Does your house shift with the seasons? So does the Nonsuch! Learn how the Conservation Team tracks the expansion and contraction of the Nonsuch in this video with Senior Conservator Carolyn Sirett.
Did you know how we care for the Nonsuch? Pt. 1
The Nonsuch is the largest artifact in the Museum Collection and requires specialized conservation. Join Senior Conservator Carolyn as she takes us through some of the regular tasks they carry out on the Nonsuch – including a trip up the rigging!
Check back next week for part 2.
Welcome to the CEO’s Corner
Posted on: Wednesday November 8, 2023
Dearest Manitoba Museum friends,
First, thank you for being here. I appreciate how much information we receive on any given day, and how overwhelming it can feel. We often ask ourselves, ‘Is this message relevant to me or do I just delete it or move on?’ Fair question, and a necessary one if we want to create a life most meaningful to each of us. This message, aka my introductory blog, is one such piece of communication I hope you don’t automatically move on. I’m going to try my best to make reading this message worthy of your time and attention.
To begin, for those of you I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Dorota Blumczyńska and I am the CEO of the Manitoba Museum. I joined the Museum two and a half incredible years ago. I say incredible because my life has been forever changed by what I’ve learned, unlearned, and re-learned in this seemingly short time. Leading this important organization is one of the greatest honours of my career, my life. Every day brings with it new insights, new challenges to overcome, new opportunities to embrace, and new uncertainties to leap into. More about that in a bit.
Why a blog? Although engaging with our communities is an important part of my role at the Museum, it isn’t something I get to do as much as I would like. The day to day realities of leading a museum are dynamic and demanding; they require paying attention simultaneously to what’s on the horizon and what’s right in front of us. I enjoy the challenges that come with supporting a fantastic team and doing hard and heart work, in balance with opportunities to be with the people and planet we do all of it for. That’s where this blog comes in: it’s my way of being present with you, our community, while serving the needs of the moment. In time, as we get to know each other, I hope to hear from you, respond to questions, and offer my insights on museum work and why it matters. These are some of my goals.
So, a little about me. I came to Canada with my parents and four siblings in 1989. We were brought here as Privately Sponsored Refugees – meaning a community who had never met us agreed to support our family during our first years here; everything from finding work, housing, learning English, to understanding our new country. As it is for many migrants, life in Canada in those early years was very difficult. The most basic things proved more complicated than any of us had imagined. In time however, we began to make friends and it was the warmth and welcome of others that helped us feel like we had found home again.
Community, I’ve learned, both professionally and personally, is what makes life a less arduous journey. The mere presence of others, those who witness our milestones, celebrate our successes, grieve our losses, and accompany us in the most beautifully mundane moments, enriches our existence.
My own life was enriched two and half years ago when I was invited to be a part of the Manitoba Museum team.
It was enriched years earlier when my family was selected for re-settlement.
And it continues to be enriched by every chance I get to welcome you, our community, into relationships with us.
This past year, as you can see from our spectacular new website and changes to many of our physical and online spaces, has been a year of continued transformation. Improvement not for the sake of improving, but with the goal of bringing us closer together, in proximity to each other’s stories.
This CEO corner, the first of many blogs from me to you, will help us get to know one another a bit more, encourage us to be curious about each other’s perspectives, and will create a space where we can ask and answer questions, explore complicated topics, and perhaps, demystify some of the myths and mysteries of museums today.
Loving Thy Nonsuch – Care of a Beloved Ship
Posted on: Friday November 3, 2023
By Carolyn Sirett, Senior Conservator
In 1973, the Nonsuch replica made its final resting place at the Manitoba Museum where it has become the largest artifact in the Museum’s collection and one of the most beloved. The preservation of this treasured little ship falls onto the shoulders of the Conservation department, whom over the past 50 years have taken great care in ensuring it sticks around for generations to come. So how does a team of trained Conservators look after a ship that has been stored indoors for the last fifty years?
