A few weeks ago, I received pictures of three ventriloquist puppets as background information about a potential donation to the Museum’s collection.  Intrigued, I started looking into the subject a little further and stumbled into the fun and vibrant world of “Archie and His Friends”, a local TV show that ran in Winnipeg from 1965 to 1986 on the station CJAY-TV, (which later became CKY-TV and now CTV).  The show was hosted by “Uncle” Bob Swarts and was on TV every day at noon, with “Funtown”, a spin-off show, appearing every Saturday morning.  The main character was, of course, Uncle Bob, and his main sidekick was the ventriloquist puppet, “Archie Wood”, along with hand puppets like “Marvin Mouse”, “Duchess”, and a white dog named “Petite”, and other ventriloquist puppets like “Grandpa Wood” and “Tammy True”.

Archie Wood, Tammy True, and Grandpa Wood. Photo by: Nancy Anderson. Unless otherwise noted, The Manitoba Museum holds copyright to the material on this site.

Not being familiar with the show myself, I began my research into the subject by conducting some un-scientific polling among friends and family, asking them what they remembered about “Archie and His Friends”.  It was at this stage of my investigation that I discovered I was on to something pretty exciting, because every person I asked was very animated about their memories of growing up with this TV show and had vivid memories of the characters and episodes.  It was clear “Archie and His Friends” played an important role in the daily lives of Winnipeg kids, as many people expressed to me that they would come home from school, eat lunch and watch “Archie”, and that the routine was repeated every day.  Based on how often moments like “Petite” singing “How Much is That Doggie in the Window?” or “Marvin Mouse’s” rendition of “Winchester Cathedral” were recalled, it was obvious this had been an iconic show for at least one, if not two, generations of kids growing up in Manitoba during this period.

This articulation, in adulthood, of what watching “Archie and His Friends” as a kid meant to people has led me to think about what makes up today’s ideas of childhood.  More specifically, I wonder what kinds of things kids of the 1980s, 1990s, and the present day will remember in their adult years as being iconic of their youth.  Perhaps the “stuff” of children and youth won’t be “stuff” at all, but rather the memory of an experience of childhood, much like how “Archie and His Friends” is remembered by previous generations of kids.

I’m very excited to have “Archie Wood”, “Grandpa Wood”, and “Tammy True” join the Museum’s collection.  They are excellent examples of local television programming in Winnipeg in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and are part of the local history of this city.  More than just being good historical artefacts, however, they have tremendous emotional value, as I’ve discovered, because they belong to the iconic “stuff” of childhood and memory for so many Winnipeggers.

My special thanks to the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation, who donated these unique artefacts that are so evocative of an era.

As I’ve been digging through the Museum’s human history collection the last few months, I’ve come to appreciate the breadth of objects it contains.  Looking at some of the artefacts that have been collected over the Museum’s 40-year history, it’s apparent that many of these things are common, every-day items – things most people would look at and hardly think twice about.  As I’ve been researching the collection, what jumped out at me, for example, are all the pieces of footwear we have.  So, with apologies to Nancy Sinatra, this blog post isn’t about boots so much as it is about shoes.

My personal connection to the topic of immigration history and shoes is a story my grandmother has told me many times.  She was a refugee fleeing the Soviet Union on foot during World War II with her mother and only a small suitcase full of their possessions between them.  On their way to the refugee camp that was their destination in Holland, my grandmother’s shoes wore out and she traded some of her most prized possessions for another pair so they could keep walking.  As it turns out, the pair she traded for was too small – so much so, that she couldn’t walk with them and had to give them away in the end.  She and her mother did ultimately reach the camp, eventually immigrating to South America, later to Germany, and finally to Canada in the 1970s.  Of all the stories my grandmother could tell about her experiences during World War II, she rarely leaves this one out of the narrative of her journey out of the Soviet Union.  With this small story, she tells of her experiences as a refugee by focusing on a pair of shoes, on what they meant to her at the time, and what they cost her.

So what can a shoe tell you about a person?  Looking through the Museum’s collection, I’ve come across some very interesting pieces of footwear from all around the world that have a lot to say.  There are those which belonged to famous people, like the pair of children’s shoes that once belonged to King Edward VII in the mid-nineteenth century.

King Edward VII's childhood shoes, ca. 1845-1850. H10-1-124. Photo by: Andrea Dyck. Unless otherwise noted, The Manitoba Museum holds copyright to the material on this site.

There are the kinds of shoes that are not worn but displayed;

Varnished and decorated wooden clogs from Holland, mid-20th century. H9-24-596. Photo by: Andrea Dyck

or the kinds of shoes only worn on certain occasions, like the Sunday shoes brought to Canada by a Mennonite woman when she immigrated from Russia in 1924.

