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Wilfrid Jury’s Christmas 1898

Jury family farmhouse
Jury family farmhouse

A Farm Boy’s Christmas, 1898

Written by Wilfrid Jury

The Christmas spirit started in November with practice on Tuesday and Friday night at the church for the Sunday school concert, one of the highlights of going to Sunday school. If you could sing or play the mouth organ, [jaw] harp or tin whistle, fine – otherwise you took part in a dialogue or gave a recitation. If you were lucky you got a ride there in a buggy, more often walked, hoping it would snow so you could get the cutter out soon. Skating wasn’t possible until Christmas, if you were lucky enough to have it cold enough by then to freeze the pond.

After the Sunday school concert Christmas preparations were in full swing. The house took on the Christmas smell – mince meat being prepared, the plum pudding mixed (everyone took turns stirring it) seeding raisins, shelling nuts, polishing cutlery. Getting the house straightened up for the big event.

Then came the Saturday before Christmas when all of us went to London. Read more

Staff Profile: Digital Content Creators

Meet MOA’s newest staff: Our Digital Content Creators

Hello, my name is Jordan T. Downey and I am working at MOA as an Archaeology Digital Content Creator.
Hello readers! My name is Katrina Pasierbek and I am thrilled to join the Museum of Ontario Archaeology staff as the Digital Content Creator for Education.

We are both creating some great digital content to enhance your online MOA experience.

Jordan Downey
Jordan Downey, MOA Archaeology Digital Content Creator 2015

Jordan:
Over the next few months I will be writing material for the museum’s website so that you can learn more about Ontario archaeology both before and after your visit to the museum. I plan to write a series of posts about how and why we do archaeology in Ontario and how people lived at the Lawson Site and other sites like it. I also plan to invite prominent and up-and-coming Ontario archaeologists to contribute to our website with some of their own projects and experiences. Read more

Work Study Profile: Falon

Education Assistant Falon Fox

Name: Falon Fox

How long have you been a work study student at MOA?  Since the beginning of November 2014.

What is your job title and what do you do? I am an education assistant, which means I assist in the educational programming of the classes/guests who sign up for activities. So far I have mostly been involved with the preparation phase but I am looking forward to the artifacts and tour portion of the programming schedule!

What led you to this position? The background I have for this position is my undergraduate career at Western. While studying history extensively over the past five years, it’s enabled me to memorize facts quite easily, which will of course come in handy for the artifacts and tour component of my job. Read more

Volunteering at MOA – What’s in it for you!

PowWow Volunteers 2014
Pow Wow 2014 volunteers at one of our community activity tables

Why volunteer at MOA, when so many organizations are seeking volunteer support? Why spend your most valuable asset, time, with us? In truth, this isn’t an easy question to answer because it depends on your interests and what you hope to gain from your volunteer experience. At MOA, we strive to give you a unique experience that not only meets your needs, but makes a real difference at the museum.

Archaeology brings the stories of how people lived to life and connects us to our shared human heritage. This gives us a sense of place in the world and helps us understand and appreciate each other more. At MOA, we are expanding our programs, making more of our collection accessible online, and developing new ways to engage people. We want to share Ontario’s archaeological heritage with as many people as possible. And we need volunteers to help make this happen.

Because archaeology is about people, we believe your volunteer experience should benefit you as much as it does us. As a volunteer, there are many different ways you can get involved. Have you considered?

• Getting kids excited about archaeology and First Nations’ history by helping with our many programs. Read more

Click on History

The Museum of Ontario Archaeology is proud to launch our new online catalogue. The Online Catalogue connects our collection to the community anytime and anywhere, enhancing our accessibility and promoting a shared knowledge. For the past two years, our curatorial staff have been working on digitizing our collection, a task that carries on today. Their hard work and dedication places objects into a searchable database based categories such as Object Name, Search Term, Accession #, and Collection.

Online collection screenshot

How to browse the collection: Click & Search or hit the Random Image button, however, if you are looking for a more specific object or image, use the Keyword Search or Advanced Search functions to find a range of similar objects relating to your search. Read more