The Birth of Christmas

Canadians celebrate a wide range of traditions at Christmas, originating from all over the world.  However, in the early days of Brandon, around the time when it became a city, holidays and cultural identity were almost entirely borrowed from England. Therefore, the Christmas celebrations of Brandonites during the Victorian period were very similar to those which had begun to develop in England only a couple of centuries before.  This blog will focus on the Victorian experience by British subjects, whether in England or Canada.

                When we put up our Christmas trees and decorate for the holiday season, we feel as though we are taking part in an ancient tradition.  Truthfully, however, we are participating in a cultural experience which began only 170 years ago.  In fact, almost all of the major Christmas institutions we take for granted became popular in England during the 1840s, the first decade of Queen Victoria’s reign.

            

    Queen Victoria was one of the greatest trend setters in history, and her family’s influence on Christmas is a perfect example of her power. Few people in England had ever heard of a Christmas tree until 1941.  Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was German-born and for the Christmas of 1941 he brought the German tradition of decorating a Christmas tree into the royal home.  Images of the Royal Family gathered around their Christmas tree covered with candles and artificial snow were published in magazines around the empire, and soon indoor Christmas trees became widely popular.

                The first decorated indoor Christmas trees were somewhat different from what we are used to today.  Almost all decorations in the Victorian era were homemade, and most were also edible.  A typical tree would have candles, candy, and even wrapped cakes. Homemade fans were also a popular decoration.  Stringed nuts or popcorn were used as garland.  The first artificial Christmas trees appeared as early as 1860, and were made of feathers.  They were smaller than real trees and usually placed on a table.

                The mid-nineteenth-century was also the era in which the figure we recognize as Santa Claus emerged.  In England, Father Christmas had been an important part of the Midwinter Festival for centuries. However, Father Christmas did not physically resemble Santa Claus, and his main purpose was to welcome in spring.  The traditional English Father Christmas combined with the Dutch figure of Sinter Klaas in the 19^th century to create the jolly, red-clad man we know today.

                Almost all of the most well-known traditional Christmas carols were written in a small period of time, between about 1840 and 1860.  These carols include O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, Good King Wenceslas, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. This period also saw the invention of the Christmas Cracker and the popularity of hanging stockings.

                It’s amazing how so many traditions that are second nature to Canadians today developed in such a short period of time.  The relatively short history these institutions have does not take away from how powerful the idea of Christmas is to people in Canada and around the world.

The Importance of Having Archives

                Most people who visit the Daly House Museum have no idea that we are also an archives and research centre. The Stephen A. Magnacca research centre, which occupies the third floor of the Daly House Museum, houses hundreds of documents pertinent to the history of our city. Researchers are always welcome to visit and take advantage of these important resources.

                While archival documents have a reputation for being inherently boring, the truth is they contain a wealth of fascinating information. Little known interesting facts about our city’s lengthy history can be found in every folder.

                Why is this information and evidence about Brandon’s past so important?  One of the reasons is the lack of pride so commonly seen in our citizens. Many people do not realize that Brandon was one of the first major cities in Western Canada.  A pocket atlas found in our archives reveals that at the turn of the century, Brandon was much larger than either Calgary or Edmonton.  Brandon was also the location of the first medical clinic in Canada.  The clinic was opened by three local doctors, all of whom we have documents from!

                Without archives, many of these resources would likely have been lost or thrown away long ago.  However, we do much more than simply store documents.  We do two main things at the research centre: keep the archives safe and in a controlled environment so that they are preserved for future generations, and organize and catalogue the records so that researchers can easily find what they are looking for.

                Every document that is accepted as a donation for the Stephen A. Magnacca research centre goes through a lengthy process.  First, we must determine whether each document has historic value and is suitable for our archives.  These items must be unique, local, and from the early days of the city.  We have documents related to people, places, businesses, and various organizations.

                After documents are accepted, they must be stored in a safe way.  We handle documents with cotton gloves and keep them stored in a cool, dry environment in acid-free boxes and folders.  We remove any materials that might be corrosive.  Photographs and delicate documents are placed carefully in a material called Mylar, a transparent plastic that is acid-free.  Preservation can be a lot of work, but without it our city’s most valuable documents would fade and even fall apart.

