Last week we trekked down to the Glenbow to visit their archives department and library. Jen Peddlesden, President of the Historical Foundation along with Kay Clarke and me, walked into the artifacts room which looked like something from CSI with tables though out housing sheet covered treasures and employees donning white gloves.
Peddlesden was there to add to her previous donation which was her father Bill Morgan’s costume chaps that he wore as a child in the 1920s. She had additional photos as well as some documentation for the costume. The chaps were bought from Riley and McCormick as a costume to wear in the Strathmore Parade in 1926. Surprisingly though they were a bright pink/brown and white striped affair. Glenbow Curator and Archivist Aimee Benoit shared her knowledge from that era when Stampede Founder Guy Weadick was still involved in its operation. She said newspaper clippings touted the array of color seen throughout the grandstands of purple and pink neck scarves of silk, the fads brought to life by the new silent movie era and the emerging “Show Cowboy”.
Other treasures we were able to look at from the Archives were some artifacts that Clarke had donated. Benoit brought out a softball scorebook and accompanying “beanie”, a snapshot of the days around 1945 when Clarke’s father Pete Lester was a ball player. Lester’s name appeared throughout the pages along with other locally known families such as Ellis, Clayton, Winters, Dugdale, and Barker. The beanie was worn by the then toddler Clarke, who was the official Chestermere Tiger’s mascot. This orange and green knit beanie was made by her mother Agnes.
Ball was as popular then as now as a great social event and games were played throughout the area at Chestermere, Langdon, Indus, Shepard and Dalemead usually running June and July while the light long days were accommodating. And of course there was ice cream after. We were musing how long it must have taken to travel to the different diamonds after a long day’s work on the farm with those vehicles of the forties on dirt roads, but then decided that it was really no different than our day. After all we travelled to Three Hills for kids’ hockey tournaments or Drumheller for a ballgame, travelling further but having faster wheels.
The Glenbow Library is open to the public and is a great source for discovery of the past. It attracts local history buffs, writers or aspiring genealogists. I was able to find the 3 addresses of the first 3 homes I lived in, the first being a downtown address close to 10 Street when it was a sea of houses surrounding a small downtown business core. The library also has online access to various photo collections and reference books and for nominal fees can reproduce photos. Another great source is Calgary’s Public Library. Lots of fun for the history seeker.
