Thunder Bay Historical Museum
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The Thunder Bay Historical Museum, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, the former twin cities of Fort William and Port Arthur, Canada is operated by the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society founded in 1908 by Peter McKellar as the Thunder Bay Historical Society.
Since 1994 the museum has been housed in the former Fort William police station and court house near the city hall. The three storey building was erected in 1912 (architect Robert Mason) and is considered a fine example of Classical Revival architecture, with its two large Corinthian columns and pilasters. Fundraising is under way to restore the cornice and other missing architectural elements. The interior of the building has been completely renovated since 1994 including the HVAC systems. An annex was enlarged and converted to a storage area for the collection. Recently an attractive visible storage gallery was built in front of the annex to display vehicles and other large items in the collection.
The first floor gallery features permanent exhibits on various aspects of local history (medical, mining, military, photography, etc.). The second floor gallery known as the James Murphy Room is dedicated to meetings and programming, including workshops for children. The third floor gallery features the McKellar Games Room and special exhibits.
The museum collects objects of regional interest from ceramics, dolls, furniture, military memorabilia, and pictures, to vehicles like a fire truck. The archives has 130 metres of linear records, 1900 maps and plans, 150,000 photographic images and a 2200 volume library.
The Society produces an annual volume Papers and Records and issues publications on a variety of local and regional interest such as Lake Superior to Rainy River : three centuries of fur trade history and In Search of a Better Life : Emigration to Thunder Bay from a small town in Calabria.