                The other important step in archiving is making easy to use descriptions so that researchers can find what they are looking for.  Every folder we go through is described.  Then, when someone comes in to do research, one of our staff or volunteers can go through the database and find items that are useful to the researcher. 

                Many Brandonites do not know that the Daly House Museum has a research centre, and yet much of the work done by our staff, volunteers, and summer interns is directly related to the archives. We are just as proud of the archives as we are of the beautiful displays our visitors enjoy every day.

Back to School Back Then

Our city has been buzzing with activity since school started up again just a couple of weeks ago. The back to school season is something that has caused excited for citizens of Brandon of all ages, from young children to university students to parents, for many decades.  In this blog I’d like to focus on what the experience of the back to school season would have been like in the earliest days of Brandon.  It’s amazing how similar the school experience today is to that of a completely different era.

                The founding of Brandon as a city coincided with a larger movement throughout the Victorian world towards standardized public education instead of taking lessons in the home or simply passing down skills generation to generation.  Of course, this change did not happen all at once.  The Chautaugua Art Desk pictured here, donated to the Daly House Museum by Mary Lovatt, was a medium through which children did lessons at home; they would simply scroll down to see lessons and copy each lesson onto a chalk slate.  Practises like this persisted into the early 20^th century.

                The first public school in Brandon, the Old Central School, opened the same year the city was founded, in 1882.   At that time, there were only six classrooms and four teachers to educate the young people of Brandon’s growing population.  However, it was still acceptable during the first decades of compulsory public school for children to miss school due to family agricultural labour needs, which kept class sizes down significantly.  The number of children attending school in Brandon gradually increased over the next couple of decades, as did the number of schools in the city.  In 1889 five hundred children were attending public school in Brandon, and by 1901 that number had increased to a thousand.

                In 1890 a significant change was made to the public schools of Manitoba with the passing of the Manitoba Schools Act in legislature.  This act, now infamous in Manitoba history, led to the secularization and Anglicization of all public schools in Manitoba.  From that point on, Catholic and French schools had to be privately run and funded.  The material taught in Manitoba schools became increasingly pro-English.  Schools were designed to make children into good citizens of the Dominion of Canada.

                Prairie schools would have specific standardized textbooks designed to emphasize the lifestyles of most of the students.  For example, the textbook for spelling, The Canadian Speller, had a special edition for Prairie Provinces which included a large number of farming and agricultural words, due to the rural background of many students. Topics in western editions of The Canadian Readers, a series of books designed to improve students’ ability to read, include farms, nature, and winter as well as a series of traditional British fairytales.  Thus, the culture preferred by the schools and government was subtly imposed upon students.  At the beginning of each Canadian Readers book is a poem called, “The Dominion Hymn of Canada”, which expresses pride in Canada as well as the wider British Empire.

                The combination of British and Canadian content is a common theme throughout all standardized school textbooks written and published during this era.  For example, the Manitoba School Song Book published in 1940, which aims to put forth a collection of “song literature appropriate for use in school classes”, combines protestant hymns, songs about Canada, and Scottish and English folk songs.  While other countries are briefly touched upon, the emphasis is put on traditional British culture.

                A more extreme example can be found in the The Manitoba Readers books, which were provincial versions of The Canadian Readers.  In one edition of The Manitoba Readers, poems which are studied include “Canadian Timber”, “Canadian Boat Song”, and “England, My England”.  It’s hard to imagine poems which proclaim the glories of England being part of a core school curriculum today.  Even Canadian content isn’t as common as it used to be.  Of course, the large amount of Canadian content from this era was likely included as an attempt to boost national pride in a nation that was only in its earliest stages of development and identity.

                The types of lessons taught throughout the day would not be that different from the ones found in a public elementary school today.  Standardized science textbooks, such as this Botany one, were used for each grade.  The content of the courses, however, was slightly different.  Basic Darwinian principals such as “survival of the fittest” would be included along with various diagrams and explanations of plant life.

