NEWS ARTICLES
As many community members know, we write weekly articles for the Virden Empire-Advance newspaper. Feel free to browse through to learn intriguing facts about the museum and Virden's past! Here are just some examples of what you can expect to see with the Curator's Corner in the Virden Empire-Advance! You can check out more articles and interesting news either with a physical copy or visit the newspaper's website by clicking on the typewriter!
A Stunning Series
August 3, 2020
In this article, the spotlight is shone on two of our books at the Virden Pioneer Home Museum. New Arabian Nights and Virginibus Puerisque. Try saying that 3 times fast! Virginibus Puerisque translates from the Latin language into 'Girls and Boys'. It was written in 1881. It is a collection of the author's essays on the psychological components behind marraige. New Arabian Nights, however, is a bit nore interesting. It is a collection of the author's short stories, which are...
Travel in 1893
July 23, 2020
During these trying times, we may feel cooped up as a result of the lack of international travel.
But while we wait for restrictions to slowly ease, we can take a trip all the way back to 1893, where the rates for travel were outrageously low in comparison to now.
You could fly to Australia and back for...
They say beauty is pain.....
July 21, 2020
The Virden Pioneer Home Museum is welcoming another team member this summer! This is Naemi Ens’ first year working for us. She has lived in Manitoba, Canada for 13 years, but originally moved here from Germany. She is entering her senior year at Virden Collegiate Institute this coming fall and is pepped up about working at the museum!
Our daily lives are filled with handy gadgets that make getting ready for the day faster and easier. Often times we take these appliances for granted. But what if we travelled back into the past? Say, the 1900’s? We would find that many of these tools have been enhanced and tuned over the decades. And that we might be slightly fearful of some of the inventions that had not yet been tweaked for our well-being.
Enter hair perming. It’s been practically perfected. But it was not always so.
Wuthering Heights
July 21, 2020
Wuthering Heights is a classic novel of love, revenge, and generational trauma written by Emily Brontë. The Brontë sisters are known for a variety of works including Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey, however, Wuthering Heights may be the most shocking of them all. The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, including their brother, Patrick Branwell, were of Celtic lineage on their father’s side. Emily, the middle sister, was born in Thornton, Yorkshire on July 30, 1818. She grew up extremely quiet and the most reserved of her sisters. Their mother died in 1821 so the sisters would spend much of their childhood years using their imagination to make up islands that they would govern.
How Victorians treated Tonsillitis!
July 21, 2020
Have a sore throat unrelated to COVID-19? Maybe it’s tonsillitis! Tonsillectomies have been practiced for a very long time and are one of the most common surgeries performed in children. Your tonsils are three masses of tissue: the lingual tonsil, the pharyngeal tonsil, and the palatine tonsil. The tonsils are lymphoid tissue covered by respiratory epithelium. Some symptoms of tonsillitis are red, swollen tonsils, white or yellow coating or patches on the tonsils, fever, pain or difficulty swallowing. These are just a few symptoms: for more check with your local doctor.
Here at the museum we have a tonsillectomy tool kit from the 1870s. In the kit is a guillotine or also known as tonsillotome which has a scissor mechanism. Closing the scissor grip advances the blade across the enclosed loop and at the same time closes and raises a pair of spiked forceps with would grip and hold the excised tonsils. This procedure would be performed with early anesthetics such as chloroform. Nowadays the procedure is performed under general anesthesia.
Finishing Schools
August 19th, 2016
In the 1800s from the time they were children until they reached a marriageable age girls were taught skills such as embroidery, writing poetry, painting, and other academic subjects considered appropriate for young women. Examples of embroidery can be found in the sewing room located in the upstairs of the museum. They were taught...
The History of the Tea Caddy
August 12th, 2016
A tea caddy is a container that is used to store tea. It can take the form of a jar or box. Originally, tea caddies were called tea canisters. The name change to caddy is thought to have originated from catty, the Chinese pound. The larger variations of tea caddies were known as tea chests. Usually, tea caddies are made out of wood, pewter, tortoiseshell, brass, copper or even silver. The earlier versions...
Fortune Telling in Victorian Times
August 5th, 2016
In the Victorian Era, fortune telling was an entertainment highlight for many parties and social occasions. Even the Queen was said to have enjoyed it. The idea that women were more “sensitive” to the “other side” meant that they took on positions of authority in...
Victorian Dining Room Etiquette
July 8th,2016
In the Victorian Era, there were many etiquette rules to be followed in the dining room. There are some that parents teach their children today such as “Close your mouth when chewing” or “no elbows on the table”, and the classic “don’t talk with your mouth full.” There are also some rules that aren’t as well known because they aren’t used commonly anymore such as...
