On Thursday May 28th we attended the Lambton County Historical Society’s monthly meeting at the Lambton Heritage Museum in Grand Bend. The Society’s new president, Ron Urry, welcomed us to Grand Bend and thanked Laurie Webb, head curator of the museum, for hosting us. During the discussion of new business, a member of the London Branch of the United Empire Loyalists invited those interested to a picnic being held by the UEL at the end of June. They gave a brief history of the UEL, explaining that the Loyalists were Americans who remained loyal to Britain during the American War of Independence and who settled in Canada. The UEL introduction led to a short but heated debate on the role of the UEL in the War of 1812, but this was cut short in order to finish Society business.
The keynote talk of the night was given by Webb. Instead of talking about a particular part of the collection, instead she shared with us the plans for the reorganization of the museum’s storage areas. She explained that the Lambton Heritage Museum was chosen to be one of only six Ontario museums to take part in the Re-Org: Canada program, a government-funded program to help museums reorganize their storage spaces. The Lambton Heritage Museum was built in the 1970s and while the number of pieces in the collection has grown over the years, the amount of storage space has not. The artifacts have piled up in the storage room and as a result they have become increasingly difficult to access and at risk of damage.
Webb explained that she and assistant curator Luke Stempien spent several days visiting the Brant Museum and Archives in Brantford earlier in the year and helping reorganize the storage space there before returning home to assess and implement many of the ideas discussed. The new storage system that the Museum plans to introduce will be more efficient and safer for all of the artifacts. This new system includes shelving with adjustable heights so that no space is wasted between shelves, as well as several rolling shelving units. Webb expects the additional room made available by the rolling shelves will make it possible to install a work table, something that the storage room currently lacks. She invited everyone for a tour of the storage room at the end of her talk to see for ourselves the cramped and disorganized space that will soon change dramatically.