Material Type

Artifact

Other Name

BISMARK PRISONER OF WAR

Date Range From

1942

Date Range To

1946

Materials

WOOD, WIRE

No. Pieces

1

Height

8.3

Length

26.2

Width

5

Description

HAND CARVED WOOD BATTLESHIP MODEL ON PEDESTAL. LABEL: "BISMARK" MODEL HAS A FINE DETAILING OF DECK GUNS, SUPERSTRUCTURE ETC. CARVED FROM SINGLE BLOCK OF WOOD. INCLUDES RUDDER & 3 PROPELLORS. MISSING PARTS. SEE CONSERVATION REPORT

Subjects

TOY

ART

Historical Association

MILITARY

History

CAMP 133 ESTABLISHED IN LETHBRIDGE OPERATED FROM 1942 TO 1946 & CONTAINED GERMAN P0W'S. MAKER UNKNOWN, MODEL BELIEVED TO BE FROM CAMP 133. PURCHASED FROM ALTAMONT MUSEUM COLLECTION & FORMERLY FROM GURNEY MUSEUM IN LETHBRIDGE. *UPDATE* IN 2014 COLLECTIONS ASSISTANT JANE EDMUNDSON DEVELOPED THE FOLLOWING BRIEF HISTORY OF PRISONER OF WAR CAMP 133 WITH INFORMATION FROM THE GALT MUSEUM BROCHURE "LETHBRDGE'S INTERNMENT CAMPS" AND THE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA WEBSITE. DURING WORLD WAR II THERE WERE 40 PRISONER OF WAR (P.O.W.) CAMPS CONSTRUCTED ACROSS CANADA TO HOUSE THE LARGE NUMBER OF INCOMING POWS - ENEMY MILITARY PERSONNEL THAT WERE CAPTURED IN COMBAT. CAMPS WERE BUILT IN ONTARIO, QUEBEC, THE MARITIMES AND ALBERTA. THE CAMPS IN LETHBRIDGE AND MEDICINE HAT WERE THE LARGEST, TOGETHER HOUSING 22,000 MEN. THE LETHBRIDGE CAMP, NO. 133, WAS BUILT IN THE SUMMER OF 1942, AND BY NOVEMBER OF THAT YEAR HOUSED 13,341 PRISONERS. THE CAMP WAS DIVIDED INTO SIX SECTIONS, EACH WITH SIX DORMITORIES, MESS HALLS, KITCHENS, AND ENTERTAINMENT FACILITIES. MEALS WERE IN SHIFTS WITH PRISONERS SERVING AS COOKS. TAILOR, BARBER AND SHOE REPAIR SHOPS WERE ALSO STAFFED BY PRISONERS, AND NON-COMBAT POWS PRACTICED THEIR PRE-WAR PROFESSIONS AS MEDICAL DOCTORS AND DENTISTS. HOUSING AND RATIONS WERE THE SAME STANDARD AS FOR THE CANADIAN ARMED FORCES, WHICH SOMETIMES CAUSED RESENTMENT AMONG LETHBRIDGE CIVILIAN RESIDENTS, WHO WERE UNABLE TO OBTAIN MANY OF THE SAME SUPPLIES ON THEIR STRICT WARTIME RATION ALLOWANCES. WITH MANY YOUNG LOCAL MEN AWAY AT WAR, LOCAL FARMERS BEGAN TO REQUEST LABOUR ASSISTANCE FROM THE CAMP, ESPECIALLY FOR THE SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY. BY 1943 AN AGREEMENT WAS REACHED AND SOME OF THE PRISONERS WORKED ON FARMS THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ALBERTA. MOST OF THESE PRISONERS WENT FROM THE CAMP TO THE FARMS DAILY, BUT SOME WERE KEPT AT 'LODGES' AT THE MORE DISTANT FARMS FOR DAYS AT A TIME, WITH MINIMAL GUARDING. FOR THEIR LABOUR, THE PRISONERS WERE PAID 50 CENTS PER DAY. WITH WAR'S END, CAMP 133 CLOSED IN DECEMBER 1946 AND ITS PRISONERS WERE SENT BACK TO GERMANY. THE AREA WHERE THE CAMP STOOD EVENTUALLY BECAME AN INDUSTRIAL PARK AND PART OF THE FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTRE. *UPDATE* IN 2015, COLLECTIONS ASSISTANT JANE EDMUNDSON DEVELOPED THE FOLLOWING BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GURNEY MUSEUM AND THE OBJECTS FROM ITS COLLECTION WITH INFORMATION FOUND IN THE GALT ARCHIVES, GLENBOW ARCHIVES, ARTICLES FROM THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD, AND FIELD RESEARCH AT THE SODBUSTERS ARCHIVE & MUSEUM IN STROME, ALBERTA. WALTER AND EDITH GURNEY MOVED TO LETHBRIDGE FROM SWIFT CURRENT, SASKATCHEWAN IN 1938, AND BROUGHT WITH THEM THEIR LARGE COLLECTION OF TAXIDERMY, COINS, FOSSILS, AND CULTURAL OBJECTS. THEY MOVED HOMES IN LETHBRIDGE FIVE TIMES IN TWO YEARS BEFORE FINDING A HOUSE WITH A BASEMENT LARGE ENOUGH TO DISPLAY MOST OF THE COLLECTION, AT 1602 6 AVE SOUTH. THE GURNEYS REGULARLY HAD PEOPLE COMING TO SEE THE COLLECTION, INCLUDING THE LETHBRIDGE SKETCH CLUB, AND WALTER OFTEN DISPLAYED PORTIONS OF THE COLLECTION AT LETHBRIDGE