MacBride Museum of Yukon History

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The MacBride Museum of Yukon History is in Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon -based museum. His focus is on the history of the territory with the collecting areas of transportation, First Nations , natural history and Klondike gold rush . In total, the house has around 25,000 exhibits, mostly photographs. The latter are in the archive, which also contains manuscripts, film recordings and extensive textual records on the city's history.

Emergence

In 1950 the Yukon Historical Society was established as the first association of its kind in the Yukon. The company acquired the Telegraph House, the Government Telegraph Office , from 1900. The first exhibits were moved there until a first curator could be hired in the mid-1980s. In 1987 the museum was opened in the presence of Princess Alexandra .

Co-founder was William David (Bill) MacBride (January 29, 1888-1973), an employee of the White Pass and Yukon Railway . He was able to contribute disused exhibits from the transport sector. He came from Montana , worked in Alaska for the first time in 1912 , and two years later he came to Whitehorse, where he married the teacher Eva Tesley in 1919. He acquired numerous books, photographs and other objects, as well as wrote essays , letters and articles that later became part of the museum collection. On December 20, 1950, 13 Yukoners founded the Yukon Historical Society under the leadership of Immigration Officer Fred Arnot and Bill MacBride . Arnot was soon transferred and management passed to Bill.

He and his family moved to North Vancouver in 1961 , where his sick wife died in 1966. Bill then returned to the Yukon, where he intensified his efforts until his death in 1973. In 1967 the current building was completed and the museum was named after MacBride.

Current situation

The management of the house is led by an eight-member board of directors, chaired by Hank Moorlag as chairman. Patricia Cunning is the executive director . On May 16, 2008, the Yukon's nine museums received a $ 300,000 commitment from the Department of Tourism and Culture under the Special Projects Capital Assistance Program . This program supports marketing, inventory and cataloging, collection management and exhibitions. The donation is part of an overall support for projects by museums, so-called interpretive centers, and the cultural centers of the First Nations. In 2016 it was announced that a new building was to be built for the museum.

Collections

The main collection focuses on the North-West or Royal Canadian Mounted Police , the Klondike Gold Rush and the recent history of the territory. The museum houses around 20,000 photos.

The Wild World Gallery , which offers a natural science focus, is located on the ground floor . Here you can find minerals, reconstructions of extinct animals, stuffed animals, fossils. There is also a biographically oriented area, a children's area, a museum shop and a demonstration room. Here you can find glass and metal work, furniture, musical instruments, textiles, clocks, clothes, badges and weapons, but also liturgical objects.

The Lower Gallery houses the photo collection and a section on archeology and early history. Artifacts from the local First Nations can also be found there . This includes masks and archaeological objects.

Outside the house is the Transportation Courtyard with exhibits on the history of transportation, such as the Engine 51 locomotive. In addition, there is the Sam McGee Cabin , a cabin from around 1900, which, however, cannot be safely attributed to Sam McGee. McGee (1868–1940) is less known as a prospector than as a protagonist in the poem The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service .

Publications

The museum publishes a series of books aimed at children. Works initiated and written by Keith Halliday include Aurore of the Yukon: A Girl's Adventure in the Klondike Gold Rush (2006), Yukon Secret Agents (2007), Yukon River Ghost: A Girl's Ghost Town Adventure (2008) and Game on Yukon ! (2009). In addition, there are the annual reports and other museum material.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ MacBride Museum receives $ 6 million to construct new building in downtown Whitehorse , Government of Yukon, August 30, 2016 .
  2. ↑ An illustration of Engine 51

Coordinates: 60 ° 43 '16 "  N , 135 ° 3' 6.1"  W.