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2010 Tourism & Heritage Visitors Report The York Sunbury Historical Society plays a major role as a partner, leader and supporter of Fredericton cultural heritage preservation, exhibition, publication and programming. The following is a summary of the 2010 patron statistics. The primary objective of this report is to give an overview of the activity in the York Sunbury Museum (now known as the Fredericton Region Museum) during 2010. As we observe the activity increase in and around the Museum, it would be hoped that this report would be used to assist the Board and Executive Director plan programs and determine seasonal and annual staffing needs as well as determine which areas of the Museum is being utilized the most/least.

Contents Section A:

1. Attendance Numbers 2. Classification of Visitors

a. By the Season b. By the Month c. By day of the week d. By the time of day e. By tour f. By special event

3. Cultural Heritage Activities 4. Locality of Visitors / Guestbook

Section B: 1. Hours of Operation 2. Revenues

a. Admissions b. Museum Sales

Section C: 1. Web 1.0 (Website) 2. Web 2.0 (Facebook, YouTube & Blog)

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York Sunbury Museum 2010 Hours of Operation & Admission Rates

April – June Sunday and Monday: Closed Tuesday to Saturday: 1 to 4pm By appointment or by chance July – Labour Day in September Sunday: 12 to 5pm Monday to Saturday: 10am to 5 Labour Day in September - November Sunday and Monday: Closed Tuesday to Saturday: 1 to 4pm By appointment or by chance December - March By appointment or by chance Please note that the building is unheated and therefore un-insulated so if you plan a visit please bundle up! It's a cool place to visit ... literally! Holidays The Museum is open from 12 to 5pm on Canada Day, New Brunswick Day and Labour Day. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and Good Friday will find the Museum closed as well as any holiday that falls on a day that we would normally be closed to the public. Adults $3 Students $1 Family $6 (two adults and two or three children under 18yrs) Children under 6 Free Tour of 10 people or more $1 a person Taxes included To celebrate Heritage Week in February, the York Sunbury Museum had a week of extended hours and admission by donation.

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Section A: 1. Attendance Numbers

The YSM had 7,858 patron visits during 2010. This does not include visits from volunteers, service personnel, board members, curators and Museum staff. This is a 6% increase over 2009 with 476 additional visitors. The summer is the busiest

season, 59% of our patrons visited the museum during the months of July and August. Museum employees continued to emphasize marketing; media resources used included the posters, flyers, newspapers, email and internet mediums (Web 1.0 and 2.0). The number of children’s programs has been prioritized again this year and included one hour and two hour elementary aged series at a minimal cost to the user. Staff distributed Museum brochures to visitor information centres, hotels and local businesses. The Facebook fan Blog and Twitter accounts have grown and a Foursquare profile created. The Museum newsletter continued over the year and several copies distributed at the Museum to patrons. The Museum employees contacted Secondary Education/University Institutions to offer curriculum related workshops, talks and tours at the museum and in the classroom using artefacts, exhibits and collections storage areas as learning tools. The York Sunbury Museum continues to participate in city activities (such as Canada Day and Cultural Crawls) and other festivities in Officer’s Square. Museum employees continue to open the museum when an interest is noticeable such as on Sunday mornings when the museum would normally be closed. In July and August, staff experimented with evening hours on Tuesday and Thursdays when the concert series filled Officers’ Square. The museum enjoyed an average of 151 patrons per week, up from 141 in 2009, and 120 in 2008. 2. Classification of Visitors

a. By the Season

The Executive Director worked full time during the winter months (December, January, February and March) and the Museum was

open by appointment or by chance. If someone came to the door, they were welcomed into the Museum but warned about the unheated environment (necessary for insurance purposes).