Behind-the-scenes, weekly, monthly, and bi-annual maintenance tasks are completed, ensuring that Nonsuch stays in working condition. Regular cleaning of woodwork, removal of dust from decks, and polishing of metal components keeps everything in tiptop shape. Historical changes in footwear have also helped greatly in the preservation of Nonsuch. There are stories from the early 1970s of Conservators removing studs from high-heeled shoes that would get stuck in the deck seams almost daily. The flat-bottomed footwear of today’s fashion style has been much more sympathetic and favorable to the lasting conditions of the ship.
Assistant Conservator, Loren Rudisuela, polishes the brass on the tiller handle of Nonsuch. ©Manitoba Museum
Log books with maintenance records and drawings from the 1980s are still used today to track and record preservation tasks by the Conservation department. ©Manitoba Museum
Senior Conservator, Carolyn Sirett, climbs the ratlines to apply pine tar to the standing rigging as part of the ship’s maintenance. ©Manitoba Museum
The more challenging jobs are completed above the main decks, in the rigging and sails that soar high above the gallery space. With a stomach for heights, the ratlines or rope ladders, are used by Conservators to climb up to the various sections and apply pine tar to the standing rigging. Pine tar, an oily black substance brushed on to the ropes, is what gives the ship and gallery its iconic smell – a smell that has been said to spark memories of first field trips, first dates, and first visits. Caring for Nonsuch is a passion for the Conservation team, and a longstanding tradition of ship secrets that have been passed down from one Conservator to the next.
Carolyn Sirett
Senior Conservator
Carolyn Sirett received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba, Diploma in Cultural Resource Management from the University of Victoria, and Diploma in Collections Conservation and Management…
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Do you know how to spot fakes and forgeries?
Join Dr. Amelia Fay in this video in the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection to learn how to spot some common fakes and forgeries that claim to be HBC artifacts.
Check out Dr. Fay’s blog Fakes & Forgeries: Buyer Beware! to learn more and see some photos of fake artifacts people have tried to sell online.
A Story of Three Violins
Did you know that the three violins on display in the Prairies Gallery and the Winnipeg Gallery all have something in common?
Find out what, or who, it is in this video with Dr. Roland Sawatzky, Curator of History!
New Exhibition Shares Stories of Family and Migration as Told Through the Art of Clock-Making
Winnipeg, MB: October 23, 2023 – The Manitoba Museum will be a temporary home to a beautiful and engaging exhibition developed by the Kroeger Clocks Heritage Foundation in partnership with the Mennonite Heritage Village.
Keeping Time: The Art and Heritage of Mennonite Clocks provides an in-depth look into the craft and art of Mennonite clocks made in Europe and transported by immigrants to the Americas over the last two centuries. Beautiful in and of themselves, each clock also has an important story to tell about its owners and their experiences of migration.
“Several clocks featured in this exhibition are on loan from family homes, where their ticking and chiming connects present-day owners to their ancestors. Others are loaned from museum collections, where they are preserved for their cultural value,” says Alexandra Zeitz of the Kroeger Clocks Heritage Foundation, who is herself a descendant of Mennonite clockmakers.
For centuries, Mennonite clockmakers honed their craft to produce iconic clocks that brought beauty and structure into homes and communities. Today these timepieces carry emotional meaning. They survive as cultural representations and witnesses to the social and political upheaval experienced by their makers and owners. These clocks are now found around the world, wherever there is a Mennonite diaspora.
“These clocks were both beautiful and functional, but most importantly, they acted as symbols of family stability. They were taken along during Mennonite migrations to retain and transplant that social continuity,” says Roland Sawatzky, Curator of History at the Manitoba Museum.
This temporary exhibition features 15 Mennonite clocks, made between the late 1700s and early 1900s and transported to Manitoba by Mennonite immigrants over many decades. These beautiful timepieces were made in Mennonite workshops in Ukraine, and represent Mennonite migration stories, mechanical ingenuity, folk art, and family life.
