John Halkett, William Kempt, & the Red River Settlement

John Halkett, William Kempt, & the Red River Settlement

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Thursday March 15, 2012

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

 

John Halkett’s visit to British North America came just a decade after his brother-in-law, Lord Selkirk, initiated the Red River resettlement scheme – and the bicentenary of the arrival of the Selkirk settlers is being commemorated in many ways in 2012. There is a variety of objects in the HBC Museum Collection that relate to these formative years of the Red River Settlement, starting with the Halkett collection. Another important group in the HBC Collection relating to this place and time was assembled by William Kempt.

A series of artifacts clustered together on a white background.

The fine collection of First Nations objects assembled by William Kempt in the 1820s.

A painting depicting a small group of people interacting along a riverbank near tipis.

Untitled (Scene on River Bank), Peter Rindisbacher, 1822-24, watercolour. This is one of the paintings collected by William Kempt, now in the HBC Museum Collection. TMM HBC 83-23-F.

Close-up on the painting in the previous images showing two individuals in discussion, one of whom is holding a child.

He had a keen eye for material culture, and it is fascinating to compare objects collected by individuals like Halkett and Kempt with Rindisbacher’s portrayals of the objects being worn or used by the people of Red River in the 1820s.

One of the things that makes the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection so fascinating is these sorts of stories and connections that exist between the collectors, the collections, and the objects.  Added to the stories of the objects and their creators, this means that the HBC Collection symbolizes and evokes broad historical themes, in a way that may be unique among Canadian museum collections.

 

Image: Detail of TMM HBC 83-23-F. This portrays some of the material culture of the Red River population in the 1820s. Objects represented by Rindisbacher such as the woolen and hide leggings, woolen hood, iron cooking pot, trade gun, and bow and arrows are found in the HBC Collection at The Manitoba Museum.

Museum Stories: HBC Museum Collection

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Focus on Cataloguing: An Interesting Artifact

Posted on by Collections & Conservation
Posted on: Wednesday March 14, 2012

By Ann Hindley, past Collections Assistant

 

Part of a Collections Assistant’s work in the Museum’s History Department is to fully catalogue artifacts which have been acquired for the permanent collections.

This involves assigning a unique museum number to the object, writing a description, explaining how it was used and by whom, and researching how it relates to Manitoba’s history. When researching artifacts, the Museum has an excellent Reference Library, where staff can check out books related to many historical topics; the internet is also a valuable resource. The information gathered is entered into an in-house collections management database, and the artifact is also photographed before being placed in a storage room or on exhibit.

A humanoid hedgehog doll wearing denim pants and suspenders with a plaid shirt.

One interesting and unusual object in the collection is a 1950s Hedgehog Doll, named Mecki, manufactured by the Steiff company. The doll has a pressed rubber head in the image of a hedgehog, painted eyes and nose, and mohair fabric hair and chest. The jointed body is stuffed with straw, which makes it quite different from other dolls and toys in the collection.

Purchased by the donor in Germany in 1952, this is the father doll in a family of four, the others being Micki (mother), Macki (girl) and Mucki (boy). As Mecki was the only doll from this family to be donated,  the Museum is on the lookout  to find the remaining family members to complete the set.

 

Image: Mecki, the father hedgehog doll.

In 1936, Ferdinand Dichl made a full-length animated film entitled, “The Race between the Hare and the Hedgehog”, using bendable figures. In 1951, Dichl Films sold the copyright to the West German magazine Horzu for the immensely popular characters to be made into a comic strip.

At the same time, the Steiff company bought the rights to make the hedgehog characters into toys. The Steiff company was established by Margarete Steiff and her brother, Fritz, in the late 1800s. They produced a line of toys, including felt or plush animals, teddy bears, gnomes, and Kewpie dolls. The company is now the largest manufacturer of soft toys in Germany, and one of the most recognized brands of toys in the world. Each of their animal toys has a trademark metal button inside the ear, which is used to distinguish Steiff toys from fakes. The Museum has one other Steiff toy in the history collection, which is a pull-along teddy bear on wheels dating to the early 1900s.

