How often have you heard people say, "I wish I'd asked my grandparents about what life was like when they were young, but now they're gone and it's too late."
The same regret might be expressed about a community. How much do we know about the beginnings of the town in which we live? Why it is here and where did its inhabitants come from? Fortunately, most communities are able to answer those questions because a few people have saved objects, documents and photographs which tell some of the stories of the past, but there are always many unanswered questions and stories which might never be heard.
When someone takes a photograph of a group of friends in the street or a newspaper is reporting a local eventthey are preserving the past for the future. Fortunately, newspapers in B.C. have for many years been required to send a copy of each edition to the Legislative Library, thus ensuring that the newspaper past is preserved. Personal photographs are different. They may be preserved in a family collection for decades, but too often when the last family member is gone, the relatives from far away see no value in these photographs and the dump becomes the recipient. Fortuately these have occasionally been found by others who realise their value and pass them on to the local archives.
It is a popular idea that archives are dusty and dull, but it is important that they not be dusty and they are anything but dull! Exciting detective work to discover information about places, dates and people for example, discovers fascinating connections between photographs and events, all adding to the local story.
How many of us have collections of family photographs without names or places on them? We all knew who the people were and where and when they were taken at the time, but thirty or forty or a hundred years later memory may not be as clear, so making a note in pencil on the back of the photograph helps future family members and archivists!
Collecting and receiving donations of photographs, documents and other items is only part of the story. Once saved, they need to be preserved, documented and scanned or photographed and this is where museums and archives do their part.
The museums and archives in this region are assisted through the Regional Cultural Plan of the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, but museums, archives and galleries, particularly in small communities, still rely on volunteers to help in many ways.
The Valley Museum and Archives and its volunteers are working to make more of our archives available for public access in the future but for now, settlerseffects.ca has many interesting photographs of the area. Others may be seen at the railway station in McBride.
Marilyn Wheeler ©2011
