Thunder Bay
Museum
425 Donald St. E.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
On Display
Summer: June 15-Labour day
Daily 11 a.m to 5 p.m.
Winter: Tues. through Sunday
1 p.m. to 5. p.m.
Fully wheelchair accessible.
Admission:
$3 (adults); $1.50 (ages 6-17);
$8 (families); free (children under6)
Comparing the Past to the Present
This gallery was named for Peter McKellar, the founding father of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society. (More about Peter McKellar) These long-term exhibits recount the 10,000-year history of people in the Thunder Bay region of Ontario, Canada.
See the tools of survival made by the region's first peoples, stunning Ojibway and Cree beadwork, a full-sized wigwam, and the relics of a once great fur trade.
As you move through time, encounter
the story of Silver Islet, once the continent's 
richest silver mine, visit a Canadian Pacific Railway station and
the 19th-century immigrants who stand on
its platform, or view Thunder Bay's early harbour with its towering elevators
and booming maritime industries. The town's very
first electricity was created in the 1880s with the
simple steam-powered generator now on display.
Lock yourself in a functional prison cell, circa 1910, and view military artifacts from the Lake Superior Regiment, a wartime salvage office, or the tools of the early pulp and paper industry
Enjoy early films, several produced in Northwestern Ontario, in our 1928 vintage theatre, or stroll down a recreated Thunder Bay street and see a recreated streetcar, a 19th-century hotel/tavern and fire hall, a doctor's office, photographer's shop and tobacconist from the turn of the century, a real estate office from 1913, and a newspaper press room. Visit the general store, its shelves lined with vintage goods, or look in on a seamstress at work, a hairdressing salon from the 1930s and a jeweller's store window.
Some of the earliest HAM radios, most made by Charles McDonald, a pioneer in the field of telecommunications, can be seen in his recreated workshop.
There is so much to see at the Thunder Bay Museum, a place to remember.
James Murphy Room (programming)
On the second floor of the Thunder
Bay Museum, in a room named for James Murphy, programming activities
take place for children and adults. This space is available
for rental as are the galleries on the same floor and the
museum's board room. Contact us
for more information and rental prices.
Second Floor Galleries
(temporary exhibits)
Also on the second floor are two galleries featuring rotating
displays from the Museum's permanent collection, and
travelling exhibits of all descriptions. Some of the
temporary themes presented in the last few years
include art, furniture, quilts,
railway equipment, prisoner of war camps, Girl Guides, ship
models, and pottery. Unique photography exhibits such
as "Then and Now" (on which our special quiz "Visions of Our Past" is
based) are a speciality. Contact the Museum for
a list of the current showings.
Third Floor Galleries (long-term exhibits)
The McKellar Games Room
The McKellar Games Room celebrates the life and times of the McKellar family as
seen through the eyes of our Society's founder, Peter McKellar. Featured promiently is
Peter's billiards table, more properly called a carombole table --
the heart of the new exhibit -- along with a
variety of images of his family. These, along with artifacts and images of
their contemporaries in both Fort William and Port Arthur, have allowed
us to re-create an early 20th-century games room.
Here you will find artifacts from families with names familiar in Thunder Bay -- McVicar, Marks, Conmee, Daunais, Smellie, Graham, Dawson, Brown, Silles, Piper, Russell, McGillivray, and McLaren -- along with some names that were probably well known at the time but have largely slipped from our collective memory -- MacEdwards (a famous curler), Ashforth (who ran a fleet of fishing boats on Lake Superior and whose piano is prominent in the exhibit) poet J.W. Robertson (the Bard O'Glen Erie), and songwriter Fred Brennagh.
Featured also are artifacts related to 20th-century people of note such as Norman Paterson's moose antler chair and a model of one of his company's earliest vessels, a wonderful 19th-century French lithograph presented as a wedding gift to Harry and Gladys Hurtig, and Judge A.J. McComber's horn chair.
There are also items that represent well known institutions -- a lovely Art Deco chair from the lobby of the Royal Edward Hotel, a shooting trophy won by members of the 96th Algoma Battalion of Rifles, and a fireplace from the famous Northern Hotel.
Look also for one of the earliest pinball machines in existence (called Five Star Final), a
stereoscopic viewer, a 19th-century suit of armour, a ship model
of the famous Campana, a silver desk bell said to have been presented
to Victoria McVicar by Louis Riel himself, chairs from the early Ontario
Legislature and a beautiful, hand-crafted accordion made by Mr. Baldovin of Fort William.
"All Aboard"
Our Railway Heritage
Railways were the mainstay of Thunder Bay’s economy from the 1870s until well into the twentieth century. They employed thousands locally in construction, maintenance, and operations. Without railways, virtually all economic activity in the region – shipping, lumbering, mining, communications and manufacturing – would have ground to a halt. The railways were our lifeline to the outside world and the very reason why many small Northwestern Ontario towns were created in the first place.
2008 Exhibit Schedule
2008
First Floor
- Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society -- 100 years
Long Term - Past Presidents and Boards
January to December - Luc Despres Sculptures
April – November - The Permanent Collection of the Thunder Bay Museum
Ongoing
- Thunder Bay Then & Now: Comparing the Past to the Present
July 1 – November 12 - An Edwardian Christmas Christmas Gallery
Mid-November - January 2009 - Albertosaurus 65 Million Years Ago
Mid-April – Mid-June - Nanuq: A day in the life of a polar bear
January – Mid-June
- Loving Stitches: Quilts historic and modern
February – May - All Aboard: Our Railway Heritage
April 2008 – April 2009 - Music to Our Ears; Notes from Thunder Bay's Musical Past
Ongoing - The McKellar Games Room
Ongoing
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