Museum and Technology Grant

Parkwood is thrilled to be working on a collections management project through the Museum and Technology grant that we were successful in receiving from the Ministry of Culture this year.

Collections Management, for those following that are not aware of this museum role, is essentially the record keeping of all the artefacts and archives at Parkwood,and in my opinion one of the most important stewardship role of a museum. These are the records that hold artefact information like its height, length, description, provenance, artist or make information along with its condition and the changes to its condition over the years, based environmental exposure, physical damages, etc. When conservation work is completed the conservation report and treatment plan,along with treatment photos are also included.

Until now, the Parkwood Collections Management program has been paper based in binders in my office, and several attempts at various "homemade" databases over the years.

This grant, which Parkwood is matching in dollar and staffing support, enables the staff and volunteers to use a database which will hold all of the information, along with photographs of each and every artefact. Every salt shaker, every fork, every handkerchief, every comb within the collection, eventually.
Amanda and Cesar having been working hard completing the data entry portion, along with photographing the collection, assisted by the volunteer work of Vivienne, Cindy and Linda.

What is the most exciting aspect of this project is that a quick push of a keyboard button I will have all the necessary info on a single artefact at my fingertips, including its photograph, something Parkwood has never had before. Cesar has undertaken the feat of photographing the collection, well beginning too, and this database will enable museum staff to upload images to our new website ( in the works) along with other museum-related sites and publications, like Artefacts Canada.




Sabot on the foot of the Drawing Room bureau-plat

 

One of the aspects of this new database is that we have been busy catergorising the collection in themes in order to create some exciting web and programming content. An example of this would be Louis XV furniture styles at Parkwood, but would delve beyond the beauty shots of this very identifiable furniture style. Using the archival collection, we may have purchase receipts, understanding the history and where the items in the Drawing Room were purchased from, and how the interior decorator chose certain pieces to complement the "look" that they were trying to achieve. The other "technical" aspect of the database will even allow us to focus our themes of items of interest for the researcher, to items as specific as the sabots (gilt shoes on the feet of furniture) on the Louis XV furniture collection.

Positioning Canada's Historic Gardens

Parkwood has embarked on a project to showcase Ontario’s historic gardens in 2012 – with the aim of promoting collaboration amongst these gardens and capitalizing on new tourism investment opportunities. 

Parkwood's Blooming Buddies
Garden Club hard at work

As far as we know it’s the first venture of its kind, and it’s creating both real excitement and splitting headaches for us.  We believe historic gardens are well-positioned to take advantage of new government investment in tourism and to capitalize on contemporary consumer trends for authentic experiences, gardening, food safety and culinary history, heirloom plants, etc.   We also want to encourage visitors, stakeholders and supporters to embrace heritage conservation as a green investment.

Through our work with the Ontario Garden Tourism Coalition and the National Historic Sites Alliance for Ontario, our project partners, we know that historic gardens fly way under the tourism radar and make too few appearances on “bucket lists”.  For many gardens, their stories often play second fiddle to the buildings or events that hog all the attention and they are seldom promoted for their own worth as historic and horticultural resources.



Historic Garden Workshop
March 2011



From a day-long workshop we hosted earlier this year for Ontario’s Historic Gardens, we learned that there was great enthusiasm for increased communications and collaboration amongst the garden operators and programmers, but that we lacked an agenda or organization to provide the rallying point. 

There were two outcomes from that event:  Parkwood began to compile an inventory of Ontario’s historic gardens and;  we secured grant funding to support a showcase event or week, around the historic themes and geographic links expected to emerge from the inventory.   Parkwood will have a starring role of course!

OK, a little too ambitious perhaps and the headaches should have been obvious, but we had to start somewhere.    Beyond the better-known historic gardens it has not been easy to identify likely sites, and then to coerce/cajole the owner or operator into providing useable information.  To be fair, most of us are highly overworked and highly resentful of filling out questionnaires.

