Did you know that the Nonsuch has a trapdoor? Join Learning & Engagement Producer Erin in the hold to learn more!
Fossils Found in Amber
Amber found at Cedar Lake, Manitoba, is famous as a source of fossil insects of Late Cretaceous age (about 78-79 million years old). Strangely, this amber originated far from Manitoba!
Amber, a fossil tree resin, has long been prized as a gem, and it provides immense evidence about the ancient world. Most amber comes from softwood trees, which produce abundant resin as protection from wood beetles; the sticky resin captures insects and other small creatures.
![View through a microscope looking at a circle of pieces of gold-orange amber, lit from below.](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MM-3.2-Blog-Microscope-Cedar-Lake-Amber-4x3-1.png)
Cedar Lake amber came from trees that grew near what is now Medicine Hat, Alberta, on a warm floodplain inhabited by dinosaurs! Amber is very light and is easily transported. The amber now at Cedar Lake was eroded from sedimentary rock, and transported by the Saskatchewan River. It was deposited where the flow of the river slowed: at Cedar Lake, where it is incorporated into beaches. This material, found in Manitoba, tells us about insects that lived 1000 km away!
Learn more in the Earth History Gallery.
New exhibition, ‘If These Walls Could Talk,’ now open!
Don’t miss ‘If These Walls Could Talk: 50 Years of 2SLGBTQ+ Activism in Winnipeg’ during your next visit to the Museum!
Learn more about this important exhibition with Curator of History, Dr. Roland Sawatzky, and Rainbow Resource Centre Director of Advocacy, Ashley Smith.
Did you know why our oceans are SO important?
Did you know that the ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface? This Ocean Week, join Mika, our Learning & Engagement Producer of Youth Climate Action, to learn some of the reasons that it’s so important for us to take care of our oceans.
If These Walls Could Talk
By Roland Sawatzky, Curator of History, the Manitoba Museum & Ashley Smith, Director of Advocacy, Rainbow Resource Centre
Two-spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (2SLGBTQ+) people have always lived in Winnipeg, and were and are an essential part of the fabric of our urban society. 2SLGBTQ+ communities have a rich history. The Manitoba Museum is proud to partner with Rainbow Resource Centre to help tell this important community story through this temporary exhibition of posters, which opened on May 26.
Museums are a place of artifacts and stories. Some artifacts, such as posters, seem ephemeral when they are first printed and put up on a wall. They are meant for immediate effect – they “talk” to casual passersby, but only for a few weeks before they disappear. Posters that are actually preserved make excellent artifacts for capturing a single moment in time.
The 20 posters showcased in the new exhibit If These Walls Could Talk: 50 Years of 2SLGBTQ+ Activism in Winnipeg capture the issues and concerns of the community from the early 1970s to the present. They are calls to action to advance and protect the rights of individuals in the community.
From the first simple sign – Gays for Equality, from 1973 – a call went out for gathering and representation at the University of Manitoba. In 1978 a poster called for gays and lesbians to “COME OUT” and speak up for human rights and to end discrimination, and protest the anti-gay rights activist Anita Bryant who was speaking in Winnipeg. In 1980 a poster protested the banning of gay books – an issue that still resonates today. During the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the mid-1980s-1990s, 2SLGBTQ+ communities suffered devastation, and rights became a matter of life and death. Posters were used to spread useful information and support for those at risk. Into the 2000s, posters promoted equality of marriage, anti-bullying measures, and transgender rights.
In 1987, Manitoba became Canada’s third province to include sexual orientation in its Charter of Rights and Freedoms – later celebrated as the first Pride on August 2 of that year. 2SLGBTQ+ activism was central to this and many other freedoms for Manitobans, and these posters tell the story of the fight for those rights, of how far the community has come, and also how much is at risk of being lost today.
Fun Fact!
The Rainbow Flag was first created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a gay man and drag queen from California. Harvey Milk, an openly gay city supervisor in San Francisco, had urged Gilbert to make a symbol of pride for the larger gay community. Over the years it has evolved to include more colours, representing diversity within the 2SLGBTQ+ community!
If These Walls Could Talk is produced in partnership with the Rainbow Resource Centre, and funded in part by the Manitoba Government, Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage.