There are many interesting objects in the collection which have not yet been exhibited, but Collections Assistants attempt to provide as much information as possible for Curators and researchers, so that the history of the objects is documented for future use in exhibits, publications, etc. Sometimes the research process can be frustrating when there’s a lack of information on the objects, but that’s one of the challenges of cataloguing museum artifacts, which makes the job all the more interesting.

Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation

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Capturing a Celestial Dance

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Wednesday March 14, 2012

Jupiter and Venus have been engaged in a beautiful dance in the western sky after sunset. With the warm weather, I’ve been running outside in shirtsleeves every few minutes, waiting for the light levels to be at their best for viewing. A little point-and-shoot camera on a tripod is all you need to capture this dramatic dance of the planets.

Two bright lights in the night sky over a rooftop.

Right now, Venus is rising higher and higher each night, while Jupiter is sinking lower into the sunset colours. Still, they’ll be together in the field of view of any camera for a couple of weeks. Set your camera for “twilight portrait” or the closest thing – usually it’s a little moon symbol on the dial – and put it onto a tripod. The tripod is important because the exposure is going to be a second or more long, and you just can’t hold the camera steady enough during that time. If you don’t have a tripod, I have just set it on the ground with a rock under the front to tilt it up towards the correct angle.

Try and put something in the foreground if you have a choice – trees, houses, or whatever provide context and add the third planet into your picture – the planet Earth, our viewing point for the cosmic ballet occurring overhead.

 

Image: Venus (right) and Jupiter (left) shine just above the artifical horizon of my neighbour’s roof, 12 March 2012. (Image: Scott Young)

If you aren’t happy with the picture your semi-intelligent camera computer comes up with, you can fall back on an old technique from the film days: bracketing. Set the camera for “manual” mode, and start with a 1 second exposure time. Then takes several shots with exposure times on either side of that, both higher and lower. Basically, shoot one image at each setting on the dial or each click of the button. You’ll get a whole range of pictures with different colour, depths, contrast, and definition. In the days of film, this was essential since you couldn’t see your results until after you had developed the film… sometimes a whole night’s work would come back out of focus or underexposed due to an error that went uncorrected under the sky. Nowadays, bracketing is just a way to explore the full depth of the scene before you, and reveal views very different from what your eyes see. Your images won’t replace the view of seeing it live, but they will remind you of your observation, and give you another perspective from which to contemplate the dance of the solar system.

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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Congratulations to Ed!

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday March 12, 2012

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

 

Ed Dobrzanski is a “fixture” at the Museum. He had been a volunteer here before I started back in in 1993, and he has volunteered continuously for the past 20 years. Ed has done tremendous work as an amateur paleontologist, collecting, preparing, studying, identifying, and cataloguing fossils. He has contributed to paleontological field and laboratory work in a great variety of ways. For his all-round efforts, many of us are delighted that Ed has just been named as the recipient of the Katherine Palmer Award, a North America-wide award for amateur paleontologists, presented annually by the Paleontological Research Institution.

An inveterate collector with interests in a great variety of objects, Ed had a long career as a government meteorologist. When staff reductions resulted in an opportunity for early retirement, Ed took advantage of this to turn his volunteer work into a daily avocation. In his time here, Ed has contributed tremendous knowledge to the organization of fossil collections as varied as brachiopods (lamp shells), fishes, and bivalves. He has also donated many specimens to the Museum (and to other institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum), has contributed to exhibit development and public programs, and assists with all sorts of tasks in other departments of the Museum!

An individual wearing a jacket fully zipped, with hood up, and a backpack stands next to a rocky dune.

