The Eastern Townships Research Centre and the Art
Gallery of Bishop’s University are proud to present
The Echenberg Collection, featuring objects that
were used to promote manufacturing and
commercial firms in the Townships from the end of
the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th
century. The exhibition is curated by Monique Nadeau-Saumier, Director
of the Colby Curtis Museum in Stanstead, and has been organized with
the help of Dr. Robert MacGregor of the Williams School of Business and
Economics.
The opening of the exhibition will be held on
Wednesday, May 2, 2001, from 5pm to 7pm at the
Bishop’s University Art Gallery. Mr. Edwin
Echenberg will be present at this celebration and the
Eastern Townships Research Centre will launch the
18th edition of the Journal of Eastern Townships
Studies, which has been dedicated to the Echenberg
Collection.
Mr. Edwin (Eddie) Echenberg,
former Sherbrooke merchant and resident of the
region, has patiently developed this collection. The
Collection will allow the greater public to discover
the rich and diversified industrial, commercial and
tourist enterprises through various promotional
devices, which illustrate the iconography and marketing strategies of their
time. Most of the artifacts to be displayed are three dimensional and prime
examples of packaging and advertising ephemera produced for and by
Eastern Townships’ trade and industry up to WWII.
Thanks to the passion of one collector, a large part of
the region’s history has been preserved.
The collector, Mr. Edwin
Echenberg, owner of a clothing
store on Sherbrooke’s Wellington Street, first
became interested in old coins and became the
President of the Canadian Stamp Association in
1963. In 1967, after visiting numerous antique
stores in the region, he noticed the large number of objects that exhibited
the name of businesses and shops from Sherbrooke or the Eastern
Townships. From this, he was inspired to begin his collection.
As well as reflecting the history of regional commerce,
the exhibition also illustrates the values of an era and
those of a society. The history of packaging processes
reflect developments in advertising which exerted a
profound influence on society by stimulating, if not
creating, a taste for consumer goods. The iconography
used in advertising follows closely one favored in the
USA and helps to confirm how much the American presence was felt in
the Townships.
The Echenberg Collection projects an image of
vibrant economical life in the Eastern Townships and
should not be missed.
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