More Nature Plus

I spent the May Long weekend with nearly 30,000 museum goers – how about you? The Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN) in Ottawa successfully delivered on their motto of “More Nature Plus” during their Grand Reopening events from May 22 - 24. I was in attendance along with Gavin Hanke, one of the Royal BC Museum’s Natural History curators, and 12 member organizations of the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada to provide family friendly activities for “Nature Fest” – one of the many activities taking place at the CMN over the weekend.

Nature Fest was a super opportunity for visitors to learn about museums across Canada and for the museums to share our collections and messages with them. The Royal BC Museum took a display case (pictured to the right) from our upcoming “Aliens Among Us”, part of the Behind the Scenes exhibition and a puzzle to help visitors learn about alien species. It was fun to talk to kids about “aliens” and to watch them light up when they completed the puzzle. In addition to the thousands of visitors who came through, I was delighted to meet colleagues from the Alliance. Their enthusiasm for nature and education was contagious and I look forward to connecting in the future to share resources and ideas.

In addition to Nature Fest, visitors were treated to a parade, live presentations, magical Rainforest Creatures, (pictured left admiring our display case), live music, films, 3D demos and Ghost Tours. The real attraction was the building itself and the new galleries. All of the galleries have now been renovated including the RBC Blue Water Gallery and the Vale Earth Gallery.

Of the Blue Water Gallery’s 200 specimens, 90 per cent are on display for the first time. The gallery includes an impressive juvenile blue whale skeleton flanked by two touch-screen terminals brimming with information. You can watch a time lapsed video of the assembly of the skeleton here. The Blue Water Gallery also features the coolest playroom ever – a scaled down research vessel for children. As a programmer and museum fan, I was impressed and inspired by the number of hands-on activities available in all of the galleries.

The Vale Earth Gallery was also unveiled over the weekend. During my sneak peek tour on Friday, the gallery was humming with installation (pictured on the right). By the time the doors opened at noon on Saturday, the amazing exhibits were ready, complete with an impressive two meter HD globe that visitors can manipulate to learn about the formation of the planet.

I would like to send my thanks and congratulations to all involved in the renovations of the Canadian Museum of Nature and those who organized such a fantastic Grand Reopening. If you would like to see more pictures of the event, visit my own personal Flickr page here and select the Canadian Museum of Nature album.

Have you been to the Canadian Museum of Nature – what do you think about the changes? What should museums planning renovations keep the same and what should they change?

The Mother of Invention

Some places are cool because of the mess. When you step into our basement audio visual workshop, you just know you’re not going to be able to understand what goes on down there… but that whatever it is they do… it’s damned clever.

It looks like that place in Star Wars where the obsolete droids were dismantled for their parts. The place is strewn with circuit boards, wires and computers with their innards exposed. It’s here that invention takes place, or rather where invention is tested. View of the audio visual workshop below:

The moment of invention took place over a morning coffee. We needed a microscope for our upcoming Behind the Scenes exhibition… one that would allow visitors, particularly children, to study specimens – and one that would also allow for more than one person to participate. We could not quite find anything on the market that fit the bill. But a coffee-time discussion between four members of our staff led to a beautiful solution. The Masterminds at coffee below – from left to right: Mark Dickson - Manager of Exhibitions, Ken Johnson - Senior Exhibition Designer, Norm Charbonneau - head Image Management and Technical Services and Nigel Sinclair - Exhibit Arts Technician:

Instead of a microscope, this team imagined that a tiny high definition digital camera linked to a flat screen monitor would do the trick. The camera moves back and forth on a rail over an illuminated box holding the specimens. The whole unit is transportable… which makes it useable elsewhere in our galleries when the current show ends. Prototype of the unit on the IMTS lab bench below:

And once the testing is complete, the unit can be reproduced. In Behind the Scenes, we’ll have seven of these… these… now what should we call it? Anyone want to suggest a name? The almost finished …er …thing being prototyped with visitors below:

Two things stand out for me as I observed the development of the magnifier. First of all, the inventive process was just such a modest, collaborative affair. No great fanfare or eureka moment, just a group of colleagues talking over coffee, bringing their collective experience to the table. If I came up with this idea, I’d be dancing in the street! The second thing that struck me was just how much work was needed to take the idea to completion. Initial prototyping of the technology (camera, lighting and monitor) was followed by the evolution of the mechanical parts of the device: parts were machined, tested with users and then reengineered repeatedly until it worked smoothly without failure.


