INSIGHT EMILY CARR: FRESH SEEING French Modernism and the West Coast
HISTORIC CONNECTIONS Peering Into the Past and A Tale of Two Families
PHOTOS OF FACEMASKS AND FLUEVOGS The COVID-19 Collecting for Our Time Project Kicks Off
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WHAT’S
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
The Royal BC Museum is located on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen (Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations). We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn on this territory.
F E AT URE
Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing
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F E AT URE
Historic Connections
F E AT URE
Photos of Facemasks and Fluevogs
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Carr House: New Manager, New Era P U B L I C AT I O N S
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A Vivid Social History of a Remarkable Place G O I N G D I G I TA L
Discover 100 Objects of Interest Picture Perfect Broken Promises Refocusing Dinosaurs of the Spatsizi Plateau Surrey’s Surprise Saurian Remembering Our Volunteer Family Members Perseverance and Preparation Eight Seasons Strong PA R T N E R S H I P P R O F I L E
Destination Greater Victoria What’s On Calendar Guiding Principals Thank You for Your Support
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Dear Friends, Erika Stenson E D I TO R - I N - C H I E F
Jennifer Vanderzee M A N AG I N G E D I TO R
Irvin Cheung GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Annie Mayse E D I TO R
Shane Lighter P H OTO G R A P H E R
Melanie Grisak P H OTO G R A P H E R
During the period of the pandemic, one of the books I most enjoyed reading was J.M.G. Le Clézio’s Chanson bretonne, a reflection of the writer’s childhood in this area of France. I lost myself for a moment in the villages of Brittany. These same villages are also reflected in the paintings of the great Canadian artist Emily Carr from 1910 and 1911, when she travelled to France. There she became a truly “modern” artist and had two paintings selected for the prestigious Salon d’Automne in Paris. Her painting of a cottage in Brittany is drenched in lemon-yellow sunlight, with patterns of colour that would become her gregarious trademark in years to come. A picture of Saint-Michel-en-Grève is an evocative and magical work with great passages of colour that demand closer inspection. These superb paintings offer us escape, beauty and tranquility. The Royal BC Museum looks after the greatest collection of Emily Carr’s works ever assembled. It contains a staggering 1,100 artworks, including her sketchbooks, her funny books, her watercolours and other paintings. It is with great excitement that I encourage you all to come to the Royal BC Museum to see the Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing—French Modernism and the West Coast exhibition, which opens October 21, 2020, and runs until early 2021. Curated by Dr. Kathryn Bridge, curator emerita at the Royal BC Museum, and Ms. Kiriko Watanabe of the Audain Art Museum, this new exhibition offers us an opportunity to get close to these great masterpieces. Social distancing allows the experience to be more intimate and personal. I am grateful to Dr. Curtis Collins, the director of the Audain Art Gallery, for making this all possible. In parallel, we are nominating and submitting Emily Carr’s rich writings, the manuscripts that are in the BC Archives, to the Canadian Commission for UNESCO for inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World.
Yours, C O N T R I B U TO RS
Dr. Victoria Arbour, Lisa Bengston, Leah Best, Bill Chimko, Dr. Tzu-I Chung, Liz Crocker, Kim Gough, David R. Gray, Dr. Gavin Hanke, Holli Hodgson, Kate Kerr, Erik Lambertson, Suzan Meyers, Aidan Moher, Chris O’Connor, Beverly Paty, Erika Stenson, Dr. India Young
Professor Jack Lohman, CBE Chief Executive Officer, Royal BC Museum
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F E AT U R E
(right) Emily Carr, Kispiox, 1912. Oil on canvas. (far right) Emily Carr, Crécy-en-Brie, 1911. Oil on board.
The museum is extremely excited to present a new exhibition, Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing—French Modernism and the West Coast. Curators Kiriko Watanabe and Dr. Kathryn Bridge (a Royal BC Museum curator emerita) first opened the exhibition at the Audain Art Museum in 2019. Over the winter, the show travelled to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and it will conclude its tour at the Royal BC Museum this fall.
By Dr. India Young Curator of Art and Images
T
he exhibition tightly centres on the pivotal moment of Carr’s artistic journey: the year spent in France amongst a group of post-impressionist painters. Previously, Carr had trained in the academic style in San Francisco and an arts colony in St. Ives, England. She then taught art in Vancouver and embarked on a personal commitment to painting Indigenous peoples and places in British Columbia. In 1910, she took a year away from her ambitious project to immerse herself in new painting practices.
In that one year, Carr embraced the values and style of French modernism, which would characterize her paintings for decades to come. She pursued post-impressionism with fellow Englishspeakers William Henry Phelan Gibb, John Duncan Fergusson and Frances Hodgkins. From these artists Carr developed the skills to
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
capture light with airy, agile brush strokes—a hallmark of impressionism and post-impressionism. She also embraced the intellectual underpinnings of the movement, which strove to imbue art with emotional content. The exhibition carefully illustrates Carr’s transformation into an artist of the Canadian avant-garde. Including paintings from Carr’s compatriots in France, this exhibition features over 50 artworks from national and international public and private collections. Works from Carr’s year in France are placed in dialogue with the works she created directly after her return to British Columbia. Plein-air sketches and drawings provide insight into Carr’s artistic process, while tour-de-force large-scale paintings, such
as Kispiox, convey the vitality of Indigenous life on the west coast. The exhibition illuminates, with vivid colour and painterly brushstrokes, a new era for Emily Carr.
Emily Carr, Study in Colour and Form, 1911. Oil on card.
Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing will be open October 22, 2020, through January 24, 2021. Don’t miss it!
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By Kate Kerr Exhibit Fabrication Specialist
CARR HOUSE Painting of Carr House by Ray James Bradbury.
