A very unique collection!
Did you know that long-time Rosslander Percy Elmes raised prize-winning canaries?
Elmes raised and showed his canaries all over western Canada during the 1950s and 60s. His collection of canary competition trophies and prize ribbons are some of the more unique awards we have in our collection.
2317.0001: Percy Elmes and his beloved canaries
Earlier this year, our CBT SchoolWorks Museum Assistant, Scarlet helped us update our catalogue records for the prize ribbons... 56 in total!
Since then the collection has been photographed and added to our new database.
Recently, our Collections Manager, Sara, re-housed the ribbons for long-term storage. The ribbons had been piled together in an old Eaton's department store box for many years. Now the ribbons are housed in acid-free boxes and interleaved with polyethylene foam. The acid-free materials and interleaving help us preserve the awards for generations to come.
What's the most interesting or unique award in your collection?
Our Collections Reorganization and new Collections Database as well as a forthcoming Community Portal (online collections database access) have all been funded in part by the Department of Canadian Heritage.