The Kingston and Area Association of Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Sites hosted their second Bring Your Thing pop-up museum at the Isabel Turner Library in February 2017. The theme was “What’s Your Story,” and was a great success. We saw many new faces, a few familiar ones and some incredible items!

The Marine Museum showcased a St. Lawrence Seaway plate featuring the opening of the interior of Canada connecting American and Atlantic shipping.

W.D. Jordan Special Collections was also there and brought along some unique finds. The first was a book with a fore-edged image of Kingston said to have been based off of a W.H. Bartlett print. Also of interest was a book of gems, filled with family shields allowed visitors to look up their own families and shields!

If you are interested in learning more about your family and genealogy check out the program at the Isabel Turner Library.

Maple Syrup:

What’s the story behind this bottle of maple syrup, you may ask? Well in 1811, Augustine Henry Walt, born in 1754 America, moved to Canada in search of land.  After petitioning and being granted land ownership they began producing maple syrup, hence the bottle of maple syrup.

Quilt:

This red and white handmade quilt was stitched specifically for Margi McKay’s father in the early 1920s and has been in their family ever since. Each square has a different image inspired by advertisements from the time period. This quilt is even more interesting because of the Redwork embroidery used, which was an inexpensive, fast and very popular quilt practice in the early 1900s.

Autographed Books:

What make these autographed books brought by in Karen Bryson truly interesting is not that they were signed by celebrities (i.e. Charlie Chaplin, Frank Hines), but that they were also signed by members of her family. Exchanging autographed books between friends and family was very popular practice at the time. Did you know that as early as the 15^th century people were exchanging autograph and friendship books with drawings, personal messages, poems and other notes inside?

Special Guest and Performance:

A highlight of our event was special guest Selina Chiarelli, who lead a discussion on the best ways to share our stories, but also her father, Charly Chiarelli who shared his harmonica story.

The next event happened on March 9^th, 2017 at Kingston Military Family Resource Centre (KMFRC). The theme of the event was, “Where I’ve Been.”