by Huron County Museum | Oct 5, 2022 | Blog
Brooklyn Wright, Huron County Museum assistant, spent time this summer working on the Henderson Photographic Collection and highlighting some of the stories and images from the collection.
Gordon Henderson was a Goderich-based photographer who produced black-and white photos using a variety of mediums, such as negatives, glass-plate negatives, and cellulose nitrate film. The Henderson Collection housed at the Huron County Museum contains more than 10,000 negatives and photographs taken by Mr. Henderson from the 1930s – 1970s. Included in the collection are class pictures, summer camp pictures, wedding pictures, advertising campaigns, pictures of local events, buildings, businesses, and much more.
While Blackstone’s Store is no longer in operation today, it stood on West Street just off the Goderich Square. The photographs shown above were taken by Mr. Henderson of the store’s window display in September, 1939.
References to Blackstone’s in The Signal, available online through the Digitized Newspaper Collection, date back to as early as 1908. At this point, Blackstone’s was a restaurant that served oysters, ice cream, and confectionaries. By 1930 it had expanded to sell furniture as well, and was known as Blackstone’s Furniture Exchange, as shown in the ad at right published in the Goderich Star in 1928. It was around this time that the owner, Harold Blackstone, christened West Street as ‘The Broadway of Goderich’, as shown in the newspaper clipping published in The Signal in 1930.
By the time Henderson took the above photographs in 1939, Blackstone’s was selling appliances and furniture, while they also continued to sell ice cream and other sweet treats. Take note of the War Bonds advertisement in the window! This photograph was taken just two weeks after the start of the Second World War. If you’re looking for a better view, you can see similar War Bonds advertisements in person at the Huron County Museum.
Blackstone’s continued to operate until at least 1980, known then as Blackstone’s Furniture, as can be seen from an advertisement published in the Village Squire.
SOURCES
- The Signal, 1908-12-3, Page 1
- The Signal, 1913-12-11, Page 2
- The Goderich Star, 1928-08-09, Page 8
- The Signal, 1930-9-4, Page 5.pdf
- The Goderich Signal-Star, 1939-1-26, Page 3
- Village Squire, 1980-11, Page 26
by Amy Zoethout | Aug 31, 2022 | Archives, Blog, Collection highlights
Brooklyn Wright, Huron County Museum assistant, is working on the Henderson Photographic Collection this summer and highlighting some of the stories and images from the collection. Gordon Henderson was a Goderich-based photographer who produced black-and white photos using a variety of mediums, such as negatives, glass-plate negatives, and cellulose nitrate film. The collection housed at the Huron County Museum and contains more than 10,000 negatives and photographs taken by Mr. Henderson from the 1930s – 1970s. Included in the collection are class pictures, summer camp pictures, wedding pictures, advertising campaigns, pictures of local events, buildings, businesses, and much more.
The second annual Goderich Labour Day Celebrations took place in and around the Goderich Square on Monday, Sept. 2, 1946. The celebrations were captured in part by the above image from the Henderson Collection, but the full extent of the festivities lasted all day, and a wide variety of events took place.
That morning, a parade was held, starting at Victoria Park and ending at the Square. The procession included many different community members, including labour unions, local businesses, bands, and the fire department. Goderich Bluewater Band, dressed as clowns, was one of the participating groups in the parade. Afterwards various contests took place; boys and girls races were held, as well as hurdle jumping, tug-of-war, a softball tournament and a beauty contest. There was also a speech by Col. Lambert, padre of the Christie Street Hospital in Toronto. He spoke to the crowd of his pride and gratefulness towards the soldiers of World War One and World War Two, but also to the working men and women who produced the firearms, minesweepers, parachutes, and other supplies needed for the war effort. The day was deemed a great success in the Goderich Signal-Star, with congratulations in order for the organizers, the local Trades and Labour Council.
What are your plans for this upcoming Labour Day?
The Goderich Signal-Star, 1946-09-05
by Amy Zoethout | Jun 17, 2022 | Blog, Special Events
By Robyn Weishar, Programs and Marketing Assistant
The Huron County Museum and Historic Gaol is excited to participate in the annual Historic Places Days celebration alongside many other participating historic sites across Canada. Historic Places Days is a promotional event spearheaded by the National Trust for Canada, which focuses on protecting and featuring over 600 historic sites across Canada. It’s a great time to take advantage of your proximity to two great places of historical significance located right here in Huron County!
Join us Sunday, July 10, as we celebrate at both the Museum and Gaol with free admission to both sites and fun activities for all ages!
- Activities will be set up at the Gaol from 1-4:30 p.m. Activities will be held in the Gaol courtyard and will include bean bag toss, horseshoes, scavenger hunt, and obstacle course.
- Blyth food vendor Cherrey’s Dog House will be stationed at the Museum from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for those who want to purchase lunch, or BYOB (Bring Your Own (picnic) Blanket) and your own snacks/food for an afternoon picnic and Sunday wind-down on the Museum lawn.
- While you picnic, enjoy musical entertainment in front of the log cabin. From 1:15-4:30 p.m., enjoy music from local talents Kamden and Parker Gillespie, Matt Hussey and Thales Hunter.