Tim Willis

Tales from the B.C. Archives

Blogging: new thing. Blogging about: old things – well, sort of. I’m an archivist, and in my blog entries I’d like to take you on a virtual tour of B.C.’s past via records in the B.C. Archives. Some are indeed “old,” but others are relatively new. All of them give us a glimpse into the way things were. It’s a bit like time travel, without the trouble of landing on the wrong planet in the wrong era.

At the Archives we’ve got a way-back machine, and its fuel is photos, manuscripts, sound recordings, films, maps, books and government records. There are a lot. We think we have something like 3 million photographs, but we haven’t finished counting (let alone scanning). Books – probably upwards of 80,000. Maps – 68,000 (at least). Boxes of records – more than 75,000. Films – 4,000 plus. You get the picture. It’s a vast resource – and they all record some aspect of the history of B.C. and the Pacific Northwest. They are the raw material of our individual and collective history. They’re also all waiting for someone to have that “Ah Ha!” moment, when a document turns out to be the missing link that proves a point, settles a boundary dispute, or fills in a branch on someone’s family tree. I’m lucky because I often get to tag along with our researchers on these voyages of discovery, and I’m also going to be able to blog about them.

As a reference archivist, I help people find those nuggets of information buried within the vast collection. Sometimes the queries are routine – “I’d like a copy of my great grand-father’s probate file” (usually an easy find if someone died in B.C.)….and sometimes a little more challenging, like “When and where was the first flush toilet installed in B.C.?” (Couldn’t answer that one definitively – but I did find some photographs of early toilets and bathrooms!). (Photo: Model bathroom used in a construction course, Como Lake High School, 1953, B.C. Archives I-22816.)

Most of the time I can give tips on how to make our website cough up sources of information. For example, if Sean, my fellow blogger had wanted more images relating to Captain James Cook I could have found him 38 images in our collection – everything from Cook’s boyhood home in England, to the beach and natives at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound, ca. 1870.

(That’s where Cook became the first European to set foot on Vancouver’s Island as it was known then) in 1778. (We don’t have any photographs of that historic event, naturally, but we do have copies of works of art that purport to document it.) (Photo: Nootka Sound natives and the crew of Her Majesty’s gunboat “Rocket”, Friendly Cove, ca. 1870, B.C. Archives C-07303.)

For me the most interesting inquiries lead to records that I never imagined existed, or thought that I would find in our Archives. Who knew we have several photographs of toilet paper being manufactured in New Westminster in 1949? (Photo: Toilet tissue manufacturing at Westminster Paper, 1949, B.C. Archives I-28054.)

Sorry, couldn’t resist, but now I’m on a roll with the bathroom examples….. Anyway, if you’ve forgiven me the bad pun, check in periodically for a look at some of our more interesting records and where they can take you. Next up, all in one family – a disinherited and intestate son, the missing brother, an affair between a brother and sister-in-law, and death by Jeep and a Tesco’s lorry.

For those interested in searching for specific records relating to their own research interests, visit our website at http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/ - or call us at 250-387-1952 (toll-free through Enquiry B.C. 1-800-663-7867).

100-year-old Antarctic artifact, once again, travels the globe

In my role as communications coordinator, part of my job is to discover (and share!) cool and interesting Royal BC Museum stories. Wait… I get paid for this?

The story I’m going to blog about today first came across my desk a few months back. Tim Willis, director of exhibitions and visitor experience (and also the infamous author of a previous blog post) called one rainy afternoon to tell me about a project going on in the conservation department. (And if you’re not 100 per cent familiar with museum-lingo, this department is charged with caring and preserving more than 7 million artifacts, specimens and documents that make up the Royal BC Museum and BC Archives collections. Now that’s a big job!)

Meares’ pennant
One of our interesting artifacts is a pennant (read: flag) that once belonged to an explorer of the ill-fated 1910 Scott Expedition to the South Pole. Cecil Meares, the designated dog-handler of the trip, retired in Victoria, BC. After his death, Meares’ family donated the flag to the Royal BC Museum. (Photo credit: © Royal BC Museum.)

