2024: The Year of Getting Things Done!
This was originally posted as a series on the Museum’s Facebook in December 2024.
2024 was a big year here at Revelstoke Museum & Archives! We completed projects, celebrated milestones, and had some staff changes, and throughout it all took pride in sharing Revelstoke’s history & heritage.
Read on to see everything we accomplished this year!
1: Map Digitization project
Thanks to a grant from the BC History Digitization Program, we were able to digitize our collection of 250 maps, and made them available for online viewing. The maps include the Wheeler Collection from the Geographical Survey of the Selkirk Range (published in 1905). Regional and city maps are also included in the collection.
View the maps here. Prints can be custom ordered through the museum Gift Shop by emailing office@revelstokemuseum.ca.
2: River Trail Panels
Thanks to a grant from the Resort Municipality Initiative of the Government of BC, we were able to replace the heritage panels along the River trail from the Community Centre to the Kingsbury Bridge, and add five new panels at the Golf Club, Court House, Front Street, Farwell Park, and Queen Elizabeth Park.
Pick up a FREE printed map at the museum or the Visitors’ Centre, or find it here.
SS Minto on Upper Arrow Lakes, ca. 1950. Estelle Dickey photo. RMA P-2771.
3: Stories Beneath the surface online exhibit
As a companion to our physical exhibit of the same name, we completed an online bilingual version of Stories Beneath the Surface through an investment from Digital Museums Canada. The online exhibit has even more material, and can conveniently be viewed from anywhere on any device. Access the exhibit here, and explore the stories and gallery!
4: Colour your heritage colouring book
Thanks to a grant from the Resort Municipality Initiative of the Government of BC, we were able to produce a 28 page colouring book. Each colouring sheet is based on a photo from our collection, and was drawn by local Indigenous student Suri Stewardson.
The book is available for sale in the Gift Shop and online here.
5: accessibility resources
A grant from the Government of Canada, through United Way allowed us to add accessibility resources to the museum, including headphones, sunglasses, wheelchair, walker, fidget toys and weighted toys, as well as a Social Story to let visitors to the museum know what to expect. We have also created brochures in French and English for each exhibit.
Learn more here.
6: audio tours
As part of the Accessibility Project, we created Audio Tours of each of our exhibits. Local residents Laura Stovel, Gary Sulz, Miriam Manley, Tyler Maki, Michelle Cole, John Woods, Greg Hill, Nancy Martin, and Cathy English read the exhibits out loud for your listening pleasure, providing a new way to access the rich amount of historic information in the museum. Thank you to Rachael Lewis for managing this project and doing the audio production!
Listen to them here.
Cathy English demonstrating an interactive at the Reclaimed Voices opening. Photo Credit: Lys Morton, Revelstoke Mountaineer.
7: Reclaimed Voices exhibit
Our new exhibit on the second floor looks at little-known stories and perspectives. The exhibit includes Women’s Voices, Japanese Canadian Voices, Children’s Voices, and the story of Adeline Louie Barr, a Sinixt woman whose first husband was shot by a settler at Galena Bay in 1894.
This exhibit was made possible by funding from Heritage BC, Revelstoke Community Foundation, and Revelstoke Credit Union.
Learn more about the exhibit here, and visit the museum for a tour.
8: Reclaimed Voices videos
The new exhibit includes several videos to watch while in the exhibit, or online on our YouTube channel. Videos include:
- An illustrated audio interview with ski jumping legend Isabel Coursier
- Melissa Jameson discusses her family ties to Revelstoke, and her experience living with a disability
- Leyster Peters discusses his experience as a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community
- Chris Miller discusses his experience living in Revelstoke as a person with disabilities
- LaRae Wiley talks about her great-grandmother Adeline
- The late singer-songwriter Darrel Delaronde performs his song Adeline.
Watch all of the videos here.
