Mural, Mural, On the Wall

Mural, Mural, On the Wall

Posted on by Amelia Fay
Posted on: Thursday October 16, 2014

On September 30th we participated in a lovely anniversary celebration with our friends at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives and Canada’s National History Society to acknowledge two important events: 40 years since the transfer of the archival records to the Manitoba Archives; and 20 years since the HBC officially donated the archives to the Province of Manitoba, and the artifacts to the Manitoba Museum.

Painted mural showing three Indigenous individuals, one of whom has a child on their back, another wears a blanket with the iconic HBC stripes in green, red, yellow, and blue. Another holds a paddle. All three are in front of a tipi. In the background a stone fort can be seen in part.

For me the highlight of the event, aside from the delicious crustless sandwiches from Ray & Jerry’s, was the official donation of two murals to the HBC Museum Collection. These murals are not just an important part of HBC history, but also the City of Winnipeg’s, as they were prominently displayed in our downtown Hudson’s Bay store.

When the Hudson’s Bay Company was designing their Winnipeg store, set to open in 1926, they thought not only of the retail space, but also of the image they wanted to project.  As such, they hired one of Canada’s most prolific artists of the early 20th century, Adam Sherriff Scott, to produce two large murals for the main floor of their new store.

Sherriff Scott worked closely with fellow artist and amateur ethnologist Edwin Tappan Adney to design historically accurate scenes from the Company’s history as the subject matter. One mural was to depict a scene from Upper Fort Garry, very fitting considering the store’s proximity to the old fort, and the other was to focus on the Nonsuch.

 

Image: Close up of one of the panels in The Pioneer at Fort Garry, 1861.

The final product was two large murals, approximately 52′ long by 10′ wide, that were placed above the banks of elevators on the main floor.  Many Winnipeggers will probably recognize The Pioneer at Fort Garry, 1861 as it remained on display until January 2014, but the Nonsuch at Fort Charles had a much shorter display period (to be discussed in my next blog post!).

A long, narrow mural showing a scene at a riverside. On the left is a wooded area and two tipis, with individuals grouped nearby in discussion. Along the river, several boats and canoes bring goods. In the distance is a large stone fort. Six white hexagons line the bottom of the mural.

Image: The Pioneer at Fort Garry, 1861 (Note the cut-outs for the medallions above the elevators!).

An oversized mural rolled out on the floor of a large space.

I had The Pioneer appraised and photographed during our big clean-up week in September.  It was great to see it unrolled again, although I’ll admit it was a giant pain to roll it back up!

In my next post I’ll talk about the content of both murals, include some close-up sections of The Pioneer, and provide some more information on the mysterious Nonsuch at Fort Charles mural.

 

Image: The mural unrolled and ready for photos and appraisal.

Dr. Amelia Fay

Dr. Amelia Fay

Curator of Anthropology & the HBC Museum Collection

Amelia Fay is Curator of Anthropology and the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum. She received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba (2004), an MA in Archaeology…
Meet Dr. Amelia Fay

Museum Stories: HBC Museum Collection

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Are we Still in Manitoba?

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Tuesday October 7, 2014

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

 

Travels in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, August, 2014

Manitoba is an immense place, very slightly larger than France. If you look at the map, you will see that roads here are concentrated in the southernmost part of the province. The farther north you go, the fewer areas you will find that are easy to visit. Those of us who work in field-based sciences occasionally get to some of the more out-of-the way places, but most of us have still seen only a small fraction of what this province has to offer. The Manitoba landscapes that are familiar to us are either the parts that we have seen (such as the prairies and the big lakes), or those that are regularly depicted in photographs and tourist brochures (such as a few places in the boreal forest and the rocky shoreline around Churchill).

This fact was really brought home to me during the last week of August, as I was invited to participate in some northern fieldwork organized by my colleagues at the Manitoba Geological Survey. I have seen a good few parts of southern and central Manitoba, but in the northern third of the province I really only know the Churchill area. Nevertheless, I thought I had a good feel for what the areas away from Churchill might be like. Our plan for this trip was to visit some of the geological sites in the Churchill area, but also to take advantage of funding support for helicopter time, which would allow us to visit a few places far up the Churchill River, 100 kilometres from any road and far from the Hudson Bay Railway.

Five people posing together in front of a waterfall on the rocky shore of a creek.

