Scanning St. John’s!

St. John's Harbour. IGA photograph collection. VA 94-105.1. June 1934. Photo courtesy of The Rooms.

Scanning St. John’s!

Are you a townie? Do you want to share family photos on Mother’s Day? Did you grow up in Georgestown or Rabbittown? Did you hang out on Ropewalk Lane, or shop at W.J. Murphy’s? Did someone in your family own a shop? If you did, and have photos of any of those things, Heritage NL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage office would love to see your snaps!

Of interest are old photos of St. John’s, anywhere from the 1880s to the 1980s. Photos could be family snapshots, old photos showing parties, games or sporting events, cars decorated for weddings, or of any of the old shops and stores that once dotted the town.

“We want to see those photos Nan kept in the old biscuit tin in the closet,” says folklorist Dale Jarvis with Heritage NL. “Sometimes photographs from the 1970s and ‘80s include things like storefronts or shop signs that are now long gone, so even if they aren’t ancient, they can still help us document changes to the neighbourhoods.”

Heritage NL will be hosting two scanning parties in St. John’s. The first on Sunday, May 12th in the Community Room at the St. John’s Farmers’ Market at 2pm, and the second on Tuesday, May 14th at the Lantern at 7pm.

Heritage NL staff will be on site to scan the photographs and ask questions about who or what is in the photo. If you bring your own USB flash drive, you can take home a digital copy as well as your original photographs.

Photos will also be shared online with the owner’s permission, and a copy will be uploaded to Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is indexed and archived for history buffs everywhere.

Questions? Call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 x 2 or email dale@heritagenl.ca

Sunday, May 12th at 2:00 p.m. at the Farmers’ Market
245 Freshwater Rd, St. John’s, NL A1B 1B3

Tuesday, May 14th at 7:00 p.m. at the Lantern 35 Barnes Rd, St. John's, NL A1C 3X1

Photo of the Newfoundland Brewery Ltd. colourized by http://www.thephotomender.com

Digital Storytelling: 1968 Oxfam Walk with Palma Mercer

Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their own family and community history. Many people have stories about family members and local places that often go untold. Digital storytelling helps interpret and make community history accessible.

Palma Mercer tells the story of the 1968 Oxfam Miles for Millions Walk.

Or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Photos and audio courtesy of Palma Mercer. Photos collected as part of the Digital Storytelling workshop held Tuesday, October 16th, 2018 in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s. If this video elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a digital storytelling workshop for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

Digital Storytelling: My Grandparents' House with Ruth Bugden

Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their own family and community history. Many people have stories about family members and local places that often go untold. Digital storytelling helps interpret and make community history accessible.

Ruth Bugden tells the story of her grandparents' house.

Or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Photos and audio courtesy of Ruth Bugden. Photos collected as part of the Digital Storytelling workshop held Tuesday, October 16th, 2018 in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s. If this video elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a digital storytelling workshop for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

Digital Storytelling: Grandfather's House by Palma Mercer

Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their own family and community history. Many people have stories about family members and local places that often go untold. Digital storytelling helps interpret and make community history accessible.

Palma Mercer tells the story of her grandfather's house.

Or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Photos and audio courtesy of Palma Mercer. Photos collected as part of the Digital Storytelling workshop held Tuesday, October 16th, 2018 in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s. If this video elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a digital storytelling workshop for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep016 Digitization How-To with Archivist Nicole Penney

Nicole Penney is a folklorist and archivist living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She holds a BA in Folklore / English Literature and an MA in Public Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. On this episode, we talk all about digitizing archival records, with tips for community museums and archives, as well as private individuals, about how to best digitize old photographs, print, video, and audio materials.

Notes from the road - St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church, Grand Falls-Windsor

I'm in Grand Falls today, helping sort out some oral history collections with the Grand Falls-Windsor Historical Society (more on that in a future post).

Before I left St. John's, Margaret Scott with St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church heard that I was going to be visiting Grand Falls, and tracked me down. They have a collection of historical documents they want to do something with, so I met with them today, and had a brief chat about their materials and the possibility of doing some digitization work, and potentially some oral history recording around the life and history of the church and congregation.

Today, there are about twenty active members of the congregation, which holds a service once a month. The church is one of the oldest buildings in Grand Falls, and was the first municipally designated heritage building for the town, officially recognized as such on October 11, 2005. It is the only Presbyterian church in Newfoundland outside of St. John's.