On the other hand, the identification process has led to exploration of what constitutes an historic garden and who defines.  Where do cemeteries, forts, spiritual or cultural landscapes fit in?   Can we fairly present the evolution of garden practices in
Ontario - from aboriginal, through settlement and survival to the highly-designed gardens of the 20^th century wealthy?  

Did we mention that Will & Kate’s first royal visit to North America began at the historic gardens of Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada’s Governor General? 

The thematic possibilities look fantastic, but a bit overwhelming as we attempt to group and distil it all into sexy visitor offerings and travel itineraries.  We have definitely entered “What were we thinking?” territory, but stay tuned...

Artefact & Archival Donations to Parkwood

Parkwood does not solicit artefact or archival donations. However, once in a while there is a real gem among the several calls we receive in a week about a carriage found in a barn or a Parkwood Christmas card found at auction or even perhaps an early McLaughlin Canada Dry store front sign.
Many of the items in our secondary collection come from artefact & archival donations made by the general public and McLaughlin family members to Parkwood. These items are referenced as secondary collection items because they are not original to the house or are not items that actually belonged to the McLaughlin's who lived at Parkwood, but assist us in telling the story of Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin and the history of the estate.

Saying that, I should reference that in the 12 years I have been at Parkwood, an item has come home to the estate that is part of the primary collection and is designated as so, since it was returned by a family member who was bequeathed the item when Adelaide McLaughlin passed away.

This week we have had two marvellous donations to our secondary collection, each arriving under very different circumstances. Those of you that follow our blog know that we recently lost Philip Jackson, widower of Diana Phillips Jackson, grand-daughter of Sam and Adelaide. The Jackson estate bequeathed a gorgeous oil on canvas portrait of Eileen McLaughlin Phillips McEachern painted in 1929. Eileen is in her equestrian gear, one of her passions in life, and is a stunning example of society portraiture in the 20th century.

The second donation to the archives is a marvellous bit of fate. A woman named Frances C  from Swift Current called General Motors information line about a 1939 brochure she had been saving which referenced the Royal Visit and the custom made McLaughlin Buicks for the Royals to travel in while in Canada. The operator at General Motors Canada was quick enough to think of us, rather then just get rid of Frances (GM as a corporation is in the car business not history) and called the museum to see if we would like to chat with Frances about her fantastic keepsake, hidden away in one of her drawers.

We certainly did and the parcel arrived this morning with a fantastic reference to the Royal Tour, General Motors, McLaughlin Buick and Oshawa, Ontario. Already the brochure has captured the attention of our PhD student Amanda, and is something she will be able to use in her thesis and is something we will actively be working with in our WWII story with the Gr. 10 History students from Fr. Austin in Whitby.

Thank you to the operator who was quick to think of Parkwood. Thank you Frances C of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, for saving a wonderful piece of Canadian history!

Adelaide McLaughlin

Adelaide c.1949

When we discuss Adelaide McLaughlin, the image that ones mind conjures is like the photograph to the right. A grandmotherly figure, who was genteel, warm and full of class and decorum. Of course, Mrs. McLaughlin was all those things, but there is another side to her, one that many people do not think about while on tour or while participating in our programs.

Like everyone, Adelaide was once young. A farm girl who grew up in Brougham, Ontario, she went to Normal School in Ottawa and became a teacher. Her first, and last teaching placement was at Sinclair School in Whitby and the only known remaining photo Parkwood has of those days is the one attached below, courtesy of the Whitby Archives.
The photo, dated June 11, 1896, is of Miss Adelaide Mowbray's class.

Adelaide McLaughlin third from left

Many know the McLaughlin courtship story; Sam McLaughlin was out for a Sunday bike ride, attended church service with relatives and spied the future Mrs. McLaughlin singing in the church choir. Three chaperoned buggy rides later, the two were engaged and eventually married on February 2, 1898. There are no wedding photos of Sam and Adelaide's wedding, but the earliest portrait we have of Mrs. McLaughlin is the one to the right.

Adelaide c.1898

Five daughters, the McLaughlin Buick, and the McLaughlin Chevrolet later, Adelaide McLaughlin was entertaining statesmen and the aristocracy at Parkwood, shortly followed by the creation of General Motors and the who's who of business that started to come through the doors of her home.

