Peace River's newest Arts & Culture magazine is well worth picking up!

The Vault Magazine contains thoughtful, challenging articles about political and social issues as well as coverage of our lively, local culture and music scene. The Community Calendar is packed with events from Peace River and surrounding communities.

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre wishes to compliment the staff over at the Vault Magazine for putting together a great read every two weeks!

Christmas shopping at the Peace River Museum

We wanted to remind everyone that we have a wonderful selection of unique, Peace Country gifts available for Christmas including:

• loose leaf teas
• honey
• jewelry from local artists
• locally made massage oils and soaps
• photography and a DVD of the Northern Lights
• postcards and Christmas cards
• Art prints of archival photographs
• books about the Peace Country and historical figures such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Sheridan and Juey Lawrence and family, aviation history, the Edson and Grouard Trails, RCMP history and others!

Also, if you are interested in any photograph we have in our archival collection, we can give you a digital copy for $5 until the end of 2011 or we can provide a print in 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10 sizes. They make a great gift that can be chosen specifically around the historic interests of your friend or loved one! Feel free to call our Archivist, Wendy at 780-624-4261 for more information or photograph suggestions.

Happy 224th birthday Louis Daguerre!

Google's homepage doodle for November 18th celebrates Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) who invented one of the earliest forms of permanent photography, which he aptly named the Daguerreotype. Daguerre had been working with a partner, Nicéphore Niépce, to find a way of affixing an image seen through a lens onto a permanent surface. Niépce died in 1933, but Daguerre continued with their experiements and finally in 1839, he presented the first photographs to the French Académie des Sciences. (from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dagu/hd_dagu.htm - accessed November 18, 2011)

In celebration of this groundbreaking invention, we are posting pictures of the daguerreotypes in our Archival collection. Unfortunately, we do not know who these two people are, but the photographs have been dated to ca. 1845. For more information on caring for daguerreotypes, you can visit the Daguerreotype Research Portal.

71.413.a1

71.413.a2

Remembrance Day 2011

The Peace River Museum will be open this Remembrance Day, Friday November 11 from 11 am to 4 pm.

We invite everyone to come and view some of our local veterans uniforms as well as a collection of digitized World War I postcards on display.

Artist of the Peace: Marie Laventure

Our November Artist of the Peace is Marie Laventure. Her pieces are full of colour and beauty!
According to Marie, "When I start most paintings, I am unsure of what exactly will end up being on the canvas, but I love playing with paint and colours; for me, making art is meditative and in important part of my wellness maintenance."

We invite everyone to come and view Marie's work in November! And, as always, admission is free to see our art wall.

Happy Halloween from the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre

This Halloween, we thought to share a photo from a fund-raising masquerade for the Irene Cottage Hospital in February of 1915. Have a safe and happy Halloween!


PRMA80.1137.1.55



New Gift Shop items: 8x10 Archival Prints

 

View from 12 Foot Davis Gravesite, ca. 1930s (PRMAx87.1521.57)



Our Gift Shop has printed a selection of beautiful 8x10 archival prints on fine art paper available for $15 (+gst) each. This price includes a plastic sleeve for safe keeping. These prints are perfect for gifts and for framing. Thumbnails of each print are pictured below.



D.A. Thomas, ca. 1920s (PRMA2008.043.002)

Peace River Train Station, ca. 1920s-1930s (PRMA73.564f)

Delivering mail from Peace River to Fort Vermilion by dogsled, 1908 (PRMA80.1137.1.45)

Main Street, Peace River, 1967 (PRMAAR93.1.160)

Peace River, ca. 1920s-1930s (PRMA81.1162.1)

Peace River, ca. 1920 (PRMA2008.056.003)

Threshing Bee at Gilbert Axford's farm, 1929 (PRMA68.128a)

Peace River's train bridge, ca. 1920s (73.564d)

Artist of the Peace: Carole Gold

Our October Artist of the Peace is Carole Gold. Carole Gold is a talented quilter who designs many of her pieces. She has been sewing since she was a young girl and eventually narrowed her interests to quilting.

Her passion and artistic ability is evident in the pieces she creates!

We invite everyone to come and view Carole's art during October and read her story.

Alberta Archives Week

This week is Alberta Archives Week! The first week in October is used to celebrate and promote Archives and what they do in a community.
We participate also in a yearly archives exhibit through the Archives of Society of Alberta. This year's theme is: Archives in Living Colour! The exhibit can be viewed here: http://www.archivesalberta.org/2011exhibit/index.html

There will also be small displays up at the Museum, Kits Office Supply, the Record Gazette and the Peace River Library.

For our promotion this year, we are chatting with businesses and organizations around our area about what the Archives does for them and how to go about donating records to the Archives. Our Archivist, Wendy Dyck, will be presenting to the Peace River Rotary, Peace River & District Chamber of Commerce, Berwyn Women's Institute, Grimshaw & District Chamber of Commerce and Mighty Peace Tourism Association. If your organization or business is interested in a presentation, please contact the Archives at 624-4261 or museum@peaceriver.net. Here are some highlights:

• The Peace River Archives acquires, organizes and makes available inactive records from various businesses and organizations in Town of Peace River, MD of Northern Lights, Northern Sunrise County, Clear Hills County, MD #135 of Peace and MD# 136 of Fairview. Inactive records are those which are no longer needed for day to day operations of a business or no longer need to be kept for legal reasons. To discuss your donation, please contact our Archives.

• The Peace River Archives is able to provide the following services:
• conservation
• consultations on storage, care and records retention
• research and project help