History of the Society

The Helen Creighton Folklore Festival began in 1989 to honour Dr. Creighton at her 90th birthday celebrations. The festival, created through the efforts of her friends and the city of Dartmouth, celebrates the life and work of Canada's first Lady of Folklore.

The event was held each fall and features music, dance, demonstrations of traditional crafts and storytelling.

The festival sponsored a national competition for a commissioned piece of work based on folk music from the Helen Creighton collection. In addition, it co-sponsored with the Alderney Gate Public Library, a ghost story writing contest for children.

This was how the Society started. The last Helen Creighton Folklore Festival was held in 1994.

Though there isn't a regular big festival any more, the Society sees its role as a nurturing one designed to foster a love for the music and abilities of Maritimers. It does this in a number of ways.

One of them is to attend Folk Festivals across the region. Another is to give awards to deserving youth in various ways. Awards at the Music Festivals are given to appropriate youngsters. The Ghost Story competition is still an on-going project of the Alderney Gate Public Library and the Society.

There are also grants-in-aid given out to deserving projects. This committee, the Grants In Aid Committee, is chaired by Dr. James Morrison. If you need money to assist in a project contact him at the address below.

One of those projects has resulted in a special on-going activity of the Creighton Society and the Dartmouth Heritage Museum Society. Two CDs of material collected by Helen Creighton is now available at Evergreen. These recordings were placed on a CD from the field recording material held at the Public Archives. Dan Mckinnon, a young local singer-songwriter, was a grants-in-aid recipient who compiled a list of songs about the sea. Those work and recreational songs are represented on those two CDs. The Evergreen House is open during June through August. The hours of operation are 10AM to 5PM Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Mondays, and between 1PM and 2PM during the week.

For further information :

The Helen Creighton Folklore Society
c/o "Evergreen House"
Dartmouth Heritage Museum
26 Newcastle Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Canada.  B2Y 3M5

Telephone contact: (902) 423-5759

E-mail: Web Merlin

© Helen Creighton Folklore Society

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