Saving Glass Gardens: the Parkwood NHS Greenhouses

 

Saving Glass Gardens

The greenhouses of Parkwood National Historic Site

 

Pre Conservation work

 

Glass Garden was a common terms for early 20th century greenhouse. For Canadian auto-baron Sam McLaughlin and his wife Adelaide, their glass gardens were enormously practical and highly decorative, providing plants for year round display as well as for the elaborate gardens. 

The Parkwood greenhouses also supported the
family's social pursuits, providing horticultural novelty & entertainment for guests, and the ability to compete and flower shows against others of green thumb and deep pockets.

Garden clubs and societies, from across Ontario and beyond, were frequently
entertained at Parkwood. Invitations to the McLaughlin’s annual Chrysanthemum Tea were coveted for over five decades, when guests came to wander the greenhouses and marvel at the 250 unusual varieties displayed, especially the large single- stemmed plants trained to have just one spectacular bloom.

Today, an engraved invitation is no longer required. Parkwood’s greenhouses are open to the public all year, for education& enjoyment. Now approaching 100 years of age, they still perform many of their historic functions for display and plant production for the gardens.


In  2012 Parkwood began a partnership with Durham College  in  a  Horticulture Technician Program that uses the historic gardens and greenhouses for teaching and lab purposes – extending their education value even further.

 

Why Save?

Parkwood's glass gardens speak to the vanished lifestyle of the early 20th century. They illustrate construction techniques and greenhouse operations of the era, and help visitors imagine the lavish lifestyle of the McLaughlins, and the roles played by their large garden staff (24+) in keeping up appearances. 

 

Why Now?

The greenhouse complex is at serious risk of loss to

the historic building fabric, and of public access and student use due to deteriorated unsafe conditions.

 

Who will benefit?

The greenhouses or glass gardens provide opportunities for education and enjoyment to area residents and visitors from across Canada and around the world, and even more specialised opportunities for horticultural enthusiasts and students.Many volunteers take part in both plant production  and  display  activities  including seniors and apartment dwellers without gardens of  their  own.   

Parkwood’s greenhouses offer  a chance to socialize and keep limbs and green thumbs active.

 

What’s Involved?

Each greenhouse or glass garden has different

requirements, due to its evolution and current condition.

Parkwood has engaged top heritage specialists in historic assessment and future planning.

Together we have determined a course of repair which respects historic values and ensures that each greenhouse can be sustained for 100 years more.

 

Work in progress

Conservation Completed

A pilot project was begun in late 2013, to test the “prescription” and launch a repair sequence for the remaining 5 greenhouses.   The pilot project involved  a  restoration  of  the  c.  1917  Vinery, which still houses one historic grapevine.   The project is complete and the results are stunning, encouraging the public to picture the other glass gardens fully conserved/restored. Community partners rallied to raise $ 200,000 to do this pilot work, but more dollars are urgently required.

One highly visual element of the complete project will be replacement of the decades-old plastic panels now yellowed and opaque, and a return to clear glass .
 

The next glass garden to undertake is the large and wonderful Palm House, home to many tropical plants including a large rubber tree planted by McLaughlin and his Head Gardener, and where Flora a marble sculpture of a woman takes centre stage.

 

The Palm House connects directly with the recreation  wing  of  the  mansion for seamless public access year-round. Its restoration program is pegged at just over $ 400,000.

Join the Palm House Rescue Party

Be a pane!  
Help fill in wall and roof sections with new glass, with a $ 75 gift.
724 panes required

Be  a  crank!     

Turn the handle on restoring the original ventilation system, with a $ 4,000 gift.

Give  a  shot  to  the  ribs!    
Help repair or replace original yellow cedar glazing ribs with $ 150 gift.
1410 ribs required



Did you know?

A gift of any amount is appreciated, and its impact immediately increases by 50% with the fund-matching challenge! In  2013,   The    City    of    Oshawa  pledged fund-matching support to assist in a full conservation/restoration program for the greenhouse complex, and will provide $ .50 for every $ 1 raised.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parkwood & Philanthropy, Then and Now

When reviewing the giving legacy of the McLaughlin Family and their impact on philanthropy in Canadian history one is always in awe of their achievement, a generous achievement, which to date, has not been matched by any other Canadian in terms of donorship. 
 
