Christeah Dupont, Assistant Curator, Point Ellice House Museum & Gardens
April, 8 2022
When the phone at Point Ellice House rings, it is usually someone calling to inquire about our
events, hours, or sometimes they call asking for the meat department at Thrifty Foods (which
happens to be one digit off from our telephone number). However there is another type of caller,
one that many museums encounter. These callers inquire about donating objects, textiles, or
even furniture to Point Ellice House with the hope that their item – usually some kind of family
heirloom – might join our existing collection of over 12,000 artifacts. We have been offered all
sorts of antique and vintage items, from lace doilies to pump organs.
The conversations usually don’t last very long – we have to be sure that the potential donation is
relevant to the history of either Point Ellice House or one of the families who lived here. To
make sure that an object meets our site mandate I usually ask the following questions: What is
the provenance (or history) of the item? Does it have a direct connection to Point Ellice House?
To the O’Reilly or Wallace families? In nearly all cases, the items have no connection to Point
Ellice House and, unfortunately, we have to reject the gracious offers of Grandma’s tea towel
collection.
Recently, however, there was a donation offer that met the above criteria. The call came from a
person who briefly lived with John and Inez O’Reilly at Point Ellice House in the 1960s. At that
time, the potential donor was offered two items from the house as wedding gifts: a green
demitasse cup and saucer with a beautiful peacock design and a small embroidered bench. The
cup and saucer were particularly interesting as they match a set that already exists in the
collection, giving further credence to the story. By accepting this cup and saucer into the
collection we are rounding out a collection within a collection; the set of cups and saucers on
display in the China Pantry always felt one short. I was hesitant to accept the bench into the
collection (beautiful piece though it may be) but once I was given measurements and had
assured myself that I would be able to find a safe space for it in storage, I agreed to
accept it into the collection. The bench was likely purchased in the 19th or early 20th century
and its departure from Point Ellice House in the 1960s allows us to interpret the history of the
house during this time when these O’Reilly family heirlooms were gifted as wedding presents.
Donations of this kind are rare, but since 2019 we have had others reach out – including Inez
O’Reilly’s son with a box of her belongings, and a person unconnected with the house who
purchased a photo album from a swap meet containing pictures of the house and O’Reilly
family. All of these were recently accessioned into our collection and serve as a reminder that
there are still items out there connected to PEH – even if they are rare.
There are few other places quite like Point Ellice House – a historic site with a complete
collection of household items preserved in their original context. As a result, we very rarely
accept donations unless their provenance can be directly traced to the House itself or one of the
families who lived there. But sometimes you get a phone call…
If you would like to explore the material culture of Point Ellice House, you can browse the
collection here: https://vilocalhistory.ca/search-the-collection-2/