Daly House Museum is pleased to present their latest exhibition “Sites of Grieving – Sites of Memory: Remembering the Great War” to mark a significant historic moment in Canada’s past. November 11th 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the first celebration of Armistice Day called into existence by King George V to honor the memory of those who died in the Great War and their sacrifice to the British Empire. 60,000 Canadian dead left family members and friends, brothers and sisters in arms, burdened with grief and loss.
The widespread and unrelenting grief and loss wrought by the Great War evoked a post-war grass roots movement of commemoration across southwestern Manitoba. Community members fund raised, designed and built commemorative memorials, and adapted languages and rituals of remembrance to meet the needs of collective remembrance and grieving. Stories, images and text drawn from twelve southwestern Manitoba communities and their surrounding districts – Alexander, Birtle, Binscarth, Brandon, Forest, Griswold, Minnedosa, Miniota, Rapid City, Rivers, Virden, and Wawanesa – are featured in the Sites of Grieving exhibit.
Eileen Trott, Curator at Daly House, explained that “the Sites of Grieving – Sites of Memory exhibit was designed to tell community based stories about the establishment of permanent war memorials in southwestern Manitoba and the evolution of the rituals of remembrance associated with these sites of memory.” She stated that the exhibit “conveys a sense of how these sites of memory served to console communities and bereaved families in the wake of the Great War.”
Two remarkable scrapbooks created by Great War veteran Laurence V. Smith and held in the Daly House Museum’s archives inspired the exhibit and will be on display joined by photographs, documents, and artifacts that tell the story of Great War commemoration in southwestern Manitoba. Through archival photographs, war memorial dedication programs, and Great War memorial plaques from the Virden Pioneer Museum and Wawanesa’s Sipeweski Museum, the exhibit illuminates the popular nature of the movement to memorialize the Great War dead and to place their sacrifice at the center of community histories. Visitors to the exhibit may also view a rare – perhaps the only copy in existence – edition of the Brandon Sun published early in the morning of 11 November 1918 to announce the end of the Great War.
“Sites of Grieving – Sites of Memory: Remembering the Great War” was made possible by a grant from Manitoba Heritage Grants. It will run from October 29, 2019 to April 4, 2020. On November 9, 2019, the Museum will be hosting a high tea and exhibit tour fundraiser in conjunction with the exhibit. The tea and tour will feature two seatings at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm. Tickets available at Daly House Museum are $25.00 for members and $30.00 for non-members. Call 204-727-1722 to reserve tickets.
Recent Comments