You may have visited a museum and wondered why some spaces are a bit dark, or have motion sensor lights. It’s to minimize light damage on delicate artifacts! In this video, Senior Conservator Carolyn tells us how conservators work to protect objects on display from light damage, and how you can protect your treasures at home!
Climate Heroes: Youth Against Climate Change
Posted on: Friday January 5, 2024
By Mika Pineda, Learning and Engagement producer for Youth Climate Action at the Manitoba Museum
Working with youth always fascinates me. Their enthusiasm, creativity, and eagerness to learn are contagious; even tackling a complicated topic such as climate change is something that they are ready to take on.
Climate change is a global concern. It is the long-term change in the Earth’s overall temperature, with massive and mostly permanent effects. You see, climate change solutions are not simple for many, but for youth, you would be surprised with what they can come up with given the opportunity.
Young people play an important role in combating the climate crisis. They hold power in making a difference in the community and accelerate climate action. With youth’s increasing awareness and knowledge about climate change, many institutions are stepping up to provide a platform for them to pursue their climate change advocacies.
Participants host events to raise awareness and start important climate conversations. ©Manitoba Museum
The Manitoba Museum launched its first-ever Youth Climate Alliance program in March 2023. The Youth Climate Alliance is a group of high school students, age 14-18, who work together to better understand climate change and its impacts. Through a series of workshops and training, the Youth Climate Alliance host events “by and for” youth.
Since then, the program has had two cohorts with each cohort tackling various issues surrounding climate change – from global and local impacts of climate change to clothing and fast fashion. The participants of the Youth Climate Alliance organize and develop an event that aims to raise awareness and start important climate conversations with their fellow youth and even adults.
The Climate Alliance works together to better understand climate change and its impacts. ©Manitoba Museum
Do you know what your clothes are really made of? The Climate Alliance does! ©Manitoba Museum
While climate change is a big and complicated issue that the world is facing right now, programs such as the Youth Climate Alliance help provide a glimmer of hope to many, and with the start of the new year, the next cohort of the program is also around the corner!
Join the Alliance! The next cohort of the Youth Climate Alliance is now accepting applications.
The first cohort of the Alliance tackled the topic of global and local impacts of climate change. ©Manitoba Museum
The second Climate Alliance cohort explored the issue of “fast fashion” and the industry’s impact on climate. ©Manitoba Museum
Did you know where the HBC Museum started?
Before the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection was donated to the Manitoba Museum, it was displayed elsewhere by the company. Learn how this tableau at the entrance to the HBC Gallery relates to the first HBC Museum in this video with Dr. Amelia Fay.
Check this spot out when you visit during Pyjama Days! Until January 7, 2024, we’re open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, with family fun in all three of our incredible attractions.
Snowball race! At-home science experiment
Here in Manitoba when our roads and sidewalks get icy in the winter, we may put down various kinds of deicer to help make slippery surfaces safer. But which deicer is faster? In this video we race salt, sugar, and beet juice – all of which have been tested as actual road deicer in various places!
Which do you think will melt snow fastest?
Try this experiment at home by following along with this video, or click here for the PDF instruction guide.
Music: “Maple Leaf Rag” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Join us for more winter science experiments during Pyjama Days @ the Manitoba Museum! Running 10 am to 5 pm from December 26 to January 7.
Fixing Shattered Plants – Welcome to my World
Posted on: Tuesday December 12, 2023
As the Assistant Conservator at the Manitoba Museum, one of my main duties is the preservation and maintenance of all the dioramas throughout the galleries. Dioramas have a variety of challenges in their up-keep, so I constantly have to adapt and find solutions to issues that arise. As part of my daily routine, I visually inspect each of the dioramas before the museum opens to make sure everything is in tip-top shape for visitors.
One of the dioramas I inspect daily is The Ukrainian Farm and it is one of my favorite dioramas at the museum. It depicts a complex scene of a family working their farmland which borders the Delta Marsh. Every time I look at this diorama, I see something new and fun. The marsh area of the diorama is teeming with an unexpected diversity of wildlife species nestled amongst the reeds, soaring in the sky, or concealed under the water’s surface.
However, during those daily inspections I often see something less exciting in the diorama – many plants suffering damage! For example, one morning I found a poor Smilacina stellatum (more commonly known as “False Solomon’s Seal”) with several leaves broken off and scattered in the grass around it.
What many may not know is that these plants have been collected in the wild, preserved, and painted to look alive. Like all plant materials after they have been picked, the plant gets increasingly brittle over time (think of a what a bouquet of roses feels and looks like after a month of receiving them). When the plants are knocked or improperly handled, the fragile parts of the model crack, shatter, and fall off. The process of getting new plants and preparing them to replace the damaged ones takes a long time, so most often I do what I can to repair the plants that are on display.
