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St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre Events
Virtual Education Programs and Experiences
During the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum is offering free lesson plans, activities, resources and programs for all students, teachers, or at-home educators. Please reach out to us if you have comments, questions, or would like information or activities on a topic we have yet to cover.
Museum Classroom has free lesson plans and activities to help supplement at home learning.
Virtual Tours and Programs are available for all students, organized by teachers or other at-home educators. Download the 2020-2021 Education Programs e-Brochure.
For more information please visit our Museum Programs page.
Ongoing Virtual Public Programs and Experiences
The Museum is now offering our public programming and exhibitions online. Check our social media channels, blog, and website often for the schedule and updates. Public programming and exhibits to watch for include:
Facebook Live videos, talks and lectures, and activities on facebook.com/stcatharinesmuseum
Podcasts and blog posts available at stcatharinesmuseumblog.com
Temporary exhibitions available online, including 'Victorian Tweets', 'Coming Home: St. Catharines and the End of WWII', and more. Please visit our Exhibitions page for more information.
Black History Month - February 2021
February is Black History Month. The St. Catharines Museum will commemorate the stories and experiences of the Black community woven into St. Catharines history throughout the month with a blog series written by special guest and local historian Rochelle Bush, and virtual tours of the Museum's Follow the North Star exhibition.
Be sure to follow along our social media channels for more Black History content all year round.
Virtual Follow the North Star Tours
There will be two opportunities to join the St. Catharines Museum virtually for a guided tour of our award-winning Follow the North Star exhibition.
Thursday, February 11 on Facebook Live
Tune into our Facebook Page on Thursday, February 11 at 11:00am for a live virtual tour of our Follow the North Star Exhibition.
Be sure to Like our Facebook Page and look out for the release of our Facebook Event in the coming weeks!
Sunday, February 21 on Youtube
Catch the live-stream of our virtual tour of our Follow the North Star Exhibition on Sunday, February 21 at 4:30pm on Youtube.
Sign-up by emailing museum@stcatharines.ca to receive the secure link to this live-streamed event.
Be sure to subscribe to our Youtube Channel so as not to miss out on future virtual Museum events and programming!
Virtual Museum Lecture Series - Winter 2021
We are thrilled to present the line-up for the Winer 2021 season of our Virtual Museum Lecture Series. Mark your calendars and join us alternate Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. We'll kick-off the season just in time for Black History Month, with our first lecture streaming on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
Watch a preview of the Winter 2021 Virtual Museum Lecture Series here:
All lectures are available by donation and are approximately 60 minutes in length. Send us an email to sign-up and we will send you a secure, private link to access the online lecture.
February 2 – Visiting Abolitionists, with special guest Rochelle Bush
February 2 at 7 p.m. – Visiting Abolitionists, with special guest Rochelle Bush
Rochelle Bush, local historian with the BME Salem Chapel, will deliver a talk about the many abolitionists who visited St. Catharines during the long fight for emancipation on February 2 to kick off our Winter Lecture Series and Black History Month.
February 16 - Myths of the Underground Railroad, with Sara Nixon
February 16 at 7 p.m. – Myths of the Underground Railroad, with Sara Nixon
Public Programmer Sara Nixon will discuss the myths of the Underground Railroad and some of the challenges those myths present in interpreting such a popular, secretive, and fascinating history.
March 2 - No Exit: The Dead-end Streets of St. Catharines, with Adrian Petry
March 2 at 7 p.m. – No Exit: The Dead-end Streets of St. Catharines, with Adrian Petry
Visitor Services Coordinator Adrian Petry will examine the our local history through the City's urban development and the sometimes mysterious and sometimes frustrating dead-end streets found around the City.
March 16 – For King and Country: St. Catharines and the Boer War, 1899-1902, with Kathleen Powell
March 16 at 7 p.m. – For King and Country: St. Catharines and the Boer War, 1899-1902, with Kathleen Powell
Kathleen Powell, St. Catharines Museum Curator, will give a talk about the local impact on our community and the participation of many from the City in the Boer War, 1899-1902.
March 30 - The Historic Welland Canals Mapping Project, with special guest Colleen Beard
March 30 at 7 p.m. – The Historic Welland Canals Mapping Project, with special guest Colleen Beard
Former Brock University Map Librarian Colleen Beard will detail the vital work in mapping the historic Welland Canals, from locks and weirs, to bridges and buried heritage sites. Join Colleen for a very deep dive into our canal history.
April 13 - The General: A Symposium with the students of the Brock University Historical Society
April 13 at 7 p.m. – The General: A Symposium with the students of the Brock University Historical Society
Students of the Brock University Historical Society will launch their 2020-2021 edition of the General, their Undergraduate Journal, and members will give a symposium on their recent work and research.
April 27 - The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canada's Second World War with special guest, Dr. Tim Cook
April 27 at 7 p.m. - The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canada's Second World War with special guest Dr. Tim Cook
Author and historian at the Canadian War Museum, Dr. Tim Cook will give a talk about remembering the Second World War and his new book The Fight for History.
Daily Social Media Content
We post daily museum content across our social media channels to keep you and your family engaged and learning!
Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
You'll find videos, interactive polls, podcast episodes, blog posts, photos from the Museum Collection, and so much more!
Where's the Pig? Virtual Adventure Series
While our Where's the Pig? virtual adventure series is now wrapped up, you can watch all the episodes online! Follow along with Sara in her search for a mischievous pig missing since 1945 and explore historic spots in downtown St. Catharines along the way!
Watch the episodes on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and on our blog!
Victorian Tweets
What if the Victorians had Twitter?
Victorian Tweets juxtaposes daily Victorian life found in newspapers, diaries, letters, and ephemera from the Museum's archival collection against the modern Twitterverse.
Click here to explore the digital version of this exhibition by clicking on the category pages below. Scroll through Tweets and photographs to view the exhibition.
Coming Home, Commemorating the End of WWII
The Second World War officially began for Canada on September 9th, 1939 when Parliament voted to support the British and French against the German incursions in Poland.
The war ended for many Canadians on May 7, 1945 with Victory in Europe, while fighting continued in the Asian theatre for a few more months and ended on August 14, 1945 with Victory in Japan.
September 1945 saw the beginning of the return of men and women combatants from St. Catharines.
This virtual photo exhibit captures the poignant moments that were a part of coming home. Using the unique on-line features of History Pins. we are able to create a picture map of the relevant locations throughout the City of St. Catharines and in some case we can even see specific locations then and now. (Look for the images with the little yellow person graphic in the lower left corner.)
Click Coming Home to launch this interactive photo exhibit.