Behind the Scenes - Historical Interpreter Ezri Sneddon
My summer as a Historical Interpreter at the museum has been full of learning, storytelling, and hands-on experience. Leading tours of our upper level has helped me build confidence in presenting and speaking in front of groups, all while bringing Rossland’s history to life for visitors.
-Ezri
The Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre would like to thank the Government of Canada and the Canadian Museums Association's Young Canada Works program for contributing to this paid student opportunity.
Upper Level Tours
One of my main projects this summer was leading tours of our upper level. As a Historical Interpreter, I spent a lot of time guiding visitors through Rossland’s mining, community, and cultural history, answering questions, sharing stories, and helping people make connections between the exhibits and the town’s past.
Giving tours every day helped me build a strong foundation in public speaking. By month two, I felt much more confident presenting information, adapting to different audiences, and speaking in front of groups of all sizes. It was incredibly rewarding to watch visitors light up when they learned something new or recognized a piece of local history.
Social Media Projects
A big part of my summer involved creating social media content for the museum. I planned, researched, wrote, and chose photos for both our Throwback Thursday posts and a brand‑new Historical Building Highlight series. For Throwback Thursday, I completed the June and August posts and prepared for the next 3 months, making sure each week had a clear story, strong visuals, and accurate historical context.
At the same time, I developed a full set of 31 heritage building highlights, each with its own write‑up and curated photos. That series began in August and will continue into January. Every building required confirming details and shaping the information into something short, readable, and interesting for people scrolling through their feeds.
What I enjoy most about these types of projects is seeing how people respond. Reading the comments, watching people share memories or tag friends and family, and seeing the community engage with something I created makes all the research and writing feel worthwhile. It’s exciting to know that the work I’ve done will keep appearing for months after I’ve returned to university.
Check out our social media pages
Downtown Heritage Tour Webpage Overhaul
The biggest project I worked on this summer was completely overhauling the Downtown Heritage Tour section of our website. It was a massive job that involved a lot of technical work. I worked with close to two hundred separate photos, tracking down new images, resizing them, adding watermarks, naming each file properly for SEO requirements, and writing accurate captions with the photo numbers. After spending so much time with these images, I ended up getting very familiar with what Rossland’s heritage buildings used to look like, the small architectural details, the changes over time, and the way the streetscape has evolved.
Once I had all the photos ready, I went through every page of the tour and reformatted the layout to make it cleaner and easier to read. I checked all the links to make sure they still worked, fixed anything broken, and reorganized the structure so visitors could navigate the pages more smoothly. I also added the Heritage Rossland plaque and a map at the bottom of the pages to give visitors a quick reference and a visual guide to each building’s location. Seeing the final result was incredibly satisfying after all the detailed work that went into it.
Other Projects
Alongside my bigger projects, I also helped with a lot of smaller behind‑the‑scenes tasks that kept the museum running smoothly day to day. These weren’t always the big or flashy jobs, but they added up and made a real difference. I updated the gift shop photos on the website, helped with small administrative tasks, and stepped in wherever something needed attention. Doing these little jobs gave me a better sense of how much ongoing work goes into keeping the museum organized and visitor‑ready, and it felt good to contribute to the parts of the museum that people don’t always see. Along with this, I also got to participate in several hands‑on workshops, including book repair, paper repair and encapsulation, and ceramic repair.
Looking back on my summer at the museum, I’m really proud of everything I was able to work on. This was my second summer working here, and I’m really grateful I had the chance to come back. Thank you to everyone at the museum for being so welcoming and supportive. I appreciated all the guidance, the patience, and the opportunities to learn new skills. It was a great place to work, and I’m thankful I got to spend another summer here.