Visitors find museum’s hidden treasures

Nicole Dubroy carefully corralled her children, nieces and nephews down the stairwell to the special collections at the St. Catharines museum for its annual behindthe-scenes tour.

She reminded her charge to look at the items with their eyes, not their hands, as requested by museum curator Kathleen Powell.

“We never knew they had a basement or anything,” said Dubroy.

While Dubroy has often visited the museum, she has never been on the tour that happens every Family Day.

“All that new stuff in the basement that I’ve never seen before.

“It’s so huge down there,” she said.

“It would be nice to see something like the older fridges, and the kids toys displayed more often,” Dubroy added.

Powell led the tour of three different spaces in the basement that she said houses much of the 750,000 items in the collection.

“There’s a lot of neat stuff, and we can’t display them all, unfortunately,” said Powell.

The guided tour shows many items — like a nuclear bomb siren because of its size and weight — that don’t get above ground very often.

Octogenarians Lloyd and Lois Brittain have lived their whole lives in the region, but it was the first time for the pair to visit the special collections at the museum. “Absolutely fascinating, I saw things I used,” said Lois.

“The massive amount of stuff they have is amazing.

“It’s too bad kids don’t get to see it.”

Powell pointed out vintage refrigerators and a butter churn that are part of the large items collection.

“You almost wish they had more space for display,” said Lois who recalled seeing and using some of the items.

“A cream separator — some kids don’t even realize milk comes from cows, they don’t realize years ago you had to milk a cow, and if you wanted cream, you had to put it through a separator.

“It’s all stored so well.”

Added Lloyd, “Some of that stuff, no wonder they don’t put it out too often; they’re so heavy and fragile.”

Powell loves doing the tour. “I think it’s the best part of the whole place,” she said.

“We do this on Family Day and any time by appointment, but we try to keep them to about 20 people because of the small spaces and corridors.”

BOB TYMCZYSZYN/STANDARD STAFF Lloyd and Lois Brittain look over items as visitors tour the special collections in the St. Catharines museum basement as part of Family Day events Monday. Every Family Day, three areas that are not normally open to the public are shown off, with items...