Visiting the waterfall at Surprise Creek, near the Churchill River. L-R: Me, Daniel Shaw (Manitoba Geological Survey), Michelle Boulet Nicolas (MGS), Michelle Trommelen (MGS), and Daniel Gibson (Churchill Northern Studies Centre). Photo by our helicopter pilot, Frank Roberts

A polar bear sitting in vegetation varying from green to yellow to red before it reaches the water.

The “standard” image of Churchill: a polar bear in coastal vegetation.

The helicopter travel turned out to be an eye-opening experience. The up-river sites had received some study from scientists working with the Geological Survey of Canada, who visited this area 50 to 60 years ago, so I knew something of what I would see in terms of the rocks and fossils: the bedrock exposures are very good, and many of the fossils are superb (though they are not generally as abundant as I had anticipated).

More than a decade ago we had overflown a few of these up-river sites when we had a bit of helicopter time in Churchill, so I should have really known what it would be like there, but seeing them from the ground was quite different. The Churchill River landscape has a tremendous sweep and grandeur. The river is very wide and flows swiftly, sometimes in an almost straight line, more often with gentle bends. Some downstream areas have bars of gravel and cobbles, but farther upstream there are several sets of treacherous-looking rapids. The valley walls steepen as you travel upstream, from the flat lowlands south of Churchill to a substantial height of land 100 kilometres upstream where the valley walls are cliffs of Ordovician bedrock, resting on the Precambrian granitic rock that makes up the river bed.

Aerial view of a river.

The lower Churchill River is huge!

View looking down at the ground where several long, thin cephalopods embedded in the rocky ground with a Sharpie marker lying on the ground for scale.

A few of the fossils we found: these Ordovician age cephalopods were in the Chasm Creek Formation below Red Head Rapids on the Churchill River (one of these is now in the collections of the Museum). That’s the helicopter skid on the left; we had landed directly on the outcrop.

An aerial view of mossy ground punctuated by ponds.

Up over the tundra the landscape is dramatically different: this is an aerial view of moss and ponds, from a height of a few hundred feet.

Portage Chute, Bad Cache Rapids, Surprise Creek, Caution Creek, Chasm Creek . . . the place names alone should be enough to tell you that you aren’t on the prairies any more. Honestly, if I had been somehow sedated and delivered into the ravine of Chasm Creek without any awareness of how I arrived there, I would have thought that it had to be somewhere in the Yukon or perhaps the Northwest Territories.

A rocky, cliff side river bed.

A river-level view just below Portage Chute.

A person wearing an orange jacket standing on a narrow ridge of the cliffside of a steep-sided river.

Daniel Gibson at Chasm Creek.

Aerial view along the rugged coast of the Hudson Bay.

A more familiar place as we flew “homeward” near the end of the day: a  view back along the coast of Hudson Bay toward the Churchill Northern Studies Centre.

The valley of the Churchill River is a literally awesome place, breathtaking in its grandeur, its scale, and in the variety of landforms and organisms. It is absolutely a northern place, a place that Manitobans should be aware of, a place to celebrate!

Museum Stories: Palaeontology & Geology

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UPDATE: Lunar Eclipse TONIGHT!

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Tuesday October 7, 2014

The total lunar eclipse I wrote about on Monday will occur tonight, after midnight and into the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning – you can find the original article here, with times and observing suggestions. The weather for the city of Winnipeg does not look great, but there looks to be clearer skies to the west. Visit Winnipeg’s Clear-Sky Clock for hour-by-hour cloud forecasts for astronomy. Good luck!

UPDATED: Harvest Moon Eclipse for Manitoba

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Monday October 6, 2014

UPDATE – 7 October 2014: Remember, the eclipse occurs after midnight TONIGHT! Weather forecast is not looking great for Winnipeg, but viewers farther west may have a clear view.

 

Original article: The full moon in October is referred to as the Harvest Moon, since it rises as the sun sets and so would provide farmers an extra hour or so of light to finish bringing in their harvest. Full Moon is also the only time we can have a lunar eclipse, and this month we get both events occurring together.

A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the moon moves into the earth’s shadow. Many people don’t think about it, but the moon is just a big rock in space – it doesn’t give off any light of its own. The only reason we see the moon at all is that the sun is shining on it, and that light is reflected to us here on Earth. If you look at the moon when it is near First Quarter phase, this is easiest to see: the half of the moon facing the sun is lit up, and the half of the moon facing away from the sun is dark. (Of course, this is true for the earth as well – the side of Earth facing the sun is lit up and experiencing daylight, while the side of the earth facing away from the sun is dark and experiencing night.)