Edwardian Adelaide

Mrs.McLaughlin became society hostess, philanthropist and community activist in her own right, and has some wonderful stories of her own. Stories that Parkwood will be sharing from time to time on this blog.

The first myth to dis-spell is the myth of teatotaller Adelaide.

There is a McLaughlin Family story about Sam and Adelaide returning to

Oshawa after a holiday in France in the early 1920s when they had been gifted with a crate of wine from a vineyard owner. While heading into New York harbour, the McLaughlins' realised that that due to prohibition being in full effect in the United States, they would not be able to travel through the country with their wine. Mrs. McLaughlin cleverly rolled each bottle of wine in her corsets, and under garments before packing her luggage, smuggling the "contraband" over the  border and home to the Parkwood wine cellar.

We also have some wonderful oral histories from the former servants' about Mrs. McLaughlin carrying trays of lemonade out to the gardens on those hot & humid days in August to provide the staff with a short, cool reprieve from the heat, or the collection of pickled bean recipes that she was famous for making and delivering to family and friends in the community.

1948 The McLaughlin's 50th Wedding Anniversary

Finally, Sam's nickname for Adelaide was Always Late Mowbray, a play on her name Adelaide Louise Mowbray, but he admitted that it was one of his pet peeves about his spouse, since she always seemed to keep him waiting when they were trying to get ready for an evening out.

Discovering Ada McKenzie

I had no idea who Ada McKenzie was. The name popped up in the Parkwood Secretary's Journal 1935 on September 13."Mrs McLaughlin permanent at Francois, then fitting at Ada McKenzie, then Home and School publication meeting".

So in this day and age, I googled Ada McKenzie,Toronto,women's wear.

Turns out that Adelaide was being fitted at a store for women's athletic wear, a store owned and named after Canadian golf darling, Ada McKenzie. I was shocked and ashamed that as a Canadian woman and historian I have never heard of Ada. According to the Library and Archives Canada website,
"At a time when female athletes were few and far between, Ada Mackenzie was looked on as a pioneer. Her achievements are even more remarkable taking into account the general attitude regarding the role of women in society in the first half of the 20th century. If the men's domain was the public sphere, then the women's was definitely the private sphere. If women worked outside the home, it was often while "waiting" for marriage or as a continuation of their maternal role. At that time, it was very difficult for women to promote their skills in a world still strongly dominated by men. That Ada Mackenzie succeeded in asserting herself outside these traditional spheres of activity was an accomplishment in itself and bears witness to her strength of character; that she accomplished this in the sports world was even more remarkable. As she herself said: "I started golfing when women were supposed to know more about a cook stove than a niblick".

Ada went on to win a variety of golf tournaments and titles in her life.

Furthermore, in my research on this new find, this remarkable woman, I learned that Ada inspired by what was going on in Great Britain, and in order to assist young girls and women to play golf, opened the Ladies' Golf and Tennis Club of Toronto in 1924. DING!! DING!! DING!! The brain bells sound and I start rummaging through the archives looking for the golfing images of the McLaughlins, particularly Adelaide, and daughters.

From the Parkwood Archives is a May 1935, Mayfair magazine photo of Eileen McLaughlin with Ada McKenzie, in stripes. So a quick call is made to the Ladies' Golf and Tennis Club of Toronto to see if they have an active archives, and the beginning of my email relationship with Joan, a volunteer archivist at the club who is scouring membership records for me on the McLaughlin women. So far, we can find information from the 1950s and nothing earlier, however, my feelings are, there is something more to the story and we will uncover it one day.

In the meantime, I was pleased to learn that the McLaughlin women supported Ada's business ventures by purchasing their athletic clothes at her store, a venture she began in 1930, closing its doors in 1959.

