Almost five years ago, the late Neil Richards, a well-known Saskatchewan LGBTQ2+ community historian and activist, along with staff from OUTSaskatoon, approached the WDM about a temporary exhibit on LGBTQ2+ history in Saskatchewan. For Neil, this work complimented his efforts to preserve the archiva
Read MoreWDM-1973-S-21813: A Silverwood Springs crate used to transport bottles. When Saskatoon was founded in the late 19th century, clean water was hard to come by in the city. There were no regulations on disposal of trash and sewage, so wells would often become contaminated. Typhoid fever raged th
Read MoreIn our final blog about Susanna Dimsdale’s sampler, we will explore how other historical documents and sources can help provide insight about an artifact’s life. In addition to researching the object itself, we can use census records and archival documents to help place the sampler’s maker in
Read MoreLast time, we introduced Susanna Dimsdale’s beautiful but mysterious embroidery sampler, one of the oldest artifacts in the WDM’s 75,000+ artifact collection. In this blog series, we are examining archival, textual and material clues to determining when the sampler might have been made. The prov
Read MoreThe textile collection in the Western Development Museum covers several centuries and has some rare pieces within its storerooms. One is a sampler made in England by a young 8-year-old girl named Susanna Dimsdale. This piece represents a British tradition, handed down for generations, of teaching yo
Read MoreAs part of the Fundamentals of Horticulture course offered by the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, students developed landscaping plans for the Western Development Museum – Saskatoon to help beautify the grounds at the local historical institution. Each year students in the course are
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