My colleagues and I are fortunate to have Ed as a collaborator on many research projects. He is skilled with the essential field and laboratory tools: whether using a hammer, GPS, shotgun, survey equipment, microscope, rock saw, or lapidary grinder, Ed has considerable expertise. He takes wonderfully precise notes, understands maps thoroughly, and maintains a compendious knowledge of obscure fossil localities. Ed has been a key member of my field teams, and has also collaborated in the field with many other scientists such as Bob Elias (University of Manitoba), Dave Rudkin (ROM), Jisuo Jin (University of Western Ontario) and Jan Audun Rasmussen (Natural History Museum of Denmark). His efforts have resulted in the co-authorship of several papers, a guidebook, and many conference abstracts.

 

Image: Ed suffering through spring snow and winds, during fieldwork on the Grand Rapids Uplands.

Two individuals standing either end of a work table with a number of specimens laid out across it.

Florence Zawislak (L) and Ed discuss a cartful of specimens.

Two individuals standing in front of a large rocky wall.

Ed assisted visiting Danish researcher Dr. Jan Audun Rasmussen, who carried out field research in southern Manitoba.

Ed Dobrzanski is a tremendous asset to the science of paleontology in Manitoba and beyond; it is wonderful to see this recognized!

Museum Stories: Palaeontology & Geology

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Display of Detritus and Delight

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Tuesday March 6, 2012

The spaces that house Museum curators and collections are, perhaps, notorious for appearing to be crammed full of objects. Our work consists of collecting and organizing, and actively-collecting Museum scientists typically have many specimens spread out for study and cataloguing. Our collections rooms contain many thousands of well-organized specimens, but it is tricky to find space for the largest pieces. For this reason, some of our biggest specimens are not stored in the official Natural History storage: ever since I have worked at the Museum, most of our large mammal mounts have been in alcoves along the hallways here. If I wish to, I could say “good morning” to two muskoxen, a grizzly bear, and two mule deer just in the short space between the elevator and my office!

It used to be that, when the elevator stopped at our floor, those inside would glance out to see our creatures, safe in their protective plastic cocoons. Although this may be an interesting sight (if you know what they are), it is hardly a fitting introduction to the great variety of activities here, and it made it look rather like a warehouse. A few years ago, we decided to remedy this; when an old display case came available in the Museum basement, we grabbed it and placed it facing the elevator to house an introductory exhibit.

A replica of a fossil specimen in a display case positioned in front of three animal skulls.

A replica ichthyosaur rests behind a variety of skulls: a large fish, a coyote, and a beaver.

Close up in a display case showing a number of mineral specimens and two red boxes labelled "dino stones".

A grouping of minerals, Tyndall Stone, fossil ammonoids, and bird gravel and “dino stones” (our idea of what pet products would look like if people kept dinosaurs!).

This display has taken years to develop, because we were always getting sidetracked with our real work! We placed a few items into the case right after we moved it, but then it sat untended for some time. Returning to the case a couple of years ago, we added a lot of interesting pieces and planned to include a title explaining what it was about, but again we of course became busy with projects such as the Biodiversity and Colours in Nature exhibits. Then, this past week, we finally managed to “finish” this display, at least for the moment, adding a title panel and several of the wonderful Haeckel posters that had been included in the Biodiversity exhibit.

A replica fossil of a pterosaur in stone.

This replica pterosaur was beautifully painted by Debbie Thompson.

A specimen display case positioned in front of a specimen freezer and next to a mounted muskox specimen on a wrapped cart.

This angled view of the case shows how it is surrounded by large mammal mounts (under the plastic, that is a muskox on a cart), with a specimen freezer behind.

What is the purpose of this case, and why have we decided to feature the particular items that are in there? As well as providing “eye candy” for those who happen to see it from the elevator on their way to other floors, we wanted the case to introduce the basic research and collecting disciplines that occupy this floor: Zoology, Botany, and Geology/Paleontology. Since it is not climate-controlled, and is subjected to dust, light, and vibration, all the items in it are robust. They are generally replicas or are from the stores of “teaching grade” objects lacking basic data.

Although the choices were limited, we were pleased that we could include some of our favourite sorts of items (an ichthyosaur replica, a box of fake “dino stones”), and examples of things related to some of the research that takes place here (Tyndall Stone fossils, snake skin). Undoubtedly the display will continue to evolve in the coming years as we come upon other suitable exhibits for it!

