Fort Smith (May 15/06) - A Fort Smith museum has used a feature of the Internet age to acquire pieces of the past.

The Northern Life Museum recently purchased two items on eBay -- an online auction site.

Kevin Brunt, the curator of Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith, found this postcard and glass photo from the 1920s on eBay. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

One of the items is a postcard of the Slave River rapids from the mid-1920s. It was bought two months ago for about $10 from a seller in England.

The other item is a 1922 glass plate photo of the still-standing bishop's residence in Fort Smith and the original St. Anne's Hospital. The slide was used to project an image onto a wall from a lantern. It was bought about a month ago from a seller in Gig Harbour, Washington, for $11.10, plus $1.35 shipping.

"I think it's amazing we can get them so inexpensively," says Kevin Brunt, the museum's curator.

The museum has no specific budget for such purchases, so staff members pitched in and used donations to pay for the items.

Brunt says the postcard and photo are a "fairly substantial" find for the museum, and he would like to research their histories.

"It's quite priceless to us," says Brunt.

Brunt says he has been checking eBay for artifacts since he arrived in Fort Smith about three years ago.

"Essentially, eBay is a huge database of resources," he explains.

Last year, he spotted a few objects, but was outbid in an attempt to obtain them.

One was a photo of a cattle show in Fort Smith and the other was a photo album containing about 200 photos.

Brunt describes eBay as a new tool. "It's very good for a museum like us that is smaller and more isolated."

Joanne Bird, the curator of collections with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, says the museum hasn't bought anything off eBay yet, but she checks it and other online auctions every few months.

"We go and have a look once in a while," she says.

Bird notes, when the word "Yellowknife" is searched, licence plates often come up, along with certificates from old mining companies. Some sites also have Inuit sculptures and household tools.

Vicky Latour, the co-chair of the Hay River Museum Society, says nothing has been bought off eBay for the town's heritage centre.

"We just haven't thought of it," Latour says.

However, she adds, "I think it's an interesting idea and something we can consider."