 |
 |
|
|
|
AGM Coming Up The Annual General Meeting of the Courtenay and District Historical Society will take place at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, September 12th in the museum Rotary Gallery. New members welcome!
What's In A Membership?
Lots! News on lectures and events, fifteen percent discounts in the gift shop on non-consignment items, discounts on lectures and a chance to be involved with one of the most active regional museums in B.C.
Buying a membership supports heritage, education and activities. If you're not a member already, please join us today!
A Treat for the Eyes
A recent archives re-shuffle brought these beautiful 1930s McCall's magazine covers to light. Three are presented here for your viewing pleasure.
Donations
Please consider supporting the Courtenay and District Museum through a charitable donation. Your donation helps support programming, museum activities and long term operating of the Courtenay and District Museum. This is a great time of year to donate and receive a tax receipt.
You can donate online or by mail, details for both are available through the link below. Either way, we'll send acknowledgment and a receipt as soon as your donation is received.
Click here to Donate Now
The summer of 2012 at Capes Escape is steady for bookings. Overall, Capes Escape is gaining ground with increased bookings and word of mouth referrals each year. The average stay for the summer months over the past three years is 55 nights.
The museum is seeing repeat guests at the Capes Escape. Two families from the lower mainland stayed for the last two annual Music Fests and reserved Capes for 2013,2014 and 2015. They praise all that Capes has to offer. Two queen bedrooms and a bedroom with two singles accommodate more than enough for the average visit. If needed, there are two pull out beds available. The kitchen is fully equipped, and there's a barbeque on hand that is ideal for larger groups.
There are still a few nights available for August but space is likely to fill up fast. If you wish to book or need more details you can call the Courtenay and District Museum at 250-334-0686.
It's All There in Black and White
In this installment of "It's All There in Black and White" you can read about standing in line just to get a peak at a television set, who to thank for helping with the new swimming pool, a case of mistaken identity and dancing with a chicken. You will find all this in the August 11, 1949 edition of the Comox District Free Press article "The Way We Heard It .. at The Free Press".
Read this newspaper article from our archives
Before Television
The hand-tinting of this image is a perfect example of embellishing an everyday item.
The photograph was created by Hamilton Mack Laing (1883-1982) who sent the image as a Christmas card signing it "...from Mack Laing and the gulls of Mittlenatch Isl. rookery, Straits of Georgia, B.C.".
Laing, of course, was a well-known local naturalist, author and photographer who’s life was chronicled in Richard Mackie’s 1985 book Hamilton Mack Laing: Hunter-Naturalist. Mackie quotes from Laing in regards to a 1922 trip to the "gullery" at Mittlenatch Island and its bird "song" as follows:
"Oh it was a Wagnerian symphony of the birds, a chorus of lost souls crying out from some realm of the damned where the sweetest sound that echoes from the portal is a chorus of wailing. It was a savage, cruel place this nursery; discord was more than phonic; strife was in the air...I came down from the nursery full of the wonderment of it all – this savage nursery where bickering and quarrelling and disaster and death were the order of every day – apparent on every hand that colossal selfishness of Nature that makes one ponder on the meaning of it all." *
The CDM has several hand-tinted nature photographs by Mack Laing in its collection.
*H.M. Laing, Bird Rambles in British Columbia, Ch. IV, pp. 30-31, Provincial Archives of British Columbia.
Photo of the Month
CDM #989.22.1
You can view more photos like this on our website. Click here to visit our holdings.
Museum Sponsors
Dogwood
Arbutus
Fir
Seedling
Lawrence Burns
D. Mobley
Museum Funding
The Courtenay and District Historical Society was registered as a nonprofit society in 1961 to preserve and interpret cultural and natural heritage of the Comox Valley. It has functioned as an independent society since that time. Funds are derived from the generous support of the City of Courtenay, British Columbia Arts Council, Comox Valley Regional District, British Columbia Gaming Branch, and from museum generated revenues and donations.
Proud sponsors of the Courtenay & District Museum:
|
|
CDM 993.376.28
