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INSPIRING, EDUCATING, AND ENTERTAINING

An insider look at how we moved our collection of 70,000 artefacts


In April of 2019, we wrote about packing up the museum on Ferry Road. At that time, our collection of 70,000 artefacts and 90 aircraft were dispersed to storage facilities belonging to generous partners, friends, and supporters throughout the province.

Much of the library and archives collection went to our temporary offices on Border Street. Our artefact collection contains 70,000 items and it was crowded, to say the least, and not an ideal solution. So, in the spring of 2020, we secured a larger space and moved again. The next space was located on Church Avenue and was used for offices, collections storage, and restoration activities. (Later, once we moved into our new building on Wellington, there was often confusion when new employees heard someone say, “Ok, I’m heading to Church!”)

On the move again

In the summer of 2021, our team moved again. This time, into our new, permanent home on Wellington Avenue. We no longer needed all the square footage that Church had to offer, so as our lease came to an end in the summer of 2022, we decided it was time to downsize.  

Warehouse on Church Avenue, before and after the move

We found a smaller warehouse near the new museum that is now home to our restoration department and serves as storage for some of the larger artefacts not currently on display. And what about our library and archives? For more than three years, all our blueprints, archival documents, vintage magazines, aircraft manuals, books, and more, all sat in storage.

The collection comes home

This past summer, those items got moved into our state-of-the-art collections space at RAMWC. Led by our Collections Manager, Sandra Chewka, and VP of Facilities, Joel Nelson, the move took 10 weeks from start to finish.

The collections move equated to 2,820 boxes, on 125 pallets (each weighing roughly 1,300 pounds), filling 20 semi-trailers. And that’s after some items were sold to a film production company. These items included old furniture, desks, chairs, etc. that will never be used in the new museum—no artefacts were discarded.

The secret to pulling off this feat? A rock-solid team of volunteers and a whole lot of organization.

15 volunteers helped with the move, including Don Grimsley, a RAMWC volunteer for more than 20 years.

Don Grimsley with vintage aviation magazines, some of his favourite items in our collection

Don’s background is in accounting. As he describes it, “My whole career has revolved around organizing things.” An aviation enthusiast, he started volunteering after seeing a newspaper ad from the Western Canada Aviation Museum (now, RAMWC). Don was assigned to our collections team and it was a perfect fit. His organizational skills came in very handy as those 2,800 boxes arrived, needing to be unpacked.

The move went about as smoothly as it could, thanks to Sandra and Joel’s organization and coordination. Each box was numbered and assigned a place in the new collections room on a map.

Unpacking began in early July and was completed in late October. Now the team is “making tweaks” to ensure everything is alphabetized and catalogued correctly.

Technical manuals make up a large percentage of our collection. They accounted for roughly 650 boxes. Another 700 boxes were filled with books and magazines dating back to the early 1900s. These are some of Don’s favourite items.

What’s next for the RAMWC collection?

It’s exciting to have our collection on-site, in a dedicated, temperature-controlled room. We’ve got big ideas for what comes next. Down the road, we hope to build a public reading room. We’re also envisioning a reference library space, accessible to researchers, and academics, with cutting-edge equipment.

Funds for these projects will come from grants and donations. If this is an area close to your heart, consider a donation to our Library & Archives Reading Room fund.

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