The Pontiac Historical Society discussed the past year’s activities and plans for the year to come at its annual general meeting, held on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at the Pontiac Archives in Shawville.
President Robert Wills presented a report of the year’s activities including the digitization of several collections of photographs, including from longtime Shawville portrait photographer Harry Imison; the inheritance of a violin from local luthier Dennis Alexander; and another year of archeological digging at the old Quyon fairgrounds with local students and the Friends of Chats Falls.
“We had students from Aylmer, and they loved it,” said board member Michael McBane, a local historian who attended the digs.
Wills said the museum has been receiving a steady trickle of artifacts throughout the year and is now considering how to incorporate them into displays in the museum.
“When the old folks die off, they’ve got a house full of things, and they don’t want to throw them away, so they want to make it part of our museum,” he said, adding that the society will be looking to eliminate duplicate artifacts while looking to acquire new ones.
Treasurer Chris Seifried said the organization was late applying for a federal grant for summer student workers this year, but with the new federal budget featuring an expanded Canada Student Works program, Seifried said the intention is to bring in two summer students next year to help at the museum.
While the museum, which runs out of the old rail station building on the Shawville Fairgrounds, opened earlier this year to welcome RCMP Musical Ride visitors on June 1, Wills said the year overall saw a drop in museum visitors, though he did not offer insight into why he thought the downtick occurred.
Venetia Crawford, who runs the Pontiac Archives, ended the meeting by introducing one of her latest projects – a map of the first settlers of Clarendon she is hoping the public can help her fill in.
She said she wants to get as much information as possible about who the first people who settled various tracts of land in Clarendon, and encourages anyone with information to reach out.
Wills said the priorities for the upcoming year will be to improve the society’s digital presence, continue tweaking the museum’s displays and also identifying people in the various old photograph collections they have inherited.
“We would like to take some of the more outstanding portraits and publish them, and see if somebody can name that person, because in most cases we don’t have names for them,” said Wills, who added the photos are available online on Google Photos for people to view.
The organization elected an eighth board member in Sue Hemken, who joins the existing board of Robert Wills (president), Glen Ansell (vice-president), Chris Seifried (treasurer and secretary), Chris Judd, William Bastien, Venetia Crawford, Michael McBane and William McDowell.
Chris Seifried said the society is always looking for new members. Advantages of being a member, he said, are connecting with your roots, preserving heritage for the future, as well as collaborating on projects to protest historic sites.
If anyone wishes to become a member of the Pontiac Historical Society, they may contact Seifried at 819-647-3538 or via email at museepontiacmuseum@gmail.com.
