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: Made with Love

Collections Assistant Nicole Wilkinson discusses why handmade objects can make great museum objects full of connections and stories.

Galt's Vaults, Online Presentation, VideosNicole WilkinsonJuly 27, 2021Galt Museum & ArchivesCollections, artifacts, Galt's Vaults, Clothing, Sweaters, MuseumComment

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

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: Actively collecting Pride materials

Collections Assistant Kirstan Schamuhn talks about how the Galt Museum & Archives collects objects and what the difference is between passive and active collecting, using a recent donation of buttons from Lethbridge Pridefest as an example.

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

Willi Mueller's Chess Set and Painting

The Galt has been digitally releasing stories about some of those objects to online audiences. The most recent of the objects to be featured are a chess set and painting that belonged to Willi Mueller, a German prisoner of war. These objects are of national historic importance.

Galt's Vaults, Online PresentationGraham RuttanApril 1, 2020Galt Museum & ArchivesSecond World War, Chess, Painting, Hanging, Execution, Prisoner of War, POW, Camp, Medicine Hat, LethbridgeComment

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