Year Total Visitors Per Day Sat. & Sun. 2007 4393 12 n/a 2008 6253 17 1798 (29%) 2009 7382 20 2020 (27%) 2010 7858 22 1761 (22%)

Year Jan, Feb Mar, Apr, May Jun, Jul, Aug Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec 2007 242 3455 696 2008 16 270 5005 962 2009 126 866 5121 1269 2010 114 547 6293 904

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During April, May and June the museum was open Tuesday to Saturday from 1pm to 4pm and closed on Sunday and Monday. During this time if someone visited the museum outside of these hours they would have been welcomed into the Museum, provided staff was on hand. Summer hours were Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 8pm. This year the Museum experimented with evening hours in July and August to see if there was an interest in visiting the Museum. The evenings chosen were coincided with the evening concerts held in Officers’ Square. During this time, the square has several people watching the free concert. There was some limited interest in the Museum during evening hours. The Museum was open during the evening for 16 days during the two months. Two of these evenings were Culture Crawl events and the Museum was open free to the public and served tea, coffee, juice and cookies. Both Culture Crawl evenings resulted in over 70 visitors. During the remaining 14 evenings, three had no visitors, four had less than 5 visitors, five had less than 10 visitors and one had more than 10 visitors (15 visitors).

b. By the Month

2007 Patrons Per Day

2008 Patrons Per Day

2009 Patrons Per Day

2010 Patrons Per Day

January 73 2 18 0.6 February 16 0.6 53 2 96 3.4 March 6 0.2 343 11 44 1.4 April 45 1.5 215 7 180 6 May 242 7 219 7 308 9 323 10.4 June 467 15 1031 34 1122 37 1669 55.6 July 1395 45 2052 66 1880 60 2613 84.3 August 1593 51 1922 62 2119 68 2011 64.9 September 344 11 545 18 595 19 502 16.7 October 170 5 256 8 237 7 251 8.1 November 145 4 124 4 217 7 99 3.3 December 37 1 37 1 220 7 52 1.7 4393 12 6253 17 7382 20 7858 22

Our two busiest months in 2010 were July (33% of overall patrons) and August (26% of overall patrons). July had a 36% increase in visitations from the previous year, however, August had a 5% decrease. During the month of February, the Museum offered admission by donation during Heritage Week for anyone who wanted to visit the Museum. The York Sunbury Historical Society

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Board passed at a meeting in 2009 that the Museum would be open with admission by donation during Heritage Week each year. In 2010, we had 15 visitors during Heritage Week. We continued to offer the children’s frog find activity, where children are set on a quest to find 11 tiny plastic frogs hidden throughout the museum. This is the third year that we have offered this game and it continues to be a hit with both children and adults. After the game the children are invited to take a prize from the museum treasure box which is kept stocked with inexpensive toys (such as bouncy balls and small dinosaurs) and treats (suckers and gum balls). We also have a doll house, books, puzzles, colouring pages and plastic leap frog games throughout the Museum to keep children busy.

c. By day of the week

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat 2008 488 8% 851 14% 1194 19% 994 16% 980 16% 737 12% 1310 21% 2009 510 7% 842 11% 1076 15% 1081 15% 1364 18% 999 14% 1510 20% 2010 388 5% 928 12% 1152 15% 1172 15% 1820 23% 986 13% 1412 18%

The above table shows the patron usage of the Museum broken down by the day of the week. Of the 7,858 patrons who visited the Museum during 2010, we can see that Saturday was no longer the most popular day to visit with 18% of patrons visiting on this day (note that Saturday hours are not offered during January, February, March, September, October, November and December). Thursday was the most popular day with 1,820 choosing to visit on Thursdays. The visitation on Tuesday and Wednesday stayed at 15%, there was a small increase on Monday and small decreases for Sunday and Friday. Note that there is no Sunday and Monday hours during 10 months of the year, however, if there is someone in the office on a Monday and a patron wanted to visit, they would not be turned away.

d. By Time of Day

% Morning (10am to 1pm) % Afternoon (1 to 4/5pm) 2008 34% 66% 2009 30% 70% 2010 35% 65%

Additional breakdowns show that the busiest part of the day to visit the Museum continues to be in the afternoons with 65% of the patrons visiting after 1pm. This figure excludes school tours, most of which are scheduled during the morning. Shoulder season hours (April, May,

