Congratulations to Kathy Powell, her museum staff and the City’s Board of Museums for creating an online catalogue of the museum’s collections. We have added a link on the library’s website www.nflibrary.ca to their new catalogue which can be searched at http://catalog.niagarafallsmuseum.ca .

This database is an ongoing work in progress. More artifacts and special collections will be added when catalogues are completed. Featured collections highlighted today are Souvenirs of Niagara Falls, Military Artifacts and the War of 1812.

Enter a search term by subject, type of object, description, manufacturer or keyword.

A detailed description of the museum artifact is provided with the museum’s accession number. You might also see an image of the item.

One example is an item from 1914 - a complete baseball uniform of the Canadian Shredded Wheat Company Baseball Team which was worn by Leon H. Misener . There is an image of it. It is number L994.D.098. It can be found under the subject “Sport-Baseball”.

I was impressed with its detailed description and the obvious care taken by museum staff who catalogued it. The following is included in the description:

The upper section is burgundy knitted wool and the front section is a white cotton knit. It has been mended in places. There is also a sock, short sleeve collar shirt with C.S.W. Co. in white lettering across the front, a white thin cord laced up the front opening with a patch pocket on the left side. There is a uniform bag made of burlap with a light brown cord drawstring with metal reinforcements. Written on the bottom is “L.H. Misener, No.2C” and stenciled on the side is “M&D, 1914".

Below the description is a helpful category heading of “Clothing, Outerwear” which leads to 118 other museum items such as aprons, coats, baptismal gowns, shirts, capes, blouses and many others.

Jan Leak and Chris Dunn of our Library assisted museum staff to develop this catalogue database which is based on our library’s software.

This is a major development to promote the heritage of our community throughout the world.

Our Library was pleased to partner with the Museum to provide this new database.