This fonds contains textual records, photographs and other archival material relating to the history and functions of the Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society. It includes material created for exhibits and research on Cortes social and natural history.
This fonds contains textual records, photographs and other archival material relating to the history and functions of the Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society. It includes material created for exhibits and research on Cortes social and natural history.
This series consists of binders compiled by museum volunteers to document various aspects of Cortes Island history. The binders contain a mixture of photographs, correspondence and research.
This series consists of binders compiled by museum volunteers to document various aspects of Cortes Island history. The binders contain a mixture of photographs, correspondence and research.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Ginny and Bruce Ellingsen, the Lambert family, Dolly (Jeffery) Hansen and Maryann McCoy, with additional historic photographs of Smelt Bay from the early to the late 1900s at the back. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Ginny and Bruce Ellingsen, the Lambert family, Dolly (Jeffery) Hansen and Maryann McCoy, with additional historic photographs of Smelt Bay from the early to the late 1900s at the back. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Additional information:
re photo on p 79: "Dell Tooker with Stephen Williams (son of Trefor Williams). The Titus’s were gone by 1960 when the photo was taken. This horse was “Lady” and belonged to Bert Hansen. He kindly loaned her to us sometimes which was so appreciated." (from Tari Tooker Chiasson, 5/2021)
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Additional information:
re photo on p 79: "Dell Tooker with Stephen Williams (son of Trefor Williams). The Titus’s were gone by 1960 when the photo was taken. This horse was “Lady” and belonged to Bert Hansen. He kindly loaned her to us sometimes which was so appreciated." (from Tari Tooker Chiasson, 5/2021)
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area from 1907-1930. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area from 1907-1930. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains a photocopy of a Province of BC bulletin on how to pre-empt land (1929), and a list of pre-emptions from the records in the BC Archives in Victoria.
Binder contains a photocopy of a Province of BC bulletin on how to pre-empt land (1929), and a list of pre-emptions from the records in the BC Archives in Victoria.
Cortes Island Museum maintains informational files on subjects of local interest as a research resource. Contents of files may contain clippings or photocopied newspaper and magazine articles, correspondence (including printed email correspondence) and other non-archival material. This is a dynamic file, with changes made on an on-going basis.
Cortes Island Museum maintains informational files on subjects of local interest as a research resource. Contents of files may contain clippings or photocopied newspaper and magazine articles, correspondence (including printed email correspondence) and other non-archival material. This is a dynamic file, with changes made on an on-going basis.
"Granite and Fossils" is a compilation of informatioin about Cortes Island fossils created by Christian Gronau for the Cortes Island Museum in 2002 and updated in 2016 and 2023. It has been digitized as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Christian Gronau studied palaeontology and geology in Germany. He came to Canada in 1972 and
worked in the mining sector in the N.W.T. (among other places), where he met Aileen.
Christian and Aileen (C&A) moved together to Cortes Island in 1978, where they lived for 34 years on a
water-access-only property, without hydro or telephone (Swamp’s Edge), supporting themselves as beach-
only shellfish farmers (Last Farm Oysters). Throughout, C&A have been avid naturalists, continuing this
tradition from their present home at the south-end of Cortes Island (Tanglebank).
Scope and Content
"Granite and Fossils" is a compilation of informatioin about Cortes Island fossils created by Christian Gronau for the Cortes Island Museum in 2002 and updated in 2016 and 2023. It has been digitized as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Series of 12 spiral-bound booklets containing information about activities, businesses, events, services and articles about various aspects of island life. There are two copies of 2015.
Cortes Island Information Books were initiated by Carol London, who wanted a handbook to give to guests at Tai Li Lodge. The first issues were created by Carina Verhoeve, and after 2012, by Gina Trzesicka.
Scope and Content
Series of 12 spiral-bound booklets containing information about activities, businesses, events, services and articles about various aspects of island life. There are two copies of 2015.
Fonds consists primarily of photographs and slides taken by Mary Weiler. Textual records include correspondence, several issues of the "Log" of the Columbia Coast Mission, and material about Victor Von Donop, for whom Von Donop Inlet is named.
Fonds is arranged in five series: 1: Photographs, 2: Correspondence, 3: Von Donop, 4: Ephemera, and 5: Books.