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June, September, October, November and December) do not have advertise morning hours, however, Museum employees did not turn away any interested patrons if it was feasible for them to visit the Museum. Traditionally during the summer, Sunday mornings were set aside for staff to work around the Museum doing tasks that may be difficult to accomplish while the museum is open to the public, in 2009, every Sunday during July and August there enough interest in the museum that the staff opened the Museum to cater to the need of patrons. In July, we had an additional 45 visitors on Sunday mornings and an additional 83 in August. This year, Sunday morning hours were offered as part of regular operating hours and we had an additional 92 visitors in July and an additional 72 visitors in August.

e. By Tour

The number of tours has shown a very small increase over last year. In 2010, tours represented 15% of our Museum patrons, 16% in 2009 and 9% in 2008. The New Brunswick Capital Commission who offers a program to assist schools to visit the capital region cross promotes tours to the Museum.

Our first tours were on February 19th with a Leo Hayes High School class (35) and a University of New Brunswick Loyalist History class (19). Tours dropped in March compared to the previous year but June saw a sharp increase. In June 2009, we had 535 students/chaperones tour the Museum and in 2010, that number almost doubled with 920 students/chaperones. In June, the museum hosted about 23 tours from various schools/organizations in the Fredericton and Central New Brunswick area. Group sizes ranged from 10 to 92 participants. Earlier in the spring, tour information was sent to every school in the province along with the Provincial Capital Commission tour grant program booklet. The York Sunbury Museum was asked to offer a badge program to a Cub (3rd Fredericton), Beaver (3rd Fredericton), Brownie (1st Nashwaaksis) and a Girl Guide (1st Nashwaaksis) groups and to give history themed programs to several daycares and afterschool groups. These groups included AuPetit Monde de Franco, Fredericton YMCA, Kids Korral Daycare, Boys and Girls Club of Charlotte County, Price’s Daycare, The Preschool Centre, Northside Daycare and the Doone Street Community Centre Tot Lot Program.

Year # of Tour Group Visitors 2007 364 2008 540 2009 1216 2010 1226

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2010 Tours: Elementary Schools: Spark group (10 students) McAdam Elementary School (14 students) Montgomery Street Elementary School (Tour + program, 20 students) Upper Miramichi Elementary School (32 students) Sunbury West Elementary (92 students) Priestman Street Elementary School (54 students) Park Street Elementary (37 students) Bellisle Elementary School (60 students) Lincoln Elementary School (29 students) Bristol Elementary School (46 students) Middle Schools: Devon Park Christian School (13 students) Wolokehkitimok (7 students - customized) George Street Middle School (10 students - customized) Woodstock Middle School (16 students) Dr. Loiser Middle School (21 students) Tri County Homeschoolers (12 students) Bath Middle School (23 students) George Street Middle School (110 students) Hartland Middle School (52 students) Bliss Carman Middle School (70 students) Centreville Community School (26 students) École Mgr-Matthieu-Mazerolle (11 students) Woodstock (34 students - 3 hour customized program) George Street (12 students) High Schools: Boiestown High School (10 students) Leo Hayes (32 students) Upper Miramichi High School (10 students) McAdam High School (18 students) Other: Hoyt Christian School (7 students) Beaverbrook Art Gallery Afterschool Program (15 students) Oromocto Army Cadets (20 students) HIST3403: The Loyalists (19 students - customized) New Brunswick Community College (16 adults) Fredericton Public Library Reading Club (34 adults - customized) Craft College Design Class (7 students) Cadets (14 students) During the summer, the York Sunbury Museum offered several children’s programs inspired by the exhibits and society activities.