Meet Our 2016 Staff
May 27th, 2016
The Virden Pioneer Home museum once again opens for an optimistic season in the summer of 2016. The staff is eager to share local, provincial, and national history, and teach everyone about the Victorian life. With over ten thousand items on display, it is easy to get lost in time...
Listening to Music through the Eras
August 28
Through the years our methods of music have changed. Here at the museum we hold many forms of music and entertainment, so here’s a look at our timeline of music.
First up we have the source of the music, which are the instruments themselves! We have a wide variety here in the museum including clarinets, violins, drums, an accordion, a piano, and a pump organ. The organ is very special in the fact that...
Old Maps
August 21
As a museum employee, I have often found one of the most fascinating aspects of the world’s recent past to be how nations and territories have changed. Of course in a technological sense, they have changed culturally and in many other ways; but also, quite literally, how the shapes of them are different. Many maps found in the Pioneer Home Museum display continents, provinces and townships, looking geographically just the same, but with strange borders, and unfamiliar labels drawn over them before they reached their modern dimensions.
We Learn From You Too!
August 11
The Virden Pioneer Home Museum holds one of the most extensive rural museum collections in Manitoba. We have displays for almost every facet of pioneer and upper class Victorian life. Even after working here for many months, new history lessons pop up every other day. At over eleven thousand artifacts, we no longer accept donations unless it is something quite unique. However, we have often found that uniqueness is in the eye of the beholder.
Diary of an Early Virden Woman
August 4, 2015
In days past, journal or diary writing was a popular activity, especially for women, as our collection at the museum shows. Writing in a journal was a way of reminding yourself as you aged about everything you had accomplished. However, it was also a way to preserve your memory; something reminiscent of the Victorian fascination with mortality. No matter the reasons the were written, journals of the past are a treasure to read today as they can give us a true glimpse of what it was like to live in a different era.
It's 5 O'clock Somewhere
July 28,2015
No matter the class and lifestyle of a Victorian, when 5:00 came around everyone was participating in their own version of tea time. Hard labourers and aristocrats alike would come together with their friends and family for this mid-afternoon snack. Such a vast crowd participated in tea time that there are different variations for different classes.
A Brief Look at Ballroom Etiquette
July 21, 2015
Willl you do me the honour of dancing with me? Etiquette within ballroomsin the 18th to 20th Century was of utmost importance. In fact, there were so many rules that people made books ful of ballroom etiquette! Every element of an evening of dancing had specific customs to follow, including who you danced with.
Local Wood
July 7, 2015
Before Virden was even an idea, the whole area was flat grassland without a tree in sight. For many hundreds of years the vast plains of Central North America had no permanent settlements. The native peoples of the area were nomadic, following the bison; but colonials had another way of life.
Queen Victoria's Influence on Fashion
July 1, 2015
Happy Canada Day from everyone here at the museum! Canada's confederation would never have happenned without the support and influence from Queen Victoria. The longest reigning British monarch supported the joining of Canada because it would make our country "great and prosperous" as she stated. Her influence brought together our great nation, but it wasn't her only lasting impact.
War Time Cartoons
June 23, 2015
War can bring out the worst in human beings. the total violence could numb the mind to the value of people's lives. It could bring a normally peaceful man to rape and plunder, to slaughter or be slaughter d by other crazed individuals. To keep spirits up, people drew cartoons making fun of things.
For the Love of Fairy Tales
June 16, 2015
Storytelling is a cross-cultural phenomenon that has been going on throughout the course of history. Among those stories have arisen the ever-popular fairy tales. Originally created for children, these stories hold life lessons, morals, and so much more. Many of these old stories seem miraculour, magical, dark, and outrageous to us, but to the people in their time, the stories were real and meaningful.
Meet the Staff!
June 9, 2015
The Virden Pioneer Hom museum once again opens for an optimistic season in the summer of 2015. The staff is eager to share our nook of Canada's history and teach interested patrons of all ages about yesteryear's customs, posessions, and the other day-to-day aspects of a Victorian household. With over ten thousand items on display, it is easy to get lost in the stories the Frame house has within it; and they are ripe for the telling!
The Importance of Remberance within a Community
August 26th, 2016
Recently I ventured to Europe with the Vimy Foundation exploring World War I and World War II sites. This is an educational trip so we had presentations to make while we were away. One of these presentations was called “Bring the Boys Home” where we had to pick a soldier from our community who had died in World War I and was buried in France or Belgium. I started my research by...