Little did our Clyde River History Committee know when we worked on cataloguing and photographing artifacts in our community museum two years ago that we were ahead of our time. The COVID-19 pandemic has launched many of us into a virtual world, which has made us, hopefully, much more comfortable with what it has to offer. Even though we are not sure when we will once again host history events at the community centre, we can bring you a virtual tour of our museum and heritage photo collections. I think we have something for everyone.
We invite you to view our artifacts and heritage photo albums. This virtual tour could make for an interesting interactive activity for all of us. Under each photo in the galleries, you will see a comment box. We would be delighted if you added any details, memories and stories as you view individual photos. We have also included a link to an audio exhibit, so you can sit back and listen as well.
We will be adding more photos over the next months, as we have almost 3000 digital photos in our collection which we plan to bring online.
Community Artifacts:
For any of you who have visited our physical museum, you know what an interesting collection we have and the memories and stories that come to mind as you view them. Some visitors have commented that it feels like a visit to their grandparent’s place. You will see a variety of items from Clyde River that were generously donated by local families and relatives living throughout Canada and the US. Items include cameras, handicrafts, school books, autograph books, blankets, community store items, tools and personal items. Link here to view gallery.
Cups & Saucers:
Most all of our cup and saucer collection was donated to the museum by Elizabeth Osborne. It was her mother’s, Olive (Livingstone) Osborne who grew up on the Baltic Road. However, I think many of you will quickly recognize that the patterns resemble your own mother’s or grandmother’s collection. Our history committee member Rowena Stinson has a vast knowledge of cups and saucers, so if you have any questions, please let us know and we will do our best to answer them. Link here to view gallery.
North River Rink Hockey:
One of our most popular photo galleries in the history of our website has been Memories of North River Rink, so this could be a good time for the men in our audience to look through the gallery and offer comments and stories on individual photos. You will definitely find many people you know. We added names under the photos to assist you. Link here to view gallery.
War History:
The Great War: For war history buffs, we have something for you as well. You can read letters written by a soldier from The Great War and listen to each of the letters voiced by Alan Buchanan. Even in our two months of lockdown, which is a mere glimpse of how our society can be interrupted by a world event, I think we will have even more appreciation of the unbelievable resilience these solders had, along with their families waiting at home. They went in thinking they were only going to fight a war for a few months and go home. To read and listen, link here.
WWII Naval History: For naval history buffs, here is a story and photos from HMCS Prince Henry on patrol off the coast of South America. Link here.
Genealogy:
Next to hockey, our most popular stories relate to genealogy. Here are a few links that will satisfy the genealogist in the family, if they happen to have any connections to our area. We regularly receive emails from those researching family history. Our committee loves to help out and we have accumulated quite a bit of knowledge along the way. And what we don’t know, we usually know someone who does.
- Clyde River Pioneer Cemetery with photos – link here
- McArthur Cemetery with photos – link here
- Cemetery stories – link to category of stories here.
- Genealogy stories – link to category of stories here.
General Community History:
Scrapbooks: Here are stories and photos from community scrapbooks – link here.
General stories related to Clyde River and area history: We now have over 700 stories on our site and 460 of those stories are related to history, so we invite you to delve in to our online library of stories – link here.
The Clyde River History Committee would like to thank you all for your contribution to our physical and virtual museum. We hope you enjoy your visit.
Want to contribute to our Virtual Museum?
If you have artifacts or heritage photos that you would like to add to our collection, please let us know. Set aside any artifacts you wish to donate until after the pandemic, but please send any scans of heritage photos to clyderiverpei@eastlink.ca in the meantime.
If you are interested in sharing photos of artifacts that will remain in your family’s collection, we would love to see snapshots of them for interest sake and make them a part of our virtual gallery – we will just indicate that they are part of a private collection. A few photo hints: if it is a small piece, just set on a white sheet in a naturally lit area and take a landscape style photo. If it is a larger piece, take a landscape shot of the object using natural lighting. We can always adjust and crop photos after. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Interested in participating in a Virtual History Huddle?
We would be open to hosting an online history circle (huddle) if there is enough interest. We could use a platform such as GoToMeeting or Zoom. We would definitely be happy to organize. We could establish a theme and each participant could share their research/comments on the topic. It could be an interesting experiment, as we have a broad geographic website audience. If you are interested, please email clyderiverpei@eastlink.ca and let us know what subjects you would be interested in discussing. The only criteria is it would have to some how relate to the history of Clyde River and area. Depending on the topic, we could invite a special guest with expertise in the area.
In the meantime, please enjoy the virtual museum tour and stay safe.
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