                Music and sports were also important parts of the school experience right from the beginning.  This Christie’s catalogue from the early 20^th century sells a variety of musical instruments and sporting equipment along with regular school supplies such as pens, paper, binders, and markers that are required for students today.  The school experience that we are so familiar with today clearly was developing by the end of the Victorian era.

                Overall, the day to day procedures and classroom experiences of school were very similar in the Victorian era to what they are today.  However, the content of the individual classes as well as the underlying purposes of public education were significantly different. 

Health and History: Medicine in Mutter's Store

There is a lot more to the Daly House Museum than simply a re-creation of a Victorian era house. One of our most popular and interesting exhibits is Mutter's Store, which is a re-creation of a popular general store in Brandon which closed down in the 1970s. This beautiful exhibit contains the actual furnishings, cash register, and safe from the store itself, as well as a collection of containers of goods that would have been sold in the store from the time it opened in the early 1900s onward.

When people come into our Mutter's exhibit, they are usually struck by the food and baking labels. Some are almost identical to the labels we see today, such as Magic Baking Powder. Some, like Old Dutch chips, are a familiar brand in an entirely different package. While these food packages tend to grab the attention of most of our visitors, I would like to focus on a different part of Mutter's store in this entry: the medicines.

Shortly after the turn of the century, Mutter's would have sold a variety of over-the-counter treatments; customers would be able to get all of their shopping done in one place, rather than having to go to a drug store. In the Museum today, we've collected a great variety of bottles and other packages of medicines that were popularly used from the Victorian period onwards.

Perhaps the only fact about these medications that is consistent amongst all of them is that they are not popularly used today. However, some are still in circulation. Some of these “natural” remedies were later proven to be dangerous and removed from the market. Some are perfectly safe and actually very useful. Either way, they were replaced in the market by prescription antibiotics and other modern medications.

One product that has greatly reduced in popularity but is still sold in rare cases today is Liver Salts. The name of this product is enough to turn many modern consumers away from it. Liver Salts is a white powder that effervesces in water, and it was popularly used as a laxative starting in the 1950s. Since then, it has been discovered that use of the product can lead to renal failure, and even cardiac failure. Understandable, it is only used today in extreme cases.

Another product that has almost entirely ceased to be used as medication is Camphorated Oil. Starting in the 19^th century, this “essential oil” would be used as a popular cold remedy via inhalation, such as Vapour Rub is used today. However, Camphorated Oil is toxic both through exposure to the skin and through ingestion. Therefore, it was dangerous to use extensively or the skin, or if there was any risk of ingestion.

Powdered Citric Acid experienced widespread use in the 1920s and 1930s. While this product is still sold regularly for non-medicinal purposes, any medical purposes it has today are widely different than what it was originally intended for. Citric Acid was taken as an anti-viral, to prevent or cure colds, in the period when Mutter's Store was first open. Today, it is used to make heroin more soluble. It is no longer used as an anti-viral because it turned out to be extremely erosive internally, and in some cases caused blindness.

One product that was useful but exceptionally dangerous was Boracic Acid. Dating back all the way to the 18^th Century, Boracic Acid was used as an anti-septic to solve extreme stomach problems. However, this over-the-counter medication was actually toxic to infants, which explains its near disappearance from markets today. In some cases, Boracic Acid was also used as a successful early acne treatment.

A product with a seemingly innocent name that turned out to be extremely dangerous was Oil of Wintergreen. This oil had many uses with which it seemed to be very successful, from simple ailments such as pain and inflammation to more serious medical problems such as heart conditions. However, there was a great risk of allergy or overdoes for anyone who took Oil of Wintergreen, as essentially the product was just a giant amount of aspirin.

Similarly, Blue Ointment does not sound like it would be a particularly dangerous product. However, it is no longer sold today partly because the need for such a product is no longer there, and partly because of how dangerous it was. Blue ointment was used to remove head lice, which is not nearly the problem it was 100 years ago. Also, the product was 20% mercury, making anyone was used it at serious risk for mercury poisoning.

The above products are some of the most dangerous remedies that were used over the course of the time Mutter's was open. However, many safer and useful products had been invented and were already being widely used during this time. One example of this type of product was Corn Salve. Invented in 1884, this product was used from removing corns. Perhaps due to the fact that no other product has stepped in to fill the need, and no particular danger was discovered in its use, Corn Salve is still widely used today.

