A living history: Rothesay Living Museum will display Purdy collection

By Paula White
For This Week
July 20, 2002

Dorothy Purdy had a habit of collecting newspaper articles, postcards, and photographs.

Lucky for the Rothesay Living Museum she did.

Miss Purdy’s collection, which spans 43 years, offers a glimpse into a Rothesay of long ago.

“It’s a gold mine of lived history,” commented Brian Perkins, curator of the Rothesay Living Museum. “You can see her focus going from social events, or events primarily of a social nature, into broader issues related to women’s role in society, women’s efforts in the two world wars and also the evolution and concept of training of young women in regards to the Girl Guide Movement.”

A diarist in her own right, Miss Purdy saved newspaper articles ranging from social news to war news. She was also an amateur photographer, snapping photos of Henderson’s Point, Minister’s Face, a tennis match at the Rothesay Tennis Club, the Anglican Rectory, South House at Rothesay Collegiate School, and St. Paul’s Anglican Church, to name a few.

According to Rothesay historian Beverly Sayre, Miss Purdy was an only Child. Her mother died when she was quite young so she was brought up by her father, who worked in the investment business. Miss Purdy never married. Her interest in women’s role in the wars stems from the fact that she worked as a nursing assistant during the First World War. She eventually became a dedicated Girl Guide leader.

“Most people knew her through Guides,” Mrs. Sayre commented.

The former Purdy home (more commonly referred to then as Purd’s, thanks to Miss Purdy’s association with the Girl Guides) is located on the Gondola Point Road, near the pony club. The dates of Miss Purdy’s birth and death are unknown.

After Ms. Purdy’s collection was donated to the Rothesay Living Museum, Mr. Perkins put student Erica Snodgrass to work. She scanned the photos, enlarges them, touched them up, and printed them out. All that’s left now is to display them.

Enter Tony Bamford.

Mr. Bamford, owner of Fairvale Plaza, not only agreed to display the photographs on the outside of the mall on a permanent basis, he went a step further and offered to build the frames. These consist of 12, 24 – by 30 inch wooden frames with a waterproof Lexan (a product similar to plexiglass) covering to protect the photographs from the elements. The photographic mats will be supplied by the museum. The frames will also contain a plaque with a description of the photo.

“The plan is to change these pictures every so often because they will fade in the sun and so on,” Mr. Bamford explained. “between the Rothesay Living Museum and myself, we’re trying to pick out pictures that people can relate to, older buildings that still exist in the town or roads that still exist in the town.”

“People will find them very interesting – they’re beautiful pictures,” he added.

The display happens to be an ideal project for Rothesay’s Communities in Bloom campaign.

“Rothesay is competing nationally (in Communities in Bloom) this year,” said Mr. Bamford, who is a member of the committee. “we took the provincial title last year in our population category, and so this is just another example for Communities in Bloom judges when they come here that the community, schools, and businesses are all working together to make the community a nicer place.”

This isn’t the first time a Rothesay business has offered to display the museum’s heritage photos.

A number of photos dealing with the history of Renforth have been displayed at Colwell’s Store for the past two years.

“The picture frames are made and the pictures are finished, we just have to put them all together,” Mr. Bamford said. “We hope to have them all hung up here next week.”

As for the museum, Mr. Perkins plans to apply for another federal grant under the Digital Collections Program so he can hire students to develop Web content on Miss Purdy’s material.

“It would take this story of Dorothy Purdy, which basically is a nucleus, and explore further women’s role in society,” he said.

“I think that this is an interesting snapshot in time, recording the evolution of a person’s concerns reflecting society and the events that happened at the time.”