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A Gift of Small Paintings for an Infant Daughter
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When Ruth Adair Peterson died Aug. 1, 2008 in Reno, Nevada, a chain of events was set in motion. Part of a body of work, a significant collection created by a member of Salmon Arm's pioneering community which had gone south, was being repatriated.

More than three hundred paintings by Peterson's father, Arthur Adair Brooke, came "home". The one-of-a-kind collection, archival in every sense of the word, spanned a period of time, and documented rural life in "the Mt. Ida District" of Salmon Arm. It recorded Ruth growing up in a farming community.

Ruth was raised much like an only child. When she was born, her brothers were adults. Salmon Arm was a small community. When she finished secondary school, Ruth left to attend business school in Calgary, Alberta.

It was in Calgary that Ruth met the love of her life, a divorced American baseball player. When he returned to the States, Ruth got on a Greyhound bus and followed. They married, but Ruth's parents never approved.

Much later, Ruth and her husband braved a visit to her parents who had retired to Cloverdale, British Columbia. Father and daughter reconciled and gifts of water colour paintings began a journey south - marking special occasions like birthdays. Thus began a collection that Ruth treasured the rest of her life, making provisions for its safekeeping in her will.


(Click images to enlarge)

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Ruth Brooke-Peterson holding the set of watercolour babybooks.



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When she died, seven tiny books of paintings were found under Ruth's bed. The executor of the estate was instructed to have the books and the rest of Ruth's collection returned to Canada. That journey is part of the story.

Two descendants as yet unknown to each other arranged to meet. Lynne Rach and David Savage brought along artwork, much of which had spent many years in the United States. One collection, the babybooks came from Reno by way of Calgary and the other from Bend, Oregon.

Lynne brought five framed paintings of her own, a cardboard box filled with Ruth's framed and unframed collection plus descriptions, and the treasured babybooks -- gift-wrapped in a cotton pillow case, tied with a green ribbon.

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Ruth's babybooks arrive wrapped in cotton, a present to be revealed!
13 September 2008
RJ Haney Heritage Village, Salmon Arm, B.C.


Credits:
Photographer Paul W. Taylor

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Donor Lynne Rach holding Ruth's babybooks.
13 September 2008
RJ Haney Heritage Village, Salmon Arm, B.C.


Credits:
Photographer Paul W. Taylor

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The Story of Ruth: The Watercolour Journals of A.A. Brooke.
1920's to mid 1930's



Credits:
Arthur Adair Brooke

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David's gift came meticulously indexed, buffered between sheets of acid free paper.

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Curator Deborah Chapman with David Savage and his donation of landscape paintings.
13 September 2008
RJ Haney Heritage Village, Salmon Arm, B.C.


Credits:
Photographer Paul W. Taylor

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The meeting of strangers, family members who had never met, happened at the Salmon Arm Museum at RJ Haney Heritage Village in Salmon Arm British Columbia.


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Location of reunion at RJ Haney Heritage Village and Museum in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.
13 September 2008
RJ Haney Heritage Village, Salmon Arm, B.C.
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Photographer Paul W. Taylor

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Staff called the extended family. Then family members called family members. An informal gathering happened in September. Each painting was examined. Ruth's collection had come home!

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The Brooke family gathers 'round. Some have never met before.
13 September 2008
RJ Haney Heritage Village, Salmon Arm, B.C.


Credits:
Photographer Paul W. Taylor

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Collection of books and paintings of Arthur Adair Brooke.
13 September 2008
RJ Haney Heritage Village, Salmon Arm, B.C.


Credits:
Photographer Paul W. Taylor