School Days' Museum Project

    The "School Days" Museum is alive and well and continues to grow and improve. Even though it is located in Fredericton, the Museum's Board of Directors encourages everyone to consider it to be truly a provincial museum.

    In the 25 years the Museum has existed it has amassed over 13,000 educational artifacts from schools of earlier years in New Brunswick: textbooks, resource materials, teaching aids, photos, students' work, educational records and school furniture and fixtures.

    Rather than being a museum which concentrates only on the collection of items, it is hoped the Museum will become more dynamic in exhibiting its impressive list of artifacts. However, as more and more items continue to be received from generous donors, the space in the Museum becomes ever more limited.

    To envision "School Days" Museum becoming an enlarged and more attractive site, a five year long-range plan was developed in 2004. The Board hopes this plan to be largely completed by the end of 2009. The plan has five phases.

    Phases One and Two consisted of converting one of the classrooms of the former Model School of the old Provincial Normal School into a display space for textbooks as well as building a replica of a One Room School in New Brunswick of about 1920. This required the building of a dividing wall. With a very generous Support Grant from the Heritage Branch of the Province of New Brunswick, "School Days" was able to employ professional talent to build a purpose built One Room School on one side of the dividing wall and a display space with shelves and cupboards on the other.

    In addition to the generous financial support from the Province of New Brunswick, these Phases have also drawn considerable donations from individuals and several public-spirited groups, including, among others, the New Brunswick Society of Retired Teachers (NBSRT) and several of its Branches, The Fredericton Community Foundation, and the I.O.D.E.

    Phase Three included the construction of a graphic display honoring three outstanding New Brunswick Educators: Martha Hamm Lewis, Dr. Fletcher Peacock and Prof. Alphée Belliveau. Ms. Lewis was the first woman to graduate from the New Brunswick Normal School; Dr. Peacock brought about modern school organization in New Brunswick and Professor Belliveau was for four decades the professor of French at the Normal School.

    Again, "School Days" received a sizable grant from Heritage New Brunswick to undertake and complete this project. Part of this grant was also used to begin Phase Four: improving artifact displays, including graphic presentations; labeling artifacts properly in both English and French, and placing Plexi-glass covering over delicate items such as photographs and reproductions.

    This part of Phase Four is still underway. Phase Five is involved with cleaning up and improving the so-called Workroom where the Board has its Wednesday afternoon work sessions and business meetings. The Library of over 9,000 volumes is also located in this space. This work is well underway with continued financial support from Heritage Branch. It should be completed by the end of 2009 closing our first Five-Year Plan.

    It is the Museum's fervent hope that the improvements made over the past five years will greatly enhance the viewing experience for our many visitors. New Brunswick has a rich history of education, one which deserves its own museum to be celebrated and displayed.

    Further improvements - above all, the hiring of staff to have the Museum open many more weeks of the year and enlargement of the space to accommodate the growing list of historical items, and improvement of the environment for the many precious artifacts - await a second Five Year Plan.

    Obviously, new vision and more money will be required. "School Days" simply cannot pay for the work still needed from its operational budget, for expenses which include telephone payments, computer and technology supplies, insurance premiums, janitor services, workshop fees and office supplies among other costs.

    A contribution anyone can make to the Museum would mean we are that much closer to the goal. Those making personal donations in the name of "School Days" Museum will be issued income tax receipts.

    May our combined efforts make the "School Days" Museum a place of inestimable value and one in which visitors may enjoy to the utmost a nostalgic journey down memory lane.

School Days' Museum,
P. O. Box 752,
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5R6

Tel. & Fax: (506) 459-3738

E-mail: sdmuseum@nb.sympatico.ca