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Living History: Mystery No More Some of The Salvation Army’s Heritage Centre’s holdings used in the creation of the Murdoch Mysteries episode this year included a tambourine, a Christmas kettle and various insignia

Living History: Mystery No More

The Heritage Centre plays an instrumental part in this season’s special Christmas episode of Murdoch Mysteries.

Features

Living History is an ongoing series showcasing a small assortment of the more than 350,000 items housed at The Salvation Army Heritage Centre in Toronto. This month, we are highlighting a few of the many items that were featured on a special Christmas episode of Murdoch Mysteries, which aired November 25. (Read our behind-the-scenes feature article about the episode and the Army's partnership with the show.)

As fans of the CBC show know, Murdoch Mysteries is set in Toronto in the early 1900s, and for this year’s Christmas episode, The Salvation Army is prominently featured. But rather than settle on actors to play the part of the Salvationists, CBC reached out and secured the services of actual Salvation Army members, which provides an undeniable note of authenticity to the episode.

Not content with that, the Murdoch Mysteries creators were also determined to get the “look” of the show as historically accurate as they could get it. And so, they turned to the Heritage Centre in early July.

“I was invited to a call between various CBC/Murdoch Mysteries and Army stakeholders working on the episode,” says Camilo Mejia, digital archivist at the centre. “The CBC/Murdoch Mysteries team had a concept for their Christmas episode and were interested in acquiring period accurate wardrobe, instruments and a Christmas kettle. After the call, I had a better idea of what they wanted and the time period of the episode (1911). Then we began setting aside potential items.”

Tambourine
While brass instruments currently being used by the Salvation Army band members were determined to be relatively period-accurate, the Heritage Centre provided a tambourine to be used during the filming of the episode.

By the end of July, the Heritage Centre learned that the CBC/Murdoch Mysteries team needed wardrobe and props for four band members (Rob Brown, Andrew Burditt, Stephen Mansfield and Cameron Rawlins of the Canadian Staff Band), four choir members (Amanda Caruk, Ian Cooper, Steven Cooper and Cathie Koehnen of the Canadian Staff Songsters), one officer and a Christmas kettle. Murdoch Mysteries costume designer Joanne Syrokomla visited the centre to examine the uniforms and props set aside. The Heritage Centre communicated with the Murdoch Mysteries wardrobe team regularly, and members of the team visited several times to collect additional items for filming.

“Using our uniforms and photos as reference, the Murdoch Mysteries wardrobe team created the Salvation Army uniforms used in this very special episode,” says Mejia. 

Photos: The Archives of The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory, Camilo Mejia

A Salvation Army hat
Using the Heritage Centre uniforms and photos as reference, the Murdoch Mysteries wardrobe team created the Army uniforms used in the episode. For example, two men’s caps were provided, which were used to create the additional ones needed for filming, as well as three “coal scuttle” bonnets accurate for the time period. The cold weather setting of the episode also made it more straightforward for the wardrobe team to cover any potential gaps in uniform aesthetics with overcoats, scarves and capes. 
An old Salvation Army kettle with a metal mesh top
When it came to the Christmas kettle, the Heritage Centre did not have a period-accurate one in their collection. The only kettle available was a red metal one with a mesh top that was likely from a later time period. The kettle did not have a tripod or stand, so the Murdoch Mysteries team had to create one. The stand created for the episode was different from what was likely used in the early 1900s, but in this case, the result was a mix of the needed aesthetics and historical accuracy.
A Salvation Army shield pin,
The Salvation Army uniforms curated by the Murdoch Mysteries wardrobe team were accentuated with Army collars, trim, hat badges, pins and silver Ss from the Heritage Centre’s collection.

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