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or the first time in 25 years, Carr House—the historic childhood home of artist Emily Carr— has a new manager. I’m Kate Kerr, a longtime member of the BC museum community and part of the exhibits department of the Royal BC Museum. I have been overseeing operations at Carr House since the previous manager retired in March. I plan to emphasize this provincial and national historic site as a valuable local asset for programming and community activities. Workshops, mini-conferences, exhibits and meeting rooms will all be part of the upcoming life of Carr House. Activities will celebrate heritage as well as Emily Carr’s legacy, highlighting themes that recurred throughout her life. Art and environmentalism, positive relations with First Nations communities and their heritage, and mentorship of younger and emerging writers and artists are among these themes.
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New Manager, New Era I want Carr House to become a centre for community, a place where creativity is celebrated and being a community in new ways is explored. I’m excited to take on this new challenge, and I hope to see you at Carr House soon. Carr House is open by appointment by calling (250) 383-5843 or through the events page at carrhouse.ca.
PUBLISHING
The Tod Inlet wharf with barge and tugboat, unloading machinery for the cement plant, 1906–1907.
Pig skulls were our first trophies. As we dug into the loose soil to find more of the curving tusks in earth-stained jawbones— the real prize, we thought then—we discovered old bottles, broken pottery and chopsticks, and then beautifully glazed jugs, pots and rice bowls.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
A Vivid Social History of a Remarkable Place An abridged excerpt from Deep and Sheltered Waters: The History of Tod Inlet by David R. Gray
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y interest in the history of Tod Inlet began with pig teeth. As a boy in the 1940s and ’50s, when our family boat was moored in Tod Inlet, I spent hours exploring the inlet’s shores and venturing up Tod Creek. Along the steep banks of the creek, under the decaying leaves of bigleaf maples, my brother and I first found the buried treasures that led to a lifetime of discoveries.
Pig skulls were our first trophies. As we dug into the loose soil to find more of the curving tusks in earth-stained jawbones—the real prize, we thought then—we discovered old bottles, broken pottery and chopsticks, and then beautifully glazed jugs, pots and rice bowls. Back at the anchorage, our questions to the old-timers led to faint vague memories of a long-deserted Chinese village connected to the abandoned cement plant at Tod Inlet. Over the years I returned to Tod Creek to poke through the crumbling remains of the village. Down the steep slope of the creek bank, my friend and I found a trove of discarded objects—a Chinese midden. Dozens of nail-studded workboots with weathered soles suggested this was a working man’s community, as did the hundreds of beer bottles—some from local sources, others from breweries around the world.
The discoveries fuelled my curiosity about the Chinese workers and eventually led me, as a student at the University of Victoria, to search the provincial archives of British Columbia. But I found no official records of the Chinese community at Tod Inlet. Hidden in the forest parkland were the remains of a forgotten immigrant community, and hidden in the mists of history were the stories of the people who lived there. Although two Chinese workers still lived in the abandoned community until the mid-1960s, in the only house still standing, I didn’t meet them when I was exploring in the area. It was through official government reports on the Vancouver Portland Cement Company operations at Tod Inlet that I began to form a picture of the industry and of the labourers’ lives.
COMING
November 5, 2020 Pre-order your copy at rbcm.ca/books Use promo code memberbook for 10% off
The old cement plant itself yielded more fascinating details. One winter day in the mid-1960s, while I was exploring the abandoned, windowless office building, I found remnants of some company files from 1911 and 1912 scattered on the floor: torn, wet, mouldy and priceless. Priceless because they contained details of the everyday life of the company, the ships and the workers, available nowhere else.
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F E AT U R E
HISTORIC
Peering Into the Past AND
A Tale of Two Families
We are living in unprecedented times. In November 2019, when a group of community partners first started brainstorming for a display in Chinatown, none of us could have imagined the circumstances it would be installed in.
By Dr. Tzu-I Chung Curator of History
T
he Victoria Chinatown Museum Society and the Salient Group invited the Royal BC Museum to partner on activating a window space for educational engagement in the southeast corner of the historic Fan Tan Alley. Located in the heart of Canada’s oldest Chinatown, this space was perfect for sharing stories of Chinatown’s many historic connections to the development of British Columbia.
We decided to connect this window space to the current arts, culture and craft scene with a unique piece of traditional art and craft significant to the place and history: a digital animation of a Chinese Freemasons’ lantern in the museum’s collection. We quickly got to work designing and building an installation to showcase the animation. The Chinese Freemasons are one of the oldest Chinese organizations in what is now called Canada. Established in 1863 in Barkerville with the Chee Kong Tong branch, the Chinese Freemasons grew out of the centuries-old Chinese organization Hongmen. The organization took root in North America as early immigrants strove to support each other in the gold fields. The rampant racism those earliest Chinese immigrants met with still resonates in the rising anti-Asian racism we are seeing today.
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
CONNECTIONS 1
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1. H.Y. Louie Family Co. Limited employees outside the warehouse, January 1943. Photograph courtesy of the Louie family. 2. Bernard, Jackie, Lawrence, Ruth and Urban Guichon, with Andy Des Maz, 1940s.
This resonance invites us to reflect on our own responses to the current pandemic, an idea that led to the conceptualization of the new Pocket Gallery display, A Tale of Two Families. Due to the biases of colonial record-keeping, there are few nonIndigenous families from marginalized communities who can trace their family lineage to the time of the 1858 gold rush. A Tale of Two Families features two families that can: the French Canadian Guichons and the Chinese Canadian Louie-Setos. From their humble BC beginnings in the early 1860s, these families survived extremely harsh times, including world wars and economic depressions. The Louie-Seto family also had to contend with Chinese exclusion and systematic discrimination, among other struggles. Yet the families persisted, and they continue to grow and prosper today. How did they do it? What can we learn from them? The museum team worked closely with the families to provide a few answers to these questions.