Please listen to a CBC archives recording from 1949 about Ada's golf course
http://archives.cbc.ca/sports/golf/clips/11697/

Tree Planting with Jim Flaherty and Landscape Ontario

Last week Federal Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, planted a Canadian Sugar Maple tree near the gazebo in the cutting garden area of the Estate. This tree planting commemorates the inaugural National Tree Day September 21, a new program initiated by the federal government in conjunction with 2011 being identified as the Year of the Forest by the United Nations. The sugar maple is the first planting of the new shade garden in development for this area.

The tree planting coincided with the Landscape Ontario Board of Directors meeting that was held over two days at Parkwood. This meeting included house and garden tours where the Dunington-Grubb gardens were a highlight to this group, who recognise the importance and legacy of the husband and wife landscape design team in terms of early Canadian horticultural heritage.

As landscape designers, the Dunington-Grubbs established a practice that soon became highly successful, especially after founding a much needed nursery to provide ornamental plant material at Sheridan, Ontario, a nursery most Canadians would recognise today as Sheridan Nurseries.
Howard Burlington Grubb was born in York, England, in 1881. He obtained his B.S.A. from the Cornell School of Landscape Architecture before returning to England in 1908 to work for T.H. Mawson as an apprentice. He married another successful young landscape architect, Lorrie Alfreda Dunington, whose name he adopted.  Lorrie Alfreda Dunington-Grubb was born in 1877 in England, she attended Swanley College of Horticulture in Surrey and had founded her own private practice before her marriage in 1911. Drawn to landscape architecture by her love of floral design, she published in both English and Canadian journals and was a founding member of the Canadian Society for Landscape Architects (CSLA) in 1934 and its president in 1944.

Parkwood is fortunate to have some of the last remaining residential work of the Dunington-Grubbs at the site, specifically the Italian Garden & the Sunken Garden area.




While out on the grounds with the members of Landscape Ontario, I mentioned the McLaughlin home movies we have of the property and its evolution and I saw their eyes sparkle. Well folks, watch this space and I will be uploading various aspects of our home movies over the next while.

Consumed by paper in the archives...behind the scenes museum work

Over the last few months, we have been very lucky to have a team of volunteers; Amanda, Ashley and Nicole, working with some of the archival materials, updating collection records and in some cases continuing the accession process of items into our archival systems. The group will continue through the autumn,while other volunteers, Vivienne and Cesar, begin the digitization process of entering the records & photographs for each artefact into our new database, thanks to a grant, Museum and Technology Fund, we were successful in obtaining from the Ministry of Culture. This truly is the behind the scenes museum work that occurs at Parkwood and makes up most of my registrar duties as Curator.

Anyone who has ever visited my office has seen the paper, photographs, blueprints, etc. that often consume my desk. In recent months, due to the HVAC retrofit work that had the closet spaces in my office filled with workmen, I moved the overwhelming amounts of paper to the art gallery space (currently off the tour route), and the volunteers are continuing to use this space for their work area(s).  

This little group of diligent historians work, at their own pace, cataloguing, doing condition reports/evaluations on the items, pH testing of the paper, encapsulating when necessary, and setting aside those pieces requiring additional TLC from me. Often I hear little raps on my office door, or receive excited text messages with photos attached when something is discovered and I love that this group is enthusiastic about the collection and can see the future interpretive material in their discoveries.

I am also discovering great little finds of Canadian history as we rummage (with white gloved hands) through the paper, being introduced to characters  I have never heard of and uncovering new gems of information each day. Parkwood will be sharing these little finds over the next few weeks via our blog and I hope you find them as interesting as we do. 

