Events, exhibits, families, programs
Goulbourn Museum is happy to announce we’ve added a new employee to our team! Sue Woodford started this week as our new Marketing and Visitor Services representative, and we’re excited to have her. Sue has signed on for a six month contract, and will be managing our social media, writing our press releases and designing our marketing material, as well as producing and distributing our newsletters and assisting with tours and events.
Sue has been telling stories through pictures and prose for over 20 years. She studied Photojournalism at Loyalist College and worked at the Kanata Kourier-Standard newspaper for 8 years receiving awards for both writing and photography from the Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA). Following a freelance career in communications she took on the role of Manager, Creative Services with Evans Team Ottawa at Royal LePage. In 2012 she completed her post-graduate certificate in Interactive Multimedia from Algonquin College. Sue has been a resident of Stittsville since 1995.
If you have any marketing ideas you’d like to share with Sue or would like to send her a welcome note, drop her a line here.
The Goulbourn Museum is home to interactive and hands-on exhibitions including The 100th Regiment of Foot – about the soldiers who settled Goulbourn Township in 1818 after the War of 1812; The Village Storewhere kids can dress up as pioneers & shop or barter for supplies; as well as exhibits about early Goulbourn settlers, the communities in the Township, and local services. The Museum has over 8000 artefacts in its collections, and offers over 35 programs and events each year. The Museum has three fulltime staff members and is supported by 30 volunteers. The Marketing and Visitor Services job title is a new position.
We could feel the emotion of the moment all the more strongly as a Canadian piper played a lament Saturday for the war dead from the Battle of Sackets Harbor. The names of those 49 Canadian and British soldiers who were killed in the War of 1812 raid and buried on the battlefield were read aloud during the special memorial service attended by military re-enactors, regular armed forces and civilian representatives.
Grenadiers of Goulbourn’s 100th Prince Regent’s Regiment of Foot had participated in the May 29, 1813 raid on the strategic military target. The 100th soldiers killed in action included Sgt. William McGarry, Pte. John Carvin, Pte. James Murphy, Michael O’Brian, Pte. Michael Quinn and Pte. John Short. Goulbourn Museum sent me as our representative while William Sinka represented the Friends of the 100th, a proposed living history re-enactors group.
Other regiments include 1st Regiment (Royal Scots), 8th Regiment, 104th (New Brunswick) Regiment, Glengarry Light Infantry, Royal Newfoundland Fencibles, Voltigeurs Canadiens, Nova Scotia Fencibles and Royal Navy.
Saturday’s memorial service was very much an international affair, between friends across the border, as officials from Canada and United States attended the event organized by the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site; the Sackets Harbor Battlefield Alliance Inc. and the community of Sackets Harbor. A ground-breaking ceremony was also held to mark commencement of the construction of a granite monument and individual soldier’s stones to honour the sacrifices of the Crown Forces in the battle.
Standing at the site in a farmer’s clover field, I was struck by the solemn nature of the service that paid tribute to the sacrifice of these soldiers for king and country. I was also touched by the congeniality of the Americans and Canadians who have shared 200 years of peace.
Today the #MuseumOlympics are trending in Twitter, so we decided to take part in the fun! Do you think this surveyor’s chain (aka Gunter’s Chain – in the tall skinny cabinet in the centre) could be used in a fun version of a relay game in the #PioneerOlympics? We think so! In fact, we may design a scavenger hunt style game using a modern replica of this tool.
Today we installed a new bilingual and portable version of our exhibit all about the 100th Regiment at the Stittsville Library. This exhibit features a life-size silhouette of a soldier so you can see if you “measure-up” and meet one of the enlistment requirements, as well as information about the War of 1812 and the soldier’s transition from Northern Ireland to Canada. And just to make sure the panel was working, we asked a few children (and staff) to pose with the silhouette 🙂 On display at the Library from August 1-31.
After checking this exhibit, why not stop by the Museum and learn the rest of the story – we have a new exhibit about the Exceptional Women in the War of 1812 on now, as well as an exhibit called Voyage of Goulbourn’s 100th Regiment 🙂
Earlier this summer, Paul Thibaudeau of Intermesh Enterprises invited the Museum Board, staff and Friends out for a tour of an archeological dig site that his team is working on in Richmond. His team has been working around a well and foundation on property that once belonged to Captain George Lyon, who fought in the War of 1812 with the 100th Regiment and was a later a local businessman and politician. To date, they have found more than 8000 artefacts. Our group really enjoyed the tour, so we though we’d share some of our photos from the day.