One of the areas that the family was keen to support was that of child welfare and health issues. In fact many of the programs which have long been equated with the McLaughlin Family are programs that support or endorse the key elements of the well being of children: including the scouting and guiding movements; the Home & School Movement; the Boys and Girls Clubs; and the Intensive Care Unit of Sick Children's Hospital.

When one reflects on the causes supported, we can see both the influences of former school teacher, Adelaide McLaughlin, in terms of her support and interests, but also many of the foundations of small "l" liberalism in terms of community support and philanthropy which would have been part of their social circles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The idea of  Parkwood and philanthropy continues to this day, but in most cases it is the Estate that is benefitting the philanthropic donations as opposed to dispersing them, as it once did pre-1972.  What many people forget in this post- Sam McLaughlin world is that Parkwood is a charity, yes, a charity. With a property as big & beautiful and historically important as Parkwood it should be no surprise that help is always needed—volunteers, sponsors, partners, heritage enthusiasts and, of course, donors. 

As a charity, we are always looking for opportunities to generate the dollars needed to preserve and present the Estate, best reflecting the stories and stewardship of the family.Canada Helps.org offers perhaps the best website support to Canadian charities and is the most prominent, frequently- used portal for making secure donations on-line. Canada Helps handles any type of gift and tax receipting too, making it invaluable to small & medium organizations. The website was recently redesigned, and it now allows Parkwood to be presented more succinctly, even more visually. We have been able to add photographs, and links to historic McLaughlin home movies, to help showcase our special place in history and the comparative rarity of our historic resources—and ultimately present a compelling case for donor support.



Joint Fundraising Poster

Other opportunities present themselves for raising dollars, also. Modern philanthropic types have hosted events of their own donating their proceeds to a Parkwood project or joint fundraising opportunities emerge, like the one with Their Opportunity, whose mandate parallels much of the philanthropic spirit of Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin.

Their Opportunity makes it possible for children to participate in sports by removing financial barriers. In return, children are asked to pay the opportunity forward through volunteer service. We think this work resonates handsomely with Parkwood’s heritage preservation mission, which ensures public access to historic resources, education and enjoyment opportunities.
The wine & scotch tasting event marks the first collaborative fundraiser for both organizations. It will raise funds to support both charitable organizations and their public-benefit missions in our community, with some sampling of the fine Parkwood heritage resources, and the amazing stories these resources tell.

 

 

Mural Image and the Introduction of Mr. George W Beardmore

Recognise this image from Parkwood?  It's from the F. Challener mural on the north east side of the Billiard Room and captures HRH Edward, the Prince of Wales (in green frock coat), on a visit to Canada in 1924. The rest has always been a bit of a mystery, with minimal information available about the "hunt" and where in fact this image is suppose to be, described for many years as the Orillia Hunt Club. 
I like sleuthing, when I can, and decided I wanted to learn more about the Orillia Hunt Club and the "hunt" history in Canada. Guess what? I cannot locate any information on the Orillia Hunt Club, and am starting to think that no entity ever existed. This interpretive material, information we have inherited over the years, is proof of how here-say becomes fact, even with historians. On my own twitter account, I frequently read Tudor historians bemoaning how myth/legend become historic fact that is often repeated by generations of academics who never bother or have the time to research what they have come to know as a truth.

Imagine my delight when I began looking into hunt club histories in Ontario and I find this photo (r), with persons identified, the year and location in a book written for the sesquicentennial for the Toronto Hunt Club.
According to William M Gray, author, A History of the Toronto Hunt Club written in 1993, we have George W Beardmore (MFH), in scarlet, escorting HRH Prince of Wales at a meet in Aurora, October 1924. (MFH- Master of Foxhounds). At last we may have some information to go on about the occasion and who is in the mural image. I did double check and Edward did visit the Toronto area in 1924 and if you are knowledgeable on hunt seasons, the northern hemisphere hunt season begins in October and runs through March/April, dependent on weather (especially in Canada) and Beardmore held property, Beverly Farm, in Aurora.