Museum Stories: Palaeontology & Geology

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Halkett Boat to Halkett Collection

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday March 5, 2012

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

 

The Arctic explorer and HBC employee Dr. John Rae maintained his enthusiasm for Peter Halkett’s invention through several expeditions. A Halkett boat was left for him at Sault Ste Marie in 1845, and in the record of his first Arctic voyage in 1846-47, he referred to it in glowing terms. Rae described Peter Halkett as “the ingenious inventor of the portable air-boat, which ought to be the travelling companion of every explorer.” In August 1847 Rae reiterated his enthusiasm for the Halkett boat:

During the whole of our spring fishing Halkett’s air-boat was used for setting and examining the nets, and was preferred by the fishermen to the large canvas canoe, as it was much lighter, and passed over and round the nets with more facility. Notwithstanding its continued use on a rocky shore, it never required the slightest repair. It is altogether a most useful little vessel, and, as I have said before, ought to form part of the equipment of all surveying parties, whether by land or sea. (John Rae, Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, London, T. & W. Boone, 1850, 116, 176.)

In 1852 Rae requested “1 Halkett’s Air Boat large enough to carry 3 persons,” and referred to “Halkett’s admirable little boats” following his 1853-54 Repulse Bay expedition. After using them on several Arctic voyages, he was convinced  of their usefulness. (E. E. Rich, ed., Rae’s Arctic Correspondence, 1844-55, London, The Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1953, 224, xcvi.)

A moosehide coat with a squared neckline and embroidered floral patterns along the centre point and the lower portion of the coat. Short fringes hang off the shoulder points.

Métis or Cree Moosehide Coat collected by John Halkett on his 1821-22 visit to the Red River Settlement. With its combination of European form, floral decoration, and indigenous materials, this coat is a fine example of early nineteenth century Métis or Cree art. TMM HBC 34-30-A.

A whalebone club with a wrapped handle above a carved face at the base of the club.

Nuu chah nulth Whalebone Club collected by John Halkett. This is one of several Northwest Coast objects in the Halkett collection. TMM HBC 38-25.

While the Halkett boat in the HBC Collection evokes the heroic era of Arctic exploration, and remarkable characters like Sir John Franklin, Sir George Simpson, and Dr. John Rae, the associations extend further. The inventor of the boat, Lieutenant Peter Halkett (1820-1885) of the Royal Navy, was the son of John Halkett (1768-1852), a major shareholder in the HBC who became a member of the company’s managing London Committee in 1811. Peter Halkett’s mother was the sister of Lord Selkirk, another major shareholder in the HBC, and the initiator of three schemes to relocate displaced Highlanders from Scotland to British North America. The last of these, in 1811, included a large land grant from the HBC in Rupert’s Land, centred on the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, which became the Red River Settlement, and later the Province of Manitoba. When Selkirk died, John Halkett became the executor of his estate, travelling to Canada, Rupert’s Land, and the Red River Settlement in 1821-22 as part of his duties.

In his travels, he assembled a collection of objects produced by Inuit and First Nations societies from Hudson’s Bay to the Northwest Coast, which today forms an important and well-documented part of the HBC Museum Collection. Many of the objects John Halkett collected are on permanent exhibit in the HBC Gallery of The Manitoba Museum.

Museum Stories: HBC Museum Collection

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Collections, Convergence, and Coincidence

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Wednesday February 29, 2012

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

 

I started my position as the Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection in January, and am familiarizing myself with this fascinating collection, comprised of objects which reflect more than three centuries of HBC operations. There is not a single organizing principle, other than objects having some association with the HBC or its employees. The vast majority of the collection was donated by the Hudson’s Bay Company to The Manitoba Museum in 1994. Of the roughly 25,000 objects in this collection, about 1/3 are of indigenous origin – “curiosities of the country” collected by HBC employees – while about 2/3 are of Euro-North American origin. The collection contains some remarkable and iconic objects, but an equally important aspect is the ways in which the collection symbolizes and evokes larger themes in corporate, Canadian, and world history.

