Archived Exhibits: Every Story Tells a Picture
Stories have always been with us. They come in many forms—myth, legend, fiction, history, scripture, sacred stories, fairy tales, and tall tales—but they all serve to entertain, to teach and to record.
Usually, when we think of stories, we think of the spoken or written word. However, objects have stories, too. They are situated in a network of associations with people, places, and events. As such, objects can stimulate us to think of our own network of associations with objects, with other people, and with the world around us.
These objects from the collections of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum have stories to tell. Unfortunately, we have only a part of the story, leaving us with numerous questions about each object's history.
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ABORIGINAL HISTORY · One shoe off · Hand and glove · Laying down arms · Up from the depths LIFE SCIENCES · Long ago and far away EARTH SCIENCES · A skeleton within a skeleton · Move over Muskox |
Pick one of the items in the "Every Story Tells a Picture" exhibit and write your own short story about it. Then enter our contest for a chance to win some wonderful prizes.
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One shoe off |
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 Dene camp in northern Saskatchewan. Courtesy of Sask. Archives Board. |
.jpg) Dene mother and baby in moss bag, Lac Brochet, MB. Courtesy of Sask. Archives Board. |
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Hand and glove |
Stoney men wearing beaded gloves. Photograph courtesy of Saskatchewan Archives Board.
Laying down arms
The remains of a Northwest flintlock gun—serpentine side plate, lock, trigger guard, ramrod ferrule, and butt plate—were found in the bush in northern Saskatchewan. This gun is called a Northwest gun because it was used for trade in the “northwest,” not because it was traded by the North West Company.
 Portions of flintlock gun found at Brabant Lake, SK. a) Northwest flintlock gun, b) butt plate, c) flinklock, d) trigger guard, and e) serpentine side plate. |
 Cree and Saulteaux men with rifles in 1928 at Lebret, SK. Courtesy of the Glenbow Museum |
Story starting questions:
1. Why did the hunter cock the gun and then not fire it?
2. Why was the gun left in the bush?
3. What does the “N44” signify?
4. Why is the trigger guard of a much older style than the rest of the gun?
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Up from the depths |
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Flotilla of birch bark canoes on Montreal Lake, SK.
Courtesy of Saskatchewan Archives Board.
Long ago and far away
Both of the specimens on display are remarkable because of where and when they were collected. The Limpkin (Aramus guarauna) eggs were collected in Florida in 1888, making them the oldest in the RSM egg collection. The Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) bones were collected on Funk Island, northeast of Newfoundland, in 1957, more than 150 years after this species had vanished from the Western Atlantic. Neither species lives, or has ever lived, in Saskatchewan.
 Limpkin, a large wading bird. Courtesy of Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) |
 Limpkin egg |
The Great Auk is a well-known symbol of extinction. For over 1000 years, large Great Auk colonies were visited regularly by people who depended on them for meat and eggs. The pressure on these colonies started to increase after 1500, and the last known pair of Auks was killed in Iceland in 1844. For a time, there were large bone piles on Funk Island, northeast of Newfoundland, where thousands were slaughtered for their feathers and oil and discarded. The bones in the RSM collection were donated by Doug Pimlott in 1958.
The Great Auk, now extinct was once common across the North Atlantic.
Story starting questions:
1. Why does the RSM have these specimens?
2. How many Auks are represented here? There is clearly more than one, since one of the bones is a different colour, but there could be several.
3. Why did Great Auks stay on land when people arrived? They were superb swimmers, but were clumsy on land and unable to fly.
4. What happened to the Limpkin that laid these eggs?
A skeleton within a skeleton
In 1995, RSM palaeontologists and volunteers excavated a large marine reptile called a tylosaur (a type of mosasaur) found on the south shore of Lake Diefenbaker. The tylosaur lived in a shallow inland sea that covered southern Saskatchewan 70 million years ago. They were quite surprised to find the partial skeleton of a smaller mosasaur species (Plioplatecarpus primaevus) in the body cavity of the larger marine reptile.
Partial mosasaur skeleton (Plioplatecarpus primaevus)
Story starting questions:
1. Why was the skeleton of one mosasaur found within the body cavity of the other?
2. What did mosasaurs eat?
3. What animal do you think might be the closest living relative of the mosasaurs on the reptile family tree?
Move over muskox
The last thing you want to encounter when digging a grave is a skeleton at the bottom of the hole. This is exactly what happened in Tompkins in 1994. Grave diggers uncovered the skull and neck vertebrae of a muskox that died sometime during the late ice age, more than 10,000 years ago.
 Female Muskox |
Story starting questions: 1. How did the muskox die? 2. How would you react if you discovered strange bones while digging a grave? 3. Is the rest of the skeleton there, and if so, would there be complications in trying to recover it? 4. What does this discovery of a muskox suggest about the climate in Saskatchewan at that time in our history? |
In October and November, visitors to the exhibit were eligible to enter a story telling contest by picking one of the items on display and writing a short story that answered some of our questions or even their own questions about the object's history.
The Adult Category prize was presented to Barbara Wickstrom for her award-winning story about finding the Muskox bones. Click here to read her story.
Presenting the 2006 Story Telling Contest Adult Category prize to Barbara Wickstrom in the Life Sciences Gallery. (from left to right: David Baron, Barbara Wickstrom, Margaret Hanna, and Penny Pedersen)
For further information contact the Exhibits Unit
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