Brief History of the Toronto Hunt Club
The Toronto Hunt Club has an extensive and interesting history. In 1895 land was purchased in Scarborough Heights (current Kingston road location) and architectural firm Darling and Pearson (architects of Parkwood) were commissioned to design and build the "new" club.Under the name of “The Toronto Hunt and Country Club”. The Club was first incorporated under the Provincial Letters Patent in May 1894. In 1905, it was re-incorporated under Dominion Charter as “The Toronto Hunt Limited” and finally in October 1930, it was again incorporated under Provincial Letters Patent as “The Toronto Hunt” and still operates under this Charter. In 1893, George Beardmore was elected president and held that position, as well as Master of the Fox Hounds until 1930. Polo, skeet shooting and eventually tennis were added to the pursuits of the club, but hunting with the hounds was the most popular at the club. There seems to have been a peak in terms of the hunt at the turn of the century, with a decline occurring with the introduction of the automobile and then WWI, but the hunt popularity was revived in the 1920s among society elite.

C. Churchill Mann & Billie Mann

While all this is occurring at the Scarborough "campus" of the Toronto Hunt, Beardmore is investing his own finances in a northern campus, at the then rural, Eglinton and Avenue Road location, of what becomes the Toronto and North Hunt in 1919. Beardmore instructs architects to design and create an elaborate horse facility, and houses a second pack of hounds, creating this clubhouse that many will recognise as one of the gems of Heritage Toronto today (above photo). In 1929 the Toronto and North Club is renamed the Eglinton Hunt, and is administered by Beardmore from 1929 - 1934.
The Eglinton Hunt becomes home to the first Canadian branch of the Pony Club.
As Toronto expanded, Beardmore was forced to move the hounds to his property in Aurora, Beverly Farm, and as the depression worsened, Lady Eaton provided many of the financial and property resources, neighbour to Beverly Farm, Eaton Hall, to support the hunt, through the end of the 1930s.

From 1949 to 1952, Eleanor (Billie) Mann ( nee McLaughlin) is Master of the Hunt of the Eglinton Hunt.


Introducing George W Beardmore 
Who is this George W Beardmore gent that was very influential in the club and is portrayed in the mural at Parkwood, and I know nothing of?
Beardmore came from a leather and shoe (tannery) empire, Beardmore & Co. Ltd., and is described by Gray as an "out-going, successful businessman, sportsman, and accomplished horseman".

His Toronto estate, Chudleigh, is now the Italian consulate, but stands in much of its grandeur, with the changes George W Beardmore saw it undergo through the nineteen teens and twenties.

The relationship between Beardmore and McLaughlin is unknown and may be strictly through sport. Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin were members of the Toronto Hunt, as were their daughters.  We know the successes of the McLaughlin family in terms of horses; jumpers, hunters and thoroughbreds and the legacy of Parkwood Stables.
Both the McLaughlin's and Beardmore's were in business with architects Darling and Pearson, but so were many of the "society set".
In terms of business accounts, Oshawa had its own renowned tannery, Robson Leather, and the McLaughlin Carriage Works, McLaughlin MotorCar Company and eventually General Motors seem to have done most of their tannery business dealings via this enterprise. 
 
The exact relationship between McLaughlin and Beardmore may be forever elusive, however, we now know what & whom the "hunt" image in the mural depicts, and an image, I believe, would have had a great importance to the McLaughlin family as it was painted onto their wall.

Curious Curator: Discovering Arthur Henry Hider

While researching some copyright questions on the artwork within the estate's collection for an upcoming location shoot at the mansion I fell upon the interesting story of Canadian painter Arthur Henry Hider.

AH Hider is one of the fab five, a group of painters identified as so, because they are considered the nations premier historical and illustrative artists. Do not worry, I had never heard of the fab five before, but this label intrigued me to learn more about Arthur. The fab five composed of Hider; JD Kelly, A Heming, CW Jeffreys and Owen Staples, emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and according to this quote from the web, "no artists, in Canadian history, have had the impact on the national psyche to compare with that of these fabulous top five painters of Canada's past."  (canadasite.com)

AH Hider (1870-1952) worked as a painter and commercial illustrator. Working in illustration on product calendars for Gerlach Barklow in Joliet, Illinois in the early 20th century, Hider actually had his start in terms of fame, with his war art depicting the Canadians in the Boer War. He brought the actions of the first Canadian contingent engaged in an overseas war into the living rooms of the Home Front. His work was so well received and realistic, that the Toronto Lithographic Company released reprints for the public to purchase. Hider's talents continued to be in demand and with the outbreak of WWI he was commissioned to create the many war posters that we are familiar with today. Due to his popularity and success of his work, especially the commercial appeal, Hider was never what is recognised as a starving artist, having secured many contracts over the years, his art generated a living income.



