  This is a Velociraptor-free workplace, and there have been no incidents since this sign was put up almost a month ago.

The half moon shape of a fossilized trilobite head.

A printed sign showing a silhouette of a velociraptor with a circle around it and a line striking through. Text reads, "This is a velociraptor-free workplace / it has proudly been / 12 / days since the last incident".

15. I produced this version of the Canadian flag for my other blog a couple of years ago, after reading Michael Flanders’ pronouncement from the 1960s that our flag looked like a dinosaur footprint.

16. This was a nice poster of a pyrite crystal, but it is sadly becoming greenish and tattered, and I really should replace it!

Museum Stories: Palaeontology & Geology

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Adventures of a Conservator in Training

Posted on by Collections & Conservation
Posted on: Friday December 21, 2012

By Jessica VanOostwaard, Conservation Intern

An aged open trunk or large suitcase with the open lid facing the camera. Various worn stickers and labels are peeling around the lid.

As a requirement for the Collections Conservation and Management program at Fleming College in Peterborough Ontario, all students are required to participate in a 15 week internship at an institution of their choice. I was elated to learn that my request to carry out my internship at The Manitoba Museum was accepted. In September I arrived in Winnipeg eager to learn, and The Manitoba Museum did not disappoint.

During my time at the Museum I was able to put my knowledge to work and carried out a number of treatments on some very interesting artifacts in addition to helping collections personnel with gallery maintenance.

 

Image: The labels on this travelling case were falling off; now, they are secure

Two corroding brass clock hands (removed from the clock).

Corrosion plagued these brass clock hands.

Two shiney brass clock hands (removed from the clock).

With some care, they are as good as new.

My time at the museum was not only spent treating the artifacts in the museum’s collection but also helping out with other collection work that needed to be done. Whether it was making mounts for “The World is their Oyster: Marvelous Molluscs” exhibit, venturing down into the secluded sub-basement to help organize Archaeology storage boxes or protecting the artifacts by making boxes and monitoring for pesky insects, The Manitoba Museum provided me with useful experience that will be invaluable in my future career, and for that I would like to thank everyone at the Museum for a wonderful opportunity.

Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation

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Everything you should know about the Berens Family Collection

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday December 17, 2012

By Maureen Matthews, past Curator of Anthropology

 

What is the Berens Family Collection?

Through the generosity of many community leaders, The Manitoba Museum has recently acquired historically significant artefacts that are currently on display in our Foyer area:

  • Chief’s Treaty Medal No. 5 and Chain, given to Chief Jacob Berens at the signing of Treaty No. 5, September 20, 1875 (H4-2-212 A, B).
  • Chief’s 1901 Commemorative Medal and Ribbon, given to Chief Jacob Berens in 1901, in commemoration of Treaty No. 5, by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, later King George VI and Queen Mary, as part of a cross-Canada rail journey (H4-2-213 A, B).
  • Chief’s coat, early 20th century, red wool with gold trim, epaulettes, and buttons which read “Dominion of Canada Indians,” belonged to Chief William Berens, the son of Jacob Berens; pants, navy wool

 

Who is Chief Jacob Berens?

Chief Jacob Berens’ Anishinaabe name, Naawigiizhigweyaash which means  ‘light moving in the centre of the sky,’ may indicate that he was born the year of the passing of Halley’s comet, 1835, but his birth date is uncertain (appx. 1932-35).  He was the son of Makwa ( Bear), and Aamoo (Bee or Victoria) of Berens River.  He married Mary McKay the daughter of the HBC clerk, William McKay in 1862 and they had at least 8 children.  On Sept 20, 1875 at Berens River , Jacob signed Treat No. 5 on behalf of the people in the Manitoba communities of Berens River, Poplar River, Bloodvein, Little Grand Rapids, and Pauingassi and the Ontario communities of Poplar Hill and Pikanguikum.  He was the Chief of this vast area until his death July 7, 1916.

 

Who is Chief William Berens?

Chief William Berens was the son of Jacob Berens and Mary (McKay) Berens. William was born in 1866He grew up in the Berens River area and in 1917 he succeeded his father as Chief of the Berens River Band, still encompassing the vast territory of the upper Berens River. In later years he became the friend and colleague of the American Anthropologist, A Irving Hallowell, who took down Berens’ reminiscences of the first forty years of his life and recorded many legends and stories – now published by Drs. Jennifer S.H. Brown and Susan Elaine Gray (Memories, Myths and Dreams of an Ojibwe Leader. McGill Queens University Press 2009). William Berens married Nancy (Everett) Berens of Berens River. They had 7 children and were the adoptive parents of several more. William Berens was Chief of the Berens River Band until he died on August 23rd, 1947.