So, what can prevent sunlight from lighting up the moon? It turns out that there is only one thing big enough and close enough to do that – our planet, the Earth. If things line up just right, the moon will move into the shadow of the earth, and so sunlight will be blocked from lighting up the moon. This creates what we call a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses aren’t particularly rare; there is usually one or two a year visible somewhere in the world.

A Word about Safety

The word “eclipse” can conjure images of special safety glasses and people staying inside to avoid going blind, but those warnings refer to eclipses of the sun (which we will have in a couple of weeks, but that is the subject of another blog!) Viewing a lunar eclipse has absolutely NO risk of eye damage and does not require any special equipment (although a pair of binoculars or a telescope can enhance the view).

This week’s lunar eclipse early on Wednesday morning, between about 3 am and 7 am (details below). This means, of course, that for many folks it’s really a Tuesday night event, since once you wake up on Wednesday the event will be over. Make sure you set your alarm or stay up late on the correct date! On the plus side, the eclipse is a slow, stately event, and so you can peek out every few minutes or so and then warm up inside without missing too much.

Eclipse Timeline

All events are given in Central Daylight Time, the local time for Manitoba.

Tuesday, Oct 7 – evening – the eclipse starts in just a few hours, so make sure you have set your alarm and have all of your gear ready to go. A clear morning sky in October can be cold, so make sure you are dressed for winter, not fall. You will want a clear view of the southwest and west horizon, with as few trees or buildings in the way. Unlike most events, you don’t need to get away from city lights, although it helps.

Wednesday, Oct 8, 3:15 a.m. – the beginning of the eclipse is a very subtle thing. The Earth’s shadow is not hard-edged, but fuzzy, so the eclipse sort of “fades in” very slowly. Sharp-eyed viewers will start to notice that the left edge of the moon is getting dusky sometime before 4 a.m., but exactly when depends both on the observer and the atmospheric conditions around the world. It’s something not predictable in advance, so you just have to go out and see. Over the next hour, the moon will grow darker on the left edge, and probably start to take on an orange or red hue. As the eclipse begins, the moon is over in the southwestern sky, about a third of the way from the horizon to the point straight overhead. Over the next few hours, the moon will move down and to the right, so make sure you can see clear to the western horizon.

Wednesday, Oct 8, 4:14 a.m. – the moon begins to enter the darker central part of the Earth’s shadow (called the umbra). The moon is definitely getting darker from the left, and over the next while it will look as if the Earth’s curved shadow is creeping across the moon’s face. Actually, it is the moon which is moving towards the left into the shadow – if you are watching with binoculars, check the moon’s position against the background stars and you’ll see this slow motion. Over the next hour or so, the moon will get very dark as it moves completely into Earth’s Shadow. (Incidentally, observing this phase of the eclipse provides proof that the Earth is round – you can see that the Earth’s shadow is curved, not straight.)

Wednesday, Oct 8, 5:25 a.m. – the moon is totally eclipsed, completely within the shadow of the Earth. Despite this, the moon likely won’t disappear completely. The Earth blocks direct sunlight from striking the moon, but the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lense and bends light from around the edges of the Earth. Because of the geometry, the only light that can hit the moon is the light from all of the sunrises and sunsets all around the world at that particular moment – those glorious reds, oranges, and pinks that we can see as the curtain goes up on a clear night. During the total phase, the moon can take on a red or orange colour, depending on the conditions around the world at that time. Because of this, every lunar eclipse is different – some are very bright, others almost black. The forecast for this year is for a brighter-than-average eclipse, based on the amount of volcanic dust and so on in the atmosphere, but this isn’t definitive.

Wednesday, Oct 8, 5:54 a.m. – Mid-eclipse, with the moon at its darkest. By this point, the moon is low on the western horizon, making for a dramatic photo-opportunity for those who have a building or other landmark to your west on eclipse night.

Wednesday, Oct 8, 6:24 a.m. – the total phase of the eclipse ends, as the moon starts to move out of the Earth’s umbral shadow. At this point, the moon is low in the west and the sky is already beginning to brighten in the east. Depending on how dark the eclipse is, it may be tough to spot the moon without looking carefully.