Horomoter

Part of the success Hider saw is attributed to his painting with gouache; pigment and binding agent (and often an inert item like chalk to add to the dense consistency drying appeal), making it opaque as opposed to water colour. Gouache is the choice method of commercial artists for illustration like posters, labels, etc.






Kingarvie



Moldy

By 1900, it was widely accepted that no one in Canada could capture the likeness of a horse like Art Hider. Due to his success in painting horses, Arthur was able to not only secure many product label commissions, but also landed the contract to paint the winners at the original Woodbine racetrack in Toronto ( many knowing this as the former Greenwood Track). It is likely this contract that found him painting the Kings Plate Winners of Sam McLaughlin; 1934 Horomoter, 1946 Kingarvie and 1947 Moldy.

These paintings of the Parkwood Stables champions, adorn the walls of the Parkwood Conservatory within the recreation wing.

According to any of the histories and biographies of Hider that I have come across this last week, his legacy has not been the ad work, catalogues or horses, although viewing of Ebay or ephemera auctions will attest to his ad work popularity, but his footnote on Canadian pop culture is his work depicting history.  Or more so, his legacy is that he has captured Canadian historical events in gouache. In an idyllic notation from canadasite.com, the following quote references this legacy, "for countless generations of Canadian school children, Hider's pictures captured the romance of Canadian history, and remained the favourite images they long remembered into the twilight of old age."


Another discovery among the Parkwood collection and one that opened the door into the life, times and legacy of the fab five of Canadian Art and more so of Arthur Hider that I wanted to share with you.

No one really knows where a copyright question from the film industry will lead.

Curious Curator: Composition of the Bowling Balls

Being our "season", meaning we see increased public visits and larger groups of guests at this time of year, we have a variety of differing questions that come our way. This week has been the query to the composition of the bowling balls along our bowling alley, "what's it made of?" ( x 4 times this week)

To be honest, I have never thought about it or even paid attention. People assume they are wood, due to a visible grain, and the knowledge that in history the bowling ball was wooden, but I have never actually looked into it further than accessioning, watching and documenting their condition, etc. UNTIL today.
 
Historically, the bowling ball was made of lignum vitae, a very hard, dense wood, until, 1905 when the first rubber bowling ball "Evertrue" was introduced. With the success of Evertrue, the Brunswick Corporation produced their first rubber mineralite ball in 1914, marketing it as a "mysterious rubber compound". The cleverly advertised product was launched through a series of YMCA bowling appearances, taking the new mysterious compound ball across the USA to an inclined audience. According to sources throughout my quick research, in the early part of the 1900s no one was thinking or concerned about the relationship between the composition of the lanes and the balls. For those inclined to learn more about the chemistry of bowling, attached is an interesting article from the May/June 1992 magazine edition of the American Chemical Society, In Chemistry
http://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/the-chemistry-of-bowling-a-short-history-of-bowling-balls-lanes-coatings-and-conditioners/

As a social historian (with anthropology), and those who know where I tend to tread when it comes to history, the above bored me. I am more curious about the bowling alley and the culture that developed around it throughout the 20th century. The fact that many wealthy persons, like the McLaughlin Family, had bowling lanes included in their homes, because i)they could and ii)it was part of the keeping up with the Jones's among society folk is evident, but what about the post- war popularity and boom that everything bowling evokes? Think clothing and shoe styles, bowling as a prevalent past time on the Flintstones and everything else pop culture that developed throughout this time period. Even the White House had two lanes installed in 1947. A 1958 quote from the American Society of Planning Officials sums up the pastime succinctly, "the bowling alley is fast becoming one of the most important, if not, the most important, local centre of participant sport and recreation". The blue collar country club, in post- war prosperity the bowling lane dominated society, especially when the weekly leagues and competitive hierarchies were developed and workplaces embraced it as a means of social outings. Bowling became the social imperative for many Americans throughout this era, an era that American culture dominated the world.
(In my research what was as equally as interesting in terms of the cult of the Bowling Alley is its demise in the 21st century)

