The St. George Museum and Archives aims to be a local museum, with a mandate to tell the story of St. George, Glen Morris, Harrisburg, Osborne Corners, and the other little communities that made up the former Township of South Dumfries.
In helping to tell this story various artifacts help to illustrate our local history.
Some of the things that we are always on the look for are:
– items from the Bell Foundry (B. Bell and Sons) ;
– bottles, advertising, newspaper reports about the Malcolm’s Condensing Dairy, the Sunny Hill Dairy (The Taylor family);
– Books, photographs and clippings related to Nina Moore Jamieson, such as her collection “The Cattle in the Stall” and her novel “The Hickory Stick” or poems that were clipped and saved from the Toronto newspapers wrote for;
– anything, especially with a St. George connection, related to Adelaide Hunter Hoodless and her family, and including a copy of her textbook “Public School Domestic Science” (we don’t have a copy of this at the Museum yet);
– photos and clippings about John Charlton, our long serving MP;
– photos and clippings about Joyce Wehrstein that help to explain her importance to the museum and local history;
– photos, scripts, reviews, clippings, props related to Aileen Tinkess and the plays she wrote and produced in the Memorial Hall.
These are just a few examples.
You may be in the process of downsizing and have to part with items you have hung onto for years. In doing so, you may come across old advertisements, special newspaper inserts or articles you clipped, photos that now may be significant for what is in the background, old school photos and yearbooks, programmes from special occasions and concerts and plays.
Please consider letting us either scan documents to have as part of our digital collection, or donate the items to be part of our collection.
You may, in your travels, be at a yard sale or a rummage sale, or an auction and think – that item is part of the St. George story. Please keep us in mind and let us know about items that we might purchase or bid on.
History isn’t always old and dusty. We have recently acquired items to tell the story of episodes of the Murdoch Mysteries being filmed at Sunnyside, and of the young Davy Jones (of the Monkees) visiting his cousins in St. George before appearing on Broadway and on the Ed Sullivan Show!
Our Musuem should do a better job of telling the story of Harry Nixon and the United Farmers of Ontario; his son, Bob Nixon, and his granddaughter, Jane Stewart – considering their years of service to this riding.
David Pickett is another good example of a person born in St. George achieving international impact (we have his early “boy soprano” LP) – his concerts and CDs with the Three Cantors have raised over One Millions Dollars for the Huron Hunger Fund since 1996!
Our Fire Dept is celebrating its 100thanniversary this year – and it would be nice if the Museum could help them collect more items and photos to put on display.
The Artesian Well – this was one of things people most associated with St. George for years. It is capped now, in recent history, but photos of the Well being used will become harder and harder to find as time goes by if we do not start collecting now…
Apple Festival – odds are you will have some photographs from this popular festival.
Military History – we have our Honour Rolls in place outside the Museum – but we could do more and establish better context – where people served (maps) – models of planes, tanks, ships, etc. – photos – service records, attestation papers, etc.
Other areas we aim to include are:
political histories,
athletes and sporting teams,
community leaders (like Earl Gaukel, Jack Tolhurst, Jean and Hank Hedges, etc. – some with streets named after them),
the St. George Lily Garden,
School histories – including the story of the ladies who saved the Old School,
Women’s Institute history and Tweedsmuirs,
Church histories,
local Doctors and professionals,
Cemeteries,
Industries and businesses,
the St. George Legion history and local service clubs,
the Burford Train Station move,
Blue Lake industry and history,
the Heritage Quilting group,
Restaurants and Tea Rooms,
Libraries and Librarians,
Post offices and postmasters and postmistresses….
and more!
So, whether you are going through your own items, or exploring a flea market somewhere, please keep us in mind as well as we attempt to collect together items, documents, photos and more that help to tell the South Dumfries story.
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