Wednesday, Oct 8, 7:30 a.m. – the moon has exited the earth’s umbral shadow, ending the partial phase of the eclipse. While there is still some eclipse shadow going on with the fainter outer shadow of the Earth (the penumbra), it likely will be lost in the growing twilight and the moon’s proximity to the horizon.

Wednesday, Oct 8, 7:40 a.m. – the sun rises, and the moon sets 11 minutes later, with the penumbral eclipse still in progress.

Enjoy the view – because of the late hour, there is no public viewing planned for this eclipse, but you can enjoy it with the unaided eye, or a pair of ordinary household binoculars or a small telescope if you have one.

Scott Young

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

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William Dampier: Pirate Botanist

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Tuesday September 30, 2014

Piracy and botany are two words that do not usually occur together in a sentence. But in the golden days of exploration, seafaring men were not always vicious rogues intent on thievery. Well alright, a lot of them probably were. But one man among them combined piracy with a love of plants and that man was Captain William Dampier (1651-1715).

Formal painted portrait of a man with waving, shoulder-length dark brown hair, wearing a red-brown jacket, open to show a ruffled cravat.

Captain Dampier was an orphan who left home at an early age to pursue a naval career. After working on various ships, and on land in a sugar plantation and as a forester, he eventually took up with a band of pirates. Not one to let his work get in the way of his hobbies, he kept meticulous notes and made drawings of the fascinating plants and animals he encountered in a journal. A pirate carrying both a cutlass and botanical collecting kit must have made an unusual sight!

 

Image: Portrait of William Dampier “Pirate and Hydrographer”. Photograph by T. Murray [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Although Charles Darwin is the naturalist usually associated with the Galapagos Islands, Dampier was actually the first Englishman to describe their flora and fauna. Unlike Darwin though, Dampier came to the islands as a deckhand on a stolen frigate! Dampier’s descriptions were often practical in nature, noting which trees could used to make fires (buttonwood!), and which plants and animals were edible. Sadly on the Galapagos, the edible animals turned out to be the extremely rare “land turtles” which sailors often brought on board their ships for fresh meat.

Later on Dampier’s voyages took him to the Indian Ocean where he was marooned by his crew near Sumatra. He eventually made it back to England where he published his memoirs in the 1697 book entitled “A New Voyage Round the World” which became an instant hit!

Bristley pods growing in clusters on a plant with elongated, waxy green leaves.

Dampier noted that Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) made good firewood. Photo by Ulf Mehlig (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons.

A page featuring drawings of four plants titled "Plants found in New Holland".

Drawings of plants found in New Holland, from Dampier’s “A Voyage to New Holland”. Drawing by William Dampier (Princeton University Library, Rare Books Division) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Dampier’s book was so popular that the British Admiralty gave him command of a ship, H.M.S. Roebuck. His mission was to sail to Western Australia to determine if it could be colonized, and collect some botanical specimens while there. Unfortunately Dampier’s ship was a bit of a lemon; it sank near the island of Ascension taking most of his precious dried plants and notes down with it. The 24 plant specimens he rescued were eventually donated to the Oxford University Herbarium where they still remain in a collections facility not unlike the one we have here at the Manitoba  Museum.

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

Dampier is linked to one of history’s most famous mutinies: the Bounty. Dampier’s book described the nutritional value of both coconut (Cocos nucifera) and breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis). Dampier described the coconut as having a cavity “full of sweet, delicate, wholesome and refreshing water” and a kernel that “is soft like cream”. Baked breadfruit on the other hand “must be eaten new, for if it is kept above twenty-four hours, it becomes dry, and eats harsh and choky.” The mission of Captain Bligh of the Bounty was to bring breadfruit plants to Jamaica to feed slaves but it was unpopular, likely because, as Dampier warned, it simply was not served fresh enough.

Oddly enough, despite Mr. Dampier’s colourful career, he has never been depicted in any films. I guess Hollywood doesn’t consider a pirate that stops to collect the roses worthy of any attention!

 

Image: Dampier described the taste of coconut in his book. TMM F-164  & F-165.