![](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Rainbow-Resource-Centre-RRC50-LOGO-PURPLE-486x320.png)
![](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Province-of-Manitoba-logo-486x320.png)
![Dr. Roland Sawatzky](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MM_Roland-Sawatzky-scaled-e1697834215732-1024x1024.jpg)
Dr. Roland Sawatzky
Curator of History
A-toad hunting we will go
As we enter June, Manitobans spend time outside gardening at home or swimming at the cottage, except for herpetologists (reptile and amphibian scientists) when June is time to look for toads! This is a good month to be listening for Great Plains toads (Anaxyrus cognatus) and plains spadefoot toads (Spea bombifrons) as males gather in wet spots to call and attract mates. These two species are almost unknown to most people, despite being found in good numbers if you look and listen in the right places, and their “love songs” can carry for over two kilometres! But they are overlooked because they generally don’t call until it is dark, and in June that means well after 10 pm; most of us (if you are not a herpetologist) are inside avoiding mosquitoes and likely getting ready for bed.
Another reason these two toad species “call under the radar” is that their ranges are restricted to the southwestern corner of the province. As many Manitobans head east to lake country, they are missing one of nature’s incredible sound and light shows – hearing dozens of each these two species calling together under a clear, moon- and starlit prairie sky is a special experience. Here’s a taste of that sound (you might want to turn the volume down!):
The metallic trill in the foreground is a Great Plains toad and in the background are the nasal snores of plains spadefoot toads. These were calling from a temporary wet spot in a farmer’s field near Melita.
![Two photograph side-by-side. Left: A Great Plains toad mostly emerged from shallow water with an expanded clear-pink vocal sac. Right: A Plains spadefoot toad swimming through shallow water with an expanded milky-white vocal sac.](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Untitled-design-13.png)
Great Plains toad (left) and plains spadefoot toad (right) with inflated throat sacs calling to attract females. These species are southwestern specialties and not found elsewhere in Manitoba. The bodies of these males are under 60 mm long.
© Randall Mooi
The ecology of Manitoba’s southwest is unique and worth exploring. In addition to these two toads, there are many species of plants, birds, mammals, and invertebrates that are found nowhere else in Manitoba. Birds and mammals are always the most obvious to people, but smaller creatures like amphibians make up a considerable portion of the wild animal biomass of the southwestern corner (perhaps equalling that of small mammals and exceeding that of birds). In wet years, the numerous temporary ponds, prairie potholes, and other wetlands provide habitat for amphibians to breed and lay eggs, and for their larvae to grow and transform into frogs, toads, and salamanders. Once adult, most Manitoban amphibians are essentially terrestrial, returning to wetlands only to breed and lay eggs.
Great Plains toads and plains spadefoot toads are no exception, and avoid detection by people and predators by spending much of their lives buried underground. During our cold winters, these two species need to hibernate below the frost line. They are good diggers and can burrow into softer ground or sand – spadefoot toads are so-named for the hard, keratinous, sharp-edged bumps on their back feet that they use as “spades” to dig backwards into the soil. Great Plains toads are also known to use old rodent burrows to get underground. In spring and summer, when it can be hot and dry on the prairies, these two species escape the searing heat by remaining below ground during the day and hunting for food at night when it is cooler. Even then, they often remain buried for long periods to retain moisture and come to the surface only after heavy rainfalls to breed.
![Two photographs side-by-side. Top: A Great Plain toad being held up beside a GPS unit showing day, time, and location coordinates. Bottom: Landscape photograph of a boggy field beside a road.](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Untitled-design-10.png)
Northernmost record of Great Plains toad in Manitoba (top; © Peter Taylor, used with permission), found crossing the road at 4 am (yes, surveys can run from 10 pm to dawn the next day!).
Typical habitat for our southwestern toads (bottom; © Manitoba Museum).
The Manitoba Museum is studying the Great Plains toad because it is considered threatened in Manitoba. For many animals in the southwest of the province, loss of habitat and pollutants are concerns because much of our original prairie landscape has been considerably modified by commercial agriculture, resource extraction, and transportation corridors – all through the demands of our modern lifestyles. Some good news, though, has come through research at the Museum, where Great Plains toads have been found to have a larger distribution than originally thought. Last spring’s heavy rains meant that there were many temporary ponds providing suitable habitat, even in places that are usually quite dry. The result was that toads in these areas, likely inactive as breeders for several years, had opportunities to attract mates and reproduce. Museum researchers discovered the species at several new sites, some up to 25 km outside of the previously known range!
![Map graphic showing the province of Manitoba and a zoomed in portion in the south-western corner near Melita.](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Untitled-design-11.png)
The previously known range of Great Plains toad (in solid blue on the inset map of Manitoba; bounded by a blue line on the close-up of the southwest corner), with red dots showing the new sites discovered last spring by Museum researchers.