An example of this is the Halkett boat – a mid-19th century inflatable or collapsible boat intended for the use of travelers and explorers – in the HBC Collection.

An illustration of two men paddling in a small inflatable boat.

A period image of a two-man Halkett boat in use, from “Footnotes on the Franklin Search,” The Beaver, Outfit 285 (Spring 1955), 48.

A deflated and folded boat in a rectangular chipping case with the hinged lid open.

The Halkett boat in the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection in its shipping box, labelled “Sir George Simpson,” prior to conservation. TMM, HBC 40-95.

A recent request came from Jeremy Ward, Curator of The Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, ON. www.canoemuseum.ca He was interested in obtaining an image and information on this object for an upcoming exhibit on collapsible and folding watercraft. The information he provided, and my search into the records at The Manitoba Museum, produced some interesting results. First, it is one of two known Halkett Boats surviving worldwide. The other, in the Stromness Museum, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, was associated with the Arctic explorer and surveyor Dr. John Rae – who was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company. (Click here to learn more)

Rae considered the boats very useful on his Arctic voyages in the 1840s, which included a search for the lost expedition of the famous Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.

Ironically, the Halkett Boat in the HBC Museum Collection was intended for Franklin, who in turn gave it to Sir George Simpson, the governor of North American operations for the HBC. It is possible that this boat has never been used, but has remained in its box in the corporate collection of the HBC until the HBC Museum Collection was donated to The Manitoba Museum.

Museum Stories: HBC Museum Collection

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Anniversary for a Museum Outlaw

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Wednesday February 8, 2012

Just outside my office on the 4th floor of the Museum is a big, hairy outlaw that can stare anybody down. It’s the mounted head of one of the original ‘outlaw buffalo’ of the Pablo/Allard herd of Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), the most significant of the private herds purchased by the Canadian government that helped to bring these magnificent animals back from the brink of extinction.

A taxidermized bison head mounted on a large, oval, wooden wall mount.

By 1890, it is believed that there were no bison remaining in Canada. Several private herds started from wild stock during the 1870s were obtained by the Canada government beginning in 1897. The Pablo/Allard herd, the origin of the Museum ‘outlaw’, had its beginnings in about 1872 when Walking Coyote, a member of the Pend d’Oreille First Nation, captured a handful of animals south of the Alberta/Montana border. About a dozen offspring of this group were purchased by Pablo and Allard in 1883 and augmented with others purchased from other private owners some ten years later. When protected and left to their own devices, this bison herd became quite large.

 

Image: The 4th floor Museum ‘outlaw’, an original member of the Pablo/Allard bison herd, but one of several that refused to be driven into a train boxcar for shipping and was shot for its obstinance. Times have changed, we’d like to think.

Michel Pablo rounded up his bison in Montana, loaded them onto boxcars and sent over 700 to Canada between 1907 and 1914. However, there were a few individuals that were too wild and managed to escape. In early 1911, in what was billed by the The New York Times in January that year as “the last big buffalo hunt in the history of the world,” Pablo hunted down and shot these ‘outlaw’ bison. The metal plaque on the Museum hallway head clearly identifies it as a member of Pablo’s ‘outlaw’ herd.

Newspaper clipping reading, "LAST BUFFALO HUNT NOW ON / Michel Pablo Killing Off His Herd In Spite of Montana Authorities. / Special to The New York Times."

The New York Times headline of January 22, 1911 reporting the culling of the ‘outlaw’ bison.

Close up on a metal plaque at the base of a wall mount reading, "Fine Specimen Head of Buffalo Bull of Pablo Herd of Outlaw Buffalo - 1912. / Property - City of Winnipeg".

The metal plate identifying the Museum bison head as an ‘outlaw buffalo’ of the Pablo herd.