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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A New Old Look for the Urban Gallery

Posted on by Roland Sawatzky
Posted on: Thursday September 18, 2014

What’s old is new again! The Urban Gallery at The Manitoba Museum has just received a bit of a face lift. Many of our visitors enjoy the immersive experience of this gallery, where they can explore the nooks and crannies of different buildings, stroll along the streets or watch a silent film in the theatre. As curators, we’re always looking for ways to improve that experience.

The Urban Gallery represents Winnipeg in the early 1920s. It was a bustling, modern city with hundreds of thousands of citizens – it was in no way a little town. To get this across, we wanted to populate the gallery with pictures of real people of the period. Three large spaces allowed us to introduce historical photographs of people of different backgrounds and occupations. Hours of research at the Archives of Manitoba sifting through hundreds of photographs led me to choose three, two of which relate to the railway tracks, with the third placed beside the movie theatre. All three photographic reproductions are courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba.

A historical photograph blown up on a stone wall next to a set of wooden doors. The photo shows a group of well dressed individuals from the 1920s standing at a rail station.

Lord and Lady Byng with entourage, June 18, 1922, at the CPR station in Winnipeg. Part of the elite society of Great Britain, Lord Byng led Canadian forces at Vimy Ridge and was, at the time of this photograph, the Governor General of Canada.

A historical photograph blown up on the wall showing a railway worked gang standing around a railway line. The photograph lines up with a railway line built our in the Winnipeg 1920 Cityscape.

On the opposite end of the track we have this railway worker gang in Manitoba, circa 1920. It was tough and dangerous work. Unfortunately we don’t know the workers’ names.

Historical photograph blown up between two stone walls. Photo shows a horse drawn wagon with a worker on the wagon with the reins. In front of the photo is a water trough.

A Central Dray Company employee with horse and wagon, circa 1915, 61 Princess St. This was the handy mover of the period, ready to haul anything, including pianos. The building in the background is still standing today (see right).

A seven-storey stone building with many windows.

The building in the background of the Central Dray photomural, as it looks today. This is the back of 70 Arthur St. as seen from Princess St. from roughly the same perspective.

Come to The Manitoba Museum and experience the “all new, all old” Urban Gallery photomurals, and get a feel for Winnipeg in the 1920s, a city of contrasts.

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Curator of History

Roland Sawatzky joined The Manitoba Museum in 2011. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg, M.A. in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, and Ph.D. in Archaeology…
Meet Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Museum Stories: History

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Where Have All the Pollinators Gone?

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Tuesday September 16, 2014

After a summer filled with ticks, mosquitoes and biting flies, I was ready for a pest-free pollinator survey at the Nature Conservancy preserves near Riding Mountain National Park this September. Autumn field work can be quite lovely with the beautiful fall colours, comfortable temperatures and migratory birds moving through. But you can’t always get what you want. The vicious thunderstorm that pelted my car with hazelnut-sized hail and forced me to pull over onto the side of the road just as I was leaving town forebode what was to come: crappy weather. I suppose that it was simply too much to ask for four weeks of rain-free field work this year though. I consider myself lucky to have had such nice weather in June, July and August.

Looking out over a field towards a tree line on a cloudy, grey day.

Part of the reason I like studying pollinators is that they don’t like bad weather. When it is cold and rainy they just curl up in their little dens, or hide under a flower or some vegetation till it warms up. That makes total sense when you’re not much bigger than a raindrop yourself. Getting hit by hazelnut-sized hail would mean an early grave for you! Better to lay low for a while. Since I dislike doing field work when the weather is bad, the arrangement works out just fine.

When I started my first survey it was cool, cloudy, windy, and threatening to rain. Aside from a few bumblebees clinging to the undersides of Lindley’s asters (Symphyotrichum laeve) and sipping a bit of nectar to stay warm, there were no pollinators about. The next morning was worse: it was cold and rainy but as it cleared up by noon I was still able to complete all my surveys. Wednesday and Thursday were slightly better as it did not rain; however, it was still too cold for much pollinator activity.

Image: Cold, cloudy weather at the preserves in September meant that most of the pollinators just stayed home.

A bumblebee with wet and matted fuzz clinging to the petals of a small purple flower.

This rain-soaked bumblebee clung to the underside of a Lindley’s aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) to stay dry.

A small bee crawling along the top of a many-petaled yellow flower.

A poor, cold little sweat bee feeding on false dandelion (Agoseris glauca) flower.

Close up on a cluster of white flowers with yellow centres.