O N N OW Peering Into the Past
Celebrating Canada’s Oldest Chinatown 103–3 Fan Tan Alley
A Tale of Two Families
Generations of Intercultural Communities and Family Lessons Pocket Gallery, Royal BC Museum
Both displays have been developed in close collaboration with many members of the communities and families over time. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all of them and to the staff members who worked hard to make these displays happen.
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G O I N G D I G I TA L
DISCOVER 100 OBJECTS OF INTEREST
This painted curtain by Ditidaht artist Tsa-qwa-supp, Art Thompson, features a Thunderbird witnessing the transformation of two humans into Wolves.
Explore BC’s Rich and Diverse History One Object at a Time
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
By Aidan Moher Web Specialist
T
he Royal BC Museum is more than 134 years old, but the history we’re privileged to hold is much older. Since 1886 we’ve added millions of objects to our collections, each one part of the story of British Columbia and its people.
“But that’s a lot of stuff,” you say. ”Where do I begin?” 100 Objects of Interest is here to help. 100 Objects of Interest is an online exhibition featuring objects handpicked from our collections and archives by our curators, archivists and staff. These objects highlight stories about British Columbia’s history and contextualize our province’s living landscapes and cultures as we seek to understand our past and present—and look forward into the future. Dr. Martha Black, a retired curator of Indigenous collections, chose a beautiful painted curtain by Ditidaht artist Tsa-qwa-supp for the online exhibition, noting that “like all of Tsa-qwa-supp’s work, the design unites formline conventions of the northern Northwest Coast with Nuu-chahnulth content.” This design shows two humans turning into Wolves, with a Thunderbird witnessing the transformation. “The ability of creatures to transform from one state to another is a fundamental aspect of the Nuu-chah-nulth world view,” said Black. “Killer whales become wolves when they leave the water, for example, and Thunderbirds have human forms but don their bird cloaks to catch whales.” Among its many wonders, the collection includes a “jumbo” Humboldt squid, native to the waters of South and Central America, but collected off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 2004; the Cowichan petition, which is “believed to be the first formal document to make the legal argument for Aboriginal rights and title with a clear statement written in legal formality and thesis”; and the Turnagain Nugget, a chunk of gold the size of a chocolate bar. That’s not all! Other items include John Lennon’s gorgeous Rolls-Royce, an 85-million-year-old fossilized pearl, a pre-Confederation map of what would later be called British Columbia, and Emily Carr’s painting Kispiox Village. These are a few of the many fascinating stories found on 100 Objects of Interest. Ready for more? View the Ditidaht painted curtain and the other objects of interest at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/100.
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PICTURE PERFECT
Thousands of Photos of Indigenous Communities Accessible to the Public By Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Manager
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(left) Nineteenth-century image of the Kwakwaka’wakw coastal village of Xumtaspi. (below) An Interior Salish woman and child with baskets.
mong the millions of items in its collections, the Royal BC Museum holds thousands of historical photographs depicting Indigenous communities from across British Columbia, taken between the late 1800s and the 1970s.
Indigenous community members and researchers have always been welcome to view the photos, and they were encouraged to identify people, places and events depicted, writing notes on the back of each image. But this was always done at the museum, hunkered among shelves, the images pulled from large wooden index-card drawers. Now, after two years of digitization work, the photos are far easier to access. It’s no longer a matter of booking a trip to Victoria. It’s as simple as logging onto a laptop. In June 2020, to help celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Royal BC Museum placed 16,103 historical photographs (and the data for each) online. The image scans will likely be of value to researchers and learners, but the museum’s priority has been on providing access to Indigenous communities. In fact, staff from the Indigenous Collections and Repatriation department have already met with representatives of many Indigenous communities across BC (prior to the pandemic) at events like Hobiyee (Nisg_a’a New Year), distributing USB drives featuring digitized images of those communities. To search the database, go to rbcm.ca/icar-photos, type “pn” into the Catalogue Number field and click search. You can also search by culture (e.g. Haida) or community.
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
[
Broken Promises
The Dispossession of Japanese Canadians By Leah Best, Head of Knowledge
]
Can Canada offer a just home for all? This question is posed by the upcoming exhibition Broken Promises: The Dispossession of Japanese Canadians. It feels as relevant to today’s events as to the events of Canada’s second internment era, in the 1940s. The exhibition is one of several legacies of the Landscapes of Injustice project: a seven-year, multi-million-dollar research and communityengagement effort to investigate and document the forced dispossession of Japanese Canadians. Led by the University of Victoria and funded in large part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the project is supported by the Nikkei National Museum, the Royal BC Museum, Simon Fraser University and 11 other organizations across Canada. The project brings together those with lived and intergenerational experience of the dispossession, academics, museum professionals, educators and archivists to expose new details and new remembrances of a deeply racist period in Canadian history. (continued on the next page)
Japanese Canadian Redress Rally, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, ON. Photograph courtesy of the Nikkei National Museum, 2010-32-124
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Murakami family. Photograph courtesy of the Salt Spring Island Archives.
This history still matters. A society’s willingness to confront the past provides a powerful gauge of democracy.
Children looking in the window of a Japanese store, closed after the relocation of Japanese nationals. Jack Lindsay Photograph. courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives, 1184-1537.
Visitors to Broken Promises will trace the evolution of the dispossession through the experiences of seven narrators (one, Mary Kitagawa, still lives in Vancouver) who were living with their families on the west coast before World War II. Their experiences— life in wartime internment camps; letters of protest against their incarceration and dispossession; the struggle to rebuild their lives in post-war Canada—are presented as a humanizing counterpoint to new details on the state machinery that was used to confiscate their personal and business assets.
