Developing a Window on the World in Saint John: A Study of the Early International Collections at the New Brunswick Museum, 1842-1929.
Andrea Kirkpatrick, Curator of Canadian & International Art, New Brunswick Museum
The New Brunswick Museum is Canada’s oldest continuously operated museum. Its origins can be traced back to 1842 with the opening to the public of Gesner’s Museum of Natural History in Saint John. Right from the beginning, its proprietor, Abraham Gesner, was soliciting and collecting objects from around the world.
In 1846, Gesner’s Museum was taken over by the Mechanics’ Institute and in 1890, both collections went to the Natural History Society of New Brunswick. The policy of collecting internationally continued throughout. Many donors responded. Gifts large and small came from mariners, missionaries, military officers, immigrants, travelers, New Brunswickers working abroad and other institutions.
Artifacts came from virtually every continent. Some of the early accessions, for example, are from the South Pacific (including Australia, New Zealand and numerous Oceanic islands), Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas from the far north to the far south. The scope and diversity of these international collections provided a window on the world for the people of Saint John and New Brunswick. When the New Brunswick Museum was formed in 1929, the practice of collecting internationally was already well established and set a precedent for future collecting.
The purpose of this study is to elucidate the early museum-building phenomenon in Saint John as it relates to the world travel of local residents, and assess its impact both on the present character of the Museum and on the cultural life of this traditionally industrial city.
A Small Sample of the New Brunsiwck Museum's International Collection:
Figurine: Wood Nymph, English, c. 1866
W.T. Compeland, Stoke-on Trent
Staffordshire, after Charles Bell Birch parian ware New Brunswick Museum,
Gift of May Brown, 1922 (4923)
Artist Unknown, Japanese
Bird on a Branch
Colour woodcut on Japanese Paper
23.9 x 25.2 cm
New Brunswick Museum, gift of Loretta Shaw, 1923 (6914)
Cradle, American, before 1754
Butternut, birch, mahogany, pine and ash
70 x 66.5 x 107 cm
Used by Honourable Ward Chipman as a baby
New Brunswick Museum, gift of Ethel Sidney and Mabel Sidney Smith, 1920 (2532)