The Mission Community Archives is hosting an open house Nov. 17 featuring its most recent exhibit, Making [kuh-nek-shuns]: Mission's Communication Heritage.
The exhibit tells the story of how communications systems evolved throughout Mission's history, using material from the archives' fascinating array of photographs and documents. One of the key collections featured in the exhibit is the original photographs and newspapers from The Fraser Valley Record, Mission's local newspaper since 1908.
On display will be examples of the technology used by the paper to produce photographs, including metal plates known as half-tones that were engraved through a long and complicated process in the early days, and the plastic plates that eventually replaced the half-tones in 1956. These were engraved on-site by a machine known as the Scan-a-Graver-a valuable piece of journalism technology at the time.
Archives staff will provide guided tours of the facility, including the huge, climate-controlled records vault, and will demonstrate how archival materials are prepared for research and exhibits. In addition, there will be "archivestainment" that includes an exciting trivia history challenge — a game inspired by the long-running TV show, Jeopardy — where you pick a category and take your shot at guessing the answer to the question.