The 186-square-metre (2,000-square-foot) exhibition combines text panels with room re-creations, high- and low-tech interactives, and oral history listening stations. Notably absent? Artifacts, of which there are only a handful (including a Tagashira family obi), a stark legacy of the loss experienced by Japanese Canadians. These expository elements grapple with the central questions of the Landscapes of Injustice project. Why did the dispossession occur? Who benefitted from it? How has it been remembered and forgotten? As a subject for contemporary contemplation, the dispossession of Japanese Canadians continues to resonate. As the Landscapes of Injustice website says, “This history still matters. A society’s willingness to confront the past provides a powerful gauge of democracy.”
Broken Promises opens at the Nikkei National Museum in Burnaby on September 26, 2020. From there it will travel to the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, returning to British Columbia for a final showing at the Royal BC Museum in early 2022. For more information, visit the Landscapes of Injustice project at landscapesofinjustice.com.
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
By Liz Crocker, Kim Gough, and Chris O’Connor Learning Program Developers
RE FOCUSING
Shifting to Online Learning and Engagement RBCM@Home Kids This weekly family program is activity oriented, and kids have done everything from drawing dinosaurs to designing dioramas. At the end of each session kids send in their artwork, and at the beginning of the next session, we share it with the participants, so everyone can see the incredible art being done by kids big and small. We look forward to continuing this program and launching our digital summer camps in August.
RBCM@Outside This program takes you along on a virtual field trip recorded live on a smartphone. Since the program launched in April, we’ve explored the museum’s cultural precinct, including examining the poles in Thunderbird Park and the Native Plant Garden; we’ve visited with all kinds of marine animals at Victoria beaches; and we’ve explored nature with children and ethnobotany with Dr. Nancy Turner. In August, we even journeyed along Saturna Island’s famous East Point with a Parks Canada interpreter to talk orcas!
When the museum closed on March 18, even though we were expecting it, it still felt sudden and shocking. How could we reach and connect with our visitors with the museum closed? Could we redirect energy from our onsite programs into our existing distance learning program? After all, we had been delivering digital field trips to schools, seniors and community groups for years. We had the videoconferencing technology and equipment. Could we rethink and adapt our programming to reach out online through the pandemic isolation period? The answer was yes. These are a few of the ways we did it. RBCM@Home RBCM@Home had a soft launch with volunteers on March 24, just one week after museum staff were asked to work remotely. On March 31, these 30-minute talks with curators, conservators, collections managers and other museum staff went live to the public on Zoom and Facebook Live. With the generous participation of our colleagues, we have talked about past work, chatted with experts around the country and seen research in progress—we even got to see how staff members’ work is reflected in their personal spaces.
Screenshot of Liz, Kim and Chris teaching an @Home program on Zoom.
When technology cooperates, RBCM@Home, @Kids and @Outside programs are recorded and posted to our YouTube playlist at rbcm.ca/athome. That way you can watch or re-watch them at your leisure. Check the museum website for updates on our fall online programming at rbcm.ca/calendar.
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1.
DINOSAURS OF
THE SPATSIZI PLATEAU The Search Continues Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park
In the summer of 2013, Royal BC Museum curator of botany Dr. Ken Marr spotted something interesting during his alpine fieldwork in Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park—a small, shiny tooth from a tyrannosaurid dinosaur, maybe even Tyrannosaurus rex.
By Dr. Victoria Arbour Curator of Palaeontology
1. The 2019 expedition to the Spatsizi Plateau found an exciting site with dinosaur fossils, but a surprise August snowfall ended the field season early. Photograph courtesy of Thomas Cullen. 2. A serrated tooth from a tyrannosaurid dinosaur— perhaps even a Tyrannosaurus—found by curator of botany Dr. Ken Marr in Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park in 2013.
2. Learn more about the dinosaurs of the Spatsizi Plateau on our Research Portal at rbcm.ca/research-portal
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
The
Other Palaeo Diet Dr. Victoria Arbour points at a dinosaur bone embedded in a larger boulder in Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park during the 2019 field expedition. Photograph courtesy of Thomas Cullen.
W
hen I joined the Royal BC Museum as the new curator of palaeontology in 2018, I was incredibly excited to learn more about this tooth, because dinosaur fossils had never been found in that part of BC before. The Spatsizi Plateau lies in the northern part of a geological region called the Sustut Basin; BC’s newest dinosaur, Ferrisaurus sustutensis (nicknamed “Buster”), was found in the southern part of the basin. Where there’s one tooth, there’s probably more. It was time to return to the Spatsizi Plateau and look for more dinosaurs!
In August 2019, my colleagues Jaclyn Richmond (the museum’s former acting palaeontology collections manager) and Thomas Cullen (then a postdoctoral fellow at the Field Museum) and I visited two sites where the 2013 team had found fossils. We spent several days at the first site hiking around and keeping our eyes peeled, but we didn’t find any more dinosaur bones or teeth. But after about an hour hiking along a cliff covered in rocky rubble at the second site, Jaclyn picked up a piece of what might be a small meat-eater’s leg bone! Then Tom held up a rock with another bone in it, and pretty soon we were finding dinosaur bones every few paces. Most of them were in big boulders and would have been too difficult to extract with the tools we had brought with us, but we were thrilled that we could collect some of the smaller pieces and make a plan for returning.
After a great afternoon of fossil discoveries, we headed back to camp, excited for what we might find during the rest of our stay. Nature had other plans: the next day it rained, and then it started snowing! After more than 24 hours of this summer blizzard, the rocky cliffs were covered in snow, putting an end to the expedition. I’m used to working in hot deserts when I’m on the hunt for dinosaur bones, so spending a few days camping in the snow on the side of a mountain was a new adventure for me. I can’t wait to get back to the Spatsizi Plateau to see what dinosaurs might be waiting for us in that beautiful part of British Columbia! We are grateful to BC Parks for their financial and permit support for this research.
