With the hard work of the board, summer student, and many volunteers, 2004 was another exciting year for the Cortes Island Museum and Archives Society. This year the work of the society was split into two separate programs, the Public Education Program and the Archive Program.

An exciting new feature “Sundays at the Museum” was initiated this year to feature and bridge the two new programs. By using the archive material in a fun and captivating way, a series of educational afternoons was planned to provide a retrospective look, full of imagery and anecdotes, into the lives of some of the colourful characters of our island.

The Museum raised over $24,000 (after expenses) this year. The following grants were received: B.C. Gaming Commission, Human Resources Development Canada for the summer student, Canadian Council of Archives to arrange and describe various records, Regional District and the Quadra Credit Union. Donations increased this year partly due to a very generous donation by the Ellingsen family. Society membership donations and donations at the door also increased. Trips aboard the Misty Isle also generated more funds than 2003, and a number of new store items were offered for sale this year including a calendar featuring Cortes history and t-shirts and canvas bags with the museum logo. The Garden Tour continues to be a major fundraising event for the Museum Society and a community-building experience for everyone involved. It provides a perfect opportunity for exploring some hidden areas of the island, connecting with neighbours, and sharing ideas. This year’s tour brought in over $1200. Thank you, hosts and patrons. We appreciate all your hard work and good will.

The Board of Directors in 2004 were: Lynne Jordan (President), Nancy Kendel (Vice President), Sue Ellingsen (Secretary), Paola Filippin (Treasurer), Bonnie MacDonald, Dianne Hentschel, Andy Ellingsen, Doreen Thompson, Ian Disney, Ted Harrison, Donna McLaren, Jill Milton and May Ellingsen. Anne Ferguson acted as Accountant for the society. Half way through the year Natalie Castanguay resigned from the Board due to personal commitments. We appreciate her hard work and hope that Natalie will continue to help with the exhibits as her time allows.

This year the board tried something new by mailing a membership renewal flyer to all past members, rather than sending a blanket flyer to all households on the island. This seemed effective, and the membership in 2004 increased slightly from 117 to 128. General membership recruitment continued at the AGM, other museum functions, island events, and Farmer’s Markets.

Since the Museum & Archives Society does not retain any full or part time employees other than our Summer Student, everything discussed in this report was accomplished by the hard work of many volunteers. This year 63 individuals contributed 2350 hours of volunteer time.

An important component in creating exciting exhibits and properly organized archives and collections is the training of our volunteers. This year Lynne Jordan attended the Nanaimo Historical Society’s AGM & Conference which featured informative lectures on archives, genealogy, records keeping, Vancouver Island History and Nanaimo's Coal History and field trips to local historic sites. Lynne enjoyed the opportunity to connect with other small Museums from all over B.C. to discuss such topics as research, volunteers, key themes, sharing of information and linking contemporary times to a community's past.. Nancy Kendel attended an afternoon seminar put on by the Alliance for Arts and Culture to assist in applying for the BC Gaming Commission’s Direct Access Grant. Donna McLaren attended an AABC workshop on Managing Archival Photographs. Topics covered included: the history of photography, the photograph as a documentary record, principles of appraisal, arrangement of photographs, description, storage, handling, copyright, copying services, and outreach.

A major improvement to the property this year was the filling in of the ditch along the road in the front of the museum. This area has long been an eyesore and a safety issue, and by filling it in angle parking was created off the road. The Ministry of Transportation approved the culverting of the western portion of the museum frontage at no cost to the Museum, which was installed by highways contractor Emcon Services. The eastern portion was installed by Emcon Services in December with gravel provided by the Ministry of Transportation, and the remaining capital improvement costs of $800 funded by the Museum.

Another improvement to the building was the finishing of the trim in the May Ellingsen Archives Room.

As a community service the museum provided free temporary electrical hook-up during the construction stage of the Medical Clinic.

The board received approval this year from the Cortez Island Seniors Building Society to hook up the building to their well. This will give the museum a potable water supply for the building, while maintaining the Heritage Garden on the existing fire hall well.

The Public Education Program develops activities that will educate and involve the general public, including Cortes residents, First Nations groups, children, seniors and the students at all three local schools. There are three main aspects of the Public Education Program: the museum exhibit, the heritage garden, and community outreach. In addition, the museum hosted an information/display table at many Cortes celebrations, including the Oyster Festival, Cortes Day, and Friday markets at Manson's Hall.

