Nova Scotia Museum of Industry
Encyclopedia
The Nova Scotia Museum of Industry is a provincial museum located in Stellarton, Nova Scotia
Stellarton, Nova Scotia
-External links:*...
dedicated to the story of Nova Scotia work and workers. Part of the Nova Scotia Museum
Nova Scotia Museum
Nova Scotia Museum is the corporate name for the most decentralized museum in Canada - 27 museums across Nova Scotia, including over 200 historic buildings, living history sites, vessels, specialized museums and close to a million artifacts and specimens...
system, the museum aims to explain how Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
was affected by the opportunities and challenges of the Industrial Age
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
The museum began with a series of studies on ways to preserve Nova Scotia’s industrial heritage beginning in 1974. A curator was hired and the collection was started in 1986. Construction began in 1990 and the museum opened to the public in 1995.
The museum occupies a site beside the Trans Canada Highway
Nova Scotia Highway 104
Highway 104 in Nova Scotia runs from the New Brunswick border near Amherst to St. Peter's. Except for the portion on Cape Breton Island between Port Hawkesbury and St. Peter's, it is part of the Trans-Canada Highway....
which includes some of the oldest industrial sites in Nova Scotia including the Foord Pit, once the deepest coal mine in the world and the Albion Railway, the first passenger and freight railway in Canada.
Samson (locomotive)
The Samson is an English-built railroad steam locomotive made in 1838 that ran on the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is preserved at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and is the oldest locomotive in Canada....
, the oldest railway locomotive in Canada and the Victorian, a horseless carriage, the first gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
powered car built in the Maritimes
Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
. The museum has extensive hands on galleries that explore the evolution of industry and work in Nova Scotia. Highlights include a large exhibit on coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in Nova Scotia including a special display on the Westray Mine
Westray Mine
The Westray Mine was a coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was the site of an underground methane explosion on May 9, 1992. The explosion resulted in the deaths of all 26 miners who were working underground at the time.-Background:...
disaster which took place near the museum in 1992.