Inside the Box: hand made Patrol badges

 

Today I was investigating a file drawer marked 'Display'. I opened a file marked 'International' and a folder labelled 'Netherlands'. The first item was this colourful postcard commemorating Thinking Day celebrations in the Netherlands in 1951.

How might a kite be a good symbol for Thinking Day? Which countries' flags are on the kite string? What is Thinking Day called in the languages spoken in those countries? What do they call Guides?

Who would you like to send a Thinking Day postcard to?

 

Next came printed cards with the Guiding Promise and Law in Dutch, and beautiful illustrated borders.

 

Do you know someone who speaks Dutch? Can you work out what the Promise and Law say? How might you try to translate them? Are the Dutch Promise and Law still the same? How do they compare with the Canadian Promise and Law?

 

Then, a sheet of items relating to Dutch Guiding. Do you think that's a pair of Brownie wings at top left? I think the three round badges embroidered in blue are programme or interest badges. What activities or interests do you think they might represent?

So far we don't have, or haven't found, much more information about these display items. But let's take a closer look at some of these things.

 

The photo is labelled in English 'Woodpigeon Patrol 1951'.

Are these Dutch Guides? How do their uniforms compare with the second picture on this page? 

What are the Woodpigeons doing? Click on the photo for a larger version.

I think they are working on their First Aid badge - they are carrying one Guide on a stretcher in the background, and the Guide sitting near the front of the picture is having her head and arm bandaged.

What was life like for girls in the Netherlands in the early 1950s?

 

Let's zoom in on the colourful bird badges - they are Patrol badges, measuring a couple of inches across. They are stitched by hand! Can you see what they are made of? How can you tell?

 Can you work out which birds they represent? What are those birds called in Dutch?

• − • − • 

Inside the Box - Guide House guest book

 

Archive team leader Emma was recently checking, and describing the contents of (cataloguing) this box of historic SVI Division and Area visitors' books.

 

This volume is the first guest book for Guide House - entries start in 1952 and end when the book was full in 1988.

It begins with an inscription from Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, who at that time was World Chief Guide. She writes, 

'I am so proud and glad to have been privileged to open this charming Guide Headquarters. May it be a valued centre for many happy gatherings, and give encouragement and inspiration to succeeding generations of Guides and Guiders for carrying out their own allotted tasks in this great World Fellowship that we all serve together. Best wishes to one and all.

'Olave Baden-Powell

'May 8th 1952'

 

Here are 3 photos from that guest book - dates and photographers are not noted and there are no captions. Archivists learn to be good detectives, assembling and evaluating clues from different sources and contexts to interpret data and objects. 

Where is this building? It's in a Guide House guest book, so we would expect that. It's fixed into the book, so it's not there by accident. The Girl Guide sign on the wall and the uniforms demonstrate the Guiding connection as well. The address is 1270, shown on a sign at the right of the picture. It's a Guide hall, certainly - but it's not the current Guide House in Mason Street; that's clear from the unusual shape of the building. 

Update: one of our Area Commissioners confirms that this was the previous Guide House, at 1270 Pandora Avenue. How do we check? The City of Victoria Archives holds a photo of the property from 1960 (click here) - that's the one.  We know it opened as Guide House in 1952. Was it a new building then? There's more to find out from the visitors' book itself and from Area records... The building was still there in 2015 - check the address on an internet maps site. And have a look next time you're in the 1200 block of Pandora!

When was this picture taken? It's in black and white, and the uniforms are specific to a certain period in Guiding. Is it from the opening? It seems a small group, and doesn't include Lady B-P.

 

These two photos are from the front of the guest book. The prints are in colour but they are very small, about 8x10 cm, so the detail is hard to make out. This shows one of the benefits of being able to digitally scan or photograph old photos and other archival materials: it's easy to magnify a digital image to see the details, and damaged photos can often be 'virtually repaired' so the image is clearer. This doesn't change or replace the original; it's a tool for understanding the original.

Here is a BIG group of Brownies; if you look at the full-size version of the photo, you will see Lady B-P standing near the top left; she must be giving a speech. The photo is from the front of the guest book - is Lady B-P opening Guide House? What else can we tell from this picture? What other questions do we need to ask? Where else might we look for answers?

 

This photo was mounted directly below the one of Brownies: it shows  a long procession of Guides with flags, outdoors, on a sidewalk, ready to go into a large stone building. There is no caption to explain the date or the occasion.

I think it's a Church Parade at the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral on Burdett Avenue in Victoria, probably on or near Thinking Day in February. What clues are there in the picture, and how could we check?

* * *

We don't know any more about these photos yet! Tune in for more clues, probably more questions, and maybe an answer, in a future post... If you know the answers, please drop us a comment or an email.

welcome to the archives - a look inside

Welcome to SVI Archives! 

The archives are kept in one of the ground floor rooms at Guide House in Mason Street. This room used to be the Guide Shop! It is set up with lots of shelves for the boxes of archives, and a big table for us to work at.

The archives have been put into special boxes and envelopes made of acid-free paper. This means the paper will last a long time and won't damage the archives as it ages. Do you have yellowing newspapers or paperback books with brownish pages at your house? That discoloration comes from the acid in the paper. It's not good for archives!

 

The present Archives team is not the first to work in this archive - dedicated people have been keeping careful track of material deposited over the years. Any archivist will tell you: our work is never done! but we are very grateful for the organization and attention to detail our predecessors have given to their work. We hope they like what we do next.

 

Most of the archives are written or typed on regular sized paper, but there are also photographs, badges, pins, scrapbooks, slides, audio recordings, heritage uniforms, printed books and other objects that don't fit in standard size boxes. Storage is found for them too - archivists have to be inventive!

Some things, like uniforms, need big boxes, shown on the left. Others, like the Sea Ranger albums at the top of the photo above, may be better kept standing on shelves than lying in a box - this way, it's easy to identify and access each volume.

Stay tuned for a look inside the boxes...

Welcome

Welcome to the blog of Southern Vancouver Island Girl Guides of Canada Archives! We are working to catalogue the archives, prepare them for a move, and create some heritage boxes to share with SVI units at all levels. We hope the blog will serve several purposes:

- to let SVI members know what's happening in the archives these days

- to increase awareness of and access to the resources - the archives and the team! - available to all Guiders, Trainers, girl members, potential donors and anyone interested in the history of the Area

- to highlight individual items of special interest and provide ideas for using them as programme resources/meeting activities

- to increase awareness about what archivists do, as it's a little-known career option

These pages are under construction...


Coming up:

• FAQ
• Thinking Inside the Box
• #HeritageMinutes
• Archives Alphabet
• #Archive30
• SVIGGC Heritage Boxes (Area Programme Coordinator)

Required colours, logo etc

Team profiles

Contact: sviggcarchives [at] gmail.com