Heritage Update - new directions, oral history, and #CapelinRoll2016

In the July 2016 edition of our Heritage Update newsletter, Jerry Dick talks about new directions for the Heritage Foundation of NL; we proudly announce the launch of our Collective Memories oral history project; we anxiously await for the arrival of #CapelinRoll2016; and we invite you to a free cemetery mapping workshop and graveyard cleanup happening in Heart's Content.

Contributors:
Jerry Dick, Dale Jarvis, Lisa Daly, Kim Orren, Collective Memories Project, Terra Barrett

Download the pdf

Free Graveyard Mapping Workshop - July 16th

Measuring the distance between graves.

The Heritage Foundations of Newfoundland and Labrador, in partnership with Youth Heritage NL, is looking for your help in getting Heart's Content ready for their 150th Anniversary Commemoration Celebration "Connected and Contented"!

We are organizing a cemetery mapping and cleanup for July 16. The mapping workshop will take place in the morning, followed by at short lunch provided by the Mizzen Heritage Society and HFNL, then a cleanup of the cemetery before taking the bus back to St. John's. Help HFNL and YHNL cleanup the cemetery and learn how to map in the process!

There will be a bus leaving 1 Springdale Street, St. John's at 9am and returning around 4pm.

Schedule:
 9:00-10:30 - Travel to Heart's Content
10:30-12:00 - Mapping the cemetery
12:00-12:45 - Lunch!
12:45- 3:30 - Cemetery cleanup
 3:30- 5:00 - Travel back to St. John's

Of course this is not limited to volunteers from St. John's. If you are interested in helping, please contact us at YouthHeritageNL@gmail.com and we will provide details (transportation may not be included depending on your location).

This is an outdoor, hands-on activity, so please have appropriate clothing, workboots, gloves, hats, sunblock, bug spray, etc.

If you want to get involved register here for this free workshop.

Plotting the graves on a map.

Tuesday's Folklore Photos - Graveyard Mapping, Recording, and Rubbing

Measuring and mapping the graves.

Today’s Folklore Photos comes from a Heritage Foundation field trip to the General Protestant Cemetery on Topsail Rd, in St. John’s. Yesterday afternoon July 4th, 2016, Dale, Michael, Pei, Celeste, Sarah, and I took a trip to the cemetery to map the cemetery, record the information on the gravestones, and rub some of the stones.

Recording the information.

Pei, an international folklore graduate student, is working with the Heritage Foundation this summer to digitize files. Another project that he is working on is documenting and researching the Chinese graves in the General Protestant Cemetery. Pei is looking for more information on the people buried in the cemetery and is interested in the impact they’ve left on the community.

Plotting the graves.

Yesterday was the first step in finding out more information about the Chinese graves. We measured the location of the 27 graves in relation to one another and the concrete kerbs that are keeping the graves together. Michael plotted this information on a map with each of the graves numbered.

Recording the size, location, symbols, and writing on the gravestones.

Celeste and Sarah mainly focused on recording the information about the graves they could gather leaving the Chinese characters for Pei to decipher. Pei and I reviewed the stones and decided which stones needed to be rubbed in order to gather more information. We used masking tape and put a thick paper over the gravestones. We made sure to keep the paper as taunt as possible in order to have a clearer rubbing of the grave. We then used charcoal to outline the gravestone, and moved across the gravestone horizontally keeping a steady pressure. Once we finished the rubbings we photographed them and rolled the rubbings up for storage. Although rubbings are not always the answer for gravestones they can often allow you to record different information such as the size and shape of the gravestones and can allow you to better see the lettering engraved on the stones.

Sample gravestone rubbing from Cupids.

Demonstrating gravestone rubbing.

If you would like to learn more about mapping cemeteries join the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and Youth Heritage NL on July 16, 2016 for a cemetery mapping workshop, and a cleanup of one of the older cemeteries in Heart’s Content. If you would like more information or would like to register for this free workshop click here!

~Terra Barrett

#CollectiveMemories Roadtrip: Markland Cottage Hospital Stories

Markland Cottage Hospital, now home of Rodrigues Winery.

The Markland Cottage Hospital was designated by the Heritage Foundation in 2007 due to its historic and aesthetic value. The hospital was built in 1935 by the Commission of Government and was opened January 1, 1936. The hospital was one part of the government’s Land Settlement Scheme which intended to have families set up farms, raise animals, and build communities. It is also one of 19 cottage hospitals built across the province to serve rural communities. Although agriculture never caught on in the area the hospital remained in operation until it was phased out in the 1980s and officially closed in 1985 with the opening of a new clinic in nearby Whitbourne.

Former staff of the hospital.

On Friday June 24, 2016 the Cottage Hospital, which now operates as a Rodrigues Winery and Distillery, hosted a large group of former hospital staff. Everyone from nurse’s aides to administrative staff was in attendance. There were great stories told about the staff’s time in the hospital. Many nurses, aides, and other staff members lived on the second floor of the building. The Heritage Foundation staff was invited to attend the afternoon event by Lionel Rodrigues of Rodrigues Winery which now operate out of the former hospital.

Greeting old friends.

Michael, Andrea, Pei, and I arrived amidst a flurry of old friends. There were big hugs, loud greetings, and many smiles. It was great just to walk through the old building, see the photographs on the walls, and listen to the stories about the staff’s time in the building. We heard stories about the pranks the women played amongst themselves and even on RCMP officers, how and where the women would sneak out of the hospital to see boyfriends or go dancing in the evenings, which rooms were dormitories, where the kitchen and dining room were, and how many beds were found in the men’s and women’s wards.

Some of the interior decor includes old photographs, and hospital equipment.

