The Glenbow wants your stuff

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The Glenbow wants your stuff

Postby newsposter » Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:36 am

This article was aimed at community associations, but many organizations and individuals should heed this... don't dump it, donate it!

http://www.cren.ca/content_view?CONTENT ... UE_ID=2704

Glenbow great source of community archives
Community Ties | Vol. 27 No. 4 | January 22, 2009

In an attempt to save space, community associations have unwittingly thrown out boxes and boxes of old newsletters and committee meeting minutes, thinking they’re just gathering dust.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Every bit of documentation on the life and times of people and events in our communities has a home in the archives at the Glenbow Museum.

“We started a project 30 years ago to try to acquire and catalogue organization records, minutes, correspondence and photos, which would include community newsletters,” says archive director Doug Cass, who has been with the museum for 35 years.

“We’ve acquired information from about seven or eight associations such as Hillhurst Sunnyside and Hounsfield Heights--more inner city communities with history and also a sense of their history.”

The Glenbow’s collection of community history documents was recently given a boost by the donation of files from the Federation of Calgary Communities.

Cass says the material will be of great benefit to researchers and volunteers compiling community or even family histories, not only in Calgary but across the globe.

“The Federation of Calgary Communities gave us all their internal files, including newsletters and legal information such as documents concerning incorporation of communities,” says Cass. “I think it’s important for all organizations in society to give their records to an archive, because we have a vast number of researchers every year studying an enormous number of topics, including business, economic and social history. You can’t write anything of consequence or depth unless you have the actual records.”

Linda McKinnon of the Hounsfield Heights Briar Hill Community Association sits on the history committee. She says they were able to trace people and events dating back to 1910, but relied heavily on material that was in the personal possession of past and president residents in addition to photos and information they found at the Glenbow.

“We had the first newsletters, debentures that were sold to raise money to start the community and sports teams, newspaper clippings,” says McKinnon, who also hosts a community history website. “We learned so much about our community--about how hard people worked to put parks in place, the Bethany Care Centre and the North Hill Shopping Centre. I mean, Riley Park was land donated to the city. I think city council forgets things like that. City council changes but the people in the community live on. They know the lessons learned.”

McKinnon says once historical material was reviewed, it was packed up and donated to the Glenbow. She advises new communities to keep track of everything.

“Don’t throw it out. People will want to know what was happening, what life was like and what lessons you learned. One day, city council can learn from the decisions that were made in your community,” she urges.

Cass says with many volunteer organizations, it’s easy for records and newsletters to get disbursed among its members. He acknowledges that documents need to stay in the communities for reference, but after a while they’re welcome at the archives

More information on how to donate can be found a www.glenbow.org.
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