Latest News
Native Sons Hall Video
Please join us in watching this video about the historic Native Sons Hall, researched and produced by GNG Communications and the Courtenay Museum team, working with Fox and Bee Media. This is one of eight videos the museum has produced with Fox and Bee Media in 2012 with funds from the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI). It will be a feature of the museum’s ongoing education programming. We hope you enjoy it!
Heureux Noël and Merry Christmas!
CDM 974.63.13 / c. 1909 French postcard. The board and staff of the Courtenay and District Museum wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season!
RBCM Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibit
The wildly popular Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition from the Natural History Museum, London and BBC Worldwide returns to the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria with 100 winning images from the 2012 global competition in huge, backlit displays. Photographers from Estonia to Taiwan are among the winning entrants, but the overall winner this year – Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012– is Paul Nicklen from Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island. His “Bubble-jetting emperors” underwater image of a sunlit mass of Emperor penguins was voted the most striking and memorable of all 48,000 international entries. The exhibition features 100 photographs from 98 countries in [...]
It’s All There in Black and White: Gifts Rare and Beautiful
Oh, to find that perfect gift! This December 15, 1931 Comox District Free Press ad for the Courtenay Tarbell's Store has some suggestions – check out how many still hold true 81 years later. With legacy support from the Bickle Family and the Comox Valley Echo. Click for Larger Image Click for Larger Image
St. Joseph’s Hospital Centennial 2013
By Mary Lee, Centennial Coordinator The summer of 2013 will mark the 100 year anniversary of St. Joseph’s General Hospital. It was on July 5th 1913 that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto arrived in Comox to establish a hospital on an appeal from the Comox Logging Company. The Sisters opened its doors to patients with a four-bed hospital in a small farmhouse on August 10th of that year. In just a century, the hospital has evolved significantly, growing in size and capability to meet the health care needs of the Comox Valley and surrounding regions. This is a centennial worth celebrating. Since [...]
So Long…
The museum bids a fond farewell to longtime employee Cynthia Lane. Regulars will know Cynthia from her positions as tour programmer, visitor services and home school instructor. She first came to the museum for a work experience placement from G.P. Vanier Senior Secondary School 15 ½ years ago and has worked with the museum in a number of capacities. Cynthia recently mentioned how she originally thought she wanted to go into Law then came to the museum and realized how much she liked palaeontology; then she started working on kids camps and realized how much she liked teaching. "I've loved being here, love the [...]
Reminder: Sale Event Especially for Members
A reminder that this week is the gift shop sale event especially for members. From November 13 - 17 museum members will receive an additional 5% discount on their regular 15% discount from non-consignment and non-sale items. The shop has been well stocked in anticipation! There is a wide array of books for both children and adults, tea towels, oven mitts, shopping bags, scarves, mugs, water bottles, jade jewellery, prints, t-shirts, hoodies and native carvings. If you are looking for gifts for kids we have a fantastic variety of unusual and very reasonably priced toys. There are fossil and dinosaur excavation kits, t-rex chompers, [...]
New Reptile in Town
Valley’s most famous dinosaur welcomes a juvenile elasmosaur just in time for birthday The team of workers hang the fleshed-out juvenile elasmosaur at the museum. Almost a quarter-century has passed since Mike Trask and his daughter Heather discovered the fossilized remains of an 80-million-year-old elasmosaur on the banks of the Puntledge River near Courtenay. But at last he has come face-to-face with what the fearsome creature would have looked like when it was alive. Trask was at Courtenay and District Museum to witness the arrival of its latest exhibit - a scientifically-accurate fleshed out version of the species from the Age of [...]
Christmas Open House
11 am to 4 pm, Saturday, December 1, 2012 Mark your calendars for our Christmas Open House celebration. The museum will be decked out for Christmas. Enjoy a beverage and sweet treats. There will be crafts for children to make. View all the fabulous new exhibits and enjoy a lively, interactive discussion of the history of Christmas Traditions. Enter to win door prizes. We also have a special deal for our members: for this one day only we are offering museum members 25% off in the gift shop on non-consignment and non-sale items. Museum entry to the Open House will be free to any [...]
Christmas Craft Saturdays
10 am to 2 pm, December 8 and 15 Looking for activities for the kids? Join us on Saturday, December 8 and 15 for Christmas crafts. Kids will have a chance to make some old fashioned crafts such as Christmas stars, spice balls or painted pinecones that they may want to use to decorate the museum Christmas tree. This is a great chance to explore a number of hands-on activities to celebrate the season. Admission is by donation.
It’s All There in Black and White: Comox Kingpin
Who arrived in the Valley in the year 1909 and was considered a Comox King Pin by 1935? Find the answer in this article from the November 14, 1935 edition of the Comox District Free Press. Click for Larger Image Click for Larger Image
Before Television: Seals and Wax
CDM 997.530.2 What Happens When We Turn off the Remote Before computers, television or even telephones we used to write letters. Lots of letters. And if one of your letters called for an extra decorative flourish you might close the envelope with some wax and a seal like the one pictured above. This seal dates from approximately 1900 and bears the initials SEM that stand for Sylvia Edith Markle. Sylvia married W.A.W. Hames and the family moved to the Comox Valley in 1914. Historically, the use of seals goes back to the earliest civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. And, apparently, [...]
Capes Escape: Women’s History Month
Image from The Land of Plenty October is Women's History month in Canada and this year's theme is Strong Girls, Strong Canada: Leader's From the Start. Here's an interesting related story about the Capes sisters - two young women who were way ahead of their time. Katherine and Phyllis Capes sure made the front page headlines in the Toronto Daily Star newspaper back in August of 1933. With $8 between them and 30 pound packs on their backs, they hitch hiked their way across the country. In total, they had 28 traveling days. They slept most nights in their sleeping bags in [...]