Right image: Surveying and inspecting the diorama’s many plant models for damage.
Quick! To the Laboratory!
First, the plant model is removed from the diorama and carefully placed in a tray to prevent further damage during transport.
The plant is then brought up to the Conservation Lab, where I “assess the object’s state and formulate a treatment plan” which is a fancy way of saying ‘plan the best way to fix it’. As a conservator, I have to think about what materials the plant model is made of and how those materials react to different adhesives and chemicals that might be used in its repair. For example, records show that the model has been painted with acrylic paints. Therefore, it is important to avoid chemicals or adhesives in the treatment that would affect the paint layer on the plant. Acrylic paint is sensitive to acetone, so the repair methods used would include avoiding acetone or an acetone-based adhesive.
Left image: Safely placed in a tray this plant model is ready for transport up to the Conservation Lab.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
As the plant was so brittle, it was important to try to make the leaves more pliable before I repaired them. To do this, the plant was placed into a chamber with distilled water added to the bottom to help raise the humidity and left inside the chamber for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the dry plant material did pull some of the moisture from the surrounding air which allowed the leaf structure to bend a little. This movement allowed the broken leaves to line-up better during my repairs.
While waiting for the plant material to become easier to work with, I mixed acrylic paints to match the colour on the front and back of the leaves. Mending paper was then tinted with the mixed paint.
Right image: The humidity rises in the chamber and is pulled in by the dry plant material.
Plant Repair
The next day the plant was removed from the humidity chamber and work began on repairing the leaves. To start, small strips of the tinted mending paper were cut and attached to the broken leaves with a conservation grade adhesive. This required paying attention to the natural curves of the leaf so that the leaf wasn’t forced into an unnatural shape. I then aligned the leaf back into position against the broken edge and the two pieces were attached together. Another small piece of paper was then placed on the bottom of the leaf to secure it into position. The mended leaf was secured in place with thin florist wire as a support and left to dry overnight.
1. Cutting the tinted mending paper.
2. Applying adhesive to the edge of the leaf.
3. Uniting the two sections of leaf together.
4. Repaired plant model after conservation treatment.
Time to Grow Again
The next morning the supporting florist wire was removed, and repairs were checked from the previous day. Everything seemed to be in stable condition, so the plant was placed back into a tray, brought down to the diorama, and finding the exact position the plant had been previously, I essentially “planted” it back into the diorama.
Maintaining the dioramas is full of complex tasks like the one I’ve outlined here. I hope this blog sheds some light on one of the more complex aspects of diorama maintenance.
Fingers crossed this little plant model survives the coming years!
Assistant Conservator Loren Rudisuela holding the repaired plant model.
Plant model installed back into the diorama.
Loren Rudisuela
Assistant Conservator
Loren Rudisuela holds a B.A in Art History from the University of Guelph, a certificate in Art Fundamentals from Sheridan College, and a Graduate Certificate in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management…
Meet Loren Rudisuela
Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation
Manitoba Skies for December 2023
December provides long winter nights for observing and features the best meteor shower of the year as well as the return of the winter constellations to early evening prominence. Colder temperatures can make observing more difficult, since astronomy is not an aerobic activity! Dress in layers, and plan for a temperature at least 10 degrees colder than the forecast. Good boots and a warm hat are the most important accessories.
Visible Solar System
Saturn is nearly gone, low in the southwest after darkness falls. This hasn’t been a great year for observing the ringed planet since it has been so low in the sky from Manitoba.
Jupiter is already fairly high in the east-southeast as darkness falls, and rises into the south by mid-evening, providing clear views for Canadian observers. Binoculars show several of its four largest moons, and a telescope will reveal cloud bands and structure in the gas giant planet’s atmosphere.
Venus rises about 4 a.m. local time at the beginning of December. It stands about 20 degrees up in the southeast before dawn but rises later and loses altitude throughout the month.
Mercury begins to creep above the eastern horizon at dawn towards the end of the month but is more easily visible in the first week of January. Even so, Manitobans will have a tough time spotting it in the bright twilight just before sunrise. We’ll have a better chance in March when Mercury is visible in the evening sky.
Mars is on the far side of the Sun this month, too close to the Sun to be visible in the morning sky.
Calendar of Celestial Events
(All event dates and times are local times for Manitoba – Central Standard Time. Almost all events are visible across Canada, though – just use your local time instead. The exception is an event like the Solstice or a specific phase of the Moon, which happens at a specific time and date. In those cases, you have to adjust to your local time by adding or subtracting time zones.)
Mon 4 Dec 2023: Last Quarter Moon occurs just before midnight Manitoba time tonight, so many calendars that use Eastern Time or Universal/Greenwich Time will show it on Dec 5th instead.