9: stories beneath the surface book
Our new coffee-table style book is a photo essay following the theme of our museum exhibit, featuring the communities that were wiped out or impacted by the flooding behind the Hugh Keenleyside Dam at Castlegar. Full of historic photos and information, this book dives even deeper beneath the waters of the Columbia River to uncover the stories beneath its surface.
The book is available for sale in the museum, or purchase it online here.
Andy Craig’s team of horses, pulling a cart of people down street in Thomson’s Landing (Beaton), 1920. RMA P-13720.
10: digitizing the andrew craig collection
Thanks to a ReDi Grant from the City of Revelstoke and Columbia Basin Trust, we were able to digitize two scrapbooks of photographs from the family of Andrew Craig, a stagecoach operator in the Beaton – Trout Lake area in the 1890s and early 1900s.
The photographs are not yet available online, but for now you can see a good sampling of the photos on the recent Brown Bag History talk on Andrew Craig.
11: glimpses of the past - online edition!
You might be saying, "Revelstoke Museum, Glimpses of the Past isn't new?!" You would be correct, we have been publishing the column in the newspaper for a long time. However, in 2024 we added it to our website! New and backlist columns can all be accessed here.
12: accessibility lift
After years of planning, and months of construction, the Accessibility Lift is so close to a reality! Everyone will be able to access the museum in a safe and accessible way. The project also included the creation of a universal accessible washroom. We are expecting the lift to by operational within a few weeks!
Thanks to our many sponsors, and all of the many community members who contributed to this project. You can see this full list here.
13: downtown walking tour book
Thanks to a grant from the Resort Municipality Initiative of the Province of BC, we have produced a walking tour guide on the historic downtown, and the residential section of Mackenzie Avenue. The book is now available in-store, and online here.
14: anniversary celebrations
It was the 20th anniversary of the garden this year, and the 50th anniversary of the museum calling the former Post Office building home. To celebrate, we threw a garden party, complete with cake.
We also refreshed the signage in the garden, added new plaques, and revamped the Garden page on our website. The refresh, combined with the installation of new sod this fall, has given the garden a fresh new look!
While the garden is closed for the winter, you can still learn more about it here.
Photo Credit: Jessica Stewardson Photography.
15: our new assistant curator
In May, we hired Laura VanZant as our full time Assistant Curator. She may look familiar, since she's been the part-time Office Manager here since 2021 (although she originally worked here back in 2018 as a Summer Student) and is the former Curator of the Revelstoke Railway Museum.
Laura is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, where she majored in History and Archaeology, and minored in Women & Gender Studies. She is also a graduate of the Algonquin College Applied Museum Studies program. In 2020, Laura was the project manager for our Land Of Thundering Snow travelling exhibit.
Since starting the Assistant Curator position, Laura has produced our Colouring Book and the Walking Tour book, and has worked on several of our other projects. She also sits on the BC Historical Federation Board, and the Revelstoke Visual Arts Center Board (one could say she's never bored!) Say hi next time you're in!
16: cathy english - employee of the year
We saved the best for last for our Year of Getting Things Done!
In November, Curator Cathy English was honoured to receive the Employee of the Year award at the Business Excellence Awards, where she received a standing ovation from the room. Cathy even wore her mother-in-laws pearls to the awards ceremony! The museum Gift Shop was also a finalist for the Retail Excellence Award.
Cathy's award was very well-deserved and all of us here at the museum are very grateful to have her at our helm! She is a tour de force in the local and provincial museum community, and has earned the respect of her peers, co-workers, and community. She is an excellent Curator, and a wonderful human being. None of the other things on this list would have been possible without her!
Thank you to the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce for a wonderful evening!
Cathy, holding her award, presented to her by Karen (right).
Just typing out this blog post was exhausting, our staff have certainly earned their Christmas vacation! All of us here at the museum are grateful to the funders, volunteers, and community members and institutions that helped us have such a fruitful year. Here’s to 2025 and all the new things it will bring!