Dr. Victoria Arbour Receives a Prestigious Grant By Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Manager
Earlier this year, Dr. Victoria Arbour, curator of palaeontology, received a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant through her adjunct appointment in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria. It’s an honour—as well as a tremendous opportunity to pay forward her considerable knowledge. As Dr. Arbour points out, one of the major mutual benefits of the funding is that UVic students will have consistent access to the museum’s palaeontology collections. They’ll work alongside a world-renowned expert (that’s Victoria!) in the field, who will help train this new generation of scientists.
Dr. Victoria Arbour looking for fossils along the Pine River in northeastern BC last May, in a region she plans to revisit with the new grant funding. Photograph courtesy of David Evans.
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Western fence lizard.
SURREY’S
When did the western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) first appear in British Columbia? By Dr. Gavin Hanke Curator of Vertebrate Zoology
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nfortunately, we have no idea. There is an unsubstantiated report on iNaturalist from April 29, 2019, at MacNeill Secondary School in Richmond, but it can’t be verified—neither the specimen nor a photograph of it are available. I also have heard several anecdotes from the Oliver area involving similar lizards, dating back almost 15 years—but were these fence lizards? Or were they elusive pygmy short-horned lizards (Phrynosoma douglasii), a species thought to be extirpated from our province?
Until this year, we had no solid evidence of a fence lizard in BC—no specimen, no photograph, no scrap of skin or DNA. However, on June 9, 2020, that all changed. Someone shared a photograph of a lizard sighted in the Cloverdale area of Surrey, along with a request to confirm its identity. The lizard in the photograph had a stubby tail—lost to a slightly slower predator—but it had the body shape and markings of a western fence lizard. The feature that clinched the identification: a pale yellow-orange tint
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
Western fence lizard. Photograph courtesy of Ron Farrell.
SURPRISE SAURIAN to the rear-facing surfaces of its foreand hindlimbs. That alone separates this lizard from the other likely candidate, the sagebrush lizard (S. graciosus).
Like the sagebrush lizard, the western fence lizard is established in Washington State. Fence lizards range north to within a few kilometres of the international border, and they are known to frequent the log-littered shorelines of Puget Sound from Cherry Point on the eastern shore to Port Townsend in the west. According to one field guide, the western fence lizard’s range in the Okanagan ends at the Canadian border. This seems unlikely. Most field guides show western fence lizards, as herpetologist Alan St. John put it, within a stone’s throw of the Canadian border. It would be nice to think that the Puget Sound populations are native to the area and that a lizard appearing in BC is part of a naturally dispersing population, but this is unlikely. In 1992, Herb Brown of Western
Washington University reported that he’d released western fence lizards at least four times between 1986 and 1990 in the Puget Sound area. His closest test site was Cherry Point—not 27 kilometres from where the Surrey specimen was photographed—and he stated that a population did become established in the area. Because of Brown’s experimental translocations, the northernmost western fence lizard population in the United States is non-native. Given the proximity to the Canadian border, the authors of the Royal BC Museum’s 2006 handbook Amphibians and Reptiles of British Columbia (Brent Matsuda, David Green and Patrick Gregory) listed western fence lizards as potential immigrants, and now we know at least one has entered the country.
seen western fence lizards in the pet trade in Canada since the 1980s (I had one as a pet in Winnipeg), but their more tropical relatives are commonly sold as emerald swifts, and there are a lot of pet shops in the Vancouver area, so anything is possible. The Surrey saurian is still loose in the province. A domestic cat or a wild bird may catch it—or it may defy the odds and regenerate its tail. Will it be seen again? Time will tell. All I know is that this discovery would not have happened without sharp-eyed citizen scientists. I wonder what other surprises await us this year?
Has the Cherry Point population spread north since 1990? Did the Surrey specimen hitch a ride in a livestock trailer, a load of firewood or an RV? Stranger things have happened. Or was it an escaped pet, as suggested by Pat Gregory? I haven’t
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R E M E M B E R I N G O U R V O L U N T E E R F A M I LY M E M B E R S
A Legacy of Giving Back By Holli Hodgson, Volunteer Services Manager
Volunteers touch every part of the Royal BC Museum, from the board of directors to outreach and research to retail and receiving. We are honoured and inspired by the dedication our more than 600 volunteers bring to the museum and archives every day. We would like to acknowledge four members of our volunteer family whom we recently lost. Together they contributed 90 years of service to the museum
Dorothy Norris
The Royal BC Museum has been privileged to share in the skill and service of these generous volunteers. They will be missed.
John Smith
Betty White
Learning team and library volunteer
Learning team volunteer and museum host
Royal Museum Shop and library volunteer
May 8, 2020
May 20, 2020
April 28, 2020
Dorothy led school programs, supported the work of the natural history collections and volunteered in the archives library for more than 33 years before joining the emeritus family. Her final role was in the volunteer library lounge, where she provided support and mentorship. Dorothy brought kindness to her role and had a natural ability to engage with visitors and colleagues.
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and archives. The museum board, staff and volunteers express their condolences to the late volunteers’ families and honour the four for their many contributions to the museum.
John began his volunteer career in the natural history collections in 2006. He then became a museum host, greeting and engaging with visitors. In particular, his passion for St. Ann’s Schoolhouse was infectious. John remained an active member of the front-ofhouse and Learning teams until January 2020. He had a powerful presence and a kind heart, and we will always remember him for those traits.
Betty volunteered in the Royal Museum Shop for more than 20 years, offering the most professional and personal service to all visitors. She was known for her love of travel and her wonderful sense of humour. In her last year, she served other volunteers in the library and provided a welcome and inclusive place to gather.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
DOC TOR
HENRY REISWIG 1936 – 2020
Deep Knowledge From the Ocean Depths By Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Manager
Staff members throughout the Royal BC Museum were saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Henry Reiswig, a museum research associate and a world-leading expert on glass sponges. Dr. Reiswig’s daughter Amy shared that he passed away on July 4,
“
in his lab in the garage, with microscope slides on the warmer, doing what he loved: science.
