Though you can't change history, you can look at it differently, at the Collingwood Museum's new permanent exhibit.
The exhibit on local wooden-boat builders was finished last Monday (June 18) and marks the first phase of a revamp that will bring in five permanent exhibits and include a transformation of the more temporary exhibits.
The exhibit features a restored Wooden Lapstrike Lifeboat built by the Watts family in 1937, donated in the 1980s and restored in 2000. The boat has been a fixture in the museum for a while, but in its new home it’s surrounded by floor-to-ceiling pictures depicting Collingwood’s wooden-boat building history and other artifacts such as an oar, a pair of wooden skis and a wooden boat maker’s tools.
“I’m really happy with it,” said Susan Warner, museum supervisor.
The exhibit was designed and installed by Blue Rhino Designs from Toronto.
“This was the first time working with a design firm,” said Warner.
Both Warner and one of her museum assistant’s Melissa Shaw said the scale and design of the new exhibit seems to draw guests deeper into the museum and it displays the large boat without being cumbersome or blocking a path.
“We really wanted it to be dynamic and inviting,” said Shaw, adding she used to hear from guests who said having the boat at the entrance of the museum made it look like the exhibits inside never changed.
“This is a community space, we want what’s important to the community to be reflected in the building,” said Shaw.
So change is happening. The makeover include a “re-envisioning” of the cases to a more modern, clean look and having the exhibits flow together in a more seamless transition.
The boat was used as a lifesaving vessel in the former Collingwood shipyards.
Watts boats first came in Collingwood before the train arrived in 1855, and started building wooden boats right away. Later, other boat building families arrived including the Doherty family and the Morrill family.
A photo on the left of the display shows the interior of a Watts family workshop where men are working on a new boat.
Shaw said that’s the only photograph she’s ever seen inside a Watts building.
A Watts shed remains in tact at the Collingwood harbour and is currently used by the Dragon Boat and Canoe Club. It was moved to the harbour location after the Watts family was finished with it. Originally it was a storage shed, but the family built its last Watt’s boat in that shed.
The wooden skis in the museum exhibit were made by the Morrill family, who also ventured into the hockey stick market.
The tools on display belonged to Archie McCall, an employee of the Morrill family for a time.
The oar’s origin is unknown, but represents the type of work done by all three boat-building families in Collingwood.
By the end of the year, Warner hopes to see the completion of two more permanent exhibits, one on the Huron Institute and another on the area’s Indigenous history.
The Huron Institute was established in 1904 as Collingwood’s first museum. It was created to house the various artifacts and materials being collected, in particular from Indigenous sites within the town (that’s where the name Huron came from).
Shaw said the Huron institute will be a permanent exhibit where museum staff will be able to change out artifacts with those currently in the museum’s collection.
The final exhibit will include artifacts, photos and information about the Indigenous people who lived in and passed through the Collingwood area hundreds of years ago.
In 2019, the museum will be working on two more permanent exhibits, one on the Collingwood Shipyards history and another on the railway.
Museum staff have also installed a digital survey kiosk for guests to leave feedback on their way out of the gallery.
Shaw and Warner said the feedback will be important as the museum undergoes a transformation so the changes made can reflect the will and interests of the community and museum guests.
For more on the wooden boat builders or the Collingwood museum, click here.
