Northcott Donation to Huronia Museum

March 30, 2009June 13, 2011 / Bryan / 7 Comments

Bill Northcott is in the process of donating his photographic collection and his very extensive collection of post cards to the Huronia Museum. Bill is an active retired teacher from the Geography Dept. of Midland Secondary School where he taught for 32 years. Being very active in his community he has now written and published two local history books. His first was entitled Thunder Bay Beach a cottage community located in Tiny Township about 15 km north of Midland. Bill is now revising this book which originally came out in 1989. His second book was co-authored with Bill Smith and is titled “Midland on Georgian Bay” and was published by the Huronia Museum last year. It’s been 70 years since a history of Midland was compiled and published in a serious way, and Bill and his wife Joan played an important role in getting this project up and off the ground and seeing it through to publication. It’s a project that spans 20 years and over this time Bill has compiled quite a collection of material which he is generously donating to Huronia Museum

Bill Northcott - Co-Author of Midland on Georgian Bay

Book Launch October 4th

October 1, 2008 / Bryan / 1 Comment

BOOK LAUNCH – Saturday, October 4th, 2008

“The Sea Cadet Years on Georgian Bay”

Meet the Author, Bornnie Rourke, who has been working for several years with former Sea Cadets from the 1940s and 1950s, who attend Princess Alice and Queen Elizabeth Camps on Minnicognashene and Beausoleil Islands. Their stories are very interesting pertaining to military training and life on Georgian Bay for nearly 11,000 cadets. A DVD will be presented by Bonnie as well as Midland Sea Cadets will be on hand to provide colour and naval league flavour to the celebration. The book will retail for $45.00 and will be another outstanding contribution to the history of Georgian Bay, its people and communities.

2.00pm – 4.30 pm at the Museum

Update on the Firearms Collections at Huronia Museum

August 29, 2008June 13, 2011 / Bryan / 1 Comment

Jamie examines our 1882 Martini Enfield lever action single shot Northwest Rebellion and Boer War rifle to see it it has been modified to accept 303 cartridges which takes it from an antique to a restricted category with full registration.

Since our inception as a museum in 1947, the collecting of firearms has been an ongoing activity of our collections program. Over the years, our generous donors have given us about 125 rifles and hand guns that run from about 1760 to 1960 or two hundred years of Huronia’s history.
In 2001, the Federal Government implemented a gun registration program and since that time, Nicole Henderson and Jamie have been working with volunteers, Ernie Reid and Brent Hicks to register all our firearms and conform to the new federal legislation. As part of this process the Office of the Chief of Firearms for Ontario periodically reviews museums and firearms retail establishments to check up on registrations.
We have gone through an audit process with Mark Sharp of the Ontario Provincial Police who is the central Ontario Firearms Inspector. He has made recommendations which we are carrying out pertaining to the Firearms regulations. Mark has made a number of suggestions on how to better secure our firearms and to make it more difficult for someone to remove our firearms from the exhibits. In Jamie’s 28 years of museum work, only two thefts have occurred at the museum and both involved hand guns.
Our thanks to Mark, our Firearms Officer, and to Sheryl, our Firearms Verifier, who have helped us to improve our registration, storage and documentation of the museums firearms collections.