The Yarmouth County Museum & Archives is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

located in

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. This museum explores the history of

Yarmouth County Yarmouth County is a rural county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has both traditional Anglo- Scottish and Acadian French culture as well as significant inland wilderness areas, including over 365 lakes and several major rivers. It c ...

. Located in the heart of Yarmouth's heritage residential district, the museum is housed in a former church as well as two historic houses. It also operates a summer display in the restored Killam Brothers Shipping Office on the Yarmouth waterfront.

History

The museum began in 1935 with the creation of the Yarmouth County Historical Society. The society formed the museum in 1958. It moved to its current location in 1969, the former Tabernacle Congregational Church, an 1892 granite church listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. The museum expanded in 2000 incorporating two adjacent historic homes including the Abram Little House with a wing providing climate controlled storage and conservation facilities and an archival research centre. The museum grounds include the Pelton-Fuller house, an 1892 Italianate summer home of Alfred C. Fuller, "the Fuller Brush Man" which was donated to the museum by his widow in 1997 and restored by the museum to showcase its extensive collection of Victorian furniture and costumes. The museum has won numerous awards for exceptional museum and archival work.

Collection

The museum has the third largest collection of marine paintings in all of Canada and the largest community archives in Nova Scotia. The original second order

fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

used at the Cape Forchu Lighthouse is displayed in the centre of the museum's main gallery. It was preserved by the society in 1962 when the original 1840 lighthouse was replaced by a new concrete tower. Two

stagecoaches A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

are also displayed in the museum, a locally-built example and a well-preserved

Concord stagecoach The Concord coach is a type of horse-drawn Coach (carriage), coach, often used as stagecoaches, mailcoaches, and hotel coaches. The term was first used for the coaches built by coach-builder J. Stephen Abbot and wheelwright Lewis Downing of the A ...

, both used for service between Yarmouth and

Tusket, Nova Scotia Tusket is a small fishing community located in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia on route 308. History "Neketaouksit", the Mi'kmaq word for the "Great Forked Tidal River", evolved to what is now called Tusket. The village was originally settled by ...

in the mid-1800s. A special display evoking the bridge of the MV ''Bluenose'' features the wheel, compass, telegraph and bell from the long-running Yarmouth ferry. A circular, metal plaque in the museum collection was constructed by the

Canadian Bank of Commerce The Canadian Bank of Commerce was a Canadian bank which was founded in 1867, and had hundreds of branches throughout Canada. It merged in 1961 with the Imperial Bank of Canada to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. History In 1866 a ...

in memory of its employees who served during the First World War. The plaque was found in the Home Life Building, which had formerly been the Yarmouth branch of the Bank of Commerce Building. The museum houses the mysterious Yarmouth Runic Stone, one of the best known items of Yarmouth's history, although its actual status as a Norse artifact is very much in dispute.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yarmouth County Museum and Archives Museums in Yarmouth County History museums in Nova Scotia Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Archives in Canada