The Grindstone Island lighthouse became a prominent feature of the island when it was built in 1859. The light was eventually discontinued in 1984, but over those 125 years, there lived 8 lighthouse keepers who tended to the lighthouse and lived on the island. The journals seen here are from the eighth and final lighthouse keeper, Wilbur Wainwright ‘Pappy’ Weston.

Before modern day automation, many tools were used to efficiently produce various different types of crops, including the potato. This shute, for example, would have been used to plant potatoes deep in the ground. It was used on the Isaiah Milton farm on Caledonia Mountain and measure 33 inches in length.

From 1850 to 1880, Albertite was shipped in mass quanitities from Hillsborough to Boston, where it was used to light the Boston street lamps. The majority of Albertite mining took place in the Albert Mines between 1854 until 1884. In fact, according the pay sheets from 1879, the Albert Mining Co. sold 5,367 tons of Albertite for $94,096 that year.

These half-model ships were used at the Bennett Shipyard in Hopewell Cape for ships built between 1860 and 1918. Included here are the ship models for brigantine ‘PJ Nevius’ (1860), and schooners ‘Vincent A White’ and ‘Meredith A White’ (1918), as well as barquentine Royal Harrie (1872), which was built at the neighbouring John Leander Pye Shipyard.

The moustache cup is a tea cup designed to include a small ledge on the inside of the cup. It was used to protect, of course, one’s moustache from the heat and moisture of the tea. A small opening between the ledge and the cup allowed for liquids to pass through, but not touch the pampered moustaches of the time.

As part of the the Mildred Bennett Chapter’s (IODE) centennial project, a flag pole, a Canadian flag, and a plaque were presented to the Albert County Museum, as seen in the photo. Shown left in the photo to the right are Mrs. Borden Steeves and Mrs. George MacIntyre, both member of the committee working on the project, Borden Steeves, president of the Albert County Historical Society, and Mrs. I.M. McQuinn, regent of the Mildred Bennett Chapter I.O.D.E.

The first commercial production of maple syrup in Albert County was in the early 1840’s by the Colpitts family. This maple syrup strainer, made circa 1860 out of hornbeam wood, was used by the Colpitts family in their original sugar camp.

This style of antique china is called Flow Blue due to the fact that the designs applied in blue would blur slightly when the pieces were fired in the kiln. The vintage dish ware was most popular during the Victorian era and has experienced several surges of renewed popularity in the past 45 years.

The now exposed walls reveal names of those who had been incarcerated, digits marking time, and dates as early as 1871. There are poems and comments on prisoners’ plights: “George Riley in for kissing a girl in September 1902 and walked out soon afterwards,” as well as a life-size sketch of a handle-bar moustached gentleman with devil horns, thought to be a sheriff of the time.