Arabella Magazine Feature

We have been working with Arabella magazine on a photo spread and story about Parkwood and our amazing decorative art collection.
With the photo shoot occurring yesterday, Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to primping the estate for the opportunity to showcase Parkwood in all of its finery. On Tuesday afternoon, we were struck by the vast difference of how bringing items out of hiding alters the way the estate looks.  The subtle changes have led the house, which is magnificent every other day of the year, to take on a more "homey" feel and has caused quite a stir among senior staff, who have been debating how we can keep the estate looking the way it is, when the items currently out, are scurried away to storage the other 51 weeks a year as a preservation method.
I think the most compelling change is the return of the carpets to the front hall. These three Sarouk rugs are stunning as individual pieces, but having them adorn the flooring adds an entire layer to the design of the home and quite the sumptuous pieces to trod upon, and there you have it, we are walking on them. These lovely rugs, which were designed for floors ( in some cases 200 years ago), were never designed for thousands of feet to walk over, nor were they designed to survive road grit, winter salt applications, wedding receptions and cocktail parties with greasy phyllo pastry and red wine spills ( I am not going to even mention chocolate fountains!) and there you have why they are hidden away. To be honest, in my 12 years at Parkwood, I have only ever seen them down once before, for a day.
Over the years we have looked at methods of trying to keep the carpets down, perhaps a new carpet runner programme or removing shoes while touring or booties over shoes while touring. Each one has its pros and cons, some cons being a huge financial investment ( new runners) others being that we are told North Americans are not prepared to remove their shoes, (where would I store them if we did) or wear plastic booties, like our European cousins do. Others raise environmental concerns, like the disposal of thousands of plastic booties per year.
What are your thoughts on our carpet dilemma and preservation questions? Do you think that Parkwood National Historic Site could lead the way among Canadian sites and have people wear booties while on tour? Do you think a company would be willing to sponsor a shoe bootie programme at Parkwood?

Why Production Filming at Parkwood?

Pondering this question while we prepare for a film crew this week

We often get asked about production filming at the estate and why we allow it. This question comes from museum colleagues, conservation professionals, visitors and the general public. I have noticed that the public becomes interested after they have tried to visit the estate for a museum experience when filming is occurring and they begin to realise what a nightmare it can be when it comes to the preservation mandate of Parkwood, above and beyond the presentation, or lack of it, when film crews are scurrying about. Otherwise, if just a casual interest, then the idea of filming at the museum is glamorous and exciting.

This is not to disparage the film industry. Parkwood loves working with you and works in tandem with the industry whenever we can. We have made great friends in the field, friendships that have lasted well beyond the shoot days at the estate, and I teach a class to future curators about filming in historic sites and the ways in which we deal with the preservation concerns, which are frankly, the last thing a film production is concerned with. They must meet deadlines, get the film in the can and move on! However, we work together and I believe we are successful in achieving what both of us need. For the film industry, a beautiful location. For Parkwood, preservation.
Ultimately, film production at Parkwood is a much needed revenue source, and although ancillary, just like weddings, to our main purpose, it assists us in achieving our preservation and stewardship role.

Many of our supporters do not realise how the film industry has contributed to our fundraising and capital  campaigns over the years through donations. We are also fortunate to have worked with some great productions that have undertaken the cost of conservation projects. Projects well beyond the dollar figure in my annual budget; carpets and draperies conserved, plaster and linen work completed, even small painting projects, it is all a tremendous help.  Parkwood is a $20 million dollar site, and although interpretation is our business, $10.00 for a tour, does not go very far in regards to the preservation costs of an estate nearing its centennial.

Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, the public find filming fascinating. While we hope that guests visit Parkwood for our story, we know (we hear it) that certain film productions will be forever linked with Parkwood and that may very well be the appeal for a demographic. The museum audience is small and inclined, but the movie market huge, and if that's what gets them through the door initially, we hope we can convert them into a history buff, or at least a museum visitor.

Saying Goodbye....Curatorial thoughts

One of the things that makes Parkwood unique from other historic sites is that we are a 20th century site, and therefore have access to the living memories of area residents about Sam McLaughlin and his family, a rarity in many North American museums, whose mandates cover the 19th century. Beyond the collective memories of Durham Region residents, we have the good fortune to have had access to three of the McLaughlin daughters, grandchildren, their spouses and great grandchildren over the last 12 years. This access has proven valuable in adding anecdotal content to our tours, understanding what it was like to visit over a Christmas season, arriving at the Oshawa train station and having the chauffeur retrieve guests and then the drive to Parkwood.




