Thousands of historical photos lost in Maple Ridge, museum director says

Maple Ridge is celebrating its 150^th anniversary later this year, but some pieces from the past are slowly fading away. 

The Maple Ridge Museum had to dispose of 100,000 negatives this year, photos usually taken on a sheet of film, said Shea Henry, the museum’s executive director, at a council meeting on June 11.

The loss was due to a lack of storage space and an inability to control temperature and humidity fluctuations, which physically broke down the images over time. The museum, located in a heritage building on 116 Avenue, currently has space to exhibit less than one per cent of its collection. 

“Now 100,000 negatives are out of our collection and our history,” Henry said. 

Founded in 1957, the Maple Ridge Museum opened its archives to the public in 2022, largely due to the hire of its first archivist, Gordana Dimovska, with a grant that same year. 

Dimovska also created an online database system, tried to save decaying archives and began digitizing collections, Henry said. 

But grant funding for the position ran out last month. And the museum is now looking to the city — which provides 58 per cent of the funding to the museum through an operating grant — to help fund a full-time archivist position.

“We are not finished with the projects she started in those two years,” said Henry, adding that the museum is currently in negotiations with the city to fund the position. “We need to have that professional who knows how to run an archive and knows how to do that research and conservation.” 

Maple Ridge is the only city in the Lower Mainland without a full-time archivist, Henry said. 

Mayor Dan Ruimy voiced his support for the museum, saying they played an integral role in sharing the city’s history with residents at various events in recent years. 

“You folks are attending almost every single, if not all, festivals that we’re having,” he said. “You’re out there with your pens, people, you’re talking, showing what we have: our rich history.”

The museum had a budget of nearly $389,000 last year. It also receives funding through donations, memberships and grants, among other initiatives. 

The operating challenges come despite a surge of interest in the city’s history in recent years. 

There were 2,200 visits to the museum and 40,000 different people checked out its website in 2023. 

There were also 41,000 visitors to off-site events, highlighted by the Museum on the Move campaign, a program that started in 2022 with grant funding and offers pop-up museums and education resources in classrooms and other public spaces. 

The museum has been searching for a new home for years, said Henry, who shared a concept drawing of a previous design proposal in 2005 in her presentation.

A new building could serve as a tourism attraction, host indoor family fun activities throughout the year and include a proper climate control system to preserve archives. It may also include a repository for the Katzie First Nation, Henry added.

Coun. Korleen Carreras, who reaffirmed support for the Museum on the Move campaign, acknowledged there was a movement to build a new facility roughly one decade ago, and asked how much space the organization needs for the building.

A new archives and museum space would require about 16,000 square feet, Henry said, while an archive-only building could fit on 5,000 square feet. 

“What’s needed is an HVAC system that can control temperature and humidity,” she said. 

The Maple Ridge Museum is located in a historical building, which isn’t suitable for heating or cooling systems. 

The museum’s negotiations with the city on funding an archivist position are ongoing, and the collective will continue to advocate for building a new site.

“Historic buildings make terrible museums,” Henry said. 

“It’s not practical to put a HVAC system in a 112-year-old building. That’s what’s needed, a facility with ventilation and HVAC.”