 Maritime Museum of the Atlantic | |
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| Established | 1948 |
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| Location | 1675 Lower Water Street Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Type | Maritime Museum |
| Director | Calum Ewing |
| Curator | Roger Marsters |
| Website | maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca |
TheMaritime Museum of the Atlantic is amaritime museum located indowntown Halifax,Nova Scotia, Canada.
The museum is a member institution of theNova Scotia Museum and is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection of over 30,000 artifacts including 70 small craft and asteamship: theCSSAcadia, a 180-foot steam-powered hydrographic survey ship launched in 1913.
The museum was founded in 1948. It was first known as the Maritime Museum of Canada and located atHMC Dockyard, the naval base on Halifax Harbour. Several naval officers served as volunteer chairs of the museum until 1959 whenNiels Jannasch was hired as the museum's founding director, serving until 1985. The museum moved through several locations over the next three decades before its current building was constructed in 1981 as part of a waterfront redevelopment program. The museum received the CSSAcadia in 1982. Today the museum is part of the Nova Scotia Museum system.
The museum was one of the first attractions to open on the redevelopedHalifax Waterfront. Its location provides the museum with several piers and boatsheds, as well as a strategic view of theHalifax Harbour, which looks seaward towards theHarbourmaster office andGeorges Island and across toDartmouth. Among its facilities is the restored 1880s Robertson Storeship chandler building, as well as modern exhibit galleries in the Devonian Wing (the modern museum building).HMCSSackville, aWorld War II Flower-classcorvette is docked adjacent to the museum in the summer months but is not owned or administered by the museum.Also, the flags across the front of the building read, "Welcome aboard L44 38N G63 34W"--giving it'sLatitude and lonGitude in degrees and minutes.
In addition to the over 30,000 artifacts, the museum also has a collection of 30,000 photographs as well as a large collection of charts and rare books. A reference library, open to the public, is named after the museum's founding director, TheNiels Jannasch Library. The museum has Canada's largest collection of ship portraits including the oldest ship portrait in Canada as well as a large collection ofship models including the original production models of the television showTheodore Tugboat. Ongoing restoration ofWhim, a 1937 C-class sloop can be found in one of the boatsheds on the wharf behind the museum. In addition to this current restoration project, the boatsheds house some of the museum's small craft collection. During the summer months three boats in the working small craft collection can be found moored next to the CSSAcadia. In July 2017 the museum also completed restoration of the small schoonerHebridee II.
Public galleries include the Days of Sail, the Age of Steam, Small Craft, the Canadian Navy, theHalifax Explosion, and Shipwrecks. A special permanent exhibit explores the sinking of theRMSTitanic with an emphasis on Nova Scotia's connection to recovering the bodies ofTitanic victims. The museum has the world's foremost collection of wooden artifacts fromTitanic, including one of the few survivingdeck chairs. TheTitanic exhibit also includes a child's pair of shoes, which helped identifyTitanic's "unknown child" asSidney Leslie Goodwin.[1]
The adjacent exhibit "Shipwreck Treasures of Nova Scotia" explores the many other shipwrecks off the coast of Nova Scotia including archaeological discoveries on naval shipwrecks inLouisbourg Harbour and an unknown 1750s schooner atLower Prospect, Nova Scotia. The results of treasure hunting are also featured in a section on Cape Breton treasure wrecks which has displays of weapons, instruments, gold and silver from wrecks such as the 1711HMSFeversham, the 1725 wreck ofChameau and the 1761 wreck of the shipAuguste.[2]
The Age of Steam gallery includes a special display onSamuel Cunard, the Nova Scotian who foundedCunard. The restored 1880s Robertson building includes the fully restored Robertsonship chandlerly which features hands on foghorns, ropes and ship fittings.
The Navy gallery includes the "Convoy Exhibit" about theBattle of the Atlantic which includes theCanadian Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance. Monuments to the Canadian and Norwegian Merchant Navy are located just outside the museum along with a unique children's playground in the shape of a submarine.
The museum also has a changing exhibits gallery. A 2009 exhibitShip of Fate: The Tragic Voyage of the St. Louis was the first Canadian exhibit to explore the 1939 voyage of the Jewish refugee shipMS St. Louis.[3] The museum became the first museum in North America to present an exhibit about the lives of gay seafarers in 2011 when it presentedHello Sailor: Gay Life on the Ocean Waves, adapted from an exhibit developed at theMerseyside Maritime Museum inLiverpool,England.[4] The 2012 exhibit explores the experiences of thecable ships based in Halifax who recovered most of the victims of theRMSTitanic sinking.
The corvetteHMCSSackville (K181) is not part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic but is located adjacent to the museum in the summer and works with the museum to interpret theRoyal Canadian Navy.
The museum's location on the Halifax waterfront has made the museum the site of several significant public events. In addition to being a stop on most Canadian federal election campaigns, the museum hosted meetings from the1995 G7 Summit, as well a September 11 commemorative event in 2006 attended byCanada's Minister of Foreign Affairs,Peter MacKay andUnited States Secretary of State,Condoleezza Rice. The museum hosts an annual commemoration of theBattle of the Atlantic on the first Sunday of every May andCanadian Merchant Navy day every September 3.
44°38′51.7″N63°34′15.8″W / 44.647694°N 63.571056°W /44.647694; -63.571056
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