Despite the poor weather conditions and paltry number of pollinator visits (only 16 per day), I still learned something valuable on this trip. The point of my research was to identify which flowers should be grown to provide pollinators with enough forage over the entire season. In September the main plant species in bloom are Lindley’s and many-flowered aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides) so these two species should probably be included in any prairie restoration seed mix. These flowers provide overwintering queen bees with nectar and pollen till they are ready to hibernate.

And so my summer of field work is at an end. This is pollinator biologist, Diana Robson, signing out and wishing all those bees, flies and butterflies (but not the mosquitoes) a safe sleep until spring!

Image: Many-flowered asters (Symphyotrichum ericoides) are the most abundant flowers in autumn on fescue prairies.

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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300 Years Later

Posted on by Amelia Fay
Posted on: Tuesday September 16, 2014

Recently my friends over at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA) showed me an amazing piece of HBC history, the first post journal for York Factory. They had selected it for their latest Spotlight feature on their website as the journal was celebrating its 300th anniversary on September 11. You can check out this interesting feature here to learn more about James Knight’s first year at York Factory, and be sure to check out their Spotlight archive to read up on previous features from the HBCA.

I was pretty excited to head into their vault when they told me about the journal, I couldn’t believe I’d get to see a document that was written 300 years ago. The journal did not disappoint, not only is it filled with James Knight’s observations and detailed accounts of daily life at York Factory, but it is also absolutely beautiful to look at.

A York Factory Post Journal written in elaborate calligraphy with designs in the flourishes.

Of course I could sound old by saying ‘nobody writes like that anymore’ but it’s the truth, nobody writes like this! My calligraphy class in grade 4 did not teach me that we could also doodle in the flourishes of the lettering. I could not stop looking at the little faces, birds, dragons, and fish that appear on the page. It’s a work of art!

The post journals are an excellent resource, I’m always astounded by the information they contain. You never know what you’ll find reported, and I promise that even if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, you’ll still read some interesting tidbits along the way.

I often save up my research queries so I can spend a full day pouring through the records. The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful, and I honestly just love a quiet day of archival research to break-up my weekly routine.

For more information on the HBCA check out their website.

Dr. Amelia Fay

Dr. Amelia Fay

Curator of Anthropology & the HBC Museum Collection

Amelia Fay is Curator of Anthropology and the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum. She received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba (2004), an MA in Archaeology…
Meet Dr. Amelia Fay

Museum Stories: HBC Museum Collection

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UPDATED: Watch for northern lights!

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Thursday September 11, 2014

Update -Friday, Sep 12, 2014: Some minor aurora was visible last night over Manitoba in between patchy clouds, and dim glows were seen as far south as Arizona (but only from dark skies away from city lights). Tonight is likely to be the better view, though. The second and larger  of two blobs of stuff from the sun (called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs) is arriving today, which can cause a spike in the visibility of northern lights. The evening sky looks clear tonight for Manitoba, so keep your eyes on the sky!

—

Due to yesterday’s solar flare, tonight (Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014) is a good time to watch for the northern lights. (For a quick summary of the northern lights, visit this link.) The best views are always from outside the city, since any nearby light pollution can wash out the sky and ruin the show.  Spaceweather.com is forecasting an 80% chance of strong aurora activity over the next 48 hours, so hopefully the surge in activity will occur while it is dark over Manitoba.

Green northern lights streaking across a night sky over mountain tops.

If you have a digital camera, you can take pictures of the northern lights! You need to set your camera manually, though, so go dig out or download the manual. You want to be able to set the camera so that it takes a time exposure of several seconds or more. Usually this is accomplished by setting the camera to “M”, and then adjusting the buttons to change the exposure time (also called shutter speed). Numbers like “1/60” and “1/2” are fractions of a second, so adjust the number until you get numbers like “1.2”, “5”, etc. Those are exposures of 1.2 and 5 seconds, respectively. Ideally, you want to take even longer exposures – my camera can do 15-second exposures without a problem.

 

Image: A still from the planetarium show “Experience the Aurora”.

