four county electric

On a dull drizzly morning I got a good start to my day with a filling breakfast and an interesting interview with the innkeepers of the MacKinnon-Cann in, followed by a tour of the four historic heritage properties that they own. In addition to last night's walking tour of Yarmouth, I had now got a good idea of Yarmouth's Victorian architecture. Now it was time to delve deeper into history, so I embarked on my visit of the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives.

Nadine Gates, the curator, welcomed me and gave me a personal tour throughout the facilities. As an overview she explained that the Yarmouth County Museum is a good representation of Yarmouth's past. The town's seafaring history is a major focus of the museum which features the third largest collection of ship portraits in Canada. More than 120 different ship portraits illustrate Yarmouth's historic importance in shipbuilding and navigation.

The Yarmouth County Historical Society was founded in 1967, and the museum opened in 1969 in a former church building. Beautiful wooden beams across a high vaulted ceiling demonstrate the former ecclesiastical use of this building. The museum has been expanded twice in 1999 and 2004. The new wing we were standing in is called the Education Wing and hosts a variety of Historical Society meetings, talks and lectures, music recitals and other events and is open to the public. At the present time it is hosting a stained glass exhibit that features local artists.

From the Education Wing we entered the main section of the museum which is an impressive space with a very high ceiling. The main exhibit area (the former church) still exudes a solemn atmosphere. Nadine took me to an area called "Families at Sea". Throughout seafaring history, particularly at the beginning of the previous century, entire families would be living on tall ships, and souvenirs from their trips all over the world were displayed here along with photos and letters of the various family members whose permanent residence was a wooden vessel on the ocean. A certain Catherine Ladd, for example, spent the first twelve years of her life living on a ship, and her artifacts are available for viewing.

The musical instruments section was a real highlight of the museum and Nadine mentioned that usually they demonstrate three of the instruments to visitors. A Concert Roller Organ from 1902 is an example of some of the mechanical instruments that were used long ago. This device, patented in 1887, is operated by cranking the external handle. The internal bellows, tuned reeds, valves and a roller produce organ-like tones. The Square Grand Piano dates back to 1874 and a Player Organ from 1890 is also on display.

My favourite instrument was the Pianola Player Piano, manufactured in 1902: the rectangular box is pedal-operated, and a set of tiny hammers at the back strikes the keys of a Guild "Square Grand" piano made in Boston in 1874. The Player Piano could simply be pushed up to any piano, and even a person who had never played the piano before could make beautiful music. All they had to do was to push the foot pedals up and down. Nadine played the 1920s tune "The Entertainer", the music itself is recorded on perforated paper rolls which actually looked rather fragile to me. The foot pedals operate a bellows system that operates the little hammers that play the tune on the piano behind it. What an ingenious invention....

A small display area is dedicated to the Yarmouth militia, attesting to Yarmouth's history as a military training ground during World War II. All throughout this wing of the museum numerous ships portraits depict impressive tall ships of years gone by. The ship owners would commission these paintings because once these ships were built and commissioned, they hardly ever came back to town, and in many cases the owners would never see the ships again.

We ended our tour in the new section where there is a collection of stage coaches, bicycles and other vehicles. One of the highlights in this area is the 1921 electric car of a certain Minnie L. Lovitt, who was the first female driver in Yarmouth. She must have turned a lot of heads at the time. My guided tour had come to an end and I thanked Nadine for sharing her knowledge with me and got ready for my trip along the famous Lighthouse Trail where I would experience a significant incident that helped me gain important insight into the local mentality.