The words Anni Knulsdotter Brakki 1853 appear in yellow paint on the front of this pine chest from Norway. On the back, in black lettering, is a name and address: Nils A. Brekke, Klayton, P.O. Faribault Minnesota Nortamerika. It seems that Anni (or her family) later moved to Birch Hills, Saskatchewan. The Museum purchased her chest from a Saskatoon antique dealer.

Mr. Baldwin's trunk was made of heavy tin, painted brown. The inscription (on the back) shows that he travelled on the Royal Mail Ship Empress of Britain, one of the Canadian Pacific line of steamers which sailed between Liverpool and Quebec City. It's likely that Mr.Baldwin purchased a "through" ticket to Calgary, and travelled across Canada on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The name Claus Rosenberg is painted in black on the front of this chest. He was a farmer and a Lutheran, born in Schleswig-Holstein in 1833. The exact date of his arrival is unknown, but he is quoted as saying that oppression by "Prussian overlords" was one reason for his decision to emigrate. Claus Rosenberg settled in Ontario.

This Russian Doukhobor carpet-bag, from the Transcaucasian region of the Czarist Empire, was brought to western Canada in the 1870s. The bag was normally used to hold bedding and other household goods, and, according to folklore, to hide young girls in, during Tatar raids.

Ukrainian immigrants filled their chests with the basic necessities of life as pioneers on the Prairies. Necessities included small tools, as well as clothing, bedding, and kitchen.things. This particular chest was brought to the Virigin area, Saskatchewan, in 1902, in the period when Clifford Sifton, Minister of Immigration, encouraged immigration from eastern Europe. The chest was probably used as a family storage chest for generations.

Mrs. Steinnun Valgardsson brought this wooden chest with her from southern Iceland when she left for Manitoba in the 1920s. The chest was already close to 100 years old at the time. The "rose" decoration was added later by a travelling artisan from Iceland. A museum curator interviewed Mrs. Valgardsson shortly before she died at the age of 98.