St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church is listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places, which notes that the building was constructed in 1910, and is the last remaining original church structure in Grand Falls. It is a fine example of a small, country-style church in an urban setting. It has some Gothic Revival style elements, such as multi-paned, Gothic arched windows, as used in similar small churches in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is currently undergoing some repair work.

The building has undergone a number of changes over the years.  The interior of the church was redone in the 1950s, and has been largely untouched since.

The church has a number of interesting archival items documenting the construction and changes to the church over the years, including a copy of the original construction blueprints and photos of the building at various stages, including the one below showing the church before renovations.

Other photos in the collection document church suppers, youth events, women's groups, and special events such as the dinner below, held between 1-2 April 1951.

I am looking forward to seeing more of the St. Matthew's archival material, and wish them success with their preservation efforts!

- Dale Jarvis

 

Back to School, Back in the Day

During the month of September I always think of the teachers and students who head back indoors for the fall as they go back to school. It has been a few weeks for students in Newfoundland, but in British Columbia the first day has been delayed due to a labour dispute and consequential teacher's strike.

Yesterday, just as this conflict was finally resolved, I came across these wonderful class photographs from the 1940s of young pupils in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland. The top photograph is a grade 2 class, and the bottom is grade 1. Right now I am thinking about all the young kids who are just starting school for the first time, and the teachers in B.C. who've had a late start to their teaching year.

I wonder what it was like to be a student back then. Or a teacher for that matter...some of these kids look like trouble.

Special thanks to Charlie Payne of Winterhouse Brook, and the Town of Woody Point, for donating these photographs to the MUN's Digital Archives Initiative. Over the next few weeks a collection of close to 500 photos like the ones above will be made accessible online. I will post links to the collection as the work gets done.

-Lisa

MUNFLA looking for a working BetaMax player

Has anyone in the St. John's area got an old, *still-working* BetaMax player to donate? MUN's Folklore and Language Archive needs one.

Beta was the Sony-developed competitor to VHS as a home-video format. Beta lost that war but many people kept using Beta machines for a decade or more, even after the whole videotape thing was washed to sea by DVDs.

The Archive has the opportunity to copy some important videos from the 1980s and they are on Beta. The Archive's old BetaCord machine died this very afternoon.

If you have a working one and are willing to donate it you can call Pauline Cox (Archivist) at 864-8401.

Nan's Cookbook: Tea and Talk

Nan’s Cookbook

Tea & Talk

Friday, March 21, 2014

3-5 p.m.

Cupids Legacy Centre

368 Seaforest Drive, Cupids

Do you have your nan’s recipe cards? Did your mother keep a scrapbook of her favourites? Do you reminisce about that old copy of the Cream of the West Cookbook with the comments and changes written all over its pages?  Bring your old recipe books and cards, and join us for some tea, buns, and memories of cookbooks and cooking.

Free event, please RSVP to Sarah

sarah@heritagefoundation.ca

1-888-739-1892 ex. 5

Tuesday Folklore Photo: Nan's Cookbook in the Digital Age

A recipe for light cake belonging to Bernice Miles,
 who attended the digitization workshop on February 22, 2014.

This past Friday, The Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives and The Intangible Cultural Heritage Office provided a digitization workshop in St. John's. This workshop focused on digitizing  family cookbooks and handwritten recipes and recipe cards.  Participants were encouraged to bring along their own family collections to share and scan.  Presenters Mary Ellen Wright (ANLA) and Nicole Penney (ICH-HFNL) led this hands on workshop, which taught participants how to create and preserve digital copies of their documents. We also discussed  how to best preserve the original copies of these important family and community heirlooms.

Mary Ellen Wright discusses preservation techniques
Photo Courtesy of: Sarah Ingram

Nicole Penney showing participants how to scan original documents
Photo Courtesy of: Sarah Ingram

We will be holding a similar event at the Cupids Legacy Centre on Friday March 21, 2014. Join us from 3-5 p.m. for some tea, buns and reminiscences about cookbooks and cooking. We’ll also talk about how best to preserve the original documents. Participants are encouraged to bring examples from their own homes or collections. The event is free to attend with coffee, tea and snacks provided.

Workshop participants Joan Mowbray and Amelia Reimer share their family cookbooks
Photo Courtesy of: Sarah Ingram

If you wish to attend the Cupids event, please RSVP to Sarah Ingram: sarah@heritagefoundation.ca or (709) 739-1892 ex. 5