Base map modified from data provided by the MB Conservation Data Centre, used with permission. © Manitoba Museum
Within this revised distribution of Great Plains toads, plains spadefoot toads were found throughout and in higher numbers. Both toad species, despite the extensive use of pesticides and loss of habitat, seem to be surviving today’s highly modified conditions, but how successfully remains guesswork. Without consistent monitoring programs, it is impossible to measure the size of toad populations or to determine if their numbers are stable, increasing, or decreasing. And because spadefoots and Great Plains toads adjust breeding activity to cycles of drought and wet periods, it is a huge challenge to determine population sizes. In wet years, like 2022, the toads seem to be everywhere, but in a dry year they seem to disappear. This means that monitoring programs need to be maintained over long periods through several wet/dry cycles. And climate change is making these even less predictable.
![Two photographs side-by-side. Left: Dr. Randy Mooi on a step stool, drilling a data logger onto a hydro pole. Right. A white bee-hive shaped data logger attached to a hydro pole above a green box recording unit beside a boggy field.](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Untitled-design-12.png)
Installing recording units and data loggers on hydro poles (with a permit, of course) near suitable habitat (left). A white data logger mounted above a green recording unit beside a temporary pond (right).
© Manitoba Museum
The Manitoba Museum has just begun a pilot project to monitor these two amphibian prairie specialists. Automated recording units have been set up at a handful of locations where Great Plains and spadefoot toads have been found in previous years and where temporary ponds existed at the time the units were deployed, all with the hope that this will increase detection rates. The units are set to record at particular times over each 24-hour period throughout the spring and summer months. Temperature and humidity loggers are paired with the recording units. The goal is to determine what triggers breeding activity in the two species, what times of the year it occurs, and in what numbers. These data will help determine measures that can conserve these two toads and, perhaps, other species that rely on similar habitat.
We hope that this will mean that Manitobans can go a-toad hunting and experience their incredible chorus on the prairies in perpetuity.
And, of course, everyone has the opportunity to visit the Museum’s new Prairies Gallery to learn the calls of prairie toads and frogs and explore their fascinating life histories – above and below ground!
![Dr. Randy Mooi](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MM_Randy-Mooi-scaled-e1697822238813-1024x1024.jpg)
Dr. Randy Mooi
Curator of Zoology
Strange History
Our human history collection is full of special objects, highlighting significant points in Manitoba’s past –like Cuthbert Grant’s medicine chest or the replica of the Nonsuch. Yet we also make a point of collecting objects that represent everyday life in Manitoba – cans of soup, well-loved toys and farming implements. These mundane objects surprise people, since most of us consider objects we use routinely to have little historical value. Then there are objects that baffle even the seasoned museologist, begging questions like what and, most importantly, why?
Early in my days working with the human history collection, I was searching for a medical-related artifact in an area of our storage room rife with old medicine and surgical tools. I pulled an unlabeled box off a high shelf to have a look inside and was shocked to find it full of dentures –it gave me quite a start. I wish I could say it was the only time that box of dentures had scared me.
Only one pair of our dentures can be linked to a specific person; the others were donated by the Manitoba Dental Association or have no known source. So if they don’t belong to a historical figure, why collect them? Dentures have been made of various materials for centuries. Wood, human and animal teeth, ivory, bone, and porcelain have all been used to fashion false teeth throughout history. Modern dentures are made from synthetic materials like acrylic. The dentures in our collection capture techniques and materials at a specific moment in time, allowing researchers to make comparisons to older and newer generations of false teeth.
![Close-up on the face of an inflatable doll with yellow hair, blue eye shadow, and an open mouth.](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/MM_CC-H9-16-182-detail-4x3-1.png)
A few years ago, some of our staff took part in an AMA on Reddit during Ask a Curator day (#AskACurator). One of the questions asked was “what is the weirdest object in your collection?” I immediately thought of an inflatable doll, which made her way into our collection in 1984 as part of a much larger donation from the old Winnipeg Musical Supply store. The doll is in excellent condition, meaning that she has never been used. And no, she doesn’t inflate – we’ve tried. Her face is coming away from her body, creating a hole where air can escape. This object is close to my heart because when I was in university, doing my Masters in Museum Studies, I wrote a paper about collecting sexual artifacts and discussed the inclusion of the doll in the collection and staff’s reactions to her presence. It’s highly unlikely that “Dolly” will ever be exhibited and her provenance isn’t clear, but she definitely captures a period of time when novelty and gag gifts were popular.