Next, you need either a tripod, or another way to keep your camera steady for those 15 seconds. Any movement will blur your picture. Best is a tripod, but if you don’t have one, then zoom your camera out to its widest view, and set the timer that you would use to take a picture of yourself. You can press the button, and then quickly lay the camera on its back so the lens is pointing straight up at the sky, and the shutter won’t go until the timer goes off. Be careful to lay the camera on something soft so you don’t scratch the screen! Some other hints: turn the flash off – it won’t help, and you will blind yourself every time it goes off. (Although, it can light up any foreground objects, such as trees or you, and give you a neat picture.) Try different exposure settings and see what works – every aurora is different, so there is no “right” way to do it. Just take a lot of pictures, and some will turn out. I’d love to see your pictures, and I will share mine as well through the Museum’s Facebook page and on this blog.

Scott Young

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

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Pollinators (and People Predators) Galore

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Tuesday September 2, 2014

After the relative calm of my June field work on Nature Conservancy land near Riding Mountain National Park, I was kept very busy observing insects in July and August. In total I saw approximately 64 insect species making over 1200 flower visits during my 24 hours of observation over an eight-day period. So far it seems that in the fescue prairie the bees (particularly the bumblebees) are doing most of the work. This is in contrast to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve where flies are the most common flower visitors and Spruce Woods Provincial Park in which sand wasps are abundant pollinators.

A large rock covered in lichen and mosses in a wooded area.

Close-up of a fluffy yellow and black striped bumblebee on a tall purple flower.

This bumblebee loves eating Hedysarum nectar!

A red and black beetle crawling near the yellow centre of a four-petaled, light-blue flower.

So which plants are popular? The bumblebees seem to have a particular fondness for legumes. Legume flowers typically require longer-tongued insects, like bumblebees, to effectively pollinate them. The bumblebees were mostly visiting hedysarum (Hedysarum), locoweed (Oxytropis), purple prairie-clover (Dalea purpureum), and milk-vetch (Astragalus) flowers, although they also seemed to like bell-shaped flowers like harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) and snowberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis) too. Shorter-tongued sweat bees visit small, flat-flowered plants like fleabanes (Erigeron), rose (Rosa), and cinquefoil (Potentilla). The butterflies seemed fond of the large asters like gaillardia (Gaillardia aristata) and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia serotina), while the flies and beetles were visiting common yarrow (Achillea millefolium), showy goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis), and blue flax (Linum lewisii). Rigid goldenrod (Solidago rigida) was popular with just about everybody!

 

Image: A red checkered beetle on a wild blue flax flower.

Unfortunately, the pollinators weren’t the only hungry insects in the prairie; several of them were out for blood-MY blood! When I first got to the preserve, I had no idea what the mosquito situation would be like. I decided to wear my bug jacket and gloves just in case because if I didn’t need them, I could always take them off but if I needed them and didn’t have them, I’d end up doing the “I’ve-got-the-mosquito-willies-boogie” all afternoon. The gamble paid off. Shortly after reaching the hiking trail I was covered with a cloud of mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies all trying to nip my flesh! Thank goodness for nylon field pants! After I got to one of my plots and stopped walking, several dragonflies noticed the insect buffet hovering around me and began dive bombing the blood suckers. Thank-you dragonflies!

The mosquitoes weren’t the only things biting in August; the plants were too! Mid-August is when the fruits of speargrass (Stipa spartea) ripen and fall off. Unfortunately they also have a habit of planting themselves in my socks and I had to stop every few minutes or so to pick them out! Ouch!

A selfie of a smiling Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson in the field, wearing light coloured clothing and sun hat, zipped into a mosquito jacket with a fully-enclosed hood.

I needed a mosquito jacket, pants, and gloves to keep from becoming a mosquito buffet!

Close-up on Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson's white sock with shards of long grass with pointed tips embedded in the fabric.

The seeds of speargrass kept sticking in my socks. Ouch!

So why am I doing this? The purpose of my research is to identify which wild plants are most popular with pollinators so that appropriate seed mixes for restoration of fescue prairie can be identified. Restoring a prairie is expensive; by selecting a seed mix with the most popular flowers you can encourage the colonization of the maximum number of pollinator species, and hopefully create a more resilient ecosystem.

I’ll be back in the field in mid-September for one last pollinator survey. Is it too much to hope that the mosquitoes will be gone by then?

A small bee crawling around the yellow centre of a pink five-petaled flower.

This little sweat bee was feasting on rose pollen.

An orange butterfly with black spots on the wings perches on a yellow flower with a black centre.

Butterflies like flat-topped asters like this black-eyed Susan.

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…
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