Sunday shoes, worn by a Mennonite woman and brought to Canada in 1924. H9-3-198. Photo by: Andrea Dyck

Many of the shoes in the Museum’s collection have made a cross-Atlantic journey with their owners for a variety of reasons, some of them maybe even just sentimental,  like these satin, ivory pumps, worn by a woman on her wedding day in England and brought to Canada in the 1920s:

Woman's wedding shoes from England, ca. 1920s. H9-25-255. Photo by: Andrea Dyck

Each of these shoes can tell us a lot about the people who wore them – what class they belonged to, what kinds of situations they found themselves in, their marital status, their profession, their religious beliefs, what kind of a world they lived in, or that they were in search of something new.

Though most of the shoes in the Museum’s collection originate in earlier periods, contemporary shoes of the last fifty or sixty years also have a story to tell.   We tend to forget the statement an object from the last few decades can make because it’s more familiar territory to us than something from one hundred years ago, but that doesn’t mean it can’t speak volumes.  This pair of women’s platform shoes from Brazil, for example, evokes the rise of hippie culture in the 1970s and everything that went along with that time in our recent history:

Woman's platform shoes from Brazil, ca. 1970s. H9-8-68. Photo by: Andrea Dyck

Black, leather shoes made by local shoemaker Wasyl Howika, as he converted his shop at Ness and McGregor from manufacturing boots for the Canadian military to making civilian shoes in the 1940s through to the 1980s, illustrate the evolution of a small business in the changing, post-war economy in Winnipeg.

Men's leather shoes from local Winnipeg shoemaker, mid-20th century. H9-24-752. Photo by: Andrea Dyck

Ballet shoes worn by Evelyn Hart when she danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet from 1976 to 2005, and donated to the Museum in 1999, speak to the history of the ballet company and the rise of the professional arts and culture world in Winnipeg from the 1970s onwards.

Ballet slippers, worn by Evelyn Hart, late-20th century. H9-32-419. Photo by: Andrea Dyck

Contemporary shoes, like historical ones, can tell us a lot about the era in which they were made and worn, and what was going on in the worlds of fashion, politics, culture, and economics at the time.  They demonstrate how these worlds can collide in something as simple as a shoe.

So, what do your shoes say about you?  Probably more than you would think.  If you have any stories you want to share about your shoes, or someone else’s, especially about those from the last six decades, I would love to hear them.  (Of course, I would welcome any stories, shoe-related or otherwise!)

Welcome to the Contemporary Cultures and Immigration blog! I hope to be able to share some of the interesting stories, fascinating artefacts, and tidbits of neat information that surface during the course of research and also to give you a taste of what life is like working at The Manitoba Museum. Being someone who loves history and what I’ve personally learned by studying the past, I can say I really enjoy that my work involves me walking through the doors of a museum every day.  I’m looking forward to sharing this love of history with the people who walk through the museum’s doors and with those of you who follow my blog!

c1888. Emigrant Sheds. Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba. Bole, Elswood 6 (N13803)

I know that many people think history is dull and dry, full of dates and names and nothing more. While it’s true that there are a lot of dates and details like that, I’ve learned that history is not only about those things. Instead, it’s a story we learn about other people and the story we tell about ourselves, and it’s through how those stories are told that history emerges. To me, this is the exciting part of history and that’s why immigration history and the narrative of newcomers to Canada throughout our country’s history are so compelling.

Of course, most people know about Canada’s history with immigration, both the good (our history of welcoming immigrants and refugees, for instance) and the bad (Canada’s exclusionary immigration policies like the head tax levied against Chinese immigrants beginning in the late 19^th century and extending well into the 20^th , as just one example). Maybe some people have a bit of a sense that Manitoba is experiencing a surge in immigration right now as well.

23 February 1927. Group of Immigrants Arrives at CPR Station. Courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba. Foote, L.B. 466 (N2066)

The Manitoba Bureau of Statistics has lots of interesting information on demographics and paints a fascinating picture of Manitoba’s changing population. For example, did you know that there were 151,230 immigrants (that’s 13% of Manitoba’s total population) living in the province at the time of the last federal census in 2006? Within that figure though are some interesting stats. In fact, at the time of the 2006 census, the majority of immigrants settling in the province came from the Philippines, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and the United States. Interestingly, the language reported as being the most commonly spoken in Winnipeg homes, aside from English, in 2006 was Tagalog, with French coming in at a close second.

(Look for “Immigration to Manitoba – Part Two” coming tomorrow!)

Andrea Dyck, will share with visitors interesting facts about her work at The Museum and the research she is conducting. You may subscribe to the RSS feed so you will never miss a post!