Inside Medalta Potteries: Part 1

My renewed interest in local history has not only resulted in an obsession to create photo sets for my Around the Hat series, it's also had me browsing provincial archives for more information about the areas I've been photographing. I kicked off my series with a feature about Medalta Potteries, and since shooting some of the archival work going on at the site with Stream Media in 2010, I had a strong interest in returning to see what the museum was like now. The area has been so interesting largely because of all of the recent changes going on.

Over the Mother's Day weekend my family got together and we decided to check it out. It was incredible. Seeing the variety of clay products, designs, and historic memorabilia on display was one thing, but the real treat for me was walking around the old factory floor and getting to see demos of some of the machinery used. Medalta is really just the first step in restoring Medicine Hat's historic clay district, and places like Hycroft China are next on the list. See my first set of images from this amazing landmark below.