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If the walls and artifacts at Government House could talk, what stories could they tell? That’s the idea behind a new exhibit to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the national historic site.
“Our Stories: Artifacts Tell All” opened this week at Government House.
“It’s actually an exhibit where the artifacts kind of come to life and they share their own stories of what it was like to live and work at Government House,” explained executive director Carrie Ross.
Ross said her favourite artifact in the building is the Royal Landau which came to Government House with Lieutenant Governor George Brown in 1910. The landau, which is essentially a carriage, has been used for many royal visitors to Regina.
“My second favourite is of course George Watts’ journals,” Ross said. “He was a gardener here at Government House in the early 1900s so he journaled every day his trials and tribulations of trying to grow something in the gardens.”
She noted that this exhibit also has a very hands-on element.
“Many museums are very untouchable but this has a huge programming component where you can create a flower or dress up as John A. MacDonald and tweet a picture of yourself on the Government House twitter page,” Ross explained.
For Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield, the anniversary provides a great opportunity to learn about the history of the building that has been home to so many of her predecessors.
“It’s absolutely fantastic, I’m learning so much about this house,” she said. “I’ve been in my position now for four years, but each and every day I learn something new so it’s a mysterious but a fascinating place to be.”
She said her favourite part of the building is actually the new wing that was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.
The exhibit will be featured until October alongside two others, one which outlines the chronological history of Government House over the past 125 years, and another which celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Votes for Women in Saskatchewan.
