Durham Region Area Archives Group

DRAAG will be hosting a half-day workshop on the many ways that small archives can use social media to increase their profile and reach new and different audiences.

The workshop will feature the pros and cons of the most popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Pininterest. The workshop leaders will highlight how these platforms can work for your site and will also work with participants to set up accounts for their sites.

The workshop will be held on April 15 from 1 pm until 4 pm at the downtown campus of UOIT, Oshawa.  The building is located at 61 Charles Street, across from the General Motors Centre.  Parking is available at the Mary Street parking garage.

Cost is $15 per participant. Pre-registration is necessary.  To register please email archivist@oshawamuseum.org or archives@porthope.ca on or before April 10, 2013.

The Archives Damage Atlas is completely free resource developed in the Netherlands available to assist archives when assessing damage and determining the best conservation methods.

http://www.metamorfoze.nl/sites/metamorfoze/files/bestanden/schadeatlas%202010%20engels%20met%20omslag.pdf

While it is only February, members of DRAAG have been very busy! 

On January 31, the archivists from Whitby and Oshawa spoke at the Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference.  The theme of the session was Library, Archives and Museum Collaborations and it was a very well received session. In fact, it was standing room only!

This week we welcome a new institution to our group, the Markham Museum and Archives!  We look forward to working with Markham as we prepare for our annual Archives Awareness Week Event on April 3rd at the Pickering Public Library.

Finally, it appears that membership might be growing again in the very near future! 

DRAAG will be hosting a Christmas Pot Luck on Thursday, December 13 beginning at 5:30.

The social will be held at the beautiful Bowmanville Museum, part of the Clarington Museums and Archives.

The Bowmanville Museum was built as a one story Regency style cottage in 1847. Additions to the home in 1861 and 1880 have changed it to its present-day appearance as a two story Italianate styled house.

The Museum has been restored as a period home (1901-1930) reflecting the lifestyle of a wealthy merchant family. The nine rooms with late Victorian furnishings include a parlour, dining room, conservatory, master bedroom and a girl and boy bedroom.

Please RSVP with Charles Taws, Archivist by December 7, 2012!

Charles can be reached by email at:  claringtonmuseums.archives@rogers.com.

This photograph is from the collection of the Port Hope Archives.  It shows the Port Hope Band performing in Lakeview Park (Oshawa) in 1924,

This month’s header comes from the collection of the Oshawa Community Archives.  The photograph, circa 1930,  is of the Oshawa Laundry and Dry Cleaning Company.  The business was located at the corner of Mill Street and Lower Centre Street.

Oshawa Community Archives: A982.34.1, OVS #2

This month’s header is a photograph of the Brougham Hotel in Pickering taken sometime after 1880, which was when the double-decked veranda was added. The hotel was built in 1858 by John Gerow for Charles W. Matthews. The Brougham Hotel was a large building for its time, with an open shed to the west and a ballroom on the second floor. Livery stables and sheds were located north of the building.

Brougham is located at the intersection of Brock Rd. and Hwy. 7. It was one of the original settlements in Pickering and was the centre of municipal government in Pickering for many years until the Town Council was relocated to the south of Pickering in 1966. Today Brougham resembles a ghost town due to expropriation of the North Pickering Lands by the Federal Government in 1972.

On April 13, 2012 the Archives Assocation of Ontario approved a motion put forth for the formation of a new Chapter – the Durham Region Area Archives Group.

Along with becoming a new AAO Chapter, DRAAG also has a brand new logo.

The Bowmanville Boys’ Training School.  The facility was built on land donated by local merchant John H.H. Jury and opened in 1925.  It was a school designed to help boys who had come from disadvantaged circumstances or had broken the law.  During World War II the boys were sent off-site because their school became a German Prisoner of War Camp.  Extra barracks, guard towers and a double barbed wire fence were built and it became known as Camp 30.  This camp housed 700 of the highest ranking German prisoners and their time is noted for its many escape attempts and the Battle of Bowmanville.  The property became a school again after the war and operated until 1979.  It has had several owners since then and there is a movement to designate the site.

Photograph from the Clarington Museums and Archives Collection.