Each of the men on the expedition had a distinct pennant to fly from their sleds. Usually sewn by the explorers’ mothers and wives, pennants were also hung at the base camp during special occasions and major sledge journeys. Meares’ pennant can be seen in this photograph taken during the expedition (see the man standing on the right? Look at the flag right above his head and count three to the left). Meares himself is sitting at the table, second from left. (Photo credit: © Royal Geographical Society, with IBG).

Making repairs
It so happens that the American Museum of Natural History is about to open an exhibition based on the Scott expedition. Since Race to the End of the Earth is presented in collaboration with the Royal BC Museum, it only made sense to include the Meares’ pennant in the exhibition. But before the 100-year-old flag could make its 4,800 km journey to New York, the Royal BC Museum conservation department had to make a few repairs on this delicate artifact.

To reinforce and protect the fragile George Cross, textile conservator Colleen Wilson (right) first had to sew a backing of red material onto the flag. Next, she meticulously dyed virtually invisible silk gauze to match the colour of the cross. Finally, she hand sewed the silk directly over the cross with a thread finer than spider’s silk. (Photo credit: © Royal BC Museum.)

Race to the End of the Earth will focus on both the Norwegian and British expeditions to the South Pole and on the challenges both crews faced. Highlights of the exhibition include authentic clothing and tools and life-sized models of the base camps. The exhibition travels to the Royal BC Museum in summer 2013 – stay tuned for more information.

Is there is anything you ever wanted to know about the Royal BC Museum (but were too afraid to ask)? If so, leave me a comment and I’ll see what I can do to address it in future posts. I’m looking forward to sharing more museum stories with you!

For additional reading on the Scott Expedition to the South Pole
Be sure to check out author Adrian Raeside’s book: Return to Antarctica: The Amazing Adventure of Sir Charles Wright on Robert Scott’s Journey to the South Pole (2009 by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd).

American Museum of Natural History

Antarctic Heritage Trust

This is one of the “coolest” blogs out there!

Hidden Treasures

Captain Cook

Do you have a favourite hidden treasure in the museum? The Woolly Mammoth, I suspect, tops many lists. The train station, with its chirping crickets and rumbling locomotive, is another popular choice.

My personal favourite is a little more grisly: a celebrity murder weapon. Let me back up about 240 years to explain.

On this day in 1770, Captain Cook sailed into Botany Bay and became the first European to reach the east coast of Australia. This was part of the young captain's first major scientific expedition, but not his last. During his journeys, Cook was to lead his ships all over the Pacific Ocean: south to the Antarctic Circle, north to the Bering Strait. He has become known to us as one of the greatest of explorers.

His expeditions came to an untimely end in 1779. During a visit to the island of Hawai'i, Cook and his men quarrelled with the local inhabitants. During the fight, Cook was stabbed to death on the beach.

Fast forward to today. Tucked away on the 3rd floor of the Royal BC Museum is a life-size replica of the "HMS Discovery" – a ship that sailed with Cook on his final voyage, and later with Captain George Vancouver. In a display cabinet nearby are a variety of objects related to explorers from the age of sail. Nestled near the front is a small wooden knife. It's unassuming. Tiny. But like many objects within the museum, a small thing can link you back in time and space to world-changing events.

This is believed to be the knife that ended the life of Captain Cook in Hawai'i. There's a bit of mystery around the authenticity of the artifact, and many questions about the actual events that lead to Cook's demise. If you're interested in learning more, check out the links below or contact us directly. Better yet, come in for a visit and see the knife for yourself. While you're here, find a hidden treasure for yourself in the Royal BC Museum.

Links:

• A quick introduction to the life and times of Captain Cook


• An interesting exploration of the death of Captain Cook

Who Goes There? How to Get Visitors Behind the Scenes

Recent visitors, Fans and members may already know about our plans for the upcoming exhibition Royal BC Museum: Behind the Scenes opening on June 25, 2010. While the curators have been busy selecting artifacts and writing labels we, in the Learning and the Visitor Experience department, have been planning the public programs and thinking about how to actually get you behind the scenes.

Despite being an avid museum visitor myself, I have not encountered many behind the scenes opportunities. The times I have, it gave me a real feeling for what the museums were all about and a sense of amazement and privilege, even for someone like me who has worked in museums for over a decade. So why aren’t there more behind the scenes opportunities? Below are a few of the challenges that we are facing in our own preparations.

A lack of physical space. When our facility was built in 1968, visitors were not a factor, let alone a priority, when it came to the areas where artifacts were being prepared and stored. These collection areas are now close to overflowing with artifacts and in many cases there is no room for a small group to gather.