Members of the media are invited to preview the exhibit in
The Manitoba Museum Discovery Room • Thursday, October 26
Doors Open: 6:30 pm;
Welcome, Speeches & Refreshments: 7:00-7:30 pm;
Exhibit Viewing: 7:30-9:00 pm
Keeping Time: The Art and Heritage of Mennonite Clocks, will open to the public on October 27, 2023 in the Manitoba Museum’s Discovery Room. It will be on display until February 2024. Exhibit admission is included in General Admission to the Museum Galleries.
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Media Contact:
Brandi Hayberg
Manager of Marketing & Communications
204-988-0614
bhayberg@manitobamusuem.ca
Meet Manitoba’s Bats!
Have you seen any bats lately? As Halloween approaches we start to see bats everywhere, but do you know where Manitoba’s bats are in October?
Find out in this video with Curator of Zoology, Randy Mooi, and learn some of the challenges our local bats are facing.
Even though there may not be any real bats flitting through the air this October, it is the perfect time to visit the Manitoba Museum to find out more about these fascinating flying mammals. Don’t forget to put on your costume and join us for our annual Halloween Takeover – a safe, weatherproof, and fun-filled experience for all ages – October 28 and 29!
How do fires impact archaeology?
As we all know, this year has been a very active wildfire year, which has massive impacts on individuals and communities. How do fires, whether campfires or forest fires, impact the work of archaeologists?
Find out in this video with Curator of Archaeology David Finch.
Go Batty at the Manitoba Museum!
By Dr. Randall Mooi, Curator of Zoology, Manitoba Museum
October is when bats – or their silhouettes, at least – are hard to miss! You’ll likely come across multiple houses this month proudly displaying these winged wonders alongside jack-o-lanterns and witches. However, these fascinating flying mammals won’t be joining in on the fun of trick-or-treating. By the end of September, three of Manitoba’s bat species will have migrated south to find food, whereas the other three will be hibernating locally.
Bats: Small but Mighty
Manitoba’s largest species is the hoary bat with a 40 cm wingspan, though it weighs only about 30 g – less than an AA battery! The smallest species weighs as little as 5 g – just a little more than a quarter. They are all nocturnal and, although they do feed on mosquitoes, usually go for larger prey such as moths and beetles. Bats can be important in controlling agricultural pests, saving billions of dollars in crop damage.
Scary times to be a bat
Because Manitoba’s bats are active at night, most of us are unaware that their numbers have plummeted across North America. Several are endangered, including our own little brown bat and northern long-eared bat. These two hibernating species are susceptible to white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection (likely introduced from Europe) that interrupts hibernation patterns and has decimated bat populations in the east. This fungus now occurs in Manitoba and similar dire outcomes are expected.
Thousands of migrating bats are killed by wind turbines every year. Although renewable energy is an imperative, bats are attracted to wind turbines with murderous results. Because bats migrate on relatively calm nights for short periods in spring and fall, it should be possible to mitigate the effect of wind turbines on bat populations while minimizing economic impacts.
Manitoba’s three bat species that migrate. Museum specimens of, from top to bottom, a silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), and hoary bat (L. cinereus).
A silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) that made a short stop on the wall of the Manitoba Museum during spring migration from the southern United States to our boreal forest.
In the Parklands Gallery, you can use a flashlight to see hibernating little brown bats in a cave diorama based on similar caves in the Interlake Region. How many bats are in our cave? Why don’t you come for a visit and count them for yourself!
Wing it with us this fall!
Even though there may not be any real bats flitting through the air this October, it is the perfect time to visit the Manitoba Museum to find out more about these fascinating flying mammals. Take a walk through the Parklands Gallery and into a replica “Bat Cave” to see how these nocturnal animals live, and make other cool discoveries underground. And don’t forget to put on your costume and join us for our annual Halloween Takeover – a safe, weatherproof, and fun-filled experience for all ages – October 28 and 29!
Dr. Randall Mooi
Curator of Zoology
Dr. Mooi received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Toronto working on the evolutionary history of coral reef fishes. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Fishes of the Smithsonian Institution…
Meet Dr. Randall Mooi