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  Researching the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada
  Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada

 

Volume 7: Number 3

NATIONAL HISTORIC SITES OF CAPE BRETON
LIEUX HISTORIQUES NATIONAUX DU CAPE-BRETON

Vol. 7, No. 3
March - mars 2005

GAEA Award

The winners of the Gaea Award for Environmentally Friendly Activities for the month of March are the personnel in the Yard Office.  They have improved their recycling efforts to include rinsing all cans and bottles and placing in blue bags, and they have made a start at composting their foodstuffs.  Pictured below is Green Committee member, Anne Marie Lane-Jonah presenting the Gaea to Harry Kennedy, Philip Burke, Carl Bishop and Philip Hoad. Missing from the picture are Stan Pink, Bill Cann and Minnie MacLeod.
Yard Office Staff

Click on the
Image to Enlarge 
it

Congratulations to the Yard Office Staff for their efforts 
to become more "green".  Every bit helps.

New Exhibit

For June through to October, we will be having a bilingual travelling exhibit on education in New France in the Old Museum. The exhibit tells about the arrival of Marguerite Bourgeoys and the start of public schools in New France. Sections deal with the education of girls, cultural exchanges, learning to read and to write, free schools and popular schools, etc. It emphasizes education in Canada in the 17th century, just before Louisbourg's time period. There is also a section on Acadia. The exhibit wil serve as a good context for some of the same aspects in our exhibit about the sisters of Notre-Dame in Louisbourg.

The exhibit was produced by Maison Saint-Gabriel in Montreal which is run by the Congregation of Notre-Dame. Also pariticipating in the exhibit are the Museum of Education in Rouen (France), the Museum of Civilization (Hull) and Saint-Boniface Museum (Manitoba).

Miami Trip

In early March I was very fortunate to be in Miami on work purposes.  I say this with tongue in cheek, as it was March break and the place was flooded with school kids enjoying the sun, taking up all the restaurant space and generally coming to life when we "normal" folks are heading to bed!  

I was there to meet with senior representatives of the cruise industry (who all have their corporate offices in Miami or Ft Lauderdale), talking to them about Louisbourg.

Five staff from the Heritage Presentation and Client Services unit joined me and did two presentations to groups of cruise industry representatives, tour operators and other types of suppliers at two separate venues.  The presentations were very well received.

Between the formal office meetings and the networking at the venues, we were able to enhance the awareness of where and what Louisbourg is and give them a sample of what their clients would experience on a visit here.

We now have a much better understanding of what the industry needs from us, what would make them come our way and stay a day here with us, how we can promote interest in Louisbourg to their passengers and have begun establishing relationships that will make it happen.

The cruise and bus tour industry is a huge market for us and is our primary target for the near future.  We will be working to solidify relationships and offer programs that match the market in the next year.

It was a very successful visit and getting a bit of a tan was an accident..  sorry about that.

Georgina Leslie

Year of the Veteran

The Government of Canada has announced this year to be the "Year of the Veteran".

This will pay tribute to all Canadian service men and women including veterans and current members of the Canadian Forces, veterans of the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War.

Many events will be taking place throughout the year both here in Canada and overseas to thank and remember our veterans of the past wars.  

AGB News

Below is a letter from the Letter Books, January 29, 1885 written by John Fiske in Washington D.C. to his wife describing Alexander Graham Bell:

Dear Abby:

I have struck up a friendship with ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, the inventor of the telephone. He lives in the most palatial house in Washington, 1500 Rhode Island Avenue. He gives musical parties on Monday evenings, men only. He plays the piano very finely himself and they have trios with violin and cello. I have been to two of the parties after my Monday evening lectures. Bell asked me to bring some songs and sing and last Monday I did so. He accompanied me in some of them and an old German named Ulke in others. I was in very clear voice and sang among other songs 'The Earl King', and Rubinstein's 'Die Thrane' and brought down the house. Bell is a very enthusiastic man; he seized me by the hand and exclaimed, 'O what a truly splendid singer you are!'. After the music they have a delicious but very simple supper; some oysters, a fine salad, some slices of bread and butter folded together, and some excellent beer. I am more impressed by Graham Bell than almost any other man I have seen since Huxley; he is a superb object to look at.

Now, back to the present.

Work is underway to replace a 30 year old installation of smoke detection devices with new units and conductors.

Heavy rainfall in March highlighted the leaks in some areas of the museum and the potential for flooding in the women's washroom became a reality in the admin area. It is of note that the only dry area in that washroom when it flooded was the area around the drain. Solutions for these situations include the strategic placement of our growing assortment of buckets and use of the Shop Vac and a fan in the interim while we wait for the roof renovation which is scheduled to begin in September.

We are continuing to respond to requests for enhanced programming for cruise visitors.

Digital photos for FHBRO purposes were taken and forwarded of the unique wood construction features in the original museum A-frame which opened in 1956.

With regard to the Baddeck Liberated Learning Showcase (BLLS), Valerie Mason reports that over the past month, several heritage interpreters from AGBNHSC have begun training their voice models for the coming visitor season. To train their voice models, they speak into the computer using a microphone, and then go back and correct any transcription errors the computer may have made.  In this way, they "train" the computer to recognize their individual ways of speaking. At this point, IBM researchers in Israel are working on an even faster way to improve users' voice models, and the guides involved were interested to learn that their digitalized "voices" were being sent to

Israel for research purposes! IBM expects to have the BLLS up and running at the beginning of the Visitor Season. The benefits derived from the research  being conducted in Israel will be available to guides next month, as part of the Showcase.

Gary Pierrard, General Works, attended the "Communities in Bloom" information session held at Inverary Inn. Baddeck is applying to become part of this program which strives to improve the tidiness, appearance and visual appeal of Canada's neighbourhoods, parks, open spaces and streets through imaginative use of flowers, plants and trees. A focus on environmental awareness and preservation of heritage is also part of the program's success.       

The CBI-FU Marketing Group (Georgina Leslie, Mark Sajatovich, Elaine Wallace, Heather Dixon, Aynsley MacFarlane, Sharon Morrow) met at AGBNHSC and is drafting the makings of a marketing plan and looking at developing a publication to promote all operations.

Aynsley MacFarlane attended a session on "branding" for Baddeck and area that will help place the community in the tourism marketplace. The initial discussion showed that those present view Alexander Graham Bell as a very strong identifier for the area.

Congratulations to Sharon Morrow on the marriage of her son January 31st at La Malbaie, Quebec; to Anne MacRae on the marriage of her son February 28th in the Dominican Republic; and to Sean Cox, Electrical Contractor, on the birth of his son Jake (9lbs. 8 ozs.), March 8th in Antigonish.

Condolences

Condolences to Sharon Morrow on the death of her father who passed away February 10th after living courageously with cancer for one year after his diagnosis.

Sincere condolences to Sheila Fudge and family on the death of their brother, Carl Skinner on February 27th.

Sincere condolences to Alex Campbell and his family on the death of his mother-in-law, Selena Hollohan on March 16th.

Anyone wishing to submit an article to the Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Please forward to Donna MacNeil at donna.macneil@pc.gc.ca  or telephone 733-3551.

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