We were pleased to have noted local naturalists, Christian Gronau & Aileen Douglas, co-ordinate the research and mount an exhibit featuring bats. Christian’s photographs, carefully mounted specimens and collection of bat guano enlivened the exhibit. Information pamphlets and origami artwork by Natalie Castanguay nicely augmented the display. This natural history exhibit provided great information and was very popular with adults and children alike.

A collection of First Nation Artifacts, loaned by various museum members was also on display.

In an effort to better utilize and display donated artifacts, the pioneer kitchen was extended and improved.

A portion of the very popular Wild Salmon exhibit was continued throughout 2004.

A wall/floor panel display unit was purchased with Gaming funds. This will be used to house a permanent exhibit on the history of Cortes.

Zoe Miles was hired for the summer months through the Human Resources Development Canada student employment program. Her knowledge of Cortes History and museum and archives processes was a big asset.

Over 600 residents and visitors who toured the Museum signed the guest book and recorded their appreciation of the exhibits. The visitors came from 50 different BC communities, 4 other provinces, and from 13 other countries including 11 states throughout the U.S.

Collection Committee -The collection committee is continuing to catalogue the backlog of acquisitions and assess potential donations. We were very pleased to be offered two of Mary Weiler’s paintings from the estate of Lottie McDevitt. Once catalogued, they will help round out our growing collection of art and sculpture. Items displayed in the First Nation’s case include: basketwork loaned by Marylyn Harry, Judith Williams, Jill Milton and Brig Weiler; stone implements borrowed from the Jordan family and two decorative items. The latter have been offered to the Museum’s permanent collection by Evelyn & Ken McIntosh. Also included in this year’s exhibit was a large cedar cooking bowl discovered on the Jordan property.

Drip irrigation was installed on the west side of the heritage garden and was covered by hay mulch or bark mulch. Landscape cloth and bark mulch was laid beneath the garden perimeter fence to decrease maintenance and conserve moisture for plantings adjacent to the fencing. The only undeveloped fence line planting area was prepared and new plantings begun. The open ditches on either side of the entry gate to the museum were culverted and surfaced with gravel making angle parking in front of the museum possible and resulting in a much improved appearance for the entry to the museum and heritage garden. Pruning, feeding, mulching and pest control continued for the heritage apple trees in the garden.

School Program - Providing learning opportunities for the students and youth on the island continues to be an important component of our Public Education Program. In June, intermediate students from both schools received a visit from the education coordinator who gave a talk about the importance of bats to the environment and led discussions about bat habitat, species recognition and safety. Students were invited to attend a museum-sponsored workshop at the home of Andy Ellingsen where they made bat houses using materials donated by Andy, Martha Abelson, Ray Grout, Dave McCoy and Bruce Ellingsen. General Paint in Campbell River donated the special non-toxic paint. The kids had fun and got to take home their own mini bat habitat. Many students showed their new appreciation for bats by donating bat portraits, paintings and logos to the exhibit. Guided tours of the museum have been offered to all grades and many have been completed.

In September, the Social Studies and English teachers at Cortes School requested that our education coordinator provide materials and instruction to the senior class who wanted some experience doing research using original sources. Fifteen topics relating to issues in Cortes’ history were selected and the students came over in small groups to look at the archival and informational records set aside for their use. They all had to wear the archivist1s white gloves and loved reading aloud little tidbits from the past. Copious notes were taken and the finished essays have been compiled in a binder titled: Cortes Fragments: A School-Museum Project.

“Seniors helping Seniors” Program: In March the museum hosted a tea for the Senior’s group which featured readings and stories of growing up in Von Donop Inlet. The “Seniors Helping Seniors” also participated in the Memories of Christmas Past presentation in December. All involved enjoyed the presentations and it is hoped that seniors' afternoons will happen on a more regular basis.

Eelgrass Presentation: Bowen McDonnell a grade 12 student gave a presentation on the Eelgrass monitoring program. Bowen explained the importance of eelgrass to the Cortes marine environment, and how the eelgrass beds were being monitored in the program.

Spring Bird Migration Event ­ Eager birders tromped the hills and beaches of Cortes learning to recognize the spring birds migrating through or settling in for the season.