Adelaide with a few of the grandchildren in Italian Garden

 From a curatorial standpoint, I love that I have the ability to send a quick email with a question to a grandchild,  always receiving an answer within a few hours assisting with elucidating time frames or simply answering an " I wonder" question. I realise how fortunate I am to have this great resource, but also realise how finite that resource is, and one day, I will be among the curators who cannot receive the easy answer or will lose that family connection along with the fantastic anecdotes.
Parkwood always boasts ( I know I do) about our archival collection of approx.15,000 items; from family home movies starting in 1924, the Christmas cards, telegrams, guestbooks, household diaries, recipes. We acknowledge what a great resource this is, but although it is extensive, the real gem is the memories. Stories that help parallel our guests experiences with the experiences of Parkwood. Not everyone has had the autobaron lifestyle or can afford what that lifestyle brings, but most can relate to the grandchild/grandparent relationship or the simple act of eating ( or being forced to eat) porridge on a cold winters morning, which is one of the best received anecdote among the public, attributing to the box of Red River cereal being added to our servery interpretation over the last few years.

With grandchildren

Last week we said goodbye to Phillip Jackson, the widower of granddaughter Diana Phillips Jackson, who grew up in Oshawa at Adelaide House, spending many hours with her grandparents here at Parkwood, and had many stories and memories of the estate, and her special relationship with Adelaide.  Over the last year, I was fortunate to spend several afternoons with Phillip, sorting through family records, and listening to his recollections of meeting and interacting with Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin as their grandson- in- law.

Grandchildren Diana, Michael and Derek Phillips

 He offered wonderful stories about his relationship with the McLaughlins, along with the observances of their relationship with their granddaughter Diana.  My personal favourite story of Phillip's was his version of marriage advice Adelaide had given to Diana after her and Phillip's first row as a married couple. Advice that Diana in turn offered me several years ago while we were at lunch. That afternoon when Diana gave me the advice during a casual chat, Phillip held an interesting expression on his face, but remained silent. It was not until last year, after Diana's passing, that I received his version of the marital advice, always with a humorous bent and a glint in his eye.

 News of the passing of one of our active supporters and providers of tangible links to Parkwood's past reaffirms that Parkwood needs to ensure we collect the memories as soon as possible. The oral history committee has been rounding up stories and recollections for several years and is actively on the look out to collect. Most recently, Jo-Ann was able to connect with a descendant of the household seamstress, who still has pieces from her aunt's work & introduced us to Uncle Wiggly Longears, a Parkwood memory which would have been long lost if not for the connection, the story and the photograph.

Several of the household staff c.1922
Mary Wybrow & Bill Smith
Provided by descendant of Mary Wybrow

Hiding away from the snow in Aiken, South Carolina 1926

The McLaughlin Family would often travel to Aiken, South Carolina in early winter, taking refuge from the winds and chills of Oshawa in January, but also to participate in equestrian events, as the McLaughlin daughters were fine horsewomen. 

Recent research has led us to discover that the 1926 visit to Aiken was important to Parkwood National Historic Site in terms of artefact and archival holdings. Attached is a family film from the 1926 visit. The beginning montage makes one think that the camera may have been a new acquisition of a family member, perhaps a gift of the previous Christmas? As the McLaughlins skip, play, pose and Charleston for the person behind the camera, we see the fun and mischievous side of the family. City of Aiken archives has helped with the identification of the home in the video as being "Dogwood", rented by the McLaughlin's for several years from Mr. and Mrs. Harry S Tainter of New York City, still there today, in private ownership, now called Wisteria Manor.

 

We have also learned that Frank O' Salisbury, portrait painter to the British Royal Family, spent the January and early February in Aiken, S.C., painting the portraits of North American society. Using the playground of the nouveau riche, Aiken, as a means to support his art, something he was having trouble doing in Great Britain after the First World War due to the demise of the pocket books of the landed gentry. (parallels of an Edith Wharton novel). In terms of Curatorial research, scholars studying O' Salisbury have been able to date the sitting of the McLaughlin Family portraits in the Parkwood Dining Room, using O'Salisbury journals, to the first week of February 1926, sans Eleanor (aka Billie) McLaughlin, as she was away at finishing school and not on holiday with the family.

