My name is Kate Beaulieu, you might remember me from the variety of walking tours I have run around the city for the Thunder Bay Museum over the last few years. (More coming this summer!) That was fun but now I am doing something different! (For now, anyway…) For the next little while, I will be squirreled away in the collection of the Thunder Bay Museum working on reorganizing, cataloging, condition reporting, and conserving the museum’s rather vast collection of clothing and textiles. This is going to be an adventure, I guarantee it.
In this blog, I will be updating you weekly (at least) about what I find as I work my way through the rows upon rows of clothing artifacts, each one with a story to tell. What you can expect to find in this blog (other than me discussing strange cataloging practices from 1972!) are photos of interesting details, notable provenance (the story of where the artifact came from), generally interesting clothing, neat research that I come upon as I move through the artifacts, and I'm sure much, much more. As I actually started this project in November, the first couple weeks will be catching us up, and will most likely be related to military clothing as I am currently working my way through that rack. But after that I will be getting into some more diverse pieces that will showcase the broad and varied history of our region.
We wanted to create this blog not only to give you all a bit of a peek into some of the very interesting projects that are constantly on the go at the Museum and because clothing is an essential part of our history. Truly, our clothing can tell a story all on its own - from our beliefs and ideology, to our careers or hobbies, to societal norms and expectations, clothing represents all of these things in elements as simple as stitching, cut, or buttons. By going through the clothing collection at the Thunder Bay Museum, I will be sifting through a veritable archive of nearly 200 years worth of Northwestern Ontario history. I will find pieces that were made here by local tailors, pieces that were brought here from abroad by immigrating families, pieces that represent specific events and periods, and so much more. Our clothing is an ever-changing representation of our experiences and history and this project is about so much more than counting buttons.
For a brief background of this project, the museum is moving its textile artifact collection to a new storage space with conditions that better suit them, and in the process we are cataloging, photographing and re-housing each one with new artifact-safe hangers and garment bags. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Ontario Job Creation Partnership and the Museum Assistance Program (Department of Canadian Heritage) that has made this project possible.
So if you want to follow along for the ride and explore a little bit “behind the scenes”, see some objects that have likely never been on display before, and learn all sorts of things about this city’s history, you have come to the right place.
Leave a comment so I know you’re out there – looking forward to sharing this adventure with you all!
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