Halifax Harbour Bridges introduces new program to protect, preserve artifacts

Halifax Harbour Bridges is asking for the publics help to find old artifacts.

Halifax Harbour Bridges has started a summer project to preserve and protect the history of both the MacKay and Macdonald bridges.

“For many years HHB has had a lot of artifacts and documents that we just put into cupboards and forgotten about. It has been very clear that we have been seeing some documents that have been beginning to degrade,” says Steve Proctor, communications manager with Halifax Harbour Bridges.

Proctor admits the degradation could be due to the ways in which these artifacts have been stored, as well as the presence of mice and rats.

“We have just put it out of sight out of mind and if we don’t do it now when are we going to do it and we will start to lose things that are important,” states Proctor.

The team recognizes the importance of preserving the bridge’s history, so they have hired a summer student to sort the documents. Proctor was surprised by the number of applicants for this job, as it is a niche subject matter.

Julia Elliot started in the role two weeks ago. She just graduated from the two-year information technology program at the Nova Scotia Community College, with a personal focus on archives.

“Her job is really going around to cupboards, going to filing cabinets, going to safes, looking to see what there is with potential, getting rid of the stuff that has no historic value and no other value,” adds Proctor.

Despite only being in the position for a short time, Elliot has already found a number of interesting items.

“I found so many pictures and so many news clippings, minutes from very back in the beginning of the construction of the bridges all the way up to the present. We have antique teacups that were made at the beginning of the bridge’s history,” says Elliot.

She feels fortunate to have been selected for this role and says it will benefit her in the long term, while pursuing this work as a career.

“This is something that I want to do as a long-term career and it’s a very hard career to get started in and this is a great opportunity to get my foot in the door,” says Elliot.

There are many steps to the job and it’s quite the process. Both the MacKay and MacDonald bridges have a number of safes and cabinets with documents and antiques to go through.

“I start by going through boxes and I pull out files and go through them from beginning to end. I don’t change anything in it, and I don’t move around files,” says Elliot.

There is a criteria she follows when determining what is important to keep and what she should toss.

“My main principles when I go through things are who is going to use this and who is going to benefit from this. If it’s receipts someone got from lunch that is not important to the history of Halifax Harbour Bridges. But going through say and finding years records of Bridgewalk from where we started from and where we have gotten to,” says Elliot.

Elliot adds anything she deems important to a database. It consists of an excel spreadsheet that highlights, titles, descriptions, dates and subjects. The purpose is to make it easy for researchers or the public to go back and search.

“We will have conversations with archives to say what they want for public access and what we are going to keep for a museum or display,” adds Proctor.

Elliot is not just going through historical artifacts and documents that HHB, she is also examining items the public has dropped off.

“We often get people that call and bring in old photos and say they got them in grandpa’s basement and don’t know what to do with them,” adds Proctor.

At this year’s annual Bridgewalk on Sunday, the team will have a table set up with people to speak with Elliot and drop off any antiques they feel relate to either bridge’s history.

“People can bring in their artifacts, they can bring in their old photos that they really don’t know what to do with and we’ll look after them, we will preserve them. We didn’t have that possibility before we had an archivist,” says Proctor.

For those that are unable to attend Sunday’s Bridgewalk, but have items or photos they feel are important to add to the archives, they can reach out to Halifax Harbour Bridges via email. Elliot will set up a date and time to collect the artifacts.

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