Outing the ancestors Portraits of 80 Island Acadian ancestors recently excavated from the Acadian Museum's permanent collection are schowcased in new exhibit
MARY MACKAY The Guardian
A new exhibit at the Acadian Museum in Miscouche is reaching across the generational divide for an unusual family reunion of sorts.
The Gallery of Our Ancestors: Renaissance of a People features an impressive collection of 80 charcoal portraits and photos of Island Acadian ancestors from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
And for the first time in all of her 103 years of living Célina Arsenault of Miscouche, formerly of Urbainville, it was an opportunity to set eyes on her great-grandmother Bibienne Poirier who died in 1892.
“She’s a nice looking woman,’’ apprises Arsenault, who officially opened the exhibit which will be at the Acadian Museum until mid-April.
The images in the Ancestors exhibit are from the Acadian Museum’s permanent collection, much of which was donated in the 1960s and 1970s.
“These are very precious because they show our ancestors’ various families. But if these people had kept them in their families they would not be accessible,’’ says museum director Cécile Gallant.
“There are a lot of descendants through Canada and the (United) States and because these photos are in the museum they will be able to see them someday, whereas if it’s just in the family it’s limited to who can see them.’’
Information about the subjects was also recorded at the time of the donation. Some of these historic tidbits, as well as information from the Acadian Research Centre’s genealogy database compiled by Jean Bernard, are included in the exhibit so people can better know the person preserved in a picture so long ago.
“These were donated in the ’60s and ’70s by elderly people (for whom those pictured) would have been grandparents or great-grandparents. It’s lucky that they gave them then because maybe today a new generation finding these in their attic would not know who (they were),’’ Gallant says.
Eighty of the oldest photos and charcoal portraits were chosen for the display. They represent 17 of the 30-some Island Acadian pioneer families, starting with the Arsenaults whose representatives take up an entire wall in the gallery.
One interesting aspect is that farmers or businessmen dominate the collection due to the fact that they could cover the cost of something that would be somewhat of an extravagance for the era.
Another is that many of the older adult images were grandchildren of people who experienced the Deportation of Acadians in 1758.
Françoise Arsenault Gallant was one. Born in the Malpeque Bay area after the Deportation, she was just 12 years old when her parents and other Acadians founded Mont Carmel.
Her portrait of her in a traditional Acadian dress in her later years shows that she was definitely not a slave to changing fashion.
“This is a very good example of Island Acadian women’s dress (which were out of fashion by the 1870s). Some of them wore the traditional Acadian costume until the early 1900s.
She wore that until she died in 1907 (at the age of 102),’’ Gallant says.
“So these photos are a very good historical document.’’
Longevity abounds in the exhibit. Large numbers of those pictured lived well into their 90s and beyond. For example, Barbe Poirier DesRoches lived to the age of 99. Four years before her death, an article in the Acadian newspaper of the time, L’Impartial stated that she was enjoying good health.
“Her eyesight is perfect. She never used glasses and she can thread a needle with as much skill as a young woman. She is always occupied, dividing her time between her rosary and her knitting.’’
However, one particularly poignant picture of Joseph-Emmanuel Gaudet, his wife Mannie-Céleste Cormier and the eldest daughter Thelma Gaudet at the age of four was a precursor to a tragically early death.
“She died of a fever on Christmas Day 1914, just following the family’s move to their new home in Wellington,’’ Gallant says of the photo which was donated by Jean-Paul Arsenault in Cornwall.
“(They were) his grandparents. He told me that they really loved her and you can tell,” Gallant adds.
Marie-Claire Gaudet, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gaudet of Alberton, was a unique find in the collection.
“She’s special because she’s a rare child and our only baby,” Gallant says.
“I think it was so special to have a portrait done and probably a bit expensive for people at the time. It looks like it was just done for the elderly in the family because not only do you not get many babies you don’t get very many young children.”
The display cases in the gallery contain objects or photos that are linked to the people on the wall.
For example, one is a snapshot of Joseph Arsenault, an amateur skating champion who skated until the age of 94. The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association gave him the title of open amateur world skating champion for the 85-and-older age category.
“And Ripley’s Believe it or Not had a cartoon on him,” Gallant says.
Even the frames are artful things, ornate and simple, large and small, oval and squared, they are as eclectic as the ancestor images themselves.
“It’s only when you put them up that you notice the beauty of them,” Gallant says.
One entire exhibit section is devoted to the mysterious, ancestors who have no names to put to their portraits. Gives gallery goers an opportunity to put a name to the face.
“We’re really hoping that the public can identify some, even one would be wonderful,” she says.
Bringing some of the oldest portraits in the collection to light has been an exploration into the oldest of Island Acadian roots.
“It feels like family, it’s a nice feeling,” Gallant says.
“It’s so beautiful to see their faces because (it was like) they were hiding. . . and now they’re out in the open for people to enjoy. Although you don’t know any of them, it’s almost like they’re talking to you, saying something.”
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Anna from PEI writes: They had great foresight to collect these portraits in the 60's when there were still people alive who remembered the late 1800's and knew who the people in the portraits are. It is true that today no one would know who was in the pictures and they are not often labelled. I think this is a wonderful idea.
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edward meyer from orlando, florida writes: The Ripley's Beleive It or Not! cartoon a concerning Joseph Arsenault was origianlly published November 7, 1933. If you would like to see a copy of the publication contact me by email and I will be glad to forward one. Perhaps they would like to hang one in Charlottetown govenment building?
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