MalahatTwo7
06-14-2008, 01:24 PM
Wonder if any of this will make it to the Musuem of the Regiments in Calgary. I hope so. Would be a very grand addition, even if only on temporary loan.
Sam Steele's artifacts and papers returning to Canada
Nancy Tousley, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, June 14, 2008
The military memorabilia and voluminous papers of Sam Steele, a Canadian legend with close ties to Alberta, will be repatriated to Canada by Prince Edward on June 19 at Canada House in London, England.
The Sir Samuel Steele Collection, appraised by Christie's London at approximately $1.8 million Cdn, is a recently discovered treasure trove that is considered one of the most important collections in Canadian history.
The material had been passed down through Steele's descendants in England, who wished it to be kept intact and sold to a public institution in Canada.
In fact, the Steele collection will be divided between two institutions in Alberta. The Glenbow Museum will acquire the military memorabilia and the University of Alberta will hold the papers. The university plans to make selections available to the public on the Peel's Prairie Province website.
The important collection was previously unknown to scholars and has the potential to yield information that will cause revisions of Canadian history. It will require a commitment of about $2.5 million in total to preserve and archive and scan the documentary material for public access.
"The highlight of the collection for us is Steele's medals and orders," says Loraine Lounsberry, senior curator of the Glenbow history collections. "They are literally jewels that are a distillation of his entire career."
Steele was "the quintessential military man of the Victorian period," she says.
A determined and daring "soldier-hero" who lived in what is now Alberta for 40 years, the Ontario-born Steele joined the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 and was one of the officers who led the new recruits on the March West in 1874 to bring law and order to the West. He participated in many of the important events in western Canadian history, including the North-West Resistance led by Louis Riel and the Klondike Gold Rush, in which he played a pivotal role.
In 1900, during the South African Boer war, he was offered command of Lord Strathcona's Horse, which he regrouped seven years later as a permanent unit in the Canadian Army.
"The collection contains artifacts that will bring Sam Steele alive; medals, uniforms, regalia and other personal effects," says Glenbow president and CEO Jeffrey Spalding.
The purchase was made possible by a $600,000 repatriation grant from Heritage Canada, a $450,000 commitment from the Alberta Ministry of Culture, $300,000 from the Glenbow Museum and funding from private individuals and corporations.
"This is a very big acquisition," says Spalding. "It's expensive, a lot of money. If we hadn't been able to put the package together to acquire the whole thing, everything would have gone away. That's what partnerships are, people coming together to achieve things that are larger than a single institution."
The portion going to the U of A Libraries, which is the larger share, contains thousands of pages of correspondence, memoirs, dairies, journals, notebooks, military logs, official reports, scrapbooks and photographs.
The collection will be repatriated to Alberta this month. The Glenbow is planning an exhibition of Steele artifacts in the fall.
I was a member of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadian) 88/92. They were my first post. There is a huge amount of history with the Regiment and with Alberta in general. I can't even begin to imagine what treasures of information could be contained in those papers.
Sam Steele's artifacts and papers returning to Canada
Nancy Tousley, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, June 14, 2008
The military memorabilia and voluminous papers of Sam Steele, a Canadian legend with close ties to Alberta, will be repatriated to Canada by Prince Edward on June 19 at Canada House in London, England.
The Sir Samuel Steele Collection, appraised by Christie's London at approximately $1.8 million Cdn, is a recently discovered treasure trove that is considered one of the most important collections in Canadian history.
The material had been passed down through Steele's descendants in England, who wished it to be kept intact and sold to a public institution in Canada.
In fact, the Steele collection will be divided between two institutions in Alberta. The Glenbow Museum will acquire the military memorabilia and the University of Alberta will hold the papers. The university plans to make selections available to the public on the Peel's Prairie Province website.
The important collection was previously unknown to scholars and has the potential to yield information that will cause revisions of Canadian history. It will require a commitment of about $2.5 million in total to preserve and archive and scan the documentary material for public access.
"The highlight of the collection for us is Steele's medals and orders," says Loraine Lounsberry, senior curator of the Glenbow history collections. "They are literally jewels that are a distillation of his entire career."
Steele was "the quintessential military man of the Victorian period," she says.
A determined and daring "soldier-hero" who lived in what is now Alberta for 40 years, the Ontario-born Steele joined the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 and was one of the officers who led the new recruits on the March West in 1874 to bring law and order to the West. He participated in many of the important events in western Canadian history, including the North-West Resistance led by Louis Riel and the Klondike Gold Rush, in which he played a pivotal role.
In 1900, during the South African Boer war, he was offered command of Lord Strathcona's Horse, which he regrouped seven years later as a permanent unit in the Canadian Army.
"The collection contains artifacts that will bring Sam Steele alive; medals, uniforms, regalia and other personal effects," says Glenbow president and CEO Jeffrey Spalding.
The purchase was made possible by a $600,000 repatriation grant from Heritage Canada, a $450,000 commitment from the Alberta Ministry of Culture, $300,000 from the Glenbow Museum and funding from private individuals and corporations.
"This is a very big acquisition," says Spalding. "It's expensive, a lot of money. If we hadn't been able to put the package together to acquire the whole thing, everything would have gone away. That's what partnerships are, people coming together to achieve things that are larger than a single institution."
The portion going to the U of A Libraries, which is the larger share, contains thousands of pages of correspondence, memoirs, dairies, journals, notebooks, military logs, official reports, scrapbooks and photographs.
The collection will be repatriated to Alberta this month. The Glenbow is planning an exhibition of Steele artifacts in the fall.
I was a member of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadian) 88/92. They were my first post. There is a huge amount of history with the Regiment and with Alberta in general. I can't even begin to imagine what treasures of information could be contained in those papers.