The Parkwood Bowling Balls? On close inspection and due to conjecture re: our lane was developed and installed by the Brunswick Corporation,  the bowling balls, both 5 pin and 10 pin in our collection, are rubber mineralite. The grain effect, a popular look in the early days of the rubber mineralite compound, a faux technique that was part of the composition as a throwback to the wooden bowling balls of the past.

 

Curious Curator: Early Twentieth Century "Orientalism" in Material Culture, example Seated Bedouin Guard Lamp

Some of the décor at Parkwood, along with the decorative art pieces (material culture) are a wonderful example of the early 20th century love affair the west had with the Middle East, Asia and North Africa in what we can term in the Edward Said "School of Orientalism". Everything from chinoiserie, to the persian carpets throughout the Estate, to the japanning technique on side boards, to the use of pagoda style buildings on the property is evocative of the influences that the "orient" conjured in the minds of the west for hundreds of years and came into vogue, once again ,while Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin were working with the leading designers and decorators in the presenting of their home.

The piece, that has many of our guests commenting, is a cold painted Vienna bronze lamp that sits, dependent on your visit, in a nook at the top of the back stairs, or perhaps in the small private library space. The cold painted bronze entitled, Seated Bedouin Guard c. 1910, Franz Bergman (or Bergmann).  Like every Bergman piece, the lamp evokes the exoticism that was part of the appeal the west found in "the orient".

Our Bedouin guard sits within his tent holding a rifle.

Close view of the rose

The draped tent "fabric" surfaces are hung on three poles with corded "ropes" forming a cut-away tent. The tent has a peaked and tasseled roof in greens and golds with raised flowers and red tasseled trim above a cascading floral back wall decorated with art-nouveau style leaves and large red roses.

The Bedouin man is seated on a dias draped with maroon, ridged fabric surrounded by his cache of weapons and a lute, a coffee pot, an elongated shield and before him, a decorative carpet.  More weapons and a round shield are suspended on the outside of the roof.

Bulb located behind
the shield

Often referenced as boudoir lamps, due to the glow the bulb emits, rather then a full light, the lamp in the Parkwood collection no longer operates as a lamp with the wires being tied off, but the bulb still sits in its original position, just behind the shield, pictured in the upper left corner of the photograph.

'Cold painted bronze' refers to pieces cast in Vienna and then decorated in several layers with so called dust paint; the recipe and technique for the mix of this kind of paint has been lost. The colour was not fired hence "cold painted". The painting was carried out mainly by women working at home, a typical cottage industry of the era, and one that the Franz Bergman, Vienna bronze industry used well during its height of popularity through the early part of the 20th century.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1853417987/  This PBS Antique Roadshow episode features a Franz Bergman cold painted bronze, much larger and elaborate than our Seated Bedouin Guard, but I like to think that RS McLaughlin would enjoy the reference to the pieces by Bergman, as the Cadillac of cold painted bronze.

Curious Curator: The Sirens Call of the Eleventh Edition Encyclopaedia Britannica

In the Parkwood Library, in a section specifically designed for the collection, one will find the 1910/1911, eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica set. Interpreters may or may not point this set out while on tour, but they lay horizontally in their custom made shelves, since the 29 volumes are printed on onion paper with exterior gilt edging and have flexible suede covers.

My attention was drawn to this set the other day, after the umpteenth call from a member of the general public asking me what they should do with their set of encyclopaedias, because no one wants them anymore. As one is well aware, encyclopaedias date, and not very well, as a reference item, and are finding themselves obsolete since the advent of the internet, and it is true that libraries, schools, etc. are not interested in them.  A quick Google search confirms their demise, with Britannica issuing their final set in 2012.

Although obsolete as a reference item on the latest scientific work, the eleventh edition has proven longevity in the encyclopaedia world and its lasting quality is attributed to what a 2012 Guardian newspaper article references as a mythic quality among collectors, a glimpse into a colonial world before the world changed with WWI.