EXHIBITION EVENTS. IN 1945 THE CITY OF LETHBRIDGE GAVE THE GURNEYS USE OF THE OLD BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING IN GALT GARDENS TO DISPLAY THE COLLECTION – THEY WERE PROVIDED HEAT AND ELECTRICITY FREE OF CHARGE AS LONG AS THEY HAD THE MUSEUM OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ON WEEKENDS. IN THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF OPERATION, GURNEY’S MUSEUM (ALSO MARKETED AS GURNEY’S BIRD PARADISE, DUE TO THE LARGE VOLUME OF TAXIDERMIED BIRDS IN THE COLLECTION) HAD OVER 80,000 VISITORS, ONLY 10% OF WHICH WERE LOCAL. THE MUSEUM OPERATED CONTINUOUSLY THROUGH THE LATE 40S AND 50S, BUT BY 1958, THE BUILDING WAS FALLING INTO DISREPAIR, AND IN 1961 GURNEY SOLD HIS ENTIRE COLLECTION TO BELMORE SCHULTZ OF MILK RIVER. SCHULTZ’S PARENTS HAD ALSO BEEN COLLECTORS, AND AFTER ADDING GURNEY’S COLLECTION TO HIS OWN, HE HAD OVER 13,000 OBJECTS WHEN HE OPENED THE ALTAMONT MUSEUM AT COUTTS IN 1967. THE ALTAMONT OPERATED FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS, CLOSING IN 1986 DUE TO SCHULTZ’S FAILING HEALTH, AND IN AUGUST 1989 THE COLLECTION WAS SOLD OFF AT A LARGE PUBLIC AUCTION TO MANY PRIVATE BUYERS. GALT MUSEUM REPRESENTATIVES ATTENDED AND BOUGHT BACK THREE OBJECTS THAT WERE PURPORTED TO BE FROM THE GURNEY COLLECTION – TWO MODEL SHIPS BUILT BY GERMAN POWS IN CAMP 133 (P19890044001 AND P19890044002), AND AN INDUSTRIAL LIGHT FROM THE OPERATING ROOM OF THE GALT HOSPITAL (P19890044003). THE ONLY OBJECTS IN SCHULTZ’S POSSESSION THAT WERE NOT AUCTIONED OFF WERE THE TAXIDERMY SPECIMENS AND FIRST NATIONS-RELATED ARTIFACTS, WHICH BY LAW COULD NOT BE SOLD. MANY OF THESE OBJECTS WERE FROM THE GURNEY COLLECTION INITIALLY, AND WERE MOVED YET AGAIN, THIS TIME TO THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED SODBUSTERS MUSEUM IN STROME, ALBERTA. MUCH OF GURNEY’S TAXIDERMY AND FIRST NATIONS’ COLLECTION WAS STILL ON DISPLAY THERE IN 2014, POSED IN DIORAMA. ON NOVEMBER 18, 2014 JANE EDMUNDSON INTERVIEWED HER FATHER PHIL EDMUNDSON, A LIFELONG LETHBRIDGE RESIDENT, ABOUT HIS MEMORIES OF VISITING THE GURNEY MUSEUM AS A CHILD. HE SAID: “I [WAS] 8 OR 9 YEARS OLD MAYBE… WE WEREN’T SUPERVISED AS CLOSELY AS CHILDREN ARE NOWADAYS… SO WE’D WANDER ALL OVER TOWN. WE JUST HAD A GREAT TIME. WE WOULD SPEND TIME VISITING THINGS LIKE THE GURNEY MUSEUM OR DOWN IN THE RIVER VALLEY… WE WOULD JUST RIDE OUR BIKES DOWN THERE ON A SATURDAY. WE’D BE GONE ALL DAY… [WE WOULD] GO TO THE GURNEY MUSEUM AND CHECK THINGS OUT… WE WERE REALLY IMPRESSED WITH THINGS LIKE THE TWO-HEADED CALF OR THE LAMPS MADE OUT OF DEER ANTLERS, AND THOSE KINDS OF THINGS THAT WOULD IMPRESS YOUNG PEOPLE… WE WERE PRETTY LUCKY… WE’D HAVE A DIME OR A NICKEL TO DO THOSE KINDS OF THINGS… EVERYBODY THAT WENT INTO THE MUSEUM UNDERSTOOD THAT IT WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL AND YOU DIDN’T HANDLE THE OBJECTS OR RUN AROUND IN THERE… YOU COULDN’T RUN AROUND [BECAUSE] IT WAS SO JAMMED FULL OF STUFF! YOU COULD HARDLY GET THROUGH IT… I DON’T REMEMBER IT BEING SORTED OUT INTO TYPES, IT WAS JUST A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF… I DON’T REMEMBER EVERYTHING BEING LABELLED, BUT I CAN KIND OF RECALL THAT SOME THINGS HAD NAMES OR PLATES ON THEM TO TELL WHAT THEY WERE… EVERYBODY WAS REALLY RESPECTFUL [AND] I WAS JUST SO IMPRESSED WITH ALL THE NEAT THINGS IN THAT MUSEUM.” SEE PERMANENT FILE P19890044001 FOR HARDCOPIES OF RESEARCH MATERIAL AND FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EDMUNDSON INTERVIEW. SEE RECORD P20120003000 FOR GURNEY GRANDDAUGHTER TRUDY CAREY’S RECOLLECTIONS ON THE MUSEUM.

Catalogue Number

P19890044002

Acquisition Date

1989-08

Collection

Museum

Less detail