ICOM International Council of Museums - Museo Estancia Jesuitica ...

Maranda : Museology and History: A local Perspective
oil spill affecting a beach area. Throughout this area, photographs, documents, objects
(clothing, musical instruments), recreations, illustrate the subject matter. In addition,
there is a ‘dress-up’ space where fashions of the period are available for the visitor to
try on in a living space sort of reconstruction which contains furniture, a kitchenette
corner with sink, cupboards containing products, a refrigerator front, book shelves
created from wooden fruit crates, and a display case of period jewellery.
Separating this ‘apartment’ space from another display area is the ubiquitous ‘hippy’
age bead curtain that makes a pleasant sound as visitors pass through. On the other
side of the curtain, there is a display that allows the visitor to turn some wheels which
will create a light show that “grooves to the music’, which can be activated by pushing
nearby buttons to play whichever musical band is desired. Posters adorn this darkish
corner. All very much in keeping with the counter culture scene.
These decades also represent a period of growth and a few small sections look at
“New Visions for the City”, and “Canada Comes of Age”, mentioning, among other
things, Expo ’86, and the building of Simon Fraser University.
In June 2006, two more ‘history’ galleries opened. These are entitled, “Gateway to the
Pacific” (1900s and 1910s) and “Boom, Bust and War” (1920s to 1940s). As both are
not dissimilar to the earlier examples, they are only briefly summarized.
“Gateway to the Pacific” focuses on Vancouver’s ‘big city’ dreams in the world of
commerce and enterprise. Display units and artifact assemblages cover: banking;
Jewish furriers; and the trades such as carpenters, stone cutters, leather workers, and
painters. Mixed in with this is a small case relating to local temperance movements.
Some large case units and reconstructions are dedicated to Chinatown and the then
local Wing Sang Company, from which numerous materials have been acquired by the
museum. The Chinese Head Tax and the Exclusion Act are addressed in this area.
The remainder of the gallery is taken up with less controversial display units illustrating,
for example: middle-class ‘Life in the West End’; luxury living in Shaughnessy (where
servants and Chinese ‘house-boys’ found work); ‘Ladies Go Public’ by involvement in
the work force and in social and political reform; means of transportation such as by
street car and automobile; and, leisure time activities. Towards the end, mention is
made of the then racial divides and of anti-Asian riots, and concludes with a small unit
on The Great War (World War I). Selected objects, large photographic blow-ups, street
signs, audio and visual clips, interactives, etc. were selected to give the impression of a
bustling, cosmopolitan city charting a course towards the ‘big leagues’.
“Boom, Bust and War” deals with life during a period of local development and with two
events, The Great Depression and World War II, each of which held a significant
consequence far beyond the confines of the city.
“Boom” starts with a display unit representing the city as a “Paradise in the Pacific” -
beaches, swimming, relaxing - “Rain or Shine, Vancouver was Sublime”. From here,
small display units and photographic images touch on a “Civic Vision - A Plan for the
City”, including the formal amalgamation of several neighbourhoods to become
Canada’s third largest city, a city of homes and gardens (including small-scale, ‘kitchen’
gardens), where there is “More School and Chores” and “Less Child Labour”
From here, the presentation moves into the “Bust” period, that is, “The Great
Depression” which followed the New York Stock Exchange “Crash of ‘29”. This period
of hardship is punctuated with primarily textual and photographic units, but with a little
reconstruction, on such subjects as “Bread and Butter for the Hungry”, “Chinese
Canadians Forced to Live on Less”, looking for work, women being barred from hobo
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