In April of 1947 Otto and Mary Weiler were recently returned from London, and they were war weary---Mary was recovering from tuberculosis, and Otto from injuries sustained in the army, and like most people in those days, they were left strapped by the Depression and the War--- but they had a dream. They chartered a boat, and traveled up the BC coast, seeking a place where they could live---in their words---"a happy, romantic, bohemian life".
Otto John—always known affectionately as Ottie---was born in Victoria, BC on March 27, 1903, to a well-to-do mercantile family. His grandparents, John and Christiana Weiler, arrive in Fort Victoria in the early 1850's from Germany by way of San Francisco, where they established a successful furniture factory and other businesses. Reminders of the Weiler family still exist in Victoria, most notably the six-story Weiler Building at the corner of Broad and Government streets, originally a grandly-appointed department store, and the Weiler cenotaph in Ross Bay cemetery.
Mary was born Mary Agnes Campbell on March 13, 1915, in Enderby, BC. Her grandparents were pioneers who arrived in the North Okanogan to farm in the 1880's. The family moved to New Westminster in 1921. After high school Mary studied nursing at the Royal Jubilee hospital in Victoria, and then departed for France, having decided to work her way around the world. When war broke out, however, she was evacuated from France at Dunkirk, and immediately joined the British army. She served a nurse in London for the duration of the war, and here she met Ottie, a major with the Canadian Scottish regiment. There were married in 1943, and both went back to their respective postings with the army, looking forward to the day when they could live together.
When Ottie and Mary sailed into Whaletown Bay, they were immediately enchanted by the house on the point, half-built and occupying 5 rocky acres of waterfront. They were urban and idealistic, and ready to throw themselves into life on a remote island. At first they turned their hand to fishing commercially. Their boat was twelve-foot clinker built inboard; a salmon license cost a dollar. In 1949 they were hired by Cece Stubbs to manage the Whaletown Store. When Gary and Velma Bergman bought the store in 1956, Ottie was offered the position of Whaletown postmaster, a job he held until a few months before his death.
Mary was an artist—a talented and serious one. In spite of the isolation of Cortes Island in those days, she made a name for herself as a British Columbia artist of note, showing her work widely and selling internationally. Her studio was the dining-room table, surrounded by a swirl of children, and her paintings and prints were created in the midst of the gardening, fishing and canning necessary to country survival.
Ottie was a writer---he had been a journalist before the war---and was a passionate gardener, fisherman, hunter and forager who tirelessly explored the trails and homesteads on the north end of Cortes, and beachcombed all his firewood.
They were both dedicated to community service. Ottie was Justice of the Peace, a thoughtful counselor once famously referred to by Gilean Douglas as 'a Justice who really practiced peace' and he also served on the boards of the Whaletown Community Club and other organizations for many years. Mary acted as a community nurse, as well as teaching First Aid classes, holding monthly clinics, and canvassing for the Canadian cancer society. She taught annual art classes and workshops for adults and children, and in the late '60s, she and Ottie opened a summer art gallery in their Whaletown home---the Garden Gallery---as a showcase for local artists and craftspeople.
Ottie and Mary had four daughters---Christina, born March 23rd, 1951; Brigid, born June 6th, 1953; Alexandra (who, however, has always gone by the nickname “Johnny”) born May 5th, 1955; and Sarah, born September 27th, 1958.
In 1973 Ottie died after a short illness, and Mary didn't want to stay in their dream home without him. In 1974 she sold the house and said farewell to Whaletown. Mary Weiler went on to many more adventures—studying, travelling, and always making art---and died in Victoria in1999.
[by Brigid Weiler, March 10, 2016]
Custodial History
This material was created or collected by Mary and Otto Weiler and donated to CIMAS by their daughter Brigid Weiler. The first accession was in 2003 (Accession #2003.002). There are two accruals: #2009.002 and #2017.001.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists primarily of photographs and slides taken by Mary Weiler. Textual records include correspondence, several issues of the "Log" of the Columbia Coast Mission, and material about Victor Von Donop, for whom Von Donop Inlet is named.
Fonds is arranged in five series: 1: Photographs, 2: Correspondence, 3: Von Donop, 4: Ephemera, and 5: Books.
