Victorian Santa

Santa Train is a Northwest tradition that began in 1969.  Each year thousands are thrilled to see Santa, but one day is extra special: Victorian Santa Train!

Friday, December 15th was Victorian Santa Train 2017 at the Northwest Railway Museum.  Guests enjoyed a train excursion to Snoqualmie, received cookies and hot chocolate from the Army Ambulance Kitchen car, and had a visit with Victorian Santa in the Snoqualmie Depot.  

Young guests received on Santa's lap were treated to a Jacob's Ladder gift, which is a wooden toy popular in the late 19th Century.  It was the toy that every kid said they had to have!  And the atmosphere was made oh so much more festive with the enthusiastic participation of Victorian (and Edwardian!) reenactors dressed in period clothing.


Check out these images from this year's Victorian Santa Train!

PastPerfect training

This month the Northwest Railway Museum partnered with Savor Snoqualmie Valley and Two Rivers School to conduct PastPerfect collections software training for volunteers from local historical societies.  The training was hosted in the computer lab at Two Rivers School; the Museum's Registrar Cristy Lake led the effort.

PastPerfect is the defacto standard collections database used worldwide by more than 10,000 museums for cataloging museum collections.  Catalog records include provenance, condition, location, purpose, and even photographs.  Examples of catalog records are included in the Northwest Railway Museum's new online lantern exhibit.

For PastPerfect to be effective, it is essential that museums have staff and volunteers trained in its use.  In the Snoqualmie Valley, a half dozen museums use the program, but most have only part-time volunteers that have not had formal training opportunities. During this training session, volunteers from Duvall Historical Society, Fall City Historical Society, Snoqualmie Valley Museum and the Cedar River Watershed EducationCenter all participated.

Ms. Lake is a veteran user of PastPerfect software, and she provided the overview and basic guidance in the use of the software. Two Rivers students helped answer questions and created a friendly atmosphere as everyone worked through the process of creating sample accession and object records.

Thank you Two Rivers School students and Savor Snoqualmie Valley for helping local historical societies modernize their collections cataloging!