Another interesting product that was not particularly dangerous was Sloan Family Liniment. However, possibly due to the fact that it did not work to cure any underlying problems, Family Liniment was only produced for about 45 years, starting in 1871. Family liniment was a popular pain-killer that claimed to cure anything. In reality, it contained Capsaicin, which reduced pain signals sent to the brain. Despite not being manufactured in recent decades, remnants of the product still sell like crazy on E bay.

While it can be argued that the use of Ephedrine Compound had serious risks, it was generally a useful and successful product. First produced in Japan in 1885, Ephedrine Compound was an early broncho-dilator used in the treatment of Asthma. The drawback to its use was that it could increase blood pressure. Today, the product is still used, but mostly in smaller doses and for the purposes of weight loss.

While early essential oils such as Camphorated Oil and Oil of Wintergreen were very dangerous, some other oil products were much less problematic. Eclectric Oil, which contained a lot of camphor oil, successful relieved coughs, colds, bruises, and strains without any extreme side effects. Eclectric oil is still sold today.

Epsom Salts, which were named for the area in England in which they were invented, were popular pain treatment as well as a laxative. Problems in the original product have been solved, and a more careful dosage is still sold today. Ozonol, a topical pain relief remedy, is perhaps the product from this era that remains the most popular today. Another product that has been improved to become safer is Castoria, a laxative first patented in 1868.

Tincture Iodine is a product which is still used, but with a different purpose than it was originally intended for. At the turn of the century, it was used as a disinfectant as well as a nutritional supplement. Because it contains alcohol, however, it ceased to be used as a nutritional supplement and today is just used as a disinfectant.

Like Ozonol, Zam-Buk is a topical pain relief product that was first used early in the 20^th century. The same company and formula for the product is still used today. However, it is much rarer, and cannot be found in Canada. Charcoal lozenges, a heartburn remedy patented in 1938, is still sold online today. Powdered Alum, first used in the 18^th century, was originally used as an immune enhancer, but has many more uses today.

Medicinal products sold over-the-counter in Mutter's Store varied greatly in their usefulness as well as dangers. What has consistently changed is the nature of how medications or marketed and sold, and how risks are assessed. The medicine cabinet in Mutter's Store provides a window into a different consumer world.

A Very Victorian Valentine

During the Victorian period, the celebration of Valentine's Day went through an incredible number of changes and transformed into the holiday observed yearly by North Americans in our world today. The unique social mores of the Victorian Age appear thoroughly in the literature,, artwork and advertisements that survive from Victorian Valentine's Day fetes. During this period of time, Valentine's Day went from being a somewhat obscure folk tradition to a widespread societal phenomenon and an important yearly consumer event.

Most people fail to realize how recently Valentine's Day as we know it came to prominence in North American society. The observance of February 14^th and its connection to St. Valentine likely began in the 3^rd Century of the Common Era, when a Christian monk, St. Valentine, martyred himself after refusing to allow the Roman Emperor Claudius a divorce, due to his belief in the sacrament of Christian marriage. He was executed on February 14^th, and the day became a minor Christian holiday in praise of martyrdom, self-sacrifice and Christian (rather than romantic) Love. It celebrated the love of God rather than the love between a man and a woman.

For centuries this concept of Valentine's Day remained largely intact, with the exception of deviations in local customs, and the adaptation of the same sentiment to non-Christian, or “Pagan”, groups of people. Valentine's day did not begin to undergo a major change again until the 13^th Century, when the work of English poets began to gradually bestow a new meaning on it. This poetic movement was led by Geoffrey Chaucer, who mentioned birds mating at the time of St. Valentine's Day in his literary work, “The Parliament of Fowls”.

Several other poets and early English authors began to contribute to what become a tradition of bestowing romantic themes on the day. Another example of such an author is Otto de Grandson, who wrote poems about lovers longing for each other, and themes of romantic spring times in conjunction with the February 14^th observance.