 

How did the Berens Family Collection come to the Manitoba Museum?

The Berens family Collection came to the museum via a great-great-grandson of Chief William Berens. This young man, another Bill Berens, first contacted the museum in October 2011. Before Christmas of 2011, he brought the two coats, the pants and the two medals to the museum for safekeeping as well as conservation and assessment. As the museum has no acquisitions budget, we turned to the community of Winnipeg and five generous individuals and foundations donated the necessary funds (most wish to remain anonymous). The collection is now on display in a New Acquisitions Case in the foyer of the museum and will be there until May 2013. For the duration of this display we have also borrowed portraits of William Berens and Jacob Berens by Marion Nelson Hooker and we are very grateful to the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Public Archives of Manitoba for their cooperation in bringing the paintings, the coats and the medals together.

 

Are you sure the coats and medals are real?

The provenance, the history of ownership, for the collection is very convincing. The Treaty signing Sept 20, 1875 is a matter of record and the Berens family has been carefully looking after the coats and the medals ever since. The medals are exactly as you would expect and have the appropriate Treaty number stamped on them. The Manitoba Museum owns a replica of the Treaty No. 1 medal but the Berens medal is the only original medal from any of the numbered Treaties signed in Manitoba in the collection. The medals and coats were cared for by Bill Berens grandmother, Mary Rose Berens, the wife of Bill Berens Jr. the last Berens’ Chief and the last person to wear the red coat for official functions. The red coat is typical of those given at the time; the buttons have a crown, V.R. indicating Queen Victoria and an array of arrows, a bow and a tomahawk and are stamped with the words “DOMINION OF CANADA INDIAN.” The paintings also help to confirm the authenticity of the collection. The portrait of Chief Jacob Berens wearing a blue Chief’s coat and the two medals was painted by Marion Nelson Hooker in Berens River in 1910. Chief William Berens sat for his painting wearing the red jacket, blue pants and both medals, at her studio in Selkirk in 1930.

An additional portrait, now owned by Matilda Gibb another great, great- grandchild of William Berens, was painted of William Berens wearing the red coat, blue pants and both medals in 1922 by another artist, Lars Haukaness, a teacher at the Winnipeg School of Art who went on the found the Art School at the University of Alberta.

The blue coat in this collection is from the early to mid 20th century. We have a photograph of Chief William Berens wearing it just before he passed away (1947). The contents of his pockets includes notes about appointments to see the Indian Agent in Selkirk and serve to remind us that William Berens was an activist on behalf of his people. He succeeded in getting aboriginal fishery quota and licenses so Treaty fishers could sell in their own right rather than working for a middleman. He was one of the most important political figures in the early history of Manitoba and the Chief during one of the most coercive periods of the Department of Indian Affair’s history.

We also have Chief William Berens’ memories of the signing of the Treaty in Berens River, Sept 20th, when he was a child. This vivid bit of history was recorded by the American anthropologist, A. Irving Hallowell who worked with Chief William Berens throughout the 1930s. Chief Berens remembered the excitement as people gathered for the negotiations but said that the Treaty negotiations dragged on and he was asleep when his father finally came home:

“The Treaty was signed about midnight. I don’t know what time my father got back home that night. When I got awake the next morning and got up, I saw some new clothes lung there by my father – a fancy red coat and dark blue pants, socks and boots. There was also a flag and a medal! I heard the people say that my father had been elected chief.” (Berens 2009:44)“Gaa-agwii’iding gii-jakibii’igaade ningoji igo gaa-aabitaa-dibikag. Namanj iidog apii gaa-bi-azhegiiwed nimbaabaa e-dibikag. Apii gaa-goshkoziyaan gigizhebaawagak, ningii-wanishkaa. Ningii-waabandaanan oshki-aya’iiman jiigaya’ii nimbaabaa – dagaki-misko-biizikawaagan zhigwa ozhaawashkozid midaas, azhiganag dago bakobiiwakizinan. Zhigwa miinawaa gikiwe’on, zagaka’on gaye. Ningii-noondam nimbaabaa gii-ogimaakaaniwind.”

Who took all these black and white photos of Chief William Berens?

