Housed in a relatively small building, the museum houses a collection of artefacts, documents and photographs. They have managed to squeeze an amazing number of interesting displays into the building. They have pictorial and textual displays on the Swiss Guides in Golden, the first Sikh People, Explorer and Cartographer David Thompson, Riverboats on the Columbia River, Red River Carts (with a replica cart), Metis people, Early Settlers and the Stolen church of Windermere. Artefacts include many household items and appliances, gold mining paraphernalia, and, outside, a collection of farm implements.
Some of the holdings of the museum are irreplaceable pieces of Golden’s history and in 2011, with the financial help of some friends, in particular Columbia Basin Trust and Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, they were able to install a fireproof vault at the museum to protect the more valuable items.
The Golden Star, ever alert for a local story, published an article on the subject in July of that year (see below).
Fireproofing at the Golden Museum
to protect local history
by Colleen Palumbo - Golden Star
posted Jul 26, 2011 at 9:00 AM
The Golden Museum is partnering with Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) and Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance (CKCA) to secure important and irreplaceable pieces of Golden’s history by installing a fireproof vault in the Golden Museum.
“We feel really fortunate that we have finally managed to bring together all the funding to complete this crucial project,” says Colleen Palumbo, Executive Director of the Golden Museum. “For the past twenty years the Golden Museum Memorial Fund, a fund through which important and long standing members of the community contribute to the museum, has been collected and saved for this particular project. It has been in the making for a long time.”
This project will install a one hour fire rated vault with environmental controls to protect the important paper and cellulose-based written and photographic records of the Town of Golden and surrounding neighbouring communities. The vault will assist with maintaining stable relative humidity, temperature, light and air-born pollutants, all factors that contribute to the deterioration of archival material. The main goal with this fireproof vault is to preserve the material contained in it so that in a hundred years the material can be used to tell the history of this area.
The Golden Museum is grateful to acknowledge the monetary contributions of their two partners. The Golden Museum previously raised $6,000 through the memorial fund before receiving a great deal of financial support from CKCA and CBT. CKCA awarded the Golden Museum with a $20 000 grant towards this project and CBT topped off the contractors quote of $46,204 by awarding the Museum with a grant of $21,204.
The Golden Museum and the Golden and District Historical Society would like to offer our thanks to our partners in this project. Together we are preserving a crucial part of our community’s history.
From the Golden Star