With the use of the holiday by these poets, the meaning of the word Valentine had drastically changed. For most people, it no longer had much to do with martyrdom. The word “Valentine” was used to refer to one's true love. Folk rituals took place in some instances where lots would be drawn to choose a husband or wife on February 14^th. However, the celebration of romantic love on Valentine's Day only became popular amongst aristocratic circles and some small folk groups of peasantry. Furthermore, the practice continued to be isolated in England.

This was the situation as it continued into the beginning of the Victorian Era. In the United States and Canada, some semblances of the English tradition had spilled over into their cultures. However, most people would not have even heard of Valentine's Day in North America before 1840, and if they had they would not have celebrated it. Within the next 20 years however, it would grow from a small exchange of cards to a major commercial enterprise and even a national holiday.

Growing out of remnant of the folk Valentine's rituals of England, Valentine's day cards began to be produced, particularly in the United States, in the 1840s. The incredible speed with which the custom grew can be attributed to two main factors: commercialization and marketing, and the romantic ideal which caused people to look for sentimentality in an increasingly industrialized and sterile society.

The marketing of Valentine's Day by greeting card and publishing companies was cleverly done. Advertisements invoked images of the ancient, mysterious figure of St. Valentine, claiming the celebration of romantic love on February 14^th every year was an ancient tradition. However, the truth about who St. Valentine really was remained unknown or even fictionalized. North American people were quick to accept the idea of a romanticized historical figure, celebrating the holiday in order to feel a connection to this mythical past.

In the first couple of years of its celebration in North America, Valentine's Day consisted mostly of the exchange of greeting cards between sweethearts. These cards were often homemade, but greeting card companies were still able to make substantial profits from the holiday. As the 1840s wore on, other valentine's specific wares were sold by greeting card companies, such as puzzle purses , cryptograms containing romantic messages, and embroidered handkerchiefs.

One of the most successful and fascinating marketing ploys that came out of the emergence of the holiday was the sale of Valentine's Writers. Manuals for behaviour were extremely popular in the Victorian Era, and these Valentine's books were no exception. They contained instructions for “how to woo” and how to express one's feelings in proper verse. The books contained sample poems and verses to recite on Valentine's Day, and would typically encourage the reader to come up with their own romantic messages based on these archetypes. Perhaps the most popular of these writers was a thick and thorough book titled, “Strong's Universal Valentine's Writer”. Publishing companies made substantial sales from the marketing of these books.

The marketing and magnitude of Valentine's Day was further advanced later into the period when Valentines were created and exchanged for all kinds of relationships, not just between couples or as a means of wooing. Parents gave Valentines to their children, friends and coworkers exchanged greetings, and eventually the custom spread to even the most distant of relatives. This change allowed greeting card companies to create a number of relationship-specific Valentine's Day cards, and further enhance their sales. The markets expanded rapidly throughout the 1840s before reaching a kind of plateau in the 1850s, which has remained relatively stable to this day.

As Valentine's Day progressed into the 1850s and 1860s, the celebration became more substantial than merely the exchange of greeting cards. Restaurants and other social businesses held special events for the Day, turning the celebration into a kind of romantic ritual. Small businesses and stores were created solely for marketing Valentine's Day products which could appeal to the whole family, making the day a family-friendly event.

In the 1860s, many of the finishing touches were achieved to make Valentine's Day almost identical to what it is today. Most importantly, the holiday was transformed from a modest celebration to an embodiment of all things luxurious. It was in this period that the sale of jewelry for Valentine's day became popular. Advertisements changed from images of modest families to women of luxury wearing fine silks and exquisite jewelry. Similarly, it was at this time the chocolates and flowers became so strongly associated with the holiday.

One important thing to remember when considering all this change is how criticism and satiric Valentine's Day cards also remained popular consistently throughout this period. Many educated critics were baffled that such an obscure tradition became a popular holiday at such an unprecedented pace, and that the commercial success of the holiday was so vast. Clergy were often critical because they believed the original meaning of the holiday, and its association with the concept of martyrdom, should be maintained. Most satire and criticism, however, was aimed at the cheesiness and phoniness of the holiday.

Overall, the impact the Victorian Era had on Valentine's Day was incredible. The holiday changed completely over the course of only two decades, and became the celebration we recognize today.