Material Type

Artifact

Date Range From

1950

Date Range To

1975

Materials

WOOD, METAL

No. Pieces

1

Height

13.5

Length

16.5

Width

20.5

Description

WOODEN BOX WITH SILVER BAR LATCH ON FRONT; BOX HAS SILVER HINGES AT BACK; BOX IS NATURAL-WOOD COLOUR WITH KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS EMBLEM ON TOP; EMBLEM DEPICTS AN UPSIDE-DOWN TRIANGLE WITH THREE UPSIDE-DOWN TRIANGLES INSIDE, OUTER TRIANGLE HAS GOLD AND BLACK BORDERS, SMALLER TRIANGLES ARE COLOURED, CLOCKWISE, BLUE, YELLOW, RED, WITH A BLACK TRIANGLE IN THE CENTER WITH WHITE TEXT “C F B”. INSIDE HAS MINOR GRIME AND ADHESIVE RESIDUE; EMBLEM ON TOP IS WORN; BOX HAS MINOR SCRATCHES ON TOP; OVERALL VERY GOOD CONDITION.

Subjects

CONTAINER

Historical Association

ASSOCIATIONS

History

ON MAY 28, 2019, COLLECTIONS TECHNICIAN KEVIN MACLEAN INTERVIEWED CARLA SAMUELS REGARDING HER DONATION OF KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS MATERIALS. SAMUELS’ FATHER, WALTER D. CURRIE, WAS A MEMBER WITH THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS IN LETHBRIDGE. ON THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS ITEMS, SAMUELS RECALLED, “WE’VE HAD ALL THESE OBJECTS, ARTIFACTS FOR OVER 40-50 YEARS AND IT IS TIME THAT THEY BE GIVEN TO SOMEONE THAT WOULD BE INTERESTED IN KNOWING THE HISTORY OF LETHBRIDGE AND ALL THE PAST MEMBERS OF THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, LODGE NUMBER [TWO]. MY FATHER WALTER CURRIE WAS ONE OF THE MEMBERS. HE WAS SECRETARY FOR THAT LODGE. HE KEPT…THE LETTERHEAD THAT I REMEMBER AS A CHILD HIM TYPING ON AN OLD TYPEWRITER WITH THAT LETTERHEAD…AS CHILDREN WE WERE ALWAYS INTERESTED IN HIS CEREMONIAL COSTUMES BUT NOTHING MUCH WAS SAID ABOUT THE LODGE.” “[THESE ITEMS HAVE] BEEN STORED IN A BOX FOR ALL THESE YEARS. A COUPLE [OF THE REGALIA SETS] HAVE BEEN USED FOR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES…THE BLACK PRIEST COSTUME AND THE BURGUNDY AND GOLD SILK COSTUME…WE USED TO USE IT AS A MATADOR…IT’S SIMILAR TO THE SHRINERS COSTUMES IN A WAY—SOMETHING EGYPTIAN…THEY JUST LAID AROUND…” “THEY WERE IN THE BASEMENT IN A CLOSET. JUST STORED THERE AND KEPT THERE AND US KIDS WE’D LOOK AT THEM FOR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES…NOTHING WAS SAID ABOUT IT AFTER MY DAD PASSED AWAY THAT THEY WERE JUST KEPT IN A BOX…MY MOM HAD MENTIONED [THAT THESE WERE MY FATHER’S LODGE GARMENTS AND NOT JUST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES] WHEN SHE GAVE ME THE BOX. SHE SAID THAT THIS IS ALL THE STUFF FROM DAD’S LODGE, THE KP LODGE IS WHAT WE USED TO CALL IT.” SAMUELS ELABORATED ON HER FATHER’S INVOLVEMENT WITH THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS IN LETHBRIDGE, SHARING, “I REMEMBER DAD IN THAT [REGALIA SET] ONE TIME, THE BURGUNDY SATIN COSTUME AND I JUST REMEMBER THE LETTERHEAD. HE ALWAYS HAD A PILE OF THE LETTERHEAD BY THE TABLE UNDER THE TYPEWRITER. IT WAS HUGE OLD UNDERWOOD TYPEWRITER ON A BIG OVAL-FOOTED DESK AND THE FILE BOX TOO WAS NEXT TO THE TYPEWRITER…I KNOW HE WAS IN THE PYTHIAN LODGE PROBABLY IN THE LATE 1950S. I REMEMBER IN 1960 ALL THESE COSTUMES…I KNOW THAT OVER THE YEARS THE MEMBERS PASSED AWAY AND IT JUST WAS HARDER TO GET ANYBODY TO JOIN AND IN THE EARLY 1970S THEY DISBANDED THE LODGE HERE IN LETHBRIDGE.” “[I REMEMBER] HIM WORKING, TYPING AWAY, GETTING LETTERS DONE UP…PUTTING AWAY STUFF IN HIS LITTLE FILE BOX. I GUESS, WE WERE SMALL AND…[THE LODGE] WASN’T SPOKEN OF TOO MUCH WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. I ASKED MY OLDER SISTER ABOUT ANYTHING THEY KNEW OF THE BOOKS OR PHOTOS, TOO BUT THEY COULDN’T FIND [ANYTHING]...” “MY DAD DIDN’T TALK MUCH ABOUT THIS LODGE. HE WAS ALSO A MEMBER OF THE ELKS HERE IN LETHBRIDGE AND HE KNEW MORE ABOUT THE ELKS…THAT CLUB…BEING A LITTLE MORE RESERVED.” “I THINK [THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS] MET MAYBE ONCE A WEEK…I KNOW A COUPLE, TWO OR THREE MEMBERS, AS A KID, THAT WERE IN THE LODGE TOGETHER AND OUR