Don’t feed the animals. Although people working in the museum understand the value of a good exhibition, we’d rather not be on display while working. It’s hard enough to work with a deadline looming over you, let alone with 10 pairs of eyes watching you. To the left: artist Adrienne Aikins working literally "inside the scenes" at the the Royal BC Museum.

Please do not touch. In the public galleries we work hard to ensure that there are hands-on opportunities whenever possible but specimens, artifacts and records behind the scenes are protected from all sorts of things including light and handling. How can we give visitors a glimpse of the vastness of the collections without putting the objects at risk?

Who leads the tours? In addition to their own research, curators, collection managers and other staff spend a lot of time with the public doing presentations and answering questions. Is leading a guided tour the best use of their time?

Could we become a victim of our own success? We took these issues into consideration and spoke with people in the know. Over Spring Break we ran a total of twelve test tours into three different collection areas. The first day we had to turn away as many people as we could take on the tour.

What’s next? More planning, testing and training have to take place before we launch the tours in July of this year so we can end up with an experience that is enjoyable for you and also sustainable for us.

You can comment here to help us with this planning. Have you ever taken a behind the scenes tour? Where was it and what was it that made it special? What would you like to see behind the scenes at the Royal BC Museum?

Slowing Down Real Life

This is my first blog entry. I’m going to write about the stresses… and joys of creating exhibitions.

Maybe there are only a few of us ‘exhibition geeks’ who think that what we do might interest others. But I hope that the strange world in which questions like ‘how do you simulate French fries?’ and ‘can you mould a slug?’ are commonplace, might be of some interest to others.

Our business is unusual. There are few professions that stretch so far between art and science, academia and showbiz, business and pleasure. In fact, are there any? Indeed, the very way we develop exhibitions seems to be fraught with paradox – is it science or art… education or entertainment?

I’ll try to focus on projects that we are working on right now, and give a glimpse of the magic and the confusion of this work.

I’m going to start with an exhibition called Royal BC Museum: Behind the Scenes. It opens on June 25. In it, we turn ourselves inside out to expose the work we do… behind the scenes [quelle surprise!]. Part One will run for more than a year and focus on the work of our Natural History staff. Part Two opens in 2011 with a focus on Human History.

How odd that for this inaugural post on the topic of contemporary exhibition challenges, I turn to one of the most traditional of museum art forms – the diorama. Not the great sweeping spectacles of the American Natural History Museum or the forest and coastal dioramas of our own museum, but tiny dioramas starring slugs, goldfish and mosquitoes! (Image below: Colin Longpre’s simulated French fries are a hit with starlings!)

A few years ago, I learned a big lesson from a small museum. Dioramas don’t need to be epic in scale. In fact, being tiny can sometimes focus the attention. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles is a lesson in the power of great storytelling in miniature.

I think dioramas are exquisitely interesting. They are low tech in a world of digital showiness. And yet, there is something compelling about them, even in the digital age. They are masterful representations of life in the original 3-D. Visitors love them for their clarity, their apparent reality and for the skill of the diorama artist. And maybe in a world where life is fleeting, transitory, and intangible, the diorama provides a welcome respite. Dioramas let us slow down and wonder. (Image below: Kate Kerr does a little miniature farming.)

To the challenge at hand – Behind the Scenes will feature a special presentation on the topic of invasive species. Our curators presented a menu of 30 invasive species as the focus. Now… we have a very talented and resourceful exhibitions team, but I have to say that the first reaction as they got their assignment was less than enthusiastic. Let’s face it… sometimes the subject of the show is not exactly movie star material... slugs, mosquitoes, starlings, goldfish… I mean, come on! But this is where the magic comes in. The creative process sometimes needs a few days of gestation… and before long our wonderful team of Exhibit Arts Technicians had started to mock up a whole series of scenes... miniature snapshots from life. I think the mundane nature of the topic became the very challenge. What I love about what they have done is how they resisted the temptation to use media and accepted the challenge of creating a world in three dimensions. And I love that the scenes are not the pristine visions of nature that the old dioramas represent… but rather they are about nature and us… starlings and French fries.

Tim Willis

Recommended reading and other links:

Great article: Diorama-o-rama by Jesse Smith

Great book: Windows on Nature: the great habitat dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History, Stephen Quinn

Great visit: the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Los Angeles