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

Fri Sep 30 13:46:31 PDT 2011

There are always a few bumps along the road (some of which were quite
deep) but overall it was a road well worth travelling. We don't get into
this field of museum work to get rich. I remember way back when that the
Cumberland Museum had an annual budget of $25,000 - 20K for me and 5K
for the museum operations. 

As long as a giant meteorite does not wipe out human life on earth, it
will all have been worthwhile. 

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) 

From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. [mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com] 
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 11:03 AM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Retirement of Colin MacGregor Stevens as Manager,New
Westminster Museum and Archives

Congratulations and good luck, Colin! Forty years is a long time. Hope
it was a good time.

Ken Favrholdt

Executive Director/Curator

Osoyoos & District Museum and Archives

	----- Original Message ----- 

	From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
<mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com>  

	To: bcma at lists.vvv.com 

	Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 2:30 PM

	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) 

________________________________

	_______________________________________________
	BCMA mailing list
	BCMA at lists.vvv.com
	http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma

________________________________

	No virus found in this message.
	Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
	Version: 10.0.1410 / Virus Database: 1520/3926 - Release Date:
09/29/11

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20110930/09609d4c/attachment.htm 