I mentioned the Museum bison head mount to a volunteer in Geology and Paleontology, Dr. Jim Burns, who has a fascination with Winnipeg history. He brought to my attention a photograph he had researched that showed 11 bison heads lined up on Main Street in 1911, apparently from that famous last hunt by Pablo (see Burns, J.A. 2010. Edward Darbey, taxidermy, and the last buffaloes. Manitoba History, 63:40-41). It seems that a number of these animals had made their way to a well-respected Winnipeg taxidermist, Edward Darbey. Born in St. Thomas, Ontario in 1872, Darbey came to Winnipeg at the age of 15. In 1898 he purchased the taxidermy shop on Main Street that is the backdrop to the bison skulls in the photo. By 1902, Darbey had been appointed as the “Official Taxidermist of the Manitoba Government,” an odd title by today’s standards, but one that made sense at the time when animal mounts were frequently used to decorate public buildings.

The Pablo bison were hunted in early 1911, the bison head and taxidermy shop photo was dated by Dr. Burns to around mid-1911, and there is record of a Winnipeg auction of bison head mounts and capes in late November, 1911. According to the plaque on our Museum mount, it became property of the City of Winnipeg in 1912, a reasonable date to link it with the somewhat gruesome Main Street display.

Eleven bison skulls posed infront of and atop sandbags in front of a the E. W. Darbey Taxidermy shop.

Eleven bison skulls outside Edward Darbey’s taxidermy shop on Main Street in Winnipeg, mid-1911. Photo courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba through J.A. Burns.

A close up on the upper portion of the skull and the horns of a bison skull. "#5" is written along the top of the skull.

A close-up of the horns of one of the skulls from the 1911 Main Street photograph. Enhancing images like this provided a way to compare the horns of the undressed skulls with that of the Museum head mount to see if it could have been one of these animals.

Two close ups of left-side bison horns. On the left side is a black and white photograph of a horn on an undressed skull bearing very similar markings to the horn on the right side image, which is a colour image of a horn on a taxidermized skull.

Enlarged images of the undressed skulls in the old photo show distinctive patterns on the horns. I spent some time photographing the horns of the hallway ‘outlaw’ at similar angles to those of the 1911 photograph. From careful comparison, I am reasonably certain that there is a match for our 4th floor ‘outlaw’ – skull #5, second from the right in the back row of the Main Street photo (just right of the bottom of the door to the shop). The numbers on the skulls likely linked them with the appropriate skins for later mounting.

 

Image: A comparison of the left horn of skull #5 from the 1911 photograph (left) with the left horn of the Museum ‘outlaw’ mount. Although difficult to discern on the low resolution images here, patterns on each of these horns and also the right horns are strikingly similar, suggesting a match.

So our big, hairy ‘outlaw’ bison mount is 100 years old this winter. This could be considered a depressing anniversary of the killing of some of the last ‘wild’ bison in North America. But for me, the old head commemorates the beginning of an incredible conservation story, the salvation of our provincial emblem and, just perhaps, an altered attitude of society towards the world around us.

Dr. Randy Mooi

Dr. Randy 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. Randy Mooi

Museum Stories: Zoology

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With a Little Help from my Friends

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Wednesday February 1, 2012

For the last several years I have been studying the pollination ecology in Birds Hill Provincial Park focusing specifically on the rare Western Silvery Aster (Symphyotrichum sericeum) plant. I discovered that this species is self-incompatible (meaning it can’t fertilize its own eggs), and visited by a wide range of insect pollinators, including both flies and bees.

I also discovered that although this rare plant competes for pollinators with the much more common Showy Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis) plant, a negative effect on seed production only occurs when their blooming periods overlap.

My first thought was that reducing the number of Showy Goldenrod plants in the community would result in more insect visitations for the rare plant but then I reconsidered as this did not intuitively seem like the right course of action. I wondered if removing plants would actually end up reducing the local insect population by reducing the quantity of nectar available. Perhaps the plants aren’t really competing at all but rather working together to support their mutual pollinators throughout the year. I also considered that any plant species that completes its flowering before Western Silvery Aster begins blooming would not be competing with it for pollinators at all. In fact, you could argue that the common plants facilitate insect visitation to the rare plant by providing nectar to their shared pollinators. Purple Prairie Clover provides nectar to Western Silvery Aster’s pollinators in July.

