Cantley 1889 Articles
The following article first appeared in The Echo of Cantley Volume 32 no 4, October 2019. This article is made available for the enjoyment of others with the express permission of the Echo of Cantley.
Le Musée « POP UP » Museum
Featuring historic tools and treasures used by Cantley’s earliest families
Margaret Phillips
1819 was the dawn of a new era!
With current minimalist trends to downsize, we are encouraged to throw things away. Fortunately for us, in bygone times “things” were expected to last a lifetime or longer, to be cared for, then passed on to next generations. Tools and treasures were designed and produced with these expectations in mind.
There are still historic tools and treasures in Cantley which have lasted for generations. Some of these will be on display at our “POP UP Museum” along with historic artifacts from nearby regions.
By examining the items used by our Cantley ancestors, we can learn so much about them, for example what they needed for survival, obstacles they had to live through, how they lived their lives, what was important to them and, of course, their creativity, skills and craftsmanship. Many treasures and tools were home-made ... and ingenious!
>Cantley 1889’s “POP UP Museum” will allow you to experience a “hands-on” taste of Cantley history to discover how our Cantley ancestors lived.
Can you guess?
(Before reading the caption, try guessing what each item was used for!)
These artifacts, and many more, will be at the Musée “POP UP ” Museum.
- Log branding hammer Each logging company branded its logs with its registered mark before floating them down the Gatineau River. This hammer has an E which means its logs belonged to the E. B. Eddy pulp and paper company in Hull (today’s Gatineau).
- SkateThe skate was strapped on to the skater’s boot.
- Hair waving iron Once heated on the wood stove, this iron could fashion hair into waves, the latest style a century ago.
- Mica cuttersdonated to Cantley 1889 by Raymond Poirier. Cantley once had many mica mines. The most famous was the Blackburn Mine.
- Stereopticon(“magic lantern”) – In the mid 19th century (before movies) these were very popular. When viewed through the 2 lenses, the double images on the card dissolve together to show one realistic 3-D image.
- Raisin-seeder Before commercialization of seedless grapes, raisins had seeds. This 1895 kitchen gadget, designed to remove the raisin seeds, has engraved instructions: “wet the raisins”.