One of the ICH Office’s newest projects is the Collective Memories project which aims to capture the stories of seniors and make them accessible to the public. This is the main reason I headed out to Markland – to hear some stories and talk with the former staff about the possibility of doing follow up interviews about their time working in the hospital. Andrea and I talked with several women and returned to the office with a long list of names and numbers. The stories from Markland’s Cottage Hospital would make an interesting collection so keep an eye on the blog for their stories as we follow up with the cottage hospital workers.

Hospital equipment on display.

If you would like to learn more about the designation check out the Heritage Foundation’s website, and if you want to see the hospital for yourself and enjoy a lovely wine tasting contact Rodrigues Winery! Thanks to Rodrigues Winery for the invitation and a big congrats on hosting such a lovely event.

Some of the former staff of the Markland Cottage Hospital.

~Terra Barrett

Commemorating WWI veteran Robert J. Mercer in Bay Roberts.

This afternoon, I was pleased to attend the renaming ceremony for the Bay Roberts Council Chambers, located in the Bay Roberts Cable Building Registered Heritage Structure, which was designated by the Heritage Foundation of NL in 1998.

Today, the chambers were named to honour WW I Veteran Robert J. Mercer, who was also the town’s first mayor in 1951. The council chambers were absolutely packed, with many representatives of the Mercer family, including sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild! Guests spoke about Mr Mercer's contributions to the community, the Royal Canadian Legion, the Masonic Order, and the Church Lads Brigade. Congratulations to the town and to the Mercer Family!

Photo: Bay Roberts Heritage Society

Placenames and Mapping Memories in Cupids

Last night, the Cupids Historical Society and the ICH Office of HFNL held a well-attended and fun night to help the society map out placenames and locations of local historical interest. We heard fabulous stories about walking trials, spots which were fairy-haunted, kissing spots, where capelin would roll, the best places to pick blueberries, old barbershops, bonfire night, and where the boys from Cupids would lie in wait with rocks to throw at the boys from Brigus who would dare come courting the girls of Cupids!  We learned about The Arch, The Crawling Rock, the Tunnel, Newman's Point, The Bog Hole, and a host of other names. 

The Cupids Historical Society now has the work of compiling all this information as part of its on-going research. Thanks to Dale Russell-Fitzpatrick (Dale #1!) for inviting us, and the Cupids Legacy Centre for hosting!

If your community would like a similar workshop event in your town, give us a shout at 1-888-739-1892 x2, or email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

- Dale (aka Dale #2!)

Photos courtesy Dale Russell-Fitzpatrick and the Cupids Historical Society. 

Boxes Under the Bed? Digitization and Oral History

Grand Falls-Windsor Oral History Collection

Have an oral history collection you don’t know what to do with?  Need help digitizing these collections?
The Heritage Foundation is looking to help you out!

Maybe they’re in your storage room, or in your bottom desk drawer – those shoeboxes of cassettes, CDs or reel to reel tapes that were collected by a summer project, seniors’ group or JCP worker. These were the recordings that were going to preserve the voices of the past – but here they sit with no voice at all! You don’t know what’s on the recordings, you don’t know much about who made them – maybe you don’t even have the equipment to play them!

As part of the Collective Memories project the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is looking to help community organizations, municipalities, and church groups digitize their oral history collections to make them accessible for future generations. Collected stories will be made available through Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is a free, public website where the HFNL stores the photos, videos, and interviews it collects.

The Collective Memories project is part of HFNL’s ongoing Intangible Cultural Heritage program. The program works to safeguard the living heritage of the province for present and future generations everywhere, as a vital part of the identities of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and as a valuable collection of unique knowledge and customs.

The Heritage Foundation has worked with several groups around the province to help digitize their collections. This includes the School of Nursing, and Grand Falls-Windsor’s Hiram Silk Collection. Keep your eye on Memorial University’s DAI for the Cape Race and Grand Falls-Windsor collections which are coming soon!

How can you access to those voices from the past? How can you preserve and use them? Contact the Heritage Foundation! If you would like more information on how your group can get involved please contact Terra Barrett toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 6 or terra@heritagefoundation.ca.

~Terra Barrett

Living Heritage Podcast Ep044 Scottish and English Intangible Cultural Heritage with Suzy Harrison

Suzy Harrison is a second year PhD researcher at Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom, and is funded through the AHRC Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Programme. Her research analyses current attitudes towards intangible cultural heritage in England, and looks to reveal the challenges which it faces through closer examination of intangible heritage in the East Midlands. Her research is also looking at opportunities to possibly adopt practices at a local or national level which may exist in other countries.

We talk about local traditions, football, ICH politics and Suzy's research on the differences between ICH policy in Scotland and England. It's an ICH gabfest!

 

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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Cupids Workshop - What's in a Name?

This Thursday, June 23rd, residents of Cupids will start to map out what their heritage means to them, with a little help from folklorist Dale Jarvis.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, our living heritage is rich and diverse. It includes historic buildings and places, ballad singing, snowshoe-making, accordion playing, knitting, mummers and jannies, berry picking, boat building, and much more. We tell stories, make clothes, build stages, shear sheep, and spin yarn. We have a complex knowledge of place, the seasons, and the movements and patterns of animals from moose to cod fish. If we lose these important parts of our living heritage, we will also lose important resources that can keep our communities going culturally, economically and socially. But where do we start?

Dale Jarvis, folklorist with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, will be leading a community conversation about historic places, trails, old stories, place names, traditions, and local knowledge.

Come for a cup of tea, and tell us what matters to you in Cupids. It will be a FREE and FUN community workshop with snacks and door prizes, sponsored by Cupids Historical Society Inc.

Thursday June 23rd
Legacy Hall, Cupids Legacy Centre
7:30-9:00pm