[BCMA] Retirement of Colin MacGregor Stevens as Manager, New Westminster Museum and Archives

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

After 40-years in the museum field, I have decided to retire. I am
retiring effective 2011 Dec. 31, but with vacation time (who has time
for vacations in this business?), my last working day at NWMA will be
Oct. 27. 

 

I have lived all across Canada, in London England and Rome Italy. While
living in Ottawa I found fossils across the street and in Rome I dug up
ancient Roman pottery fragments just down the street. Paleontology was
my first interest, then archaeology and eventually, history and museums.

 

I came to New Westminster 6-1/2 years ago as the Museum Manager in May
2005 after having served for 18 years as the Curator at Burnaby Village
Museum. My previous museum experience included working as a Tour Guide
right and on up to Executive Director. Before graduating from UBC,
including the Museum Studies under Audrey Hawthorne before the present
MOA building was built, I had already worked at the Dartmouth Heritage
Museum (NS), Vancouver City Archives, Vancouver Centennial Museum (three
institutional name versions ago), Vancouver Maritime Museum and St. Roch
National Historic Site (BC). After graduation, I worked at Battleford
National Historic Park (SK), Batoche National Historic Site (SK),
Cumberland Museum (BC) and the Estevan National Exhibition Centre (SK).
During that time I also served in the Reserves, attained the rank of
Captain, and was awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD). I started
the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Museum and Archives (BC) in 1972 and
spent 15-years there on three "tours of duty" as the voluntary Curator
and Archivist.

 

Career highlights included giving tours to Princess Margaret, the late
sister of Queen Elizabeth II and to Colonel Neil Armstrong, the first
man to walk on the Moon. A lowlight was giving a tour to Prime Minister
Trudeau's spoiled kids on the St. Roch as they refused to follow my
safety instructions. My favorite discovery in the collections: In
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia they have a cannon from the 1917 Halifax
Explosion when the SS Mont Blanc blew up into a million or so pieces The
cannon barrel was thrown about a mile inland and landed on the shoreline
of Albro Lake as I recall. The barrel is bent and it is missing a
triangular chunk from the muzzle. In the museum storage I found a
triangular chunk of metal with rifling on one side. It had fallen
through the roof of a house in Dartmouth at the time of the Halifax
Explosion. I asked Bob Frame, the Director, if I could see if it was
from the cannon. I seem to recall the staff not believing that it could
possibly fit ... but it did. Corporate memory is sometimes short. I saw
the cannon last year and it has been moved. The piece likely languishes
in the collection and probably without this story. The story was a bit
personal as my history teacher there had lived through that explosion. 

 

New Westminster has definitely been a highlight in terms of the
interesting history (the city is 151 years old - not as old as Rome of
course, but pretty old for this area) and its wonderful collection
consisting of EXACTLY 35,035 artifacts including many colonial period
artifacts plus lots of archival material. There have been many
challenges, but it is gratifying to see the museum and archives evolving
and now on the verge of a major expansion into the new Multi-use Civic
Facility. 

 

My wife Jeanette is already retired as a teacher and we plan to spend
much more time together, travel a bit, and we are looking forward to the
birth of our third grandchild. I have published one book and plan to do
a lot more writing. I have many hobbies such as genealogy, military
history and photography to keep me busy. 

 

The NWMA is undergoing a major expansion into a new facility downtown
which will be substantially completed at the end of 2013. 

*         The 1865 Irving House will remain where it is and will be
operated as a satellite operation. 

*         New Westminster's city museum, established in 1950 will move
to the new facility and expand from about 1,750 sq ft of display space
to about 6,000 sq ft.

*         New Westminster's city archives will also move to the new
facility and roughly double in size. 

*         Two years ago the NWMA was tasked by City Council with the
maintenance of the Samson V Maritime Museum (a 1937 wooden hulled
paddlewheel ship) and this month we were formally. tasked with the
programming on board the ship as well. That collection was accessioned,
starting with the ship itself. 

*         The New Westminster Police Museum is also preparing to hand
over its c. 5,000 piece collection (which we accessioned 5 years ago for
them) to the NWMA for proper care. 

 

I still plan to remain involved with the museum field especially in my
favourite areas of expertise i.e. collections management and military
history. 

 

Not that I would reveal any embarrassing secrets gleaned over the past
40 years ... but did you know the UBC Museum of Anthropology was
designed to have a permanent pool of water on the roof of its main
galleries? Arthur "Leaky" Erikson felt that the office staff could look
out over this pool on the roof which would visually merge with the pool
of water in front of the museum by the First People's village and that
in turn would visually merge with the ocean. Don't you just love
architects when they work with museums?

 

Let the jousting begin for my successor, or should I say successors, as
one sometimes sees a single person replaced by two ... but don't count
on it!

 

Colin MacGregor Stevens,

Manager,

New Westminster Museum and Archives,

302 Royal Avenue,

New Westminster, BC,

V3L 1H7, Canada

 

Phone Office:    604-527-4639

Work Cellular :  604-830-6965

Fax:                    604-527-4641

E-mail: cstevens at newwestcity.ca <mailto:cstevens at newwestcity.ca>  

Web Site: www.newwestminster.ca <http://www.newwestminster.ca>  

Normal work week: Sun-Thurs 9-5, OFF Fri-Sat.

 

The New Westminster Museum and Archives (NWMA) consists of:

   * City's Museum (est. 1950)

   * City's Archives

   * Irving House (built 1865)

   * Samson V Maritime Museum (paddlewheel ship built 1937; museum since
1984) 

 

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