Manson’s Lagoon Beach Walk ­ A group of participants donned gumboots to explore Manson’s Lagoon at low tide with naturalists Fred Zwickel, Mike Sullivan and 14 year old Sierra Sullivan, an impressive budding naturalist. They found bi-valves and echinoderms in the tidepools, and identified many different types of seaweed. A beach seine of an eelgrass bed turned up a pipefish, an interesting relative of the seahorse. The walk ended with the opportunity to listen to the fish call of the Midshipman ­ a fish found under a piece of plywood.

Bat Camera/Bird Camera Presentation ­ Naturalist Bob Chappell from Victoria, provided a presentation which compiled several years of infra-red video tapings of birds and bats in their nesting environments.

Memories of Christmas past - This presentation, which took place on Dec. 5th, was the first of a new “Sundays at the Museum” series designed to familiarize the public with archival material in a fun and interesting way. This first program focused on Christmas Celebrations during the years of the “Great Depression” when economic and political events of global magnitude affected even life on a small island like Cortes. Readings from the minutes of the Whaletown Women’s Institute were interspersed with excerpts from diaries and letters. Headlines from major international newspapers provided a counterpoint. The Cortes Singers provided music accompaniment and led the carol singing. Close to twenty people worked at organizing and staging the event, which was attended by 67 people.

“Misty Isles” trips ­ In a combined fundraising and education program the Museum offered trips to Mitlenatch Island, Toba Inlet, Von Donop Inlet, and Maurelle Island. Naturalists Mike and Samantha Moore and historian Doreen Thompson provided the participants with fascinating information and lots of great photo opportunities. The programs were very well received.

The purpose of the Archive Program is to acquire, describe, preserve and store documents (fonds), maps, photographs, letters, journals, audiotapes, and videotapes, which shed light on the history of the island and its people. This ensures that the valuable threads of the past contained in the documents of community groups, local and provincial associations, businesses, schools and families are preserved and put in an order that can be easily accessed by archivists and viewed by researchers, families, authors, school children and the general public.

Most of our time & energy this year went into working on a grant we received from the Canadian Council of Archives for processing archival materials related to community planning on Cortes Island. This grant provided $1760 to pay for the arrangement and description of 4 fonds (collections): the Gilean Douglas fonds, the Cortes Island Ratepayers fonds, and two fonds of previous Regional Directors, Linda Gagnon and Ralph Nursall. The final product of our project will be a description of these fonds created in the standardized format of our archival software program, InMagic.

With the help of our summer student Zoë Miles, the nine albums of the Cortes Island Photographic Collection compiled by May Ellingsen in the 1980s were sleeved in vinyl page protectors. Zoë also indexed these albums, adding page numbers and descriptions of photos unique to our albums to a list we received from the Campbell River Museum - so we now have a comprehensive, searchable list of the photographs in those albums.

Volunteers assisted the “Sundays at the Museum” by locating archival material from the Women’s Institute and the Gilean Douglas fonds for use in the wonderful “Memories of Christmas Past” celebration at the museum in December.

In 2004 the archives received a major accession from George Sirk of records from his terms as Regional Director. Donations of photo albums from Bert Hansen, May Ellingsen and Eleanor Milne were also received.

Gaming Funds were used to purchase supplies for processing and preserving archival materials, including much needed additional shelving for the storage room.

The Board continues to seek funding to allow the creation of a part-time curator/administrator position to provide volunteers direction and training regarding museum operations.

Exhibit:
• The social history of Manson’s Landing
• An outdoor Shellfish Interpretive Center
• Display of the First Nations artifacts that Nellie Jeffery collected and donated to the Museum
• Creation of the permanent display of Cortes history

Misty Isle Trips: more trips to exciting places are being planned, input from members regarding destination requests are welcome.

Garden Tour: Featuring unique and interesting Cortes gardens and gardeners.

Heritage Garden:
- Install drip irrigation system to the east side
- Create plant list handout.
- Lay paths around concrete beds.

Community Outreach:
- Continue work with schools, “Seniors Helping Seniors”, host speakers and walks, & develop a web page.
- Continue creating children’s activity book highlighting some features of the Cortes environment.

Museum Brochure: Develop an information brochure for distribution at local tourist information centers