The photographs of William Berens were taken in the 1930s by the American anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell who was known by Chief William Berens as “Pete”. Hallowell and William Berens worked together for a decade and Hallowell’s photographs of Berens are among the 900 photographs Hallowell took in the course of his fieldwork on the Berens River. They are now housed at the American Philosophical Society where they are a growing part of an online archive meant to make the APS collection more readily available to aboriginal communities. Hallowell valued his friendship with William Berens and said of him that he was “my interpreter, guide, and virtual collaborator,” “whose genial companionship in camp and canoe, in fair weather and foul, never failed to enliven my task.” (Berens 2009:9)

 

Who made the embroidered coat?

The only other artifact with a Berens connection in the museum is a coat made by William Berens wife Nancy (Everett) Berens for the missionary Percy Jones in 1912. (William and Nancy’s son Percy is his namesake). The embroidery style is finer but similar to other coats in the Museum from Norway House and may reflect the aesthetic influence of her grandmother, Mrs. Norman Boucher, a Cree woman from that community.

 

The Berens Family Collection display will be open until May 12, 2013. It is located in the Museum Foyer with free access and at no cost.

Museum Stories: Anthropology

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Testament to the Past

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday December 17, 2012

By Kevin Brownlee, past Curator of Archaeology

 

This past fall I had the fortune to visit the Brockinton Site, located just south of Melita, Manitoba. The site is slowly eroding into the Souris River; each year a little more of the site is lost. We know a good deal about this site thanks to E. Leigh Syms who excavated this site in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While no excavations have occurred for 40 years, Leigh Syms continues to study the collections, revealing new insights.

The largest part of the site is a large bison pound and kill site where about 1200 years ago First Nation people had successfully killed hundreds of bison. When we arrived at the site we encountered tens of thousands of bison bones exposed by the low water, a testament to the ancient peoples who were sustained by the herds of bison that once roamed Manitoba’s grasslands.

A stretch of ground covered in various bison bones.

Thousands of bison bones.

Three individuals on a river bank, one crouched looking at something on the ground, one mid-step, and one standing.

Graham Young standing, Randy Mooi kneeling and Lila Knox walking at the site.

A cut of river bank with embedded bison bones along a thick line near the centre.

Museum Stories: Archaeology

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The Botany of Libations

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Monday December 10, 2012

With the holiday season beginning, I often find myself thinking about celebrations and how frequently alcohol is part of them. Although people are familiar with the different kinds of alcohol-rum, vodka, beer etc. – not everyone knows what they are made of. And what is the difference between lager and ale anyway? Well you’re in luck. Alcohol comes from plants and ethnobotany is one of my areas of expertise. So if you’re terrible at small talk, here are a few bits of alcohol-related trivia that you might want to use as a conversation starter at your next holiday party!

Alcohol Made From Grains: Beers and Whiskeys

Thanks to the multitude of beer commercials out there, you probably know that beer is made from barley (Hordeum vulgare) grains. Unless it’s made from wheat (Triticum aestivum) in which case it’s called Weizenbier or Wheat beer. But you might not know that some beers are brewed using corn (Zea mays), millet (Panicum miliaceum), or sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), (e.g. African Pito beer). In fact most of the most popular commercial American beers mix corn in with the barley to reduce the cost. The fragrant flowers of the hop plant (Humulus lupulus) are typically used to flavour beer but some breweries add spices or fruits like raspberries (Rubus) or pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima) to produce a more complex tasting beverage.

So what’s the difference between lager and ale? Lager is fermented under cold conditions and ale at room temperature using different kinds of yeast, which are by the way are a kind of fungus. In fact, alcohol is the waste-product of brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). So technically when you drink alcohol you’re drinking fungus-urine! But clearly that name didn’t have market appeal hence the names beer and wine.

A display case with a variety of wheat in two rows.

Wheat is used to make weisenbier or wheat beer.

A half round of an oak trunk and several acorns and acorn caps.

Oak barrels are used to age wine, whiskey and brandy.

When beer is distilled, a process in which some of the water is removed by heating or freezing the beer, the alcohol becomes concentrated and therefore more potent. Medieval alchemists considered distilled alcohol to be magical. In fact the words whiskey and aquavit both mean “water of life”. Whiskey, scotch, gin, bourbon, and some vodkas are made from distilled beers to which hops are not added, although vodka can also be made using potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris), and even soybeans (Glycine max)! Scotch is a special whiskey made by drying malted (=germinated) barley over a peat moss (Sphagnum) fire, adding some peaty water to the malt and storing the finished product in oak (Quercus) casks for at least three years. Gin is a clear whiskey that has been flavoured with a variety of plants, most prominently juniper (Juniperus). Bourbon obtains its distinctive taste by being aged in charred oak barrels.