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"Hop Into History" at the York Sunbury Museum! Age: 6-11 Date: July 10th, 2010 This program will take place during our Open House! There will be lots of things going on around the museum, so parents bring your kids in and while they're busy making a craft, you can take a gander around the museum for FREE! Come learn all about the museum's BIGGEST friend, the famous Coleman Frog. The afternoon will be filled with frog themed activities, face painting, snacks, and you'll even get to make a froggy friend of your own to take home! Be a Farmer for a Day: Catch Those Runaway Cows! Age: 5-10 Date: July 30th, 2010 Learn about all the ways that farmers and their families used to make food and do all their farm work by hand in the 1800s-1900s - with no electricity, and no tractors! Children will also learn about "Cow Court", one place that a lot of Fredericton farmers spent their time! Children will get a tour, a farm-themed snack, and get to make a farm animal craft! Chocolate Bar War! Age: 5-10 Date: August 10, August 11 and August 13 This is going to be one of our most unique programs this summer, all based around the history of the Fredericton chocolate bar wars of 1945! Children will learn about the chocolate bar boycotting done by the Fredericton's youngest generation when the prices of chocolate bars rose, and will even get to make their own chocolates to take home! Afternoon Tea at the Museum Dress up in your finest and join us for some delicious goodies and refreshments, a lesson in proper Victorian tea etiquette, and learn all about the glamorous Victorian parlours with games and a great treat to take home! Who: Children ages 5-10 and parent/guardian (supervision more so for younger children) When: August 20, 2010

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f. By Special Event

Month Event 2009 2010 February Northside Heritage Fair (annual off-site event) June Program/Workshops 22 27 Trail House Exhibit Opening 73 n/a Celtic Energy Weekend n/a 37 Colouring Contest 48 23 Chamber of Commerce President’s Reception n/a 69 Cultural Expressions Festival (Green Room) n/a 184 July Canada Day 74 473 Culture Crawl 22 72 Open House (held in August in 2009) 244 164 Programs/Workshops 56 45 August New Brunswick Day 93 86 Acadian Day 53 34 Culture Crawl 85 78 Open House (held in July in 2010) 244 164 Museum Treasures Opening 72 n/a Program/Workshops 63 49 September Culture Crawl 23 28 Goose Lane Tappan Adney Book Launch n/a 79 Acadian Exhibit Opening n/a 25 Program/Workshops 14 n/a Freddy Beach Party 42 n/a October Cadet Open House n/a 16 Scouts Day n/a 74 Halloween 16 n/a Association Museums New Brunswick Tour 17 n/a

3. Cultural Heritage Activities The annual June colouring contest had 23 entries. Canada Day included craft activities for young children and free coffee for patrons. This year, Canada Day was restricted to just the Square and not the Green. This may have been the reason why the Museum had 473 visitors during the event. The previous year, the Museum had 74 visitors on Canada Day. The Museum opened the new “Gordon Mosher” exhibit in May and the new Acadian exhibit in September. Originally installed at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, it was installed in the Orientation Room when it was returned to the museum. Staff and volunteers worked on the “In Close Quarters” exhibit that opened in February 2011 and the “From Black Bag to High Science” exhibit that will open in June 2011. On December 8, 2010, the York Sunbury Historical Society presented two Martha J. Harvey Awards. Firstly, an award was given to The Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick who is devoted to the study of war and the complex social and human situations that arise from it. The Centre runs a visiting speakers program and local conferences, many open to the general public. It is also the publisher of, ‘The Journal of Conflict Studies’ and books and articles by its staff and faculty. The Martha J. Harvey Award of Distinction was presented to recognize The Gregg Centre for the New Brunswick Military Project whose aim is to promote the rich military history of New Brunswick through the publication of its book series and the development and maintenance of a database of sites of significant interest throughout the province.

