Dutton Events May 27, 2017

 
  
Backus-Page House Museum will have a display at the Dutton Child Care Centre with information about our summer day camps and pioneer toys to play with.  

Raise The Roof - Double The Donation

Our Carriage House Visitor Centre needs a new roof this summer and a very generous community member has offered to match $1000 in donations from YOU!  

The carriage house contains the archives from the West Elgin Genealogical & Historical Society, our resource library, visitor and tourism services, taxidermy display, staff offices, kitchen, meeting room and visitor washrooms.  This building is used for all events, facility rentals, special occasions, and daily operations.  Can we count on you to donate and help us Raise the Roof by April 30, 2017?  

To donate online please click here.

You can also call the office 519-762-3072 to donate using a credit card, drop by with cash in person at the museum, or mail your donation cheque payable to Tyrconnell Heritage Society to 

Tyrconnell Heritage Society, Raise The Roof, Box 26, Wallacetown, ON, N0L 2M0

Please mark the memo line of the cheque "Raise the Roof Donation"  

Thank you in advance for your donation and a huge thank you to our anonymous marching donor!  We appreciate you! 

Again here's the link to donate online today.   

Backus-Page at West Elgin Secondary School Loonie Auction

Backus-Page House Museum is contributing three auction prizes/experiences and will have a table of various gift shop items and elimination draw tickets for attendees to purchase.  If you need a bidding paddle, we have some to sell.  Contact the office at 519-762-3072 or info@backuspagehouse.ca  

Fall Raffle Winners

Thank you to everyone who purchased a raffle ticket to support Tyrconnell Heritage Society and Backus-Page House Museum.  Congratulations to our winners!!

1st Prize - Laurie Sura

2nd Prize - Karen Keith

3rd Prize - Yvonne Brooks

We appreciate the individuals and businesses who donated our items.  

Christmas Dinner December 13th

We have only a few tickets left for December 13th Christmas Dinner in the Museum.  Call now 519-762-3072 to purchase.  Cash, cheque, visa, master card, amex, and paypal accepted.

Behind The Scenes Sunday

Good afternoon!
I wanted to post a thank you to everyone who has been reading our blog posts this year.  A new media project started in March has so far been very successful.  One aspect of has been an increase in outreach through social media.  Today I checked our total blog views and we have surpassed the 25% increase in viewership!!  Since April we have increased our blog views from 16406 to 20583 as of today. 
I attribute this increase to the almost daily blogs from the staff and volunteers this season such as Media Mondays, Toolbox Tuesdays, Catching Up With Catie, World War Wednesdays, Tourism Thursdays, I Love the 50's, Foodie Fridays, Service Saturdays, Saturday Sitings, and Behind The Scenes Sundays.  We are glad you are enjoying our content.
Since this project goes until the end of March, I have a set new goal to increase views another 25% to 25729.  All you need to do is continue reading our posts, share with your friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and leave us some comments so we can get some discussions going. 

The past two weekends have been spent at local events.  Last weekend was Wallacetown Fair where we contributed a Hunting and Camping themed display, a Canada card table display, and we took our gift shop and fall fundraiser to the commercial exhibit room.  Yesterday I spent the afternoon at a Ladies Afternoon Fundraiser for Breast Cancer Research held at the International Centre between Rodney and West Lorne.  I took some gift shop items and raffle tickets to sell along with our Family Harvest Party flyers.  It was great to meet fans of the Backus-Page House Museum and people new to our area who have yet to visit us. 

There's one week of our season still left to visit us and have a tour.  The 20th Anniversary Exhibit  is over and we've emptied out our collection storage room into the exhibit room and upstairs bedrooms.  Through a grant from Heritage Canada we have painted the storage room, will be protecting the historic flooring and Carr McLean will be installing proper museum storage shelving units to house the collection pieces when they are not on display.  When the room is completed and the upstairs bedrooms straightened up, I will be hosting a reception for society members, museum donors, dignitaries and the media to see the results.  For those in attendance it will be a peak "behind the scenes".

Angela Bobier
Cultural Manager

Upcoming Events - More details at www.backuspagehouse.ca 
Family Harvest Party  October 25  1-8pm
United Empire Loyalists with Arthur Pegg  November 13  7pm
Christmas Feast in the Museum  December 6  5pm  (only 4 tickets available now)
Home for the Holidays tours and crafts  December 8-12  10am-4:30pm

Quilting Bee dates to be announced soon.  E-mail me if you are interested in hand quilting.  info@backuspagehouse.ca

Behind The Scenes Sundays

Behind the Scenes Sundays with Angela Bobier, Cultural Manager

For those of you who are new readers or who don't know me, I grew up in Wallacetown and now live in West Lorne with my husband, John, and our cat Charly and dog Jack.  I joined the board of the Tyrconnell Heritage Society in 2009 and progressed from Director, to Vice President, and President.  Two years ago I became the Cultural Manager of the Backus-Page House Museum where I enjoy pair my love of history, the local community, and background with sales, team building, and business.  I am currently earning my diploma in Cultural Resource Management.  My blog posts will be more what happens in the office, with the museum collection, research and operating the society and museum.

Last year time was spent researching our parlour.  We are currently lacking in appropriate window and floor coverings, accesories and artwork.  The focus was on what types of window dressings Andrew and Mary Jane Backus might have had in the 1850's.  Not only would we need to know the colours and patterns available and popular in Tyrconnell, but what fabric did they use, and the style of curtains appropiate for the parlour.  What surprised me was that plain linen roller blinds would have been used in addition to curtains.   

Luckily, Melanie Button and I, found some sources that had pictures of actual fabric available in the 1850's.  I narrowed the choices down to 10 that would match the current furniture upholstery in our collection, printed them off, and took them with me to Len's Mills in London.  I found 5 prints and purchased a sample of each.  The final decision will be left up to, you, the visitors to the museum.

What pattern is your preference?  I'm calling this "Pocket Change for Parlour Curtains".  All 5 samples are posted in the parlour with a decorated jar paired with each.  To cast your vote, just put some pocket change into the jar of the pattern you think we should make the curtains from.  All the change will be used to purchase the fabric and have the curtains made.  The samples will be up until July 31, 2014.  Visit us at the Heritage Farm Show on September 13-14, 2014 to see the new curtains made from the winning fabric.

Let me know what kinds of things you would like to know about our museum.  This is your chance to ask a Curator and influence my future blog posts.  Have a Happy Canada Day on Tuesday.  Sarah and I will have a display, the gift shop and settler toys to play with at the Dutton Community Centre from 2:30 - 4:30pm during the July 1st celebrations. 

P.S. Today's my 38th birthday (June 29th)!!!  Please leave a comment, like this post, follow our blog, and share on all your social media accounts.