This event is also a great opportunity to snap a photo at your favourite Huron County historical sites to enter the Historic Places Days Selfie Contest! The contest runs July 8-31. To enter, simply take a selfie at the Museum or Gaol, share it on social media tagging #HuronCountyMuseum or #HuronHistoricGaol and #HistoricPlacesDays for a chance to win $1,000 for yourself as well as $1,000 for the Museum! There are a number of other great prizes available to win, including Parks Canada passes and VIA Rail travel vouchers. Draws will take place throughout the month, so post often and share what these historic places me to you! For full contest details, visit: https://historicplacesdays.ca/contests/.
Not only are we looking forward to celebrating Historic Places Days with you, we are hoping to celebrate you; the people of the County who helped to grow and continue to support the preservations and re-telling of our histories. If it were not for you, we would not have historical places to celebrate.
by Amy Zoethout | Feb 17, 2022 | Blog
The Huron County Museum is pleased to host the work of Métis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers, whose site-specific art installation #HopeAndHealingCanada is on display at the Museum until April 10.
#HopeAndHealingCanada is a series of temporary site-specific art installations created by Chambers, who uses knit and crochet pieces constructed from red yarn to illustrate the connections between all. She also uses the work to promote dialogue about decolonization and reconciliation between Indigenous, Inuit and Métis peoples and settlers.
“I believe collectively we must remain hopeful to heal. There is still so much that connects us to one another, and I am hoping that the pandemic has made that more apparent to everyone,” said Chambers, who has been creating these installations across the province at historical sites, museums, and other public spaces since July 2021. Each piece is constructed reusing red yarn from previous installations. “I want to illustrate the temporary nature of our lives, of our struggles and our achievements. The string represents the connectivity between each other and our environment as it will also not last forever.”
Chambers was onsite at the Museum on Feb. 17 to build the installation in the Museum’s foyer.
“The Huron County Museum is very happy to bring Tracey-Mae’s important work to Huron County,” said Senior Curator Elizabeth French-Gibson. “Welcoming such installations supports the Museum’s on-going work to expand its exhibitions by sharing more diverse stories that have not always been historically presented.”
To learn more about Chambers and the #HopeAndHealingCanada project, visit: #HopeandHealingCanada at traceymae.com
by Amy Zoethout | Feb 8, 2022 | Museum News
The Huron County Museum congratulates the Huron County Library for receiving the Ontario Library Association’s (OLA) Archival and Preservation Achievement Award for the Huron County Digitized Newspaper project.
Virtually presented to library staff at the OLA Super Conference on Feb. 2, 2022, the award recognizes significant achievements in the field of preservation and/or conservation for library and/or archival materials.
Beginning in 2014, the digitization project has been a collaboration between the Huron County Library, Huron County Museum, the County of Huron, and the local community. The project has resulted in the digitization of more than 350,000 local newspaper and magazine pages from microfilm and hard copies. This collection preserves more than a century’s worth of local history from communities across the County.
“The Huron County Library has always been one of the most modern and innovative library systems in the province.” said Huron County Warden, Glen McNeil, “The Digitization Project is just one example of its leaderful and progressive work. Congratulations to everyone involved in this project. The recognition received is well deserved.”
The online collection brings together newspapers and magazines, spanning from 1848 to 2019, in one convenient location that anyone can access, for free, from anywhere there is an internet connection. Over the past two years, as libraries and museums were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers, students, researchers, historians, and genealogists could still easily access Huron County history from around the world. In 2021 alone, the digitized newspaper collection received close to 20,000 visits, making it one of the most popular online resources that the County of Huron offers.
“The digitization project serves as an important contribution to improving access to community history for researchers, historians and genealogists, who continue to expand our understanding of our rural past,” said Beth Rumble, Director of Cultural Services and County Librarian. “New content is being digitized and added to the collection on an on-going basis, further preserving our archival resources for generations to come.”
Support for this project from the community has helped shape the success of this project.
“We appreciate how the news of the day provides tidbits and notes of interest to many researchers and are impressed how this remarkable project has evolved to become a rich asset to our community,” said Rhea Hamilton-Seeger, on behalf of the Huron County Historical Society. “We are proud that this unique resource was made possible through the foresight of the Huron County Museum and Huron County Library and is used not only in Huron, but across the digital world.”
With members across Canada and the United States, the Huron County Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), having access to this digital collection has helped those researching their families’ Huron County roots.
“Newspapers provide a snapshot into our ancestors’ lives that is not available in government records,” said Huron County Branch, OGS, Chair Debra McAuslan. Having these available digitially for much of Huron County is a unique resource for an rural area in Ontario and we are grateful to the Huron County Library and Huron County Museum for making this possible.”
The full collection can be accessed from both the Huron County Library and the Huron County Museum websites or by directly visiting https://pubdocs.huroncounty.ca/WebLink/.
Watch the award presentation on YouTube: Ontario Library Association Awards Ceremony 2022 (presentation to Huron County Library starts at 35:15)