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Under the editorship of Brent Wilson, the Gregg Centre in partnership with Goose Lane Editions, the Centre publishes two books annually. The York Sunbury Historical Society is proud to have several of its members amongst the authors in this series, for example, and the Editor, Brent Wilson is a Society Member and former Curator. These authors , The Gregg Centre and the Directors of the New Brunswick Military History Project have through their writings and commitment to researching, recording, preserving and disseminating New Brunswick’s rich military history earned the respect and appreciation of the this Society and many other folks throughout the communities of New Brunswick. The second Martha J. Harvey Award was presented to the Honourable David Dickson for long and meritorious service or contribution to the Society. Since his retirement, Dickson dedicated much of his time to history and education through special presentations at schools, university classes and community groups. A World War II veteran, Dickson represented the North Nova Scotia Highlanders on November 19, 2000 in the town of Bienen, Germany for a ceremony that dedicated a tablet to commemorate the battle at Bienen. The tablet was the first Allied memorial to mark the location of a land engagement on German soil in the Second World War and Dickson took the initiative to place the plaque in Bienen. In it, he talks about how he felt that the tin of tobacco that his wife sent him saved his life in the middle of a battle. Dickson is a stalwart supporter of the York Sunbury Historical Society, with his personal encouragement of individual board members and regular attendance at Society functions. As a grandson of Alexander “Boss” Gibson, Dickson assisted the Museum with historical details of the recently installed Gibson exhibit. Dickson equally provides personal encouragement, support and participation for several other organizations such as the Legion, Senior’s Clubs and the Miramichi Salmon Association. On July 10th, the York Sunbury Museum invited the Fredericton Community to join us for an open house. There were door prizes, light refreshments and entertainment for children (crafts, face painting and temporary tattoos). We invited guests to celebrate the Coleman Frogs birthday. We posted a Museum employee on the door for the entire day to keep track of how many visitors we had. By the end of the day, we had 164 visitors. Funding from Downtown Fredericton Inc made this celebration possible. With the closing of the Barracks Craft Shops for renovations, the Museum played host to the Fredericton Arts Alliance and the New Brunswick Craft Council. The Fredericton Arts Alliance’s Artist-in-Residence Summer Series presented local professional artists and fine craftspeople for one- to two-week residencies in the Museum Treasures exhibit. The New Brunswick Crafts Council opened Kirkbride’s Fine Craft Downtown Summer Retail Shop in the second entrance of the Museum where you can find two small rooms. The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce held its President’s Reception at the Museum and shortly afterwards, the Capital Commission held a reception for its conference here as well. The York Sunbury Museum participated in the Downtown Fredericton Culture Crawl Series. This event is a celebration of the arts in Fredericton. Participants are invited to follow a free,

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self-guided tour of galleries and studios in the Downtown area using a brochure provided by the participating galleries. This year, the York Sunbury Museum is featuring the art of one of its members, Linda J. Bartlett. Her interest in New Brunswick history and love of painting were the inspiration for a collection of paintings hung at the Museum. Pages from a 19th century book, Our Home Physician, were attached to these paintings, as well as sections of text. This mixed media art experiment explores the remedies, and ailments of our past, with the aid of the original text and illustrations. We were fortunate to have the paintings as we prepared the new medical exhibit. The York Sunbury Historical Society worked in partnership with the Fredericton North Heritage Association to create a Community Memories Virtual Exhibit through a Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) program. The exhibit is an extension of the Fires at St. Mary’s Ferry exhibit and should be posted on-line in mid 2011. In September, the Museum hosted a Goose Lane book launch. Ted Behne, writer, editor and historian, talked about Adney’s adventures, his legacy and his importance to Canadian history. This was a free event, open to the public, books were made available for sale and Behne was happy to sign copies. This book was Behne’s first in what will be a series of Adney’s Travel Journals.

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4. Locality of Visitors / Guestbook

Guestbook Canada 1088 85%

Total # of Signatures in the Guestbook 1302 Alberta 61 5%

International 65 5% British Col. 61 5%

United States 121 9% Labrador 0 0%

Manitoba 17 1%

By City % NB New Brunswick 478 44%

Fredericton 216 45% Newfoundland 23 2%

Moncton 12 3% Nova Scotia 38 3%

Oromocto 15 3% Ontario 253 20%

Saint John 16 3% PEI 4 0%

Quebec 128 10%

Saskatchewan 20 2%

Yukon/Nunavut 5 0%

Number of Signatures by Month:

Month 2008 2009 2010 January 0 6 5 February 12 5 8 March 1 78 3 April 17 27 27 May 46 66 58 June 85 200 137 July 484 569 470 August 433 607 447 September 100 159 85 October 59 57 30 November 20 16 11 December 6 4 21 3271 3803 1302

Total – 1302 signatures in the guestbook for 2010

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2010 Guest Book Comments:

2647 Army Cadets, CFB Gagetown "Thank you!!" February 11 - James Spurney (Edmonton, AB), "Great Commentary!"

January 25 - Jamison McIsaac, "Awesome WWI exhibit!" January 25 - Ali Moore, Vancouver BC "Charming!"

