Collective Memories are Flowing

An enthusiastic group of history buffs attended yesterday’s event, heritage photos in hand, and they are already asking when we can have a similar event again. Pictures and memories were flowing with interesting surprises. As you can imagine, in a close-knit community, one family often has photos of other families from the community or school events. Joyful laughter could be heard throughout the afternoon. Many are planning to find more family albums and bring them back to be digitized.

Here are a few highlights of what we have in our collection of photos and artifacts so far:

Photo Collections: We already have an extensive collection of multi-generation family photos, including several tintype photos, with many more collections to come.

• Beer Family (Hilda Beer & Donald Hector MacKenzie Collections)
• Boyle Family (Annie Boyle Collection)
• Cameron Family (Elizabeth Cameron Collection)
• Darrach Family (Donald Hector MacKenzie, John Darrach & Hilda Beer Collections)
• Dixon Family (Hilda Colodey and Alex & Mack Dixon Collection)
• Livingstone Family – Baltic Road – (Elizabeth Osborne Collection)
• MacLean Family of Meadowbank (MacLean & Beer Collection)
• MacLean Family of Meadowbank & Clyde River (Jean MacLean Collection)
• Waller Family (Bill Waller Collection)
• Clyde River School – Classroom photos from early to mid 190os
• Photos collected from families when History & Stories of Clyde River was researched/written
• General photos featuring Charlottetown and other parts of the Island
• War photography (Beer, Darrach & Jean MacLean Collections)
• Clyde River Women’s Institute (Beer Collection)
• Clyde River 4-H Club (Beer Collection)
• Clyde River Mills (Dixon, Scott & Beer Collections)
• L.M. Montgomery Portrait (Darrach Collection)
• Charlottetown Waterworks (Darrach Collection)

Digitizing photos is a wonderful way for small photos to come to life and to share memories with other members of your family and with your community. Each donor will receive digital versions of their photos to share. We accept photo album donations for our archives, we can arrange a time to visit you to digitize photos from your albums, you can email us digital photos or you can take them along to a future event. The most important thing is history is captured. The benefit of sharing with the community is all the contributions together show a rich historical picture of earlier times.

Artifacts:

• Gaelic Bible from 1830s of Mary Ann (MacDougall) Darrach
• Autograph book from 1930s
• Ina Beer Darrach diary from 1902 when she was 16 years old
• Framed family photo of John Darrach (grandson of Duncan Darrach) and children
• Miller MacFadyen book of poetry
• Two account books from Berrigan’s store in Dunedin
• Items from Matheson’s Store
• Clyde River School bell
• Letters from early 1900s
• WWI Soldier Lee Darrach’s letters home
• Trunk from Stewart family who built Strathgartney Homestead – The trunk was used by the Stewart Family when they moved from England in the 1800s
• Woven wool blanket from 1907 in MacDonald tartan – Darrah Collection
• Salt dish that landed on Lee Darrach’s bed in the Halifax Infirmary during the Halifax Explosion
• Hat and gloves that Honourable Lloyd MacPhail while he was Lieutenant Governor of PEI in PEI Legislature

Digital documents:

• Letters of Mary Ann (MacDougall) Darrach 1904-07
• Murray Diaries 1911-1926

Historical contributions:

• Eric MacPhail’s self-published book of photos and stories of the MacPhail family

There are more photo and artifact collections that have been identified. If you would like to contribute to this important historical collection, please contact any of the following:

Vivian Beer – 902-569-8665 or vivian@eastlink.ca
Bruce Brine – 902-675-4747
Sandra Cameron – 902-675-3154
Hilda Colodey – 902-675-3171

Note: If I have missed any details, let me know and I will update article – vivian@eastlink.ca