The volumes were created by Britannica at a time when the company was moving from British to American hands[i], and when one glimpses at the articles will find that the leading scholars of the time, among them T.H. Huxley and William Michael Rossetti, contributed to the research.  The eleventh edition boasted the most female contributors of any edition, thus far, with thirty four women contributing articles to the set and was the first encyclopaedia to publish biographies of people still alive, a new and modern approach to reference materials.

Image used by The Guardian to evoke
bourgeois life captured by 11th edition

What has proven to be the lasting legacy of the set is its value as a cultural artefact. Ironically, Wikipedia has a great sentence that describes its value as an artefact,
“the British Empire was at its maximum, imperialism was largely unchallenged, much of the world was still ruled by monarchs, and the tragedy of the modern world wars were still in the future.”  

Even the critiques of the eleventh edition from its contemporaries provide a glimpse into the value of the set from a social history perspective, Virginia Woolf wrote that the edition was bourgeois and had old fashioned opinions on art, literature and social sciences.  Within its very pages, the eleventh edition has no biography of Marie Curie, despite her winning of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, although she is mentioned briefly under the biography of her husband Pierre Curie.

The Guardian, in its review of the eleventh edition, 101 years later, reference the sirens call of the set to collectors, scholars, social historians,
 

 “To open an 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is to open a worldview lost forever in the staggering slaughter of the First World War. The 11th edition of the Britannica represents the high tide of optimism and belief in human progress that had dominated the Anglo-Saxon vision since the Enlightenment.  Unabashed optimism – and unabashed racism – pervades many entries in the 11th, and provide its defining characteristics. “

The eleventh edition Encyclopaedia Britannica set sits at Parkwood in the corner of the Library and who knew that is was social history magic? Purchased by the McLaughlin’s, likely before Parkwood was built and eventually displayed within its own custom made shelves in their custom built home, the set represents the emergence of North America onto the world stage, the emergence of the auto baron in the 20^th century, Sam McLaughlin marking each volume with his own bookplate. It’s a nod to his roots, the British Empire, as well as the new emerging America which will dominate the 20^th century as a super power. The encyclopaedia set, both physically and content based, as well as its mythic attributes convincingly illustrates the McLaughlin story and legacy, the one we interpret today at the Estate.

McLaughlin Bookplate

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[i] 1920 Sears Roebuck purchased making the Encyclopaedia Britannica 100% American owned and produced.

Curious Curator: Oral History, The most exciting form of history?

I recently saw a statement that proclaims oral history as one of the most exciting forms of history and while I prepare for a workshop training youth on the process of oral history collection this weekend, I am reflecting on its importance in the field of heritage interpretation.  The significance of the documentary form, oral history, that the voice of all when interpreting the past is captured, not just the famous, the victors or the advocates who have their stories preserved, but all those involved, makes it a truly expressive and compelling resource.
Of course, acknowledging the skepticism and understanding the limits of oral history at the outset of a collection project, the human folly of memory, allows for the historian, professional or amateur, full appreciation of the myriad of possibilities the form holds.

 

The feeling behind memory is authentic. It is that authenticity, the human side of memory, even when influenced by outside factors, influences being just as historically informative as the memory itself, that one starts to develop the appreciation of this wonderful primary resource.

Contemplate your own life. Chances are if someone had to reconstruct your life history based on the written record alone, they would have very little to go on. If the information they were using was what they could locate in the newspaper, mortgage documents, your obituary, maybe a sporadically written diary from when you were twelve, the information gathered would reveal very little about the soul of your life, and the things that matter most to you.

Oral history provides for human interaction and the richness that is developed between two people chatting together. "Individuals coming together to chat about a common interest" and the depths that this conversation can reveal about the interviewer and interviewee. Oral history allows for questions to be asked and an answer provided. Imagine if one could travel back and ask questions of Abraham Lincoln or Henry VIII.  The ability to ask people about the most "recent" past allows for those burning questions to be answered, helping with the creation of source materials for the future.

