HI, it’s me again, Caitlan, you all know me as the co-op student here at the museum. I have had a blast here. I love my mornings here and I know I originally I said I would be here till mid June. But it seems the museum and I are not ready to part ways yet. I am very excited to say that I will be here till the end of August. I will be continuing my co-op until my ‘last day’, June 18, and then I become part of the staff.
Catilan working hard in the Programming Office
Over the next 2 months I will be working on the Robinson book. It seems the museum has loved all my photo manipulations and poster designs that the museum, that they want me to design the book. I want to keep a similar layout as The Story of Henry House, as the book will be quite similar; the Robinson book will also have about the family, the house & lot and the house as a museum, so I want it to have the similar feel. Also one thing that I never got to do since I have morning co-op was the tours, but since I will be here for the summer I will start doing tours. Although I am a bit nervous for giving tours I know I will have all the information down pat in no time. I encourage anyone to come down have a tour, take a walk on the path by the lake, I can say you will have a great day!
One of Caitlan’s photo manipulations. The Robinsons of yesterday come back to their house today…
The skies have not seemed entirely welcoming as we have jumped into this first week of June. In fact I think the temperature has been growing more miserable as we approach summer! However, this has not impeded the Oshawa Museum. On Thursday afternoon Lisa and I managed to brave the rain in Downtown Oshawa as we practiced for the Downtown Walking Tour to be held this Sunday. The windy weather has also been unable to prevent some amazing visitors such as George Gordon who came to explore our Railway Exhibit and told us much of his own personal experiences working on the Oshawa Railway.
The inside of Guy House has also been anything but dreary. It now seems a bustling full house with the other new summer students – especially with the recent and excitingly large donation of documents relating to Thomas Henry. It has also been pleasant to catch up with the full-time staff – I had almost forgotten the unfamiliar healthy foods these ladies have exposed to me. Jenn Weymark makes the topic seem an entirely different language.
Shawn at the research station in the Oshawa Archives! Welcome back Shawn!
Primarily, I have been busying myself with research for the Guy House book. This means taking on the intimidating records of plot sales and learning of Thomas Guy Jr.’s ‘active’ marriage life. It is certainly intriguing to handle and learn from the documents themselves and I hope than I can be of some use putting the story of the house in perspective. While looking into the Guy House history I also accidentally stumbled upon an informative collection of papers of Philips Jesse Phillips compiled by his grandson, Alan Philip Dickson. This was quite interesting because I had been recently collecting and organizing some information on World War One Veterans from Oshawa. It so happens that this Philip Phillips, which has been staring at me through a portrait for some years now in the Archive Office, was born in 1875 and actually enlisted in the army in 1915 – fighting in the 18th Battalion until he was killed at Vimy Ridge. He also worked for the Williams Piano Company in Oshawa and had at one point been asked to make a piano for the King of Siam! I was surprised to learn so much history behind this man on the wall. So, despite the cloudy weather it has been an en’light’ening (I’m so sorry) week!
The Oshawa Archives; the oval framed photo on the left is Philip Jesse Phillips
HI, my name is Caitlan and I am a co-op student here. I’m in grade 12 and I plan on going to university in September for Social Media. When we had to start applying to universities I had no idea what I wanted to take and how should I know, I’m only 17 and I wanted to make sure the program I was going to take, I would enjoy. After all I would be stuck in it for a year and A LOT of money is involved! I started to research different programs and the only one that stood out for me was Social Media (which is radio, television/film, journalism etc.) So I decided to do co-op that would have, to some degree, of what I would be doing in university, just so I know money is not going to waste. That is how I found my way here.
Although I never thought of myself has a person really interested about history especially since my brother is a history buff and is getting a degree in history. So naturally, many people thought it was strange to do co-op at a museum. But I have found my co-op experience here is going really well and enjoyable. I have learned quite a bit about Oshawa’s past, and many things that actually surprised me or I found amusing. So what exactly have I been doing here? Well, when I first started I researched a lot about Oshawa’s railway, which is one thing I never even knew Oshawa had. I started to create tweets about the railway to help create awareness about the Railway exhibit (opening May 1st) which started to go out on the first of April. I was able to create 31 tweets, one for each day of April and one for May 1st. I also created two different posters for the Railway Exhibit and the poster for the Summer Lecture & Tour Series which starts June 5th. Since then I have been getting ready the ‘Month that was’ and so far that is one of my favourite things to do here! The reason is some of the things that people thought was news or even just the way that wrote was very opinionated and if some of the things that were printed back then was put in a newspaper today, let’s just say someone would be getting fired or in quite a bit of trouble. Even the advertisements in the papers and comics are written completely different (for example an ad. for a colouring contest, the grand prize winner would receive a pony!). In addition to that, I have also been helping Lisa photograph artifacts over in Henry House and I can now say I officially know how to correctly number an artifact! I have seen some really cool artifacts, some of which I think should have stayed around today and some creepy artifacts but I will not go there!
For the next 3 months I hope to complete a few short videos, a press release for the Downtown Walking Tour and a few more blogs, as well as continuing to photograph artifacts and more of the ‘Month that was’. Overall I am really happy I have co-op here! I know that I will enjoy my program starting in September and I cannot believe I get to start my days off in a new and interesting way, every day with a wonderful and friendly group of people!
As I said above I have been taking some photograph’s and I thought I would share a couple with you! …
This is a shot form the Henry House desk!
Love the pattern of the Henry House Couch!
This picture does not do the these shoes justice! They are actually really tiny!
This is the blog for the Oshawa Community Museum, a museum located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. This is where we will be sharing stories from Oshawa’s past and some of the present goings-on at the museum! We are also very active on social media, so be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, foursquare, and Pinterest!
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Oshawa Museum Blog 