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

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Enjoy your retirement Colin - hope it is filled with great things!

 

 

Louise Avery, Curator

Kitimat Museum & Archives

293 City Centre

Kitimat, B.C.  V8C 1T6

Phone: 250-632-8950

Fax: 250-632-7429

Website:   <http://www.kitimatmuseum.ca/> http://www.kitimatmuseum.ca

 

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On
Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: September 29, 2011 2:30 PM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: [BCMA] Retirement of Colin MacGregor Stevens as Manager, New
Westminster Museum and Archives

 

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 

Web Site: 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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