Large Donation! What a Surprise!

Large Donation! What a Surprise!

What a surprise when the door of the Archives room opened, and the guest said he was delivering 14 boxes. These boxes contained binders, each filled with plastic sleeves of 8 post cards each.

The post cards are all from Muskoka! The binders were labelled Hotels, Ships, Towns, etc.

The donor has been collecting these post cards for at least twenty years. The actual cards came from many sources; some sent to the donor, some purchased by the donor at local shops, some purchased on eBay, and some given to the donor as a known collector.

The volunteers who work in the archives room had great fun going through each of the binders, viewing the many cards but especially reading the  messages on some of the cards.

The Muskoka Discovery Centre has a collection of 357 post cards collected over the last 18 years since the building opened. Only a few of the cards are duplicated.

Post cards tell us a lot about the communication, economy, trends and social norms of the era and  location. We will be using these post cards as we answer research requests, write articles about Muskoka history and enjoy their messages and photography.

And there’s more!

As if that wasn’t enough, the Archives also received a donation of hotel china.

Each of the items in a recent donation are from a resort in the Muskoka area. They include several cups and saucers, candy dishes, boxes with lids which may have been used for cigarettes, a pitcher and a vase.

Notable items include a sugar bowl from Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, and a pitcher from The Baldwins, Windermere.

Thanks to the generosity of these two, and many other donors, the archives at the Muskoka Discovery Centre are a rich resource to help us all preserve and understand Muskoka’s history.

 

Mary Storey, Volunteer Archivist