In December 2024, Steve Murphy, a local fossil enthusiast, discovered unique fossil pinecones while walking with his dog Turbo. Learn more in this amazing find blog post from Tim Fedak, Curator of Geology. museum.novascotia.ca/blog/very-ol... #NovaScotia

James Hertle, Sr., was a ship’s carver at Williams’ Shipyard in Dartmouth. He was also a gifted folk artist. His “Black Figure In Dancing Position,” c. 1865, is held by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. This walnut picture frame is a much more personal piece. #novascotia

Gus the gopher tortoise has been in Nova Scotia a long time - more than eighty years. He’s likely met some of you! Do you have a memory of Gus?

We are the Nova Scotia Museum. What began as one museum of science and history in 1868 is today, a family of 28 sites & over one million artifacts & specimens, across Nova Scotia. We have seven sites that are open year-round.

In 2012, Patrick Keating and his dog, Kitty, teamed up to make an incredible fossil discovery on a Nova Scotia beach on the Northumberland Strait. What they found in rocks along the shore was the rib cage, backbone and partial sail of a sail-back amphibian – the first ever discovered here.

The Lady Scotia wood-burning stove was one a range of attractive enameled stoves made at Lunenburg Foundry in the 1920s. This stove came to the Museum of Industry directly from the kitchen where it had spent its working life. Imagine the smell of the bread cooking on a cold winter's day. #NovaScotia

Reminder: January 5th - 11th we are open by donation. There is no travelling exhibit. Access to some permanent exhibits may change over the days as work in the exhibits is done. This can include accessing the Marine Gallery by stairs only. Call or message us with questions about visiting. (1/2)

NEW - Explore Our Collections Nova Scotia Museum Collections Online, allows users to explore of some of the highlights in the Nova Scotia Museum collection. Please come back to see what’s new as we build our online collection. #novascotia collections.novascotia.ca

The Nova Scotia Museum extends its heartfelt congratulations to Roger Lewis, former Mi’kmaq Cultural Heritage Curator, on his appointment to the Order of Canada.

Notes from Piers Accession Book: Borings of Limnoria lignorum (Rathke), the "Gribble," and of Toredo navalis, Linn., the "Ship-worm", in piece of an old, fir net-bouy. Hubbard's Cove, Hubbards, Hx. Co., N.S.; Aug, 1914.

Notes from Piers Accession Book: Sigillaria (Part of stem); collected at Westville, NS.; 13 September 1901; donated by Acadia Colliery; quantity 2. Date Accessioned: September 1901 Reference: Harry Piers number 601 Nova Scotia Museum Geology Collection

Notes from Piers Accession Book: Reference collection of Economic Seeds (useful & noxious plants) of Canada. Prepared in Seed Laboratory of Branch of Seed Commissioner, Dept. of Agriculture, Ottawa. 1906 Oct 16. Date Accessioned: 16 October 1906 Reference: Harry Piers number 3058 Botany Collection

Between 1900 & 1939 in his role as curator of the Nova Scotia Museum, Harry Piers maintained meticulous, detailed records of donations made to the Museum's collection - like this Shark tooth. #novascotia

What's that saying? Red sky in morning, sailors take warning? Let's look out for each other today, #NovaScotia. If #Museum operational hours are impacted, we will share on our socials and website. Staff travel from different areas, including on transit, and we require power and water to be open.

NEW - Explore Our Collections The Nova Scotia Museum Collections Online, allows users to explore of some of the highlights in the provincial collection. We will be adding content regularly. Please come back to see what’s new as we build our online collection. collections.novascotia.ca

NEW - Explore Our Collections This new site, Nova Scotia Museum Collections Online, allows users to explore of some of the highlights in the Nova Scotia Museum collection. We will be adding content regularly. collections.novascotia.ca #NSMCollections #NovaScotiaMuseum #novascotia

In 19th century Nova Scotia, skating was becoming a popular activity. But the old block skates were terrible – they were unstable and kept coming loose. #NovaScotia

Happy golden cakes of yore! Today we're sharing a lovely holiday bake, Nan's Pound Cake, from the Black Loyalist’s Heritage Centre, a delicious & simple recipe destined to become a tradition. Zhuzh it up with a scoop of candy cane ice cream.