I have a Parkwood version of this. Since we are a 20th century site, many of the random questions that I think of or have been asked of me by guests can often be answered by the resources at my finger tips, via the oral histories of the McLaughlin grandchildren and the former servants. For example, was Sam McLaughlin right or left handed? What soap brand was preferred in the house?  Not significantly life or history changing information, but the type of human (daily life) queries we receive or have about historic figures. I often comment on the fact that I have the marvellous good fortune to have the finite resource of tangible links with the past through contemporaries of Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin as opposed to many sites with mandates of earlier time periods. It is through our oral history collecting practises that I endeavour to create the resource material for future staff of Parkwood to access aiding with the illuminating of the McLaughlin Family for generations to come.

One of the unique benefits attributed to oral history that no other historical record can provide; census information, photographs, etc., is the one that attracts me as a social historian to the form, the perspective of the everyday person. We know that for centuries the historical record has been created by the key figures of the human experience, leaving out labourers, slaves, women, children, minorities. There are many reasons and scholastic discussions about the exclusion, but as the 20th century marched on this breach in the historic record began to be remedied and the preservation of oral history was one of those cures to the omissions. The process is endeavouring to ensure that the everyday person is no longer falling through the cracks of the historical record, having their contributions to our world experiences documented and preserved. It is through the existence of oral histories that the rest of us will have our legacy long after we are gone.

Finally, as we are experiencing the current technical age, the written word is beginning to be lost. For example, lets examine the loss of cursive writing skills and penmanship being removed from curriculum. The loss of cursive, and the ever growing reliance on telephones, computers, emails, technical devices, etc., should have us consider what will future historians have to study when they begin to reflect on the 21st century? The extensive correspondence and daily journal entries that enlighten researchers of the 18th and 19th centuries will not be available to provide commentary on our own time. The oral histories that have been and will be collected throughout the 20th and 21st centuries provide compensation for the lost written records of our own time, and in a self serving way makes me aware that the importance of this documentary practise evermore vital, as our generation will not be a blip in the historic record.


*curatorial note to reader- RS McLaughlin was right handed, noting that since he was born in 1871 he would not have likely had a choice in the matter, as right- handedness was often imposed.
Pears Soap was the soap of choice in the household. It was purchased in cases. We use Pears in the interpretation of the exhibit rooms today. This information was gathered in several oral histories of former household servants.

 

 

Sharing the Dream

Sharing the Dream at Parkwood

Durham College President Don Lovisa, takes on the role of Honourary Chair for Parkwood’s benefit gala Garden of Dreams. The event will take place Friday, May 30, 2014.

An avid Parkwood supporter, Mr. Lovisa states: "I am pleased and proud to lend support to this benefit event. Through Durham College’s educational partnership with Parkwood I have gained a true appreciation for this national treasure, and particularly the historic gardens. The gala is a remarkable event, and I’m looking forward to sharing a special experience of Parkwood with community leaders, donors, sponsors and supporters, as we celebrate our partnership in its preservation."

The Parkwood gala is a biennial event to raise funds for the ongoing preservation and presentation of one of Canada’s finest grand estates and National Historic Sites. This year the event is presented by TD Bank Group, and will feature a gourmet dinner, silent & live auctions and dancing – all under a large marquee on the South Lawn.

"We’re so excited to have Don as Honourary Chair. He’s a fantastic champion for Parkwood’s gardens and their remarkable past, and he helps us to dream big when it comes to their future." notes Nancy Shaw, President of The Parkwood Foundation. The Garden of Dreams theme for 2014 shines a spotlight on conservation and education, and on the unique status Parkwood enjoys amongst the historic estates & homes of Canada, due to the caliber of design and the conserved state of the gardens.

An added touch for the Garden of Dreams silent auction will be 20 lush garden planters, created by the Durham College students of the Horticulture Technician Program at Parkwood.

Parkwood benefit events typically highlight key preservation projects in progress, giving supporters with an opportunity to see their contributions at work. A 2013/2014 project isexpected to be on view during Garden of Dreams, the newly-restored Vinery greenhouse. It marks the beginning of a full conservation program for the greenhouse complex.

The public is invited to attend, and may contact Parkwood for further information at 905.433.4311 or info@parkwoodestate.com. Tickets for the event are $ 250.00 per person.