But many objects in the Galt’s collections are essentially "voiceless.” Find out what that means and why in our most recent Galt’s Vaults video with Kevin MacLean.

Galt's Vaults, Online Presentation, VideosKevin MacLeanJanuary 21, 2022Galt Museum & ArchivesGalt's Vaults, Collections, Donations, Donor, Kevin MacLeanComment

Galt's Vaults: What can a First World War uniform tell us?

Local military historian Glenn Miller and Collections Technician Kevin MacLean discuss the many things that they have learned by examining this uniform.

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationKevin MacLeanNovember 9, 2021Galt Museum & ArchivesMilitary, Uniform, Collections, Galt's Vaults, Clothing, TextilesComment

Galt's Vaults: Volunteers

Collections Technician Kevin MacLean pens a love letter to a special group of Galt volunteers.

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationKevin MacLeanMay 25, 2021Galt Museum & ArchivesGalt's Vaults, Volunteers, Collections, Transcriptions, HAM Radio, Amateur Radio, Canadian Museums Association, Award, Kevin MacLean, Naomi HuberComment

Preparing Tapestry for Display

Collections Assistant Nicole Wilkinson is applying a cotton muslin sleeve to the reverse of a recently acquired Belgian tapestry in the Galt’s collection.

InstagramKevin MacLeanJanuary 21, 2021Galt Museum & ArchivesExhibits, Made In, Tapestry, Collections, ConservationComment

The Galt's Vaults: Why is there a CD Player in the Galt's Collections?

Collections Technician Kevin MacLean explains why contemporary objects like CD Players are added into the Galt’s permanent collection as important pieces of history.

Online Presentation, Galt's VaultsKevin MacLeanJanuary 15, 2021Galt Museum & ArchivesGalt's Vaults, Collections, Kevin MacLean, Cd Player, Music, ElectronicsComment

The Galt's Vaults: The Mystery of the Travelling LCI Jacket

After being separated in Lethbridge in the 1960s, how did a jacket and its original owners make their separate ways to the same community in the US decades later? It’s a mystery.

Online Presentation, Galt's VaultsKevin MacLeanDecember 2, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesFootball, Jacket, Collections, Galt's Vaults, Kevin MacLean, Donation, Material Culture, MysteryComment

The Galt's Vaults: Tell people why your objects are meaningful

If you want other people to value your stuff, you have to put it at risk; if you can, put it into use so that the people visiting you in your home can associate it with you and they can associate themselves with it too.

Online Presentation, Galt's VaultsKevin MacLeanMay 18, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesGalt's Vaults, Video, Plates, Porcelain, Dinner, Food, Donors, Donations, CollectionsComment

Galt's Vaults: What is "Museum Quality?"

We get over a hundred calls a year form people interested in donating objects to the Galt Museum & Archives. The calls always start with a pitch about the objects. Usually, the first words uttered by the caller are “I’ve got an old-old-old thing…” and sometimes that is followed up with “…it’s museum quality.” But what is museum quality?

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationKevin MacLeanApril 27, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesMuseum Quality, Donations, Donor, Collections, Accession, Database, bear, Toys, Punkinheads, Eatons, Loved, Museum, Lethbridge, GaltComment

What makes a piece of clothing of interest to museums?

What makes a piece of clothing of interest to museums? It might not be what you expect!

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationKevin MacLeanApril 21, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesKevin MacLean, Lethbridge, Wedding, Southminster United Church, Milk River, Carstairs, FarmComment

Did you know there is a length of rope used as a noose in our discovery hall?

Over the past several years we have received several items from the family of Edward Buchanan related to his time as a Staff Sergeant with the RCMP in Lethbridge. One of those items was a section of thick rope that his son Ted tells us was used in the penultimate execution by hanging carried out in Lethbridge in the late 1940s. Ted attended the hanging, and his father acted as the executioner.

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationKevin MacLeanApril 7, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesNoose, Rope, Hanging, Execution, RCMP, Buchanan, CollectionsComment

Why is there a CD Player in the Galt’s collection?

Collections Technician Kevin MacLean explains why newer, more contemporary objects like CD Players find a home in the Galt's permanent collection as important material history, and listen to donor Rod Schultz share this object's story.

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationKevin MacLeanMarch 23, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesCollections, History, Material Culture, Donor, Voice, Oral History, Interview, Cd PlayerComment

1920s Fashion in Lethbridge

As to what was shared with Kerry about her grandmother or the items, she said, “I just think that that handbag would be something that would have been a treasure because it was so intricate, and it would have cost a little bit more than what their socio-economic status was.”

ArticleKevin MacLeanApril 2, 2019dress, collections, handbag, death, orphanComment

Guitars, Ukuleles and Violins

ArticleKevin MacLeanMarch 19, 2019Guitars, ukulele, violin, musician, waltzes, community events, dancesComment

Preserving Canada 150

ArticleKevin MacLeanMarch 12, 2019Nikka Yuko, Winter Lights Festival, Canada 150, Lori Harasem, Jennie Sudo, Recreation and Culture, City of Lethbridge, Celebrations, Canada DayComment

From Church Bell to Ring and Crucifix

Berlando recently donated the ring and crucifix to the Galt Museum & Archives. The objects have been added to our permanent collection.

ArticleKevin MacLeanMarch 12, 2019Galt Museum & Archivesbomb, Virtue and Company, Law, First World War, Rita Berlando, Gladstone VirtueComment

From Motiograph to Digital Projection in Waterton

Until 2011 the Waterton Theatre played movies on a 35 mm Motiograph motion picture projector. That projector was donated to the Galt and is now part of our permanent collection.

ArticleKevin MacLeanFebruary 26, 2019Waterton Opera House Theatremovies, projector, waterton, theatre, opera, becker, brewerton, antcil, donation, collections, history, material, artefact, artifact, GaltComment