President, Margaret Ashcroft’s speech at Grand Reopening
Welcome to our invited guests and to our friends of the Birdtail Country Museum. It is a pleasure to be able to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the museum. When I speak to you of our museum… yes, it is a museum for all of us.
The seed for the start of the museum came when a young lady arrived to work in the Royal Bank. She married a young man from the area, raised her family and lived in Birtle for the rest of her life. That lady was Sylvia Doran. She had a love of old things and had a large collection of antiques and collectables. She had a dream of having some place right on Main Street, in the centre of town, where she and others could share their articles with everyone. Sylvia was a persistent lady who never took “No” for an answer. So, with a large group of like-minded people and the old empty Royal Bank building right on Main Street, Birdtail Country Museum came into being. Think about this… the building where Sylvia came to work as a young lady became the building of her dreams later in life.
Over the past forty years many thousands have signed the guest book and enjoyed the displays. Many volunteers have kept the museum tidy, arranged displays, catalogued the many articles given or loaned, arranged farmers’ markets and welcomed the people who came to enjoy what the museum had to offer. This covered more than 200 years of local history. Cataloguing was done by hand in those years. Now all the records have been computerized. There were operating grants to apply for, and other means of fundraising to be done. Welcoming the groups of school children over the years was a sheer delight. There were many questions to be answered, little fingers to keep track of and cookies to pass out when the tour was finished. The usual question asked so often these days, “but how did they talk to each other without cell phones?”
A past highlight to show what museums were about was the Millennium fashion show in the year 2000. The show was organized by members of the museum featuring over 100 costumes from our museum with over 35 models from a baby to 70 years of age. Backed by a choir of over 30 voices, the concert not only highlighted the fashions from the late 1800’s to 2000 but also the talent of the people of our area. The two night concert was a rousing success.
As the collection of articles grew, it became evident that more space was needed. With the gift from the estate of Frank Crew a storage shed was purchased and placed behind the museum. With repairs needing to be done in the main museum and many artifacts needing to be stored during the renovation this shed was well used. When Covid shut down the world our museum could not open for the summer as usual. When the time finally came to get the building ready for opening day we found that a recent wind and rain storm, along with a leak in the tin clad roof, had caused major damage to the walls and ceilings of a portion of the top level. What a huge disappointment! So many of the artifacts had to be moved to safety. So much work. The museum could not open.
When the repairs to the walls and ceilings were finished, the board members, including several new members, did a tour of the building. We realized that our old building needed many more repairs. We needed a little help. A person was hired to clean the museum from top to bottom. Many hours were spent sorting, cleaning and storing artifacts. Experts came from Winnipeg to give us advice. Research on line answered some of our questions. Visits to other museums gave us new ideas. We developed a five year plan. I am pleased to say that the first year’s plan is finished and we were able to open the museum this year. The walls of the main room were covered with gyprock and painted a refreshing, light colour, a new tiled ceiling installed, electrical work done with new lighting, an inline water heater along with modern plexiglass show cases were purchased while old showcases were discarded or repaired. The main floor of the museum has been totally transformed. If you have not done so, I invite you to tour and see what has been accomplished this first year.
Needless to say, many hours and many dollars have been spent to get this far in our plan. Local organizations and our municipality have been generous and we thank them for that. Grants have been applied for, some yet to be received. Many more will be needed. We are now deciding what can be accomplished on a limited budget. There is work that can be done over the winter months. Our office building still needs to be emptied, articles catalogued and cleaning done. There is still much to do before starting our second year’s plan in the spring. We plan to finish the back area on the main floor. Next, will be getting the upper floor that was the previous home of the bank manager and his family, ready for visitors.
There are ongoing plans for fund raising. We have 200 Club tickets for sale right now. If you haven’t bought one, I ask you to do so. We have been able to recruit some new volunteers but more members are needed to help keep the museum open for the next many years. Some people think that with our modern communication museums will become obsolete. You can help us prevent that by becoming a member. It is a joy to celebrate the reopening of our museum today … to think of the past, the present and to wish for a successful future for the Birdtail Country Museum.