More from the Musuem of the Sisters of the Miséricorde. Their service for most of their careers was to young pregnant women. The last 2 photos are of a framed composition of hair fasteners made of human hair by a group of Haitian women, c. 1940.

From the museum of the Miséricorde Sisters.

Tableau de la genéologie des Boucher - family tree of the Boucher family, Marguerite d'Youville's patrilineal line.
By Sister Antonia Larivière, 1940. Ink on canvas. H: 6 feet W: 3 feet.

The last batch of photographs from the Musée M-M d'Youville. I've never seen a family tree illustrated this way, in radiating circular forms with hundreds of conical forms protruding. This was for me the most special object I saw in the Musée.
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A linen coif with blue trim: the only remaining piece of Marguerite d'Youville's clothing in the Musée's collection. Though it's difficult to see here, the hand-stitching on this cap is perfect.

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More from the Musée M-M d'Y.

A portable knife and fork belonging to the young Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, and part of the silver cutlery set she received on the occasion of her wedding.

Marie-Marguerite was born in 1701 at Varennes, Québec. Her father died when she was very young and her mother remarried beneath her class, foiling Marguerite's impending marriage to a scion of Verennes. As a result of the generosity of the Catholic Church, Marguerite was able to attend Ursuline Convent in Québec City for 2 years before returning home to school her younger siblings. When she was 21 she married François d'Youville, a bootlegger. They were together 8 years before he died of unknown causes. During that time she bore 6 children, 4 of whom passed away very young, leaving 2 sons and the end of Marguerite's lineage when they entered the priesthood.

Given the loss of her father, 4 children and husband by the age of 30, it's said the depth of Marguerite's grief positioned her to commit wholeheartedly to her faith and to the service of the vulnerable. This manifested with the opening of a home for the poor in 1737, undertaken by Marguerite and three other women who were to become the first Soeurs Grises. "Les grises", "the grey women" was a slander against Marguerite accusing her and her Sisters of being drunkards based on Marguerite's late husband's questionable profession. She chose to maintain the name as a demonstration of innocence.

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This is 1 of 3 stone sinks in Montréal, located in the kitchen of the Maison Mère de Marie-Marguerite d'Youville on rue St-Pierre. Marguerite d'Youville was born in Québec and founded the Grey Nuns in 1737. On Monday I toured through the Musée and spent some time in archives researching for a new project.
More photos tomorrow.

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katoen-cotton from the Fries Maritime Museum.

Prince Edward Island Museum

I'm in Charlottetown for awhile.
Earlier this week I spent 2 days going through the PEI Museum Collections, choosing artefacts to include in my exhibition A Bed's Been Made Up For You which opens next week and runs to September 25th at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. I've been fortunate enough to work with the gracious Directors and Curators of the Museum and Gallery toward borrowing artefacts to include in the show. The installations I'm making combine 9 crates of textiles from my own collection, a series of drawings, and these objects arranged in 5 vitrines situated in the concourse of the Confederation Centre of the Arts. I'll be giving a public talk this evening at 19h.

(Apologies for the quality. My camera's died and the mobile is standing in.)

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