”
“Glass sponges,” so called because their silica-based skeletal systems are transparent, make up one of the four classes of the phylum Porifera. Three species of glass sponge form reefs off the Northeast Pacific coast—the only place in the world where this happens. Dr. Reiswig was much more than a self-described “sponge guy.” He made more than 100 different taxonomic discoveries in his field and taught for many years at McGill University. After retirement, he relocated to Victoria but stayed active in his field, taking up voluntary appointments at the University of Victoria and the Royal BC Museum. In describing his work at the Royal BC Museum, Dr. Reiswig said, “I review manuscripts, work on images, go through the museum’s unidentified glass sponge specimens, write up new species and genus descriptions, and work with museum staff and other research associates. One of the best parts of being a research associate at Royal BC Museum is the assistance I get in receiving and sending loaned material to and from other institutions.” Appreciating the scientific merit—and astonishing beauty—of sea sponges, the museum profiled Dr. Reiswig’s work with a backlit display showcasing highdefinition photographs of glass sponge reefs called Artisans of Glass in Clifford Carl Hall in 2015.
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F E AT U R E
P H O T O S
O F
FACEMASKS FLUEVOGS The COVID-19 Collecting for Our Time Project Kicks Off
It’s been a tough few months in British Columbia. The disease, its disruption of everyday life and the burden of physical distancing have been hard for almost everyone.
Sara Bronson got married during the pandemic. “Love always wins,” Sara says. Photograph courtesy of Sara Bronson.
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e’ve been living in what you could only call a moment—a time that we’ll all look back upon as historic.
For the historians at the Royal BC Museum, as soon as the pandemic cast its shadow over the province, it was clear that this was a sober but significant opportunity to engage with the public and consider how to chronicle our shared experience.
In May, we launched the COVID-19 Collecting for Our Time project. By Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Manager
Most staff were working remotely and were nowhere near ready to receive physical materials, so we asked the public to tell us what they thought should be captured for the future. We asked: What do you think will best tell generations to come who we were and what we lived through? Some people have emailed descriptions and most have sent photos. These images have been variously heartbreaking and heart-lifting. Many are deeply personal.
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We’ve already featured a few on our website at rbcm.ca/ourtime. We plan to share more images as the project continues. The pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint; it’s the same with this project. We understand that for some, the experience may be too raw to think about now. We are hugely sympathetic to those who have lost loved ones, tended to them as they ailed or suffered in so many other innumerable economic or social ways. This is a painful time for many. Please keep talking to us. We’re listening. We want to hear from you about how we should reflect the magnitude of this event to future generations. Since the project launched, most submissions have depicted people interacting with each other—or expressing the inability to interact with each other. Many of the images have also been of urban or built environments. As the project develops, we are asking the public to reflect more about how the pandemic has influenced their interactions with the natural world. As a museum of human and natural history, this seems like a fruitful and significant angle to pursue. What have your experiences with nature been? Are you seeing changes in nature? To answer these questions and to learn more, visit rbcm.ca/yourstory.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
1.
3.
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4. 1. “Granville Street Entertainment District” is from a photo essay by Christopher Weeks titled Ghost Town: Images of the Vancouver Pandemic. Photograph courtesy of Christopher Weeks. 2. Freddie Albrighton shares one of the “perks of being in quarantine with a hairdresser.” Photograph courtesy of Freddie Albrighton and Patrick James Butler. 3. Deanna Bell, with the help of sponsors, feeds truckers free homemade meals in Kamloops. Photograph courtesy of Deanna Bell. 4. Since the pandemic began, Lisa has been creating a drawing or painting every day, as a way to share “hopeful messages.” Photograph courtesy of Lisa Maas. 5. This photo of the Royal Columbian Hospital at 7:00 pm now hangs in an establishment in Coquitlam. Photograph courtesy of Jason Cole.
5.
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PERSEVERANCE
&
PREPARATION 22
What It Takes to Reopen During a Pandemic
W
hen COVID-19 forced the closure of the museum on March 17, like so many other organizations, we had to scramble. Not only did we have to get our staff set up to work remotely, we had to ensure the millions of objects and records we hold for the people of British Columbia were protected. We also had to find ways to look after our beetle colony and our living exhibits, safeguard the site, continue to provide access to archival records, conduct research and deliver learning programs, and prepare for reopening.
As we worked through the details of our phased return and reopening, we put health and safety at the centre. That meant things took a bit longer than some people expected, but it allowed us the time to get it right. The hard work has paid off, and the museum began its phased public reopening on June 19. IMAX Victoria opened with reduced capacity on July 3, and we began increasing onsite access to the BC Archives on July 30. When you visit next, you’ll notice some changes. For more information, visit rbcm.ca. Continue reading to learn about some of the work that has gone into making your museum and archives visit a safe experience.
Risk Management
By Bill Chimko Risk, Security Services and Business Continuity Manager
T
he pandemic presented a unique challenge for security and museum operations: it impacted our staffing, suppliers and industry partners, as well as the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE). Through every moment of the crisis, we had to manage unexpected challenges while maintaining a complete security and risk management program, even while the museum was closed. For reopening, our priority was to ensure complete safety for staff and visitors. We immediately instituted physical separation and room capacity measures, elevated cleaning, and new first aid and health assessment procedures for our teams and work units, and we quickly established escalated protocols to reduce safety risk to the public and museum collections. When you’re next at the museum, you’ll see security controlling capacity in the galleries and giving polite reminders to maintain physical distancing when needed, all while maintaining the highest standards of visitor experience and safety.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
By Beverly Paty Archives Collections Manager
Hon. Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and her daughter explore the tidal pool in the Natural History gallery.
Archives Access
I
Conservator Lisa Bengston cleans a specimen in the mudflats diorama of the Natural History gallery.
n March, to meet provincial safety guidelines, the BC Archives staff pivoted to remote work, and physical access to the Reference Room was restricted. Staff continued to provide service to researchers and enrich the collections data while working remotely.
