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 100th
anniversary 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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