Category: Museums, Galleries & Archives
Museums and archives from across Canada
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Perfectly Beautiful
When I stepped into the dark coolness to escape the scorching heat I didn’t expect to find the most beautiful space I’d ever seen. Of course no flash photography or tripods were permitted and my children possess a built-in limitation for looking at things tiled or religious. I was, as always, left wanting more. Click… Read more
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Welcome to Quintland
UPDATE: August 5, 2018: Annette visited her birth house in North Bay today. Cecile was supposed to join her but cancelled due to health reasons. The story is here. UPDATE: As of November 19th, 2017, the birth house and museum of the Dionne Quintuplets has been moved to the North Bay waterfront, installed on Oak… Read more
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CurioCabinet: “Dame Marjorie’s School” 1894
Much to my delight, Library and Archives Canada continues to post more and more of their fascinating materials online for public access. Just in time for Halloween, they’ve posted a set of 52 costume/Halloween pics here on Flickr. Seems Lady and Lord Aberdeen, Canada’s Governor General from 1893 to 1898, ran an enviably entertaining and… Read more
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CurioCabinet: Studiolo Gubbio
In our family, turning six entitled the birthday child to a five-day trip to New York with Mamma. It was a mutually beneficial ruse: I enjoyed a big-city adventure roughly every eighteen months and they got my undivided attention and an itinerary to match their interests. The Metropolitan Museum of Art became a staple. Set… Read more
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Adaptive Reuse (and Reuse and Reuse) at the Grey Nuns’ Convent
Not all those who wander are lost. – J.R.R. Tolkien Choosing a mini-adventure over a late afternoon nap, I laced on the mocs and headed across Esplanade Riel to Le Musée de Saint-Boniface. While the museum is filled with fascinating objects, including the half-burnt coffin of Louis Riel, the principal artifact is the building itself.… Read more
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Part 1: If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home – The Kitchen
One quick Google search of the word kitchen yielded this smart, funny and well-paced BBC series about the history of our homes, as told through four key spaces: the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room. Historian and presenter Dr. Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces. She pretty much gets to time travel,… Read more
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CurioCabinet: Lord Dundonald’s Servants and Their Pets (1904)
Ottawa, 1904 Credit: William James Topley / Library and Archives Canada / PA-208448 It IS Canada after all…. Read more
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Hiking the Legend of Grey Owl
I remember a friend saying that kids are special when they’re little, but that every age holds the promise of something new. My eldest son, D, now twelve years old, and I headed out for a seventeen kilometre roundtrip hike to Grey Owl’s cabin in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, something he wasn’t ready for… Read more