A small bee fly on a small flower with thin purple petals and a yellow centre.

Bee flies and syrphids pollinate Western Silvery Aster flowers.

A bumblebee on a stack of small yellow flowers.

Bumblebees love Showy Goldenrod!

Close up on a purple flower with a bare nub at the top.

Purple Prairie Clover provides nectar to Western Silvery Aster’s pollinators in July.

I decided to test this hypothesis by recording the insect visitors to other plant species before Western Silvery Aster even begins to flower. So far I have obtained some interesting results. One of the most important insect visitor species, a bumblebee (Bombus bifarius), was observed visiting five species of plants in June and July in addition to Western Silvery Aster. A second species, a bee fly (Anastoechus barbatus), was observed as early as July 12, pollinating three other plant species. It appears that when plants share pollinators, staggered flowering helps to (a) decrease competition, and (b) sustain pollinating insects throughout their active season.

I think that there is a tendency for western scientists to place too much emphasize on competition when interpreting the results of their research. We need to remember that co-operation, if it results in both species increasing their offspring, is also a beneficial strategy for survival.

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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Preserving Traditional Knowledge and Practices: How Does it Relate to Museum Conservation?

Posted on by Collections & Conservation
Posted on: Friday January 27, 2012

I recently attended a very interesting conference in Oaxaca, Mexico. It was the 8th North American Textile Conservation Conference. Naturally, the focus was on preservation of textiles. Although I’m not a textile conservation specialist, I do work on textiles here at the Museum, and the conference offered a chance to visit a different area of Mexico, one less travelled by tourists.

As with most conferences, there were paper presentations, posters, receptions, workshops, and tours. The theme I found most interesting was that of preservation of traditional knowledge and techniques. Several papers talked about curatorial research on this subject, in different areas of the world ranging from Romania and Greece to Mexico and a Ukrainian-settled area of Cleveland, Ohio.

The tour I went on also had a focus on traditional knowledge and techniques. We first visited the farm of a local man who is trying to maintain the traditional practice of obtaining cochineal dye from insects that live on nopal cactus. He also collects guano from his ducks to use as a mordant in dyeing.

A group of closely growing cactus pads covered in white spots of cocoons.

The cochineal insects are in waxy “coccoons” on the cactus pads.

A collection tray placed on a folded chair. The dark-coloured tray holds what looks like a white powder.

They are brushed off the cacti into a tray, and will be dried and crushed to use as a dye.

Next we visited a family of artists. The women are all very skilled weavers, using traditional backstrap looms, while the son is a painter. The women gave us a weaving demonstration, and we were able to buy some of their wares. We then went to the home of another weaver, who is teaching young children the use of the backstrap loom, and who wove all the bags the conference attendees received.

Three women kneeling on mats hold the ends of long weaving threads and looms. Behind them a number of people are seated or standing watching.

The traditional weavers showed us their technique.

A smiling woman posing with a shoulder bag with an intricate woven pattern in red and white.

This local weaver made 130 of these bags for conference participants.

Finally, we went to a town where many families carry on a tradition of making painted woodcarvings. The painting is a more recent variation on a long-known tradition of carving the local copal wood.

The issue of preserving traditional knowledge and practices is being given more and more attention as modernization, wars and other factors reduce or eliminate the practices of century- or millennia-old skills. Museum conservators have access to traditionally-made objects in museums. Their examinations often reveal previously unknown or little-understood details of manufacture. Knowledge of manufacturing techniques is important when treating an object, and such knowledge is critical for producing compatible repair or restoration work.

 

Image: A variety of natural dyes are used to paint the wood carvings.

The transmission of traditional knowledge is also a cultural practice. It’s important for conservators today to bear in mind cultural context in many aspects of the work we do. Attending this conference reinforced that for me.

Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation

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