FAMILIES USED TO CHUM TOGETHER BECAUSE OF THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THE LODGE…ALL IN THOSE DAYS IT SEEMED LIKE THEY HAD THEIR SUIT AND TIE. THAT WAS MORE OR LESS YOUR DRESS…I THINK IT WAS MORE OR LESS ADULTS THAT WOULD GET TOGETHER…” “I DON’T KNOW IF THIS TYPE OF LODGE WAS BASED ON CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE SHRINERS WOULD HAVE BEEN. TO ME IT WAS…I WOULD REFER TO IT LIKE MASONIC LODGE…IN THOSE DAYS IT WAS STRICTLY MEN’S CLUBS ALL THE TIME AND THE WOMEN STAYED HOME AND LOOKED AFTER THE FAMILY…I THINK IT WAS MORE OR LESS THAT AND GRADUALLY, AS YOU CAN SEE, OVER THE YEARS A LOT OF THE ORGANIZATIONS AND LODGES HAVE CLOSED DOWN AND STOPPED FUNCTIONING. IT DOESN’T SEEM TO BE REASON…YEARS AGO.” SAMUELS RECALLED HER ACQUISITION OF THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS ITEMS, STATING, “IT HAPPENED THAT MY FATHER PASSED AWAY IN ’91 AND MY MOTHER HAD A STROKE 6 MONTHS LATER. SHE SOLD HER HOME AND MOVED INTO A LODGE…[THESE ITEMS ARE] ALL THE THINGS THAT WERE REMAINING IN THE HOME, IN HER HOUSE…EVERYTHING WAS DISPERSED…THE FOUR OF US SIBLINGS DECIDED TO TAKE THEM AND THIS IS WHAT I TOOK AT THE TIME…THEY LIVED BY GYRO PARK ON 10TH AVENUE AND 15TH STREET SOUTH AT THE TIME. THAT WAS THEIR HOME.” “I GUESS WE WERE JUST NOT THINKING OF IT AT THE TIME JUST EVERYTHING WAS GIVEN AWAY. MY OLDER SISTER TOOK ALL [OF THE] FAMILY PHOTO ALBUMS AND I LOOKED THROUGH TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY PICTURES OF MY DAD IN THAT GROUP. BUT THERE WEREN’T AT THE TIME…I JUST HAPPENED TO GET THESE [KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS ITEMS] AND MY OTHER SISTERS, MY LITTLE SISTERS, THEY HAD YOUNG FAMILIES AT THE TIME SO THEY DIDN’T WANT THEM AT THEIR PLACE IN THEIR HOME. “ “WITH ALL THE NAME TAGS FROM THE LODGES AND STUFF LIKE THAT, I THOUGHT THAT [THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS CONNECTION] WAS QUITE INTERESTING…AT THE TIME, I GUESS I SHOULD HAVE GIVEN THE CEREMONIAL COSTUMES [AWAY] AT THE SAME TIME [I GAVE AWAY THE NAME TAGS] BUT THEY WERE PUT AWAY IN A BOX AND [I WAS] NOT THINKING OF IT AT THE TIME.” ON THE REASON FOR DONATING THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS ITEMS, SAMUELS NOTED, “WE’RE DOWNSIZING AND THERE’S A LOT OF STUFF THAT I JUST DON’T NEED ANY MORE AND I FEEL THAT THE REST OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS DO NOT WANT THIS AND AS I SAID, IT'S TIME TO GO. I DIDN’T WANT TO GIVE IT AWAY TO A CHARITY AND IT HAD A LITTLE MORE SENTIMENTAL VALUE FOR THE CITY OF LETHBRIDGE, I FEEL.” ACCORDING TO A LETHBRIDGE HERALD ARTICLE FROM MAY 7, 1960, THE LETHBRIDGE CHAPTER OF THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS WAS FORMALLY STARTED ON APRIL 16, 1890. THE ARTICLE NOTED WALTER CURRIE SERVED AS CHANCELLOR OF THE LETHBRIDGE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS FROM 1959-1960, AND THAT “PRESENT EXECUTIVES” INCLUDED CURRIE AS THE PAST-CHANCELLOR AND TREASURER. A LETHBRIDGE HERALD ARTICLE FROM MARCH 28, 1968 REFERENCED WALTER CURRIE AS PAST GRAND CHANCELLOR OF THE LETHBRIDGE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. THE BOOK "PYTHIAN HISTORY" BY WILLIAM D. KENNEDY [CHICAGO: PYTHIAN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1904] NOTES THAT THE LETHBRIDGE LODGE NO. 2 WAS STARTED IN 1889 BY C.F.P. CONYBEARE, A MEMBER OF THE WINNIPEG LODGE NO. 1 WHO HAD MOVED TO LETHBRIDGE. FIRST KNOWN AS "LETHBRIDGE LODGE NO. 5", THE LETHBRIDGE LODGE MEMBERS MET AT THE LETHBRIDGE MASONIC HALL "OVER HIGINBOTHAM'S DRUG STORE". EARLY MEMBERS INCLUDED ALEXANDER MOFFAT, WILLIAM HENDERSON, THOMAS KIRKHAM, AND MORE. FOR MORE INFORMATION INCLUDING LETHBRIDGE HERALD ARTICLES ON THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, AND THE FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION, PLEASE SEE THE PERMANENT FILE P20190008001-GA.

Catalogue Number

P20190008001

Acquisition Date

2019-05

Collection

Museum

Less detail