April 14 - Larry Dwyer (Denville NJ), "Excellent Exhibits" May 17 - STU History 2103 (Fredericton), "16 of us were amazed!"

June 22 - Grade 7 Hartland Community School, "Thanks for the informative tour!" June 6 - Jesse (Fredericton), "An excellent museum."

Section B:

1. Hours of Operation The Museum was open by appointment or by chance during the months of January, February, March and December. The “by chance” option proved popular with our guests again this year. During Heritage Week in February the museum was open to the public and charged admission by donation.

During April, May and June the museum was open shoulder season hours (Tuesday to Saturday form 1 to 5pm). Summer hours started in July and will end after Labour Day in September during which time the museum was open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm

and Sunday from 12 to 5pm. After Labour Day the museum will return to shoulder season hours for September, October and November and then open by appointment or by chance in December. The off season visitors are warned about the cold condition in the museum but it doesn’t seem to deter them from wanting to visit. During the months of July and August, the museum opened during the evenings on Tuesday and Thursday. Evening hours were an experiment that will help us decide on evening hours in the future. 2. Revenues

a. Admissions The number of patrons who visited the museum who were not part of a tour was 5,553 in 2008, 5,341 in 2009 and 5,590 in 2010 showing that this type of

patron was mostly unchanged. The adult admission was $3, student $1 and family is $6. The tour rate is $1 per person and chaperones were free.

b. Museum Sales This year the Museum sold museum pins, books (history and colouring), museum related postcards, back issues of the Officers’ Quarters and small frog related toys and temporary tattoos.

July Evenings Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

Tuesday 5 0 15 7

Thursday 72 9 3 4

August Evenings Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

Tuesday 9 2 1 0

Thursday 78 5 5 0

2009 2010 Admission revenues $11,725 $10,486 Total number of coupons redeemed (2 for 1 admission) 30 47 Average admission $ per patron $1.59 $1.33 Sales revenues $1,560 $1,280 Average sales $ per patron $0.21 $0.16 Facility rental revenues $190 $411

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Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2008 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a $3 $88 $159 $91 $125 $314 $315.75

2009 $54 $39.50 $65.50

$36.50

$95.50 $146

$211.55

$140.75

$324.75

$63.50

$138.50

41.50

2010 $5 $121.50

$20 $28.25

$100.50

$156

$198.25

$347.50

$104.25

$8 $196.50

$239

Section C: 1. Web 1.0 (York Sunbury Museum Website) The website continues to appear on the first page of Google searches for museums in Fredericton. The site features information about exhibits and publications as well as colouring/activity pages for kids, information about the Society, membership development and newsletters. 2. Web 2.0 - Blog, Facebook & YouTube Facebook During 2010, the York Sunbury Museum continued to use Facebook to connect with a wider audience. We have 196 Facebook Fans, 38 photo albums that contain pictures of event, collections, exhibits and activities at the museum, several Notes (mostly taken from past newsletter content) and several past events that include exhibit openings, programs and museum events. YouTube To date, YouTube has not been fully explored by the museum because it requires videos. The Museum has four small amateur videos on YouTube. Our most popular video for the last two years features our cannon that is used by the Summer Guard program and has been viewed over 600 times. Blog During the summer of 2010, the Museum started a Blog. The blog was intended to be an informal way to communicate with people who are interested in what is happening at the museum and researchers. The summer students contribute to it during the course of their contracts. The most popular blog posts are the MC300 listings of the Society’s photograph collections posted in early 2010. By the end of the year the blog had over 20,000 page impressions.

Blog Page Impressions by Month

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total

2009 257 184 264 296 195 359 158 1,713

2010 497 763 1,172 1,046 1,460 1,623 1,783 1,646 2,226 2,275 2,439 2,320 19,250

Other The museum also has a Twitter account and a Foursquare account.