Sat 9 Dec 2023 (morning): The waning crescent Moon is 4° to Venus’ lower right.
Tue 12 Dec 2023: New Moon
Wed 13 Dec 2023 (evening) through Thu 14 Dec 2023 (Thu): The annual Geminid meteor shower peaks overnight, with the nearly new Moon providing dark skies. With a theoretical rate of over a hundred meteors per hour for most of Canada, this is the meteor shower to see. You’ll want to get to dark rural skies and be well-prepared for a long night of winter observing. Pay particular attention to your vehicle if the temperatures are low, as being stuck in the middle of nowhere on a cold December night can be dangerous.
The Geminids are also one of the few meteor showers that are active before midnight, making them a bit more accessible than other showers such as the Perseids in August, which are at their best in the few hours before dawn. For details on how to turn your meteor watching into scientifically useful data, visit the International Meteor Organization’s Geminid page.
Sun 17 Dec 2023 (evening): The waxing crescent Moon is about 3° below Saturn.
Tue 19 Dec 2023: First Quarter Moon
Thu 21 Dec 2023 (evening): The waxing gibbous Moon is far to Jupiter’s right.
Thu 21 Dec 2023: Also tonight, the winter solstice occurs at 9:27 p.m. CST, marking the sun’s farthest movement south in our skies. This translates into the late sunsets and long winter nights of winter. After this date, the sun will rise earlier each day, and the number of daylight hours will begin to increase.
Fri 22 Dec 2023 (evening): The waxing gibbous Moon is far to Jupiter’s left.
Tue 26 Dec 2023: Full Moon
Thu 28 Dec 2023 (evening): The Manitoba Museum’s award-winning online astronomy show Dome@Home airs at 7 p.m. CST, live on the Museum’s Facebook and YouTube pages. Dome@Home covers the celestial sights and events visible in the coming month, and highlights some of the cool space stuff that’s happened in recent weeks.
Sun 31 Dec 2023: The last day of the Gregorian calendar which is used in most parts of the world including Canada.
To find when the International Space Station and other satellites are visible from your location, visit Heavens-Above.com and set your location.
For information on Manitoba’s largest astronomy club, visit the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Winnipeg Centre.
Scott Young
Planetarium Astronomer
Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Manitoba Stories: In the Sky
Do you know the spices of gingerbread?
Are you doing any baking this holiday season? In this video, learn about the four main spices that go into a classic gingerbread with Curator of Botany Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson!
To learn more about the roots, shoots, flowers, and fruits of gingerbread, read Dr. Bizecki Robson’s latest blog, click here: Roots, Shoots, Flowers, & Fruits: The Anatomy of a Gingerbread Cookie
Did you know about atlatl dart points?
You may have heard of spear points or arrowheads before, but have you heard of atlatl dart points? In this video, Curator of Archaeology Dave Finch takes us through a quick history of projectile points in Manitoba and shows us how an atlatl works!
Roots, Shoots, Flowers, & Fruits: The Anatomy of a Gingerbread Cookie
Posted on: Monday December 4, 2023
December is the time of year when people tend to eat desserts with lots of spices in them, including the ubiquitous gingerbread. Spices don’t come from any particular plant part, they are simply ingredients that are added in small quantities to add flavour, rather than calories, to a dish. The spices in gingerbread actually come from every part of a plant: roots, shoots, flowers and fruits.
The main spices in gingerbread consist of (left to right): ginger (Zingiber officinale), cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) and nutmeg/mace (Myristica fragrans).
Roots
OK technically ginger (Zingiber officinale) is not a root, it is a rhizome, which is an underground stem, but close enough. This species is a tropical, herb native to southern Asia that has been cultivated for over 3,000 years! In Asia, ginger is often used fresh or pickled in savory dishes, like curries and stir-fries, but in Medieval Europe it was traditionally used dried in desserts like gingerbread because it could not be shipped fresh. Ginger plants are monocots and are thus related to grasses and orchids. They possess attractive, irregularly-shaped yellow flowers and long, strap-shaped leaves.
Image: Illustration of Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen by Franz Eugen Köhler. Public domain.
Shoots
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.) comes from the shoots of broad-leaved, evergreen trees in the Laurel family; they are native to India and Ceylon. There are several species of Cinnamon but the most common one is Cassia Cinnamon (C. cassia). Ceylon Cinnamon (C. verum) is a bit more expensive but can still be found in North American stores. Once Cinnamon trees are three years old, the outer bark is harvested. This distorts their growth forms into dense shrubs rather than trees. The dried, rolled bark (“sticks”) can be used whole as a mulling spice, or ground into a powder to use in baking. Cinnamon and Cassia have been popular for a long time; Egyptians in 2,000 B.C. imported it from China, and used it to enbalm mummies. Nowadays most people just eat it.
