#ThrowbackThursday: Good Luck!

In September, 1971, the ROM opened the landmark exhibition Keep Me Warm One Night, a kaleidoscopic display of over 500 pieces of Canadian handweaving. It was the culmination of decades of pioneering research and collecting by the ROM curatorial powerhouse duo 'Burnham and Burnham’, aka Dorothy K. Burnham and Harold B. Burnham.

To kick off the one-year count down to the ROM’s conference, Cloth Cultures (November 10-12, 2017), which will commemorate Dorothy Burnham’s many legacies, and to mark Canada’s approaching 2017 Sesquicentennial, we will be posting bi-weekly excerpts from Dorothy’s journal of Keep Me Warm One Night. We hope you will enjoy this unofficial glimpse into the bygone days of the ROM, and into the pioneering days of textile studies.

Transcript:
Thursday - August 26th

John & I worked on The Quebec areas and the Summer & Winter. We had done rough lay-outs for them on the floor upstairs which helped and they went into place fairly easily. There is no chance yet of getting a preparator to help with the putting up and it is very heavy physically. I am about dead on my feet and John who has been doing all the heavy stuff is looking rather worn. Maybe next week when the ceramics have gone & the special show that is going up in the downstairs rotunda is up we'll be able to get some help. The only preparators that can be spared so far for thsi show are working on painting etc. There are simply not enough bodies to go around with all the demands there are on them

Charlotte was working on the gauze dress which needs quite a bit of mending before it can be shown. Judy had sleeves to put on some of the material to help with the hanging Harold writing labels - Liz typing - typing.

The ceramics now packed but the place is still all cluttered up. The carpenters are managing to put the plinth in at the back

Transcript:
inspite of all the confusion

In the back the French ceramics are packed and ready for shipment. In the foreground the empty cases from the ceramic show still clutter the middle of the floor space

In spite of it all the carpenters are managing to build the plinth along the other wall - Donald

Transcript:
This was sewn into a cushion by Charlotte & appeared after the show was over.

good luck! 27 Aug. 71.

Charlotte is taking all departmental telephone answering to leave the label typer dear of interruptions. She is working on mending the gauze dress.

Some of the Quebec material going into place.

Transcript:
The Quebec linen boutonné coverlets are so heavy that they need sleeves put on the top so that they can hang straight from a rod rather than being pinned. Judy copes with them up in the Study Room.

The carpenters. Donnie & Mike working on the plinth on the west wall with remmants of the French show all around them.