Inflatable doll; vinyl; L 20th C. Catalogue Number: H9-16-182 © Manitoba Museum
The previous artifacts are odd, true, but everyone knows that teeth are needed for chewing and enunciating and everyone loves a good laugh, but this artifact can turn stomachs and bewilder minds better than no other.
During the Victorian era, the popularity of jewellery made of human hair saw a definite rise. Hair would be collected from a loved one and woven into intricate patterns to make bracelets, brooches, earrings and necklaces. Wearing mourning jewellery fabricated from the hair of deceased relatives was common amongst Victorian women. People also made wreaths from human hair to display on their walls, often taking hair from multiple family members to complete a single wreath.
Hair wreath, human hair, L 19th C. Catalogue Number: H9-18-67 © Manitoba Museum
Hair wreath, detail. Catalogue Number: H9-18-67 © Manitoba Museum
This example was made in Ontario by Mary Jane McKague and brought to Manitoba in 1881, first to Emerson by train and then transported by ox cart to the community of Coulter south of Melita where Mary Jane and her husband John homesteaded. Mary Jane died in childbirth delivering her sixth and final child in 1895. Her wreath was carefully kept by her eldest daughter and later three of her granddaughters before they donated it to the Manitoba Museum in 1985. It is one of several examples of Victorian hair art and jewellery in our collection. Even if the thought of handling human hair is unsettling, these objects are an important part of our understanding of 19th century society, fashion and the Victorian mourning process.
What commonplace objects that we think nothing of today will give pause to museum collectors of the future? Only time will tell!
![Cortney Pachet](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MM_Cortney-Pachet-2615-scaled-e1698169545989-1024x1024.jpg)
Cortney Pachet
Collections Technician – Human History
Did you know about Victorian hair wreaths?
Did you know that Victorians made mourning jewelry and wreaths from the hair of deceased loved ones? Take a close look at two of the hair wreaths in our collection with Cortney, our Collections Technician of Human History!
Did you know where Cedar Lake amber REALLY comes from?
Did you know that the beautiful amber found along the beaches of Cedar Lake isn’t actually from Manitoba? Join Dr. Graham Young in the Earth History Gallery to find out where it came from and what it can tell us about the Cretaceous period.
Planting for Pollinators
The loss of biodiversity, including wild pollinators, is an ongoing environmental problem. In Manitoba, our main pollinators are bees, flies, butterflies, wasps, moths, beetles, and hummingbirds (see www.prairiepollination.ca for help identifying them). Fortunately, there are things you can do to make life easier for these important creatures, including providing them with water, food, and nesting and sheltering habitat.
Water
Pollinators need water (not just nectar) to stay hydrated, particularly in drought years. Since bird baths are too deep for most pollinators, instead provide a dish filled with pebbles or sand and water, or build a small pond.
Food
The most nutritious nectar and pollen is produced by native plants. Native plants also have the correct flower shape to fit the local pollinators’ mouthparts. Although cultivars of native plants, like bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), may produce good forage, those that are highly modified (e.g., double-bloomed species), or lack nectar and pollen (e.g., sterile hybrids) are often useless for pollinators.
To provide a regular food supply, ensure you grow at least some native species that flower in spring, summer and fall. Good choices for southern Manitoba include:
Spring (May-June)
Cherries and plums (Prunus), wild roses (Rosa acicularis), raspberries (Rubus), meadowsweet (Spirea alba), Western Canada violet (Viola canadensis), and Alexanders (Zizia).
Summer (July-August)
Giant hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), milkweeds (Asclepias), prairie-clover (Dalea), Western red lily (Lilium philadelphicum), wild mint (Mentha arvensis), obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), and blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia).
Fall (September-October)
Coneflower (Echinacea), blazingstar (Liatris), white aster (Oligoneuron album), goldenrods (Solidago), and asters (Symphyotrichum).
Nesting and Sheltering Habitat
Pollinators need places to build their nests, and shelter over winter. However, all pollinators have different needs. Some bees prefer bare, sandy soil to nest in, others under leaf piles or clumps of grass, and yet others in plant stem cavities. To attract butterflies to breed, you must provide them with their larval host plants, often native flowers or grasses.
You can create potential nesting and sheltering habitat by leaving small leaf and wood piles in your yard, perhaps in an area that you don’t use regularly. By not mulching all your bare soil, especially in sunny spots, you can also provide breeding habitat for ground-nesting bees. Another thing you can do is delay your yard clean up until late May. The layer of dead vegetation will help to insulate overwintering pollinators from the cold.
Happy gardening!