Who was Lilian Bland?
Jane Hutton, curator at Port Hardy museum, exuded a sense of enthusiasm as she presented the most recent exhibit about Bland, where residents are encouraged to learn the North Island local’s life story that dates back to the 1920s.
“There’s not a lot of artifacts here, because the woman who’s featured in this exhibit left in the 1920s,” Hutton explained.
“There’s just some bits from the household,” she added. “And a couple of things from the Quatsino post office where she received parcels.”
The items were retrieved and donated to the museum by the Bland family, and Hutton was able to display a lantern, some stone tools, a few books, and other miscellaneous tools typical to a residence during the early 1900s.
“If you don’t know anything about this person, Lilian Bland, she was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and the first woman in the world to build and fly her own airplane, which she did in about 1910 in Ireland.”
Soon after Bland married “she followed her husband out here and homesteaded over at Quatsino,” Hutton said, adding, “Quite the life, quite the woman.”
Bland, an “Aviatrix” as one information display puts it, was born in 1878 in England. According to a Gazette article from 1973, her father John was a well-known artist, while her husband, Charles, was a lieutenant with a military intelligence unit. The display then continues to describe her life story and how she came to live in the region.
“So what we have at the exhibit, we have pictures, a photograph of her, her daughter and husband, a picture of the plane - these (books) are many of the things she wrote. She was a journalist before she moved over here,” added Hutton, who noted the Bland exhibit will be on display until the end of September.
Hutton is planning a new exhibit which may focus on work wear as soon as next month.