The Thunder Bay Museum is located in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. It is operated by The Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, incorporated in 1972 as the successor to the Thunder Bay Historical Society. The Museum is affiliated with the

Canadian Museums Association The Canadian Museums Association (CMA; , ''AMC''), is a national non-profit organization for the promotion of museums in Canada. It represents Canadian museum professionals both within Canada and internationally. As with most trade associations ...

, the

Canadian Heritage Information Network The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN; , RCIP) is a special operating agency within the federal Department of Canadian Heritage that provides a networked interface to Canada's heritage institutions. It is based in Gatineau, Quebec, an ...

, the Ontario Historical Society, and Virtual Museum of Canada.

History

The Thunder Bay Historical Society was founded October 2, 1908 at the instance of Barlow Cumberland, president of the Ontario Historical Society. Peter McKellar served as president of the Thunder Bay Historical Society from 1908 to 1923. Since 1994 the museum has been housed in the former Fort William

police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...

and court house near Thunder Bay City Hall. The three-storey building, designed by architect Robert Mason, was erected in 1910 and is an example of

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

architecture, with its two large Corinthian columns and pilasters. Fund raising is under way to restore the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and other missing architectural elements. The interior of the building has been treated with complete renovations since 1994, including an overhaul of its

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

system and the addition of a

wheelchair ramp A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairway, stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building, or navigate b ...

. An annex was enlarged and converted to a storage area for the collection. Recently a visible storage gallery was built in front of the annex to display vehicles and other large items in the museum's collection.

Collection

The first floor gallery features permanent exhibits on various aspects of local history. The second floor gallery is known as the James Murphy Room and is dedicated to meetings and programming, such as birthday parties and themed march & summer break camps for children. The third floor gallery features military and music exhibits, local and traveling exhibit space as well as a multipurpose room available for rentals. The museum collects objects of regional interest, such as dolls, pictures and furniture, and its collection includes a firetruck. The archives has 130 metres of linear records, 1900 maps and plans, 150,000 photographic images and a 2200 volume library.

Program

The Society produces an annual peer-reviewed journal entitled ''Papers & Records.'' It is also publishes a number of books annually on a variety of local and regional interest.

Arms

References

Raffo, Peter. “The Rocky road home: a hundred years in the life of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society.” Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society ''Papers and Records'' XXXVI (2008): 3-17.

External links

Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society
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