A secret fireplace is hidden behind a carefully decorated wall at the Spadina House Museum in Toronto. Photo: Twitter.
Photographs that were seized by the government due to possible national-defense issues. Ancient Paleo-Indian tools stored in an airplane barf bag. Paintings stolen in the 1960s that still have cut lines visible around their edges in the 2010s.
These are just some of the secrets of Canadian museums that have been revealed today on Twitter under the hashtag #secretsMW.
Created for the first day of international Museum Week, which runs March 28 to April 3, the #secretsMW hashtag encourages museums worldwide to reveal behind-the-scenes views of their activities.
Museum Week, which originated in Paris, is being touted as “the first worldwide cultural event on Twitter.” Other hashtags for Museum Week include #peopleMW (March 30), #futureMW (April 1), and #loveMW (April 3).
For #secretsMW, the Rooms in St. John’s, Newfoundland, chose to highlight archival photographs of a German U-boat that surrendered to Canadians off of Cape Race, Newfoundland, on May 11, 1945, and was later sailed into St. John’s Harbour. The photograph is one of more than 500 images the Rooms owns that were once seized by the government due to wartime defense concerns.
“Sometimes, when you’re in the field & you don’t have a proper container, you use a barf bag.” This is what Kiron Mukherjee of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto revealed alongside #secretsMW photographs of 5,000-to-10,000 year old First Nations tool artifacts from the Lake Abitibi region that had been stored in—yes—an airplane motion sickness bag.
The Art Gallery of Hamilton, for its part, used #secretsMW to remind the public of the fact that on April 6, 1960, 11 paintings were cut from their frames and stolen from the gallery’s Forsythe Avenue location. The paintings were recovered damaged in 1965 due to an anonymous tip, and then sent to the National Gallery of Canada for restoration. Cut lines from the robbery are still visible around the edge of the AGH’s painting Le Jeune Fitz-James by Fantin-Latour.
Here are some of the other Canadian museum secrets revealed today on Twitter:
Amazing! These photos were seized by the government in 1945: https://t.co/r4gscQNKjG #MuseumWeek #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/qeFst7WVT9
— The Rooms (@TheRooms_NL) March 28, 2016
Le Jeune Fitz-James by Fantin-Latour was 1 of the stolen works. The cut is still visible around the edge! #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/noNTS9tsGz
— ArtGalleryofHamilton (@TheAGH) March 28, 2016
Sometimes, when you’re in the field & you don’t have a proper container, you use a barf bag. #museumweek #secretsmw pic.twitter.com/oTBFhiDY5N
— Kiron Mukherjee (@kironcmukherjee) March 28, 2016
This secret fireplace hasn’t worked since the late 1890s but it still has original Victorian wallpaper! #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/WMZBE689Tb
— Spadina Museum (@SpadinaMuseum) March 28, 2016
William Holman Hunt drew his bride, Edith, on their honeymoon in April 1876, after a clandestine marriage #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/YHhwylJIJO
— Nat’l Gallery Canada (@gallerydotca) March 28, 2016
There is a ???? doggone tombstone inside the Grange House which you can discover behind a cabinet door. #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/M1a8WtvdgZ
— ArtGalleryofOntario (@agotoronto) March 28, 2016
The Antler Room- a collection of skulls, horns, antlers, & more, buried beneath the Museum. #museumweek #secretsmw pic.twitter.com/sODiqBCr8G
— Kiron Mukherjee (@kironcmukherjee) March 28, 2016
How do you move a 24 ft canoe to make way for the new #CanHistoryHall? https://t.co/ABUJh92eYQ #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/AaZ41U6PfQ
— Museum of History (@CanMusHistory) March 28, 2016
What is one of our best kept secrets? We’re overlooking Wreck Beach, Canada’s most famous nude beach! #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/fEdLO4Qxdc
— MOA (@MOA_UBC) March 28, 2016
Did you know @ROMPalaeo once had tons of fossils weathering on the Museum roof? #secretsMW #MuseumWeek #MazonCreek pic.twitter.com/KRIrUwxWA6
— Dave Rudkin (@RudkinDave) March 28, 2016
We have 1 of the greatest collections of Martian Meteorites. & sometimes you can hold them. #MuseumWeek #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/o6wj66h0fZ
— ROMKids/Kiron (@ROMKids) March 28, 2016
Some of our earliest exhibitions opened in the Main Public Library–now the @UofT bookstore. #secretsMW #MuseumWeek pic.twitter.com/Yz1GveU7fE
— ArtGalleryofOntario (@agotoronto) March 28, 2016
Early Morning Blues by Dennis Oppenheim is one of the gems stashed in our vault https://t.co/1xlNwjflza #secretsMW pic.twitter.com/zyI9dr8FMY
— Winnipeg Art Gallery (@wag_ca) March 28, 2016
#secretMW In 1880s, Art Ass. of Mtl firmly stipulated “no nudes” when borrowing works like this one. Times change! pic.twitter.com/0cYZxPY7Px
— MBAM (@mbamtl) March 28, 2016
1958, Molinari demanded resignation of J. Steegman, Museum Director, because he stated on CBC “abstract is sterile” pic.twitter.com/Ijlf1PSkgH
— MBAM (@mbamtl) March 28, 2016