Another food product derived from plant shoots that adds a distinctive bitterness to gingerbread is molasses. This sticky, dark syrup is actually a “waste” product from the sugar-refining process. Although Sugar Beets (Beta vulgaris) are sometimes used nowadays to manufacture molasses in colder countries, traditionally sugar came from Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum). In Canada most of our sugar is made from imported Sugar Cane, although some Sugar Beets are grown in Alberta. The shoots of this very tall, tropical grass native to the South Pacific, are harvested and then crushed to extract the sweet juice. This dark brown juice is then boiled to form sugar crystals; the thick brown syrup that is left behind is the molasses.
Image: Illustration of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) in Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen by Franz Eugen Köhler. Public domain.
Image: Illustration of Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum) in Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen by Franz Eugen Köhler. Public domain.
Flowers
Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) come from a tropical evergreen tree in the Myrtle family. It is closely related to several other economically important plants including Allspice (Pimenta dioica), Guava (Psidium guajava) and Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans). The part that we eat is a sun-dried, unopened flower bud. The rounded structure at the tip of the clove consists of the unopened petals, the spiky structures are the sepals and the “stalk” is the hypanthium, a fusion of the sepals and petals with the ovary. Cloves are ground up before being added to doughs but whole cloves are used to make mulled wine and hot toddies, or to flavour a ham. In addition to gingerbread, cloves are used in spicy cookies such as German Speculaaas and Pfeffernusse. The Clove tree is native to Indonesia, but has been planted elsewhere in the south Pacific to meet human demand.
Image: Illustration of Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) in Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen by Franz Eugen Köhler. Public domain.
Fruits
Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), another tropical evergreen tree, is closely related to the Clove tree, being in the same family, and native to the same part of the world. However, the part we use is not the flower but the fruit. Nutmeg is the hard seed inside an apricot-sized fruit called a drupe. Mace, another spice with a similar flavour that is also sometimes used in gingerbread, is a reddish covering around the nutmeg seed. Mace is typically more expensive than nutmeg, simply because there is less of it per fruit. Nutmeg is also used to flavour fruit cakes and mince tarts, and is the traditional garnish to a glass of egg nog.
Image: Illustration of Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) in Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen by Franz Eugen Köhler. Public domain.
Whatever you use spices for, they are guaranteed to do one thing: make your food delicious! Happy baking!
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
Building a Better Future, Together.
Giving Tuesday is the world’s largest generosity movement, unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. In past years, Giving Tuesday has seen over $50 Million donated in Canada in just a 24-hour period.
This Giving Tuesday, which fell on November 28, the Manitoba Museum launched a goal to raise $50,000, with every dollar raised matched by the Carolyn Sifton Foundation. Each donation helps ensure the Museum remains a vibrant centre of learning for generations to come. But our work isn’t done: the Foundation has generously extended their matching deadline, meaning your donation today can make twice the impact.
The Museum provides that unique element of opening those doors into the past but also creating pathways that lead out into the future.
Mike Jensen, Programs and Volunteer Coordinator
Your support ensures the Manitoba Museum remains place that is accessible and welcoming to all in our
community. ©Manitoba Museum/Rejean Brandt.
How will your donation make an impact?
Your support is critical to the success of so many different facets of the Museum’s work:
- Continued support for ground-breaking research: Research conducted at the Manitoba Museum has won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, extended the fossil records of animal groups by millions of years, explored the achievements of Indigenous Peoples and cultural communities in Manitoba, and uncovered new species.
- Engaging programming for schools & public: The Manitoba Museum offers immersive learning
and discovery through both exciting and engaging public workshops and incredible curriculum-based
experiences for school groups – in fact, in 2022/23 the Museum engaged with 65,955 young minds through education programs, both on-site and virtually. - Creating a Museum that belongs to all Manitobans: Through the Access for All program, thousands of community members enjoy complimentary access to the Museum each year. Visitors engage in memorable learning experiences that bridge our understanding and love of history, nature, and science with today’s reality and hopes for the future.
Our province is constantly changing and evolving. How does that reflect here at the Manitoba Museum? How can we be a place where people can come see themselves, and also feel like they are part of it, and part of the history going forward?
Dr. Amelia Fay, Curator of Anthropology and HBC Museum Collections
How can you help?
Your donation can help us continue to serve our community and remain a place of belonging and learning for all. We invite you to join the Giving Tuesday movement to help us to build a better future, together. Visit ManitobaMuseum.ca/Donate to contribute today.
Help us build a better future, together
The popular Indigenous Motherhood Tour is just one of the incredible public programs made possible through our donors. ©Manitoba Museum