Planning a visit to the Nova Scotia Museum? Our sites have different hours this holiday season, and some are closed until the spring. Please check the current hours online before you visit so you don't miss out. Start a new tradition! Plan your visit today. museum.novascotia.ca #NovaScotia

A summary of International Geodiversity Day @geodiversityday.bsky.social in the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark #NovaScotia @visitnovascotia.bsky.social ⚒️ www.geodiversityday.org/post/geodive...

On December 16th, we’re joining readers around the world in celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth — with a Halifax twist in a blog post from Lisa Bower, History Collections Curator. (Image 85.119.32 D-2) museum.novascotia.ca/blog/jane-au...

Merry & Bright! These Noma Mazda lamps were manufactured in Canada and conform to Hydro Electric Power Corridor Approval No. 1928. Unfortunately, these lights are connected in series, so if one lamp is loose or missing, the entire strand stops working.

Do you still send Christmas cards? This old Christmas card box of unknown origin was once filled with "Christmas Cheer" ready for stamps and heartfelt messages for family and friends.

Today’s a great day to look for lichens. Download Lichens in Nova Scotia: A ‘how-to’ guide for beginner naturalists museum.novascotia.ca/collections-...

This gold watch was presented to Georgina Miner in recognition of her services following the 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion. "Presented to G.C. Miner Xmas 1917 for services rendered by K of C Halifax to commemorate the disaster."

Located directly across the harbour Narrows from the blast site, the Mi’kmaw community at Turtle Grove suffered terrible damage on December 6, 1917. The deaths of nine community members were officially recorded; many others were injured or killed.

Storm Closure The Fundy Geological Museum will be closed today, Monday December 8, 2025, due to poor weather and road conditions. #NSStorm

December 1917 - Fully embroiled in the First World War Halifax was quickly evolving into a world class port and major base of naval operations. /thread #HalifaxExplosion

On December 6, 1917, over 1700 lives were lost, over 9,000 were injured, & many were left homeless in the wake of the Halifax Harbour Explosion. In the aftermath of the disaster, people came together across the world to show compassion and assist Nova Scotians where they could.

Do you want to build a snowman?❄️ In this blog post Tim Fedak, Curator of Geology, explores the science behind snow crystals, highlighting the fascinating geological twists that make each one a unique work of art. museum.novascotia.ca/blog/beautif...

Halifax is a living memorial to what happened that day & in the days that followed the 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion. Take time to explore the monuments and memorials throughout the city. Visit Explosion in The Narrows: The 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Crazy quilts, fanciful jumbles of velvet and silk, were all the rage in the late 1800s. Scraps were cut from old silk dresses, which were very popular at the time. People even traded remnants and ordered them directly from dress factories.

Halifax Harbour was crowded with wartime ships on December 6, 1917. The CSS Acadia received minor damage in the 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion while acting as a guard ship in Bedford Basin, making her the only vessel still afloat today to have survived.

Storm Closure The Fundy Geological Museum will be closed today, Wednesday December 3, 2025, due to poor weather and road conditions.

Specimen NSM 55678 is a green turtle (Chelonia mydas), that was found dead, presumably cold-stunned, in Morden, Nova Scotia in 2009. This species is usually found in subtropical and tropical regions, but is more frequently being seen in Nova Scotia waters.

Conservation Technician, Christian Demmings spent the afternoon adding new seals to the NSM zoology wet collections.

Take a mindful moment. Explore the 8 walking trails available year-round Uniacke Estate Museum Park to discover Nova Scotia’s rich natural heritage in every season. #NovaScotia