The Japanese beverage sake is also a kind of beer made with fermented sake rice (Oryza sativa) not the rice varieties that we eat. However, both yeast and a mold (Aspergillus orzyae) and are used in fermentation.  The exact same species of mold is also used to make soy sauce.

Two blocks of dark peat moss.

Peat moss gives scotch its distinctive taste.

A small, green bush, growing in grass.

Juniper “berries” which are really fleshy cones, are used to flavour gin.

A oblong coconut beside a halved coconut, showing the hollow cavity in the centre.

Alcohol Made from Flowers: Mead and Arrack

Popular in Medieval times and available in some liquor store is the beverage mead. Mead is fermented honey water, which is actually flower nectar. As honey tastes different depending on which plants the bees were foraging on, so will any resulting mead.

Another alcohol made from flowers is Arrack. The milky sap of coconut (Cocos nucifera) flowers is extracted and fermented to produce this beverage, popular in southeast Asia.

 

Image: Coconut flowers are used to make the libation Arrack.

Alcohol Made From Fleshy Fruit Juice: Wine and Brandy

In contrast to beer, wine is made from fermented juice, most typically grape (Vitis vinifera) which is a kind of berry. However “wine” can be made from other kinds of juice; whether it is any good is another question entirely. Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) wine is one of the more popular wild fruit wines here on the Canadian prairies and I’ve had some nice ones before but also some truly awful ones. “Wine” made from the juice of apples (Malus domestica) is called cider.

Juice from other fruits is also used to make alcohol but many of these products are distilled to form brandy (which means “burnt wine”) rather than being commonly available as “wine”. In addition to distillation to concentrate the alcohol, the resulting fluid is typically aged in oak barrels. Popular fruit brandies include Poire Williams (pear or Pyrus communis), slivovic (plum or Prunus domestica), Frambois (raspberry or Rubus), French Abricot (apricot or Prunus armeniaca), kirsch (cherry or Prunus cerasus), Boukha (figs or Ficus carica), apple (Calvados), and Kislav (watermelon or Citrullus lanatus). Bananas (Musa acuminata), which are basically, seedless leathery “berries”, can also be fermented to produce a banana “beer”, popular in some parts of Africa.

 

Image: Chokecherry fruits can be used to make “wine”.

Alcohol Made From Stems and Roots: Rum, Tequila and Vodka

Alcohol is also made from the stems and roots of plants. During photosynthesis plants produce a sugary sap in their leaves, which is transported through special tubes in the stems called phloem to the roots for storage as starch. The most commonly known stem libation is rum. Rum is made from a grass that produces lots of sugar: Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum). The cane juice or molasses (the by-product of sugar production) is fermented and aged to produce rum. The sap from Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) trees can also be fermented to produce a kind of “maple rum”. Palm wine is made from the sap of date (Phoenix dactylifera) and coconut (Cocos nucifera) palm trees. Rhubarb (Rheum rabarbarum) stems can be crushed, mashed and fermented to produce a very nice “rhubarb wine”.

Tequila and mescal are alcoholic beverages produced by baking the fleshy leaves of Agave (Agave) plants that grow in the deserts of Mexico. After baking the leaves, the agave juice is extracted, fermented and aged in wood barrels, usually oak.

The starchy tubers of potatoes and roots of sugar beets are also fermented and distilled to produce some kinds of vodka. Since potato vodka is flavour-neutral it is often used as a base for flavourful alcohols (see below).

A small pile of almonds on a dark blue background.

Flavourful Alcohols: Bitters and Liqueurs

Bitters and liqueurs are beverages made from distilled alcohol that has been flavoured with botanical ingredients. A combination of flowers, spices, nuts, coffee (Coffea arabica), chocolate (Theobroma cacao), woods, fruits, or herbs are soaked in the alcohol or distilled with it to impart various flavours. Theoretically the combinations are endless as millions of flavour compounds can be found in the world’s plants. Angostura bitters are commonly found in a number of popular cocktails. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) “wine” is a bitter flavoured with dandelion flowers. In general bitters are–you guessed it–bitter rather than sweet. If you want sweet you’ve got to drink a liqueur, which is not only flavoured but has had sugar or honey and sometimes cream added to it.

So if you enjoy drinking you’ve got a lot of plants and fungus to thank! And remember that if you are imbibing this holiday season don’t drive!

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…
Meet Dr. Bizecki Robson

Museum Stories: Botany

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