 |
 |
|
|
|
Lecture: The Fort at Yorke Island, 1937-1945
Time and Date: 7pm, Tuesday, November 6, 2012 During World War II, one of Canada’s least known military fortresses was built on Yorke Island, BC, just six kilometers northeast of Kelsey Bay. The fort was armed with guns, searchlights, examination vessels, and upwards of 500 men. From 1937-1945 this was Canada’s key western defence against Japanese attack.
Life for the soldiers on Yorke Island had to be self-sufficient, but there was plenty of interaction with the local population. The locals never forgot these soldiers, who sometimes took shots at them, but who were also grateful for their hospitality when so far from home.
Click for Details
Especially for Members
It's that time of year to extend our appreciation to members with our members only gift shop sale week which is just around the corner!
From Tuesday, November 13th to Saturday, November 17th, museum members will receive an additional 5% discount on their regular 15% discount from non-consignment and non-sale items in the shop.
The gift shop stocks everything from dinosaur theme toys to jewelry, marble bowls, crystal growing kits, art cards and shopping bags.
We also have scarves, children and adult books, t-shirts, sweatshirts, trivets, tea towels, oven mitts and cups, along with totes, travel mugs and candle holders.
For exceptional and unusual gifts come and visit us at the Courtenay and District Museum gift shop.
What's In A Membership?
Lots! News on lectures and events, fifteen percent discounts in the gift shop on non-consignment items, discounts on lectures and a chance to be involved with one of the most active regional museums in B.C.
Buying a membership supports heritage, education and activities. If you're not a member already, please join us today!
Elasmosaur Birthday Party
The Elasmosaur’s birthday is fast approaching and this year the fossil will be 80,000, 024 years old.
Twenty-four years ago, the first Elasmosaur found west of the Canadian Rockies was discovered on the banks of the Puntledge River.
Further discoveries in the Comox Valley have sparked an army of young, and not-so-young, fossil enthusiasts who have made many new fossil finds.
To celebrate the Valley’s fossil discoveries, the Courtenay and District Museum will hold a special day to honour one of the Valley’s oldest residents and to welcome new-comers, a juvenile Elasmosaur and a Tylosaurus to the galleries.
On Saturday, November 17th, the museum is inviting the community to visit the museum, see the exhibits, talk to the experts and bring in fossils for identification.
Festivities include a birthday cake, juice and popcorn. The museum will show dinosaur movies all day in the Rotary Gallery and on the big-screen monitors.
Admission to the event is by donation.
Before Television
As this image from the mid-1920s shows, people went hog wild with party decorations before television!
The scan is from a glass plate negative in the museum’s collection and it certainly highlights the decorators’ creativity in using items that were probably both store bought and homemade. Exact location of the get-together is unknown – only that it was somewhere on south-central Vancouver Island.
According to the Comox Argus of 1925, the Comox Valley was partying for Halloween around that time, too.
The Union Bay CGIT (Canadian Girls in Training) hosted a party at the school hall whose "costumes and decorations were in keeping with the season. Refreshments were served in the "serviette and toothpick" style".
Courtenay had several children’s parties and the paper noted that this "would take a good many of the youngsters off the streets. Gates were found on telephone poles and other unaccustomed places and signs were misplaced but otherwise the night was peaceful enough".
October is Women’s History month in Canada and this year’s theme is Strong Girls, Strong Canada: Leader’s From the Start. Here’s an interesting related story about the Capes sisters – two young women who were way ahead of their time.
Katherine and Phyllis Capes sure made the front page headlines in the Toronto Daily Star newspaper back in August of 1933. With $8 between them and 30 pound packs on their backs, they hitch hiked their way across the country. In total, they had 28 traveling days. They slept most nights in their sleeping bags in or outside any type of building. On average, they only walked up to five miles a day; the rest of the time they hitched car rides or rode the freight rails. They started their adventure by hitching rides up to and through the Crow’s Nest Pass and then learned how to ride the freight trains from Kenora onwards. With help from motorists, trainmen and hobos, the Capes sisters made their way across the country, quite an adventure for two teenage sisters back in the 1930s.
Donations
Please consider supporting the Courtenay and District Museum through a charitable donation. Your donation helps support programming, museum activities and long term operating of the Courtenay and District Museum. This is a great time of year to donate and receive a tax receipt.
You can donate online or by mail, details for both are available through the link below. Either way, we'll send acknowledgment and a receipt as soon as your donation is received.
Exhibit: Signs of the Times
Signs can advertise a business, promote a cause or even tell you where to go and how to get there!
In fact, signs are the backdrop to our workaday lives. Some are “just the facts, m’am” others are eye-catching for their use of colour and design. Some signs can become so well known to us that it’s a sad day when they are dismantled or removed.
But fear not, this new exhibit is sure to bring back some memories. Our second floor temporary gallery area will display “Signs of the Times” – an exhibit featuring artifacts and signage of Comox Valley history from our permanent collection. You can expect to see the Gaiety Theatre sign and "Leung's Fruits and Vegetables" among many others.
It's All There in Black and White
This November 7th, 1980 Comox District Free Press article speaks to us of the sacrifices made by the young men from our community and the woman who was not willing to let us forget. Though the Courtenay and District Museum has moved from the Native Sons Hall to the former Post Office, Ruth Masters book "Lest We Forget" is still on display to honour these men.
Read this newspaper article from our archives
Photo of the Month
CDM #990.24.161
You can view more photos like this on our website. Click here to visit our holdings.
Royal BC Museum hosts the world's earliest printed maps
Victoria, BC – The new Royal BC Museum season opened October 4th with Envisioning the World: The First Printed Maps, 1472-1700 an exhibition of thirty rare world maps drawn from the Wendt collection, complemented by a 1696 double-hemisphere map from the BC Archives collection.
The exhibition includes the first world map ever printed, a simple woodprint, which illustrates the cumulative history of many of these maps. First drawn around 150 A.D. the map was re-discovered in 6th century Alexandria, Egypt. Then Isidore of Seville, a Christian scholar, added the names of Noah’s three sons, each on his own continent. In the 1450s – when printing technology was developed in Germany – this became the world’s first printed map when it appeared in one of Isidore’s books.
Museum Sponsors
Dogwood
Arbutus
Fir
Seedling
Lawrence Burns
D. Mobley
Museum Funding
The Courtenay and District Historical Society was registered as a nonprofit society in 1961 to preserve and interpret cultural and natural heritage of the Comox Valley. It has functioned as an independent society since that time. Funds are derived from the generous support of the City of Courtenay, British Columbia Arts Council, Comox Valley Regional District, British Columbia Gaming Branch, and from museum generated revenues and donations.
Proud sponsors of the Courtenay & District Museum:
|
|
CDM 991.74.59
