Smithers’ Famous Photographer: Gilbert Clarke Killam

The following blog post was written by Dirk Mendel and Harry Kruisselbrink and originally published in the March 2016 edition of “Autumn Leaves”, the newsletter of the Smithers Senior Citizens Association. Early Life and the Klondike Gilbert Clark Killam was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on March 6th, 1863 to John and Lucy Killam. Gilbert’s […]

The Fourth Annual Cemetery Walk!

Join the BV Museum for our fourth annual Cemetery Walk, featuring new stories of past Smithers’ residents! The walk is being offered on two days in 2018: October 27th AND October 28th at noon. This is a free event. Donations in support of Museum events and activities are greatly appreciated. Please remember to dress for […]

Behind the Scenes: Digitizing Oversized Records

One of the goals under the BV Museum’s Strategic Plan is increasing engagement with and access to our collection items in the digital realm. Digitization has been a primary focus of our Museum over the past few years, beginning with the launch of our Collections Online website in 2016 (thanks to funding from the Documentary […]

Museum Mysteries: Fire Photos

Burning Questions While browsing the Museum’s photo collection last summer, we came across a mystery: four photos showing the aftermath of a major fire. They had no associated information: no date, no donor, and no location aside from a note saying “Smithers BC”. There are many unidentified photos in the Museum’s collection. However, we found […]

Upcoming Event: Canada Day Culture Crawl

The Museum’s popular Canada Day Culture Crawl walking tour is back again on July 1st! Historian Harry Kruisselbrink and Museum Curator Kira Westby lead participants on a walk through Smithers history, starting at the Central Park Building at 10am and finishing at the GTP/CN rail station. Highlights include a stop at the fire station, the […]

Upcoming Event: “Behind the Scenes” Open House

The Bulkley Valley Museum welcomes community members for an exclusive peek “behind the scenes” at our Open House! Drop in the Museum on May 24th and 25th from 12-7pm for a tour of our back room artifact storage area and to learn about museum curation and digitization with our staff. For more information about this event […]

Featured Artifact: Patent Medicines from the BV Museum Collection

Famous (or infamous) for their flashy advertisements and curative promises, patent medicines had their hey-day of popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Patent medicines existed to cure or prevent nearly every thinkable ailment: from pimples, to cancer. Many claimed to be effective against a large range of ailments, both internal and external. Patent […]

Winter 2018 Updates

  2018 is shaping up to be a somewhat off-beat year for the Museum so far! In January the Museum closed its exhibit galleries while we completed an overhaul of our museum storage areas. Brand new mobile shelving units were installed in both the Museum’s artifact and archival storage spaces, increasing our available storage capacity […]