What’s new?

The Mahone Bay Museum is a small community museum created by the registered non-profit charity, the Mahone Bay Founders Society, that strives to protect and provide (on-site and on-line) access to the history of Mahone Bay area to prevent it from becoming forgotten or lost.

A Look at our 2020 Accomplishments and Plans for 2021 (Update from Dec 31, 2020)

Dear Museum Supporters,

We would like to take a moment to reflect on this particularly tough and very strange year. Our accomplishments for 2020 feel quite miniscule compared to previous years but the biggest accomplishment is we are still here, still working behind the scenes, still engaging our community online, and still employing our Manager and Curator, Lyne.

Here’s a look at our biggest accomplishments of 2020:

All of these accomplishment could not have happened without support from our community. Whether you made a donation or a purchase, shared, liked or commented on our Facebook posts, told others about our museum, or supported us in another way, your support continues to breathe life into our Museum. We wouldn’t be here without our community, locally in Mahone Bay area and online from all over the world. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! Thank you for being with us digitally this year and supporting us in whatever ways you were able.

Our Manager and Curator’s plans for 2021 include an Adopt an Artifact fundraiser, sharing Now & Then Artifact comparisons, finalizing our drafts of children/school programming, finalizing our Mi’kmaq history exhibit, creating more online content, and working on our provincial Museum Evaluation Program standards. If you have other ideas for plans we should take on in 2021, we would love to hear from you!

Although we are not sure what 2021 will bring, we know we will do our best with what we have and we know that we can count on support from our community locally and virtually. Thank you and happy new year!

Covid-19 Update August 13, 2020

We’re pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved our plan to open by appointment by donation for one group at a time with procedures in place to reduce Covid risk to our staff and visitors! Please note that we will do our best to accommodate appointment requests but that we will need at least 24 hours notice in order to request for two available staff members to be on-site.
Arranging an appointment is best done by Facebook messaging us https://www.facebook.com/MahoneBayMuseum/
or emailing us at info@mahonebaymuseum.com with “Appointment to Visit” in the subject line.
If you are outside of the Atlantic Bubble or would prefer to request a virtual tour of the Museum by donation, please contact us!

View our Fall 2020 Newsletter

Click the Download button to view it in PDF Download

Home & Garden Tour Video

The video below, featuring Betty Meredith’s photographs (from Photos by Betty) of the exteriors of local homes and gardens with an introduction over the town by Picnic Studios, is available for you to enjoy from your own home.

To donate towards our Virtual Home & Garden Tour fundraiser, visit: https://mahonebaymuseum.com/hgtour/

Our annual Home & Garden Tour is a key fundraiser that helps us cover our operational costs for the Museum. This year, instead of selling tickets t our usual in person event, we shared this video of the virtual tour for free and are simply encouraging a donation.

New Facebook Group to Reunite Mahone Bay Area Keddy Descendants!

We’ve created a Facebook group to create a Virtual Reunion for the Keddy family descendants! If you’re related to the Keddy’s who came to Mahone Bay area in 1753, you’re welcome to join via Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4271135892904214/

Are you related to a different family who settled in Mahone Bay in the 1750s? Don’t worry, you can vote for us to host a reunion for your family too! Vote on our original post here: https://www.facebook.com/MahoneBayMuseum/posts/10158221809794030

New Items Added to our Archival Collection!

Thanks to a grant from the Government of Canada and Library Archives Canada, we have been hard at work processing photographs from November 2019 to March 2020. The project allowed us to preserve and increase access to 100cm of selected documents and over 900 photographs (including 70 glass negatives and 40 tintypes dated around the 1890s), from our backlog of unprocessed archival items relating to the town of Mahone Bay’s general history, shipbuilding history, and local families. 

These items comprised of 4 new archival collections and 2 accruals to existing collections.
– Gordon D. Ernst Collection (MBMS-63)
– Joan Foran Collection (MBMS-64)
– Clarence R. Heisler & Son (MBMS-65)
– Minnie Beatrice Oickle Collection (MBMS-66)
– Inglis & Quinlan Family Collection (MBMS-1)
– John McLean & Sons Collection (MBMS-5)

Follow us on Facebook to see archival photos shared there or review our full list of archival collections and a selection of scans here: http://mahonebaymuseum.com/archival-collection/

New Facebook Group for sharing old recipes.
You can request to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1485558868288265/

Our 2020 Exhibits Include:

Visit www.mahonebaymuseum.com/collections/
for more information about our current exhibits