Honouring Colonel Sam: 140th Birthday Challenge

It's Your Heritage Too

Honouring the legacy of Sam McLaughlin~ through heritage conservation.

Whew, it's a lot of work! Preserving a site of the quality and importance of Parkwood has tremendous challenges, but also tremendous rewards to Canada- a gift to the future and an opportunity to learn & take part.

How Does it Work?

We look at repairs to roofs, walls, windows, wiring, fire & saftey systems. We improve temperature, humidity levels and air quality, control light and UV.

Then we treat the room finishes, painting and artwork, furniture, carpets & fabrics & lighting.

So far, so good...

Well great actually, thanks to our donors and supporters. A few examples:

Mansion Structural Repairs          $300k

Landscape Conservation             $2 million                     

Environmental retrofits                 $1.8 million

Conservation of library portraits   $ 8K 

The 140th Birthday Challenge

September 8, 2011 would be Sam McLaughlin's 140th Birthday.

From McLaughlin Day, Monday, August 1, through to his birthday on Thursday, September 8, we are challenging you to send a message to Sam, helping us honour his legacy and safeguard this national treasure.

• Buy a birthday card at the Gift Shop for $5
• Make a birthday donation (gifts of $20 or greater are tax receiptable)
• make a gift on-line at www.canadahelps.org   
• fund a conservation project (great for groups, families, businesses)
• Purchase a ticket(s) to our amazing benefit event, See You in September, in the Formal Garden on his birthday
• Join our volunteer workcrew on October 22, from 10am to 2pm, Garden Goodbye Day, preparing for the winter season









Conservation Work on the Anaglypta Wallpaper

Natalie, a conservator from the Sir Sandford Fleming Conservation program has been volunteering numerous hours this summer to conserve our anaglypta wallpaper located at the back staircase. As many of you know, we completed Part A of Stage II of the HVAC Retrofit this winter ($1.8m to date), adding central air and humidification to the Art Deco Bedroom Suite, the Art Gallery and part of the third floor. Using closet spaces and the fireplace flues to run the duct work, etc. to ensure the work did not compete with or destroy our original finishes, construction crews negotiating the stairway with fan belts, and piping contributed to some of the wear and tear the natural aging process of the anaglypta has seen over the last 94 years.





In these photos you will see Natalie applying a syringe full of adhesive to consolidate some flaking that has occurred on the anaglypta around a window frame. This damage, and areas of loss, have been sustained over the years, due to an exposure to moisture, accumulative damage simply due to opening and closing windows for approximately a century. Once the adhesive is dried, the cracks will be flattened out with the use of a heated spatula which will relax the painted surface of the anaglypta ( the pink colour). Natalie will fill the areas of loss with a home-made paste, a recipe that consists of paper fibres and methyl cellulose adhesive, creating the same texture and density of the surrounding wall paper. The walls are then cleaned with a 90 : 9 : 1 solution of water, mineral spirits and orvus paste, followed by a rinse. Once dry, Natalie will colour match to the pink walls and infill the areas that have been consolidated.





Parkwood is blogging

Hello, since this is the first post, we have turned to one of our most popular archival items, the family home movies, to entertain you. Parkwood boasts a unique collection of artefacts; consisting of original furniture, textiles,decorative arts, that belonged to the McLaughlin Family, providing our guests with a genuine view of the lifestyle that being a Canadian autobaron afforded.  Along with this awe-invoking collection of approx. 3000 items, the Parkwood archives holds approx. 15,000 items of correspondance, receipts, records, photos and of course 27 home movies dating from 1925 through the 1940s. These wonderful documents of the past have proven to be gems in terms of primary research resources, but also an audience favourite when we have been able to showcase them.
The video is of Eleanor (Billie) McLaughlin marrying Clarence Churchill Mann at Parkwood in August 1930.
The receiving line and marquette tent look eerily similar to any of the current summer Saturdays on the property, but those with a keen eye will likely spot Eleanor's sisters and nieces among the bridal attendents.

Enjoy the link