Exhibit exposes realities of the Great War
Fortress of Louisbourg was only Cape Breton stop on tour
Visitors to the Fortress of Louisbourg on the weekend were invited to learn more about the lesser-known figures of the First World War. The First World War Comes to Life exhibit was set up outside the King’s Bastion on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a project funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and Veterans Affairs to mark the Great War’s centenary leading up to 2018.
The home front relief efforts, wartime production, frontline communications and medical aid displays provided visitors the sights, sounds and smells of the Canadian military at war.
Sacramento, Calif., veteran Tom James said he was impressed with how the exhibit demonstrated the hardships at the time.
“I think it’s beautiful. I’ve seen these exhibits before,” said James, who served with the United States army for a decade, including two years of active duty in the Korean War.
“Years ago I belonged to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and we did World War Two re-enactments.
“We just did one about three years ago where we had tanks, jeeps, soldiers, a field kitchen, and we put it all together in a field and set it up like this. People loved it. It makes them remember because the younger generation don’t remember.”
Ed Spowart, a retired member of the Canadian Forces from Caistor Centre, Ont., stopped by the exhibit with his daughter, Melanie Spowart, once they had a chance to visit the Kings Bastion and the firing of the cannons on the hill.
“It’s very realistic. It really shows the life of how hard these guys worked to do their jobs,” he said.
His daughter, Melanie, thought it was a perfect opportunity to view replica exhibits up close.
Looking at the mobile pigeon loft — which acted as a home base for messenger pigeons during the war — she was surprised at how effective they were in getting communication to and from the frontline.
“The success rate they said was like 95 per cent. I didn’t think it was that effective really.”
The Victoria County Historical Society of Lindsay, Ont., is the curator of the exhibit and historical animators are employed by the society.
The exhibit first toured Ontario last year and it is now slowly making its way across the country over the next three summers.
It has already made stops in St. John’s and Gander, N.L., before arriving in Louisbourg.
The exhibit initially started as an antique vehicle show that looked at the social history stories of the First World War, said Lyndsey Friesen, an animator with the travelling exhibit.
“As we received a lot of visitor feedback last year, we found visitors really liked this handson, immersive learning experience we can offer so we went even further in that direction,” Friesen said.
“Now, a lot of our items are replicas. It just breaks down the barriers if visitors are able to interact with some of the vehicles and actually touch things.” She said the exhibit tries to connect with areas of historical significance and that’s how it ended up at the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site.
The tour will move next to Fort Anne at Annapolis Royal on Wednesday and Thursday before moving on to the Halifax Citadel next weekend.
More information on the exhibit is available on its website at www.firstworldwarcomestolife.org.