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Monthly Archives: May 2013
Paint, Mannequins and Thank You’s
Over the past few months we’ve received two corporate donations which we’d like to publicly acknowledge.
Paint
A conversation I was having with a colleague at work about repainting one of our exhibit rooms was overhead by another colleague which led to her father and eventually to the head office of Benjamin Moore Canada. The end result of “one thing leading to another” was some very expert advice on the most durable but also low VOC paints that would be most practical for our needs AND a donation of eight gallons of the said paint via one of their local retailers (Maples Paints on St Clair West.) Like most museums with limited operating budgets, donation of items in kind – like paint – can mean a big difference to what we can accomplish!
Mannequins
Pretty much every historical museum uses mannequins to display costumes – historical clothing or in our case uniforms. But like many museum supplies, mannequins can be expensive – up to hundreds of dollars. The Queen’s Own Rifles Museum is no exception and although we have a large number of uniforms on display, we still have a closet full that aren’t!
Since my day job office is located at Queen and Bay (on top of the Queen Street Hudson Bay store), I arranged to have coffee about a month ago with Richard Montgomery, Chief Adventurer (a.k.a. Vice President and General Manager) of the Queen Street store. After reminiscing about my first job as a teenager at the Robert Simpson’s Queen Street Store (before it was bought by the Bay) and finding out that Robert had a degree in history, we talked mannequins. Richard said he’d be happy to help us out if he could and promised to check what they might be available. Almost four weeks later, staff delivered 2 full mannequins and 2 “busts” on stands to my office on the 18th floor!
In the picture above, your’s truly is the one with the head, and a couple of the others have been clothed with fig leafs for modesty’s sake. We’ve also undertaken a mannequin naming contest since they may be there a while until I can arrange transportation to their new home at Casa Loma.
Thank you
Thank you to both Benjamin Moore Paints Canada and The Hudson Bay Company for their generous gift in kind donations!
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WANTED: Volunteer Historical Timeline Researchers
We’re looking for a few work-from-home volunteers to help us prepare information for posting on our Historical Timeline. The task requires reading through Lieutenant Colonel W. T. Barnard’s The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, 19860-1960: One hundred years of Canada to find “significant events” that we haven’t yet posted to our timelines listed below:
- Timeline: 1856-1899 (much of this has already been done but still needs a re-check)
- Timeline: 1900-1924
- Timeline: 1925-1949
- Timeline: 1950-1974 (only a small portion of this period is covered by Barnard’s book)
- Timeline: Uniforms
- Timeline: Weapons
Note that we have two “specialty” timelines for uniforms and weapons which we’re also trying to populate.
Information can be submitted in the body of an email or in a WORD attachment and each date/event (following the format already being used including a [2] at the end of each entry as the reference to this source). Research should be emailed to museum@qormuseum.org directly.
If you’re interested in assisting with this project, you can indicate below which time period you would like to research (it can be a portion of the periods shown above) and we’ll confirm with you before you start just some we don’t end up with any overlap. Questions can also be posted in the comments below!
Thanks in advance!
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WANTED: Social Media Nerd (Volunteer)
OK well the position is actually Social Media Assistant not nerd, but you probably get the drift. We’re looking for someone comfortable with and experienced in using social media to connect and engage with visitors, friends, volunteers and financial supporters of our museum. Definitely someone who is familiar with and a regular user of Facebook and Twitter and preferably someone who understands Pinterest and WordPress as well. Experience using HootSuite or other tools for managing social media is also a plus!
You’d assist in preparing “this day in history” posts, following social media mentions of the QOR or our museum, re-posting items of interest from similar organizations, responding to comments/questions from followers and even perhaps creating some blog posts.
You’d work with the Curator within the guidelines we are developing and would work from your own computer and/or smartphone or other device. Besides social media cred, you need have an interest in the history of the Queen’s Own Rifles (duh) and ideally a connection to the regiment (but the latter isn’t a deal breaker!)
If you think you might be interested in taking on this volunteer position, please send an email to museum@qormuseum.org (please don’t apply via the “comments” section below although we’re happy to respond to questions about the position that way.) You should include a description of your experience in relation to what we’re looking for above and links to your FB, Twitter accounts and other accounts as a kind of portfolio for us to check out!
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum and Archive 