Collections Care
By Lisa Bengston Object Conservator
C
aring for collections at the Royal BC Museum during the COVID-19 closure required a dynamic and multifaceted approach.
One important element was preventive pest monitoring, maintained throughout the museum during the closure. As a result of our vigilance, we quickly detected and remedied a minor pest infestation in collections storage. Conservators took advantage of gallery closures to clean specimens in the Natural History galleries and objects in Old Town and the First Peoples gallery. Acquisitions, loans, exhibits and on-site collections visits were suspended and are being resumed in stages. Our collections on loan to other museums have been well cared for, and a few new loans that were due to ship during the museum’s closure have now been packed and delivered. We are excited to be back at the museum, surrounded by the collections of British Columbia, and we look forward to welcoming you back!
As restrictions were lifted and we began to welcome staff back to the workplace, there were many things to consider, and we needed a plan. Adhering closely to the guidelines put forth by WorkSafeBC, we assessed each area of the archives building for risks and created signs to provide rules for occupancy, directional flow and hand washing. Staffing schedules were adjusted to make sure physical distancing could be maintained. Expanding physical access to the Reference Room was just as challenging. WorksafeBC regulations only allow eight people in the room, so we drafted plans for physical distancing and set up an appointment system. In order to limit the potential spread of COVID-19, any boxes used by researchers or brought in from off site are quarantined for 72 hours. There are many factors to consider when reopening a building and increasing public access. At the BC Archives, we have created a safe environment for both staff and researchers.
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EIGHT SEASONS T
his Week in History is a weekly televised series that showcases British Columbia’s extraordinary history through two-minute information-rich episodes. Presented by the Royal BC Museum in partnership with CHEK News, these episodes explore the stories behind artifacts, specimens and documents from our collections, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the museum and archives. The show also allows us to reach a wide audience of people who may never have a chance to walk through our doors. This September will mark the start of the ninth season, and once again, This Week in History will explore a wide variety of content. This content comes from many sources, including our viewers. When local author Dr. Nick Russell contacted CHEK News about a bird’s-eye-view watercolour housed in the basement of the BC Archives, it sparked a quest to learn more about the painting and its creator. Dr. Russell’s curiosity resulted in a fascinating episode in season 5, episode 9, about a remarkable, and virtually unknown, BC artist. There are many other records of enduring value at the BC Archives, including court documents, birth decrees and newspapers. The Daily Colonist from January 1878 contains a notice for an auction of household goods. This auction list provided clues about how to restore the interior of the Ross Bay Villa, leading to another interesting episode. The Ross Bay Villa is one of only about 10 residences in
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STRONG
By Suzan Meyers Sales Coordinator
the City of Victoria known to survive from before 1870. Look for this intriguing story in season 5, episode 23. From newspaper articles to whale bones, season 7, episode 16, takes us to the west coast of Vancouver Island where, on April 20, 2015, a nine-metre grey whale washed up on Long Beach. Three days later, a team descended onto the beach to clean as much flesh off the bones as possible before burying them at the Tofino/Ucluelet Landfill. Three years later, we went back to the landfill to uncover the bones. Time, bacteria and fungi had done their work, and the bones were now perfectly clean and ready to be added to the mammalogy collection at the Royal BC Museum, where you will find them today. These are highlights from only a few of the hundreds of episodes of This Week in History that have aired over the past eight seasons. The Royal BC Museum has a plethora of remarkable stories representing the millions of artifacts, specimens and documents in its care—enough to keep This Week in History airing on CHEK News for generations to come. To watch new and previously aired episodes visit rbcm.ca/twih.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
PA R T N E R S H I P P R O F I L E
Destination Greater Victoria is a proud and long-standing partner of the Royal BC Museum. From sponsoring exhibitions such as Maya: The Greater Jaguar Rises to utilizing the museum’s unique spaces for meetings and receptions, Destination Greater Victoria frequently works with the Royal BC Museum to promote the destination.
Royal Museum Shop Your purchases support the Royal BC Museum
Royal BC Museum members and IMAX season pass holders receive 10% off all purchases with membership card or online coupon code: member Shop hours Thursday to Tuesday 11:00 am– 4:00 pm closed Wednesdays Shop in person or online rbcm.ca/shop 250 356 0505
Miranda Ji, Vice President at Destination Greater Victoria, welcomes visitors to Maya: The Great Jaguar Rises exhibition in 2019.
T
he Royal BC Museum is a landmark attraction in Greater Victoria. The exhibits of Indigenous belongings and the early history of BC draw visitors from all over the world. It is a world-class facility educating British Columbians and non-British Columbians on the rich and varied history of the province. Furthermore, its downtown location is easily accessible to the many visitors who stay in nearby hotels. Along with the BC legislature and the many shops and restaurants that surround the Inner Harbour, the Royal BC Museum contributes to a larger tourism precinct. The attractiveness of a healthy, walkable vacation is part of Greater Victoria’s brand—one we promote in our many marketing channels. We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with the Royal BC Museum in the coming year. As visitors return to Greater Victoria, the Royal BC Museum will be a major component of our path to recovery.
Unlock hidden perspectives. Feel like your mind has been stuck in lockdown? Open it up with our selection of new online courses, including relevant and timely topics, like: • digital storytelling • how to stay positive • cooking with sustainable protein • global poverty and immigration • coping with stress REGISTER TODAY
continuingstudies.uvic.ca/insight
Paul Nursey Chief Executive Officer Destination Greater Victoria FA LL 2020
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WHAT’S
ON FA L L 2 0 2 0
EXHIBITIONS Peer Into the Past
This pop-up gallery in Victoria’s Fan Tan Alley showcases Chinese Canadian history.
On Now 103–3 Fan Tan Alley
Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing
Take a fresh look at Emily Carr. Today she’s beloved as a Canadian icon of arts and letters. But first, she broke all the rules.
October 22, 2020 – January 24, 2021
For a full listing of what’s happening at the museum visit rbcm.ca/calendar
PROGRAMS Digital Field Trips
Starting in October, we’ll be back to offering digital field trips to schools and learners of all ages!
Learn more at rbcm.ca/digitalfieldtrips
RBCM@Home Series
We’ll also be continuing our free @Home webinar series, RBCM@Home, RBCM@Home (Kids) and RBCM@Outside. Watch the events calendar for upcoming program dates and themes. Learn more at rbcm.ca/calendar
A Tale of Two Families
Discover the stories of two families— one Chinese Canadian, the other French Canadian—who built lasting legacies in BC from the time of the gold rush era.
On now until November 2, 2020 The Pocket Gallery
Our Living Languages travelling exhibition
The Our Living Languages travelling exhibition highlights what First Nations communities throughout the province are doing to help 34 different languages survive and flourish. Check your community calendars for locations and dates.
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
ONLINE RESOURCES
NEW HOURS
Learning Portal
Museum galleries
The Learning Portal is a dynamic and intuitive online resource designed to engage learners through spectacular audio and video content, fascinating images and compelling articles Explore now at rbcm.ca/learning
BC Archives
Sequoia Coastal Coffee
Mon, Tues, Thurs 10:00 AM –6:00 PM Fri 10:00 AM –8:00 PM Closed Wednesdays
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 9:30 AM –4:30 PM Sat, Sun 10:00 AM –4:30 PM Closed Wednesdays
Royal Museum Shop
IMAX Victoria
Open 11:00 AM –4:00 PM Closed Wednesdays Or shop online at rbcm.ca/shop
Films run from 10:00 AM to 7:30 PM Daily except Wednesday
Visit our online collections to access more than 135,000 digital objects, including maps, photographs and paintings, and to order reproductions from the archival collections. Explore now at rbcm.ca/bcarchives
Research Portal
Did you know that our researchers are involved in dozens of ongoing research projects, often with colleagues from around the world? Research is key to our mission at the Royal BC Museum. The online Research Portal showcases featured articles, publications and projects by museum staff. Explore now at rbcm.ca/research-portal
Staff Profiles
The Staff Profiles website will introduce you to the smiling faces behind different roles. Featuring staff bios and research highlights, the portal showcases the hard work, dedication and accomplishments of our amazing team. Explore now at rbcm.ca/staffprofiles
Timed-entry tickets are required for all visitors. We encourage you to book your tickets online prior to your visit at rbcm.ca/login.
Now Playing
250-480-4887 imaxvictoria.com IMAX® is a registered trademark of IMAX Corporation
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GUIDING PRINCIPALS The Royal BC Museum Board of Directors
2020 – 2021
Royal BC Museum BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Daniel Muzyka,
Wendy King,
CHAIR
VICE CHAIR
Karen Aird
Nika Nicole Renee Collison
Nanon de Gaspé Beaubien-Mattrick
Robert Jawl
Lenora Lee
E. Michael O’Brien
Ratana Stephens
Peeter Wesik
By Erika Stenson Head of Marketing, Communications and Business Development
H
ave you ever wondered about the workings of museum governance and accountability, or the people who make it happen? Here is everything you ever wanted to know!
The Royal BC Museum is governed by a nine-member board of directors, appointed by the Province and accountable to the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture (the Honourable Lisa Beare). The board is responsible for appointing the chief executive officer (Professor Jack Lohman) to implement the organization’s mandate, policies and corporate goals. It is also responsible for ensuring the CEO implements the corporate goals in an ethical framework while following best practice. There are also a number of board committees that review specific museum and archives operations. These committees include Finance and Audit, Governance Nominating and Human Resources, and Museum Redevelopment. Members of the Royal BC Museum board of directors are volunteers who serve the organization without remuneration. We thank them for their continued support and service.
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our continued support means so much during these strange times. As we traverse the pandemic, it has been one of our goals to stay connected with the many people in the communities the museum serves. Your support has enabled the museum’s incredible collections to be shared with virtual visitors from around BC. Thank you!
As the new normal takes shape, your donation will help the museum go beyond its walls to meet the needs of the people of BC, bringing people together in new ways and sharing stories and experiences (while physically distancing). The Royal BC Museum is a place for exploration, learning and play— for visitors of all ages. Through our online programing we are able to continue to inspire curiosity and wonder. Thank you again for your past support and for considering renewing your commitment to providing a museum for ALL British Columbians. Visit rbcm.ca or call 250 387 7222 for more information.
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Royal BC Museum 675 Belleville Street Victoria BC, V8W 9W2
Thank you for your support. For more information Phone: 250 387 7222 Email: donate@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca rbcm.ca/support The personal information collected on this form is collected under the authority of Section 4 of the Museum Act (SBC 2003, c.12) and will only be used to maintain our donor list, issue tax receipts, publicly recognize your donation and provide you with information on current events/exhibitions. If you have any questions about your privacy, please contact the manager of Information and Privacy, 675 Belleville St., Victoria, BC, V8W 9W2; privacy@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or 250 356 0698.
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COVER IMAGE Emily Carr, War Canoes, Alert Bay, 1912. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Audain Art Museum Collection. Gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa.
$3.95
MEMBERS GET ALL THE PERKS! Flash your membership card and your experience is suddenly amplified. Members receive unlimited access to core galleries and feature exhibitions, as well as discounts on programs and Royal BC Museum publications. Renew on time and receive two free guest passes to share your experience. Renew today at rbcm.ca /join *Some restrictions apply. See website for details. Timed-entry tickets are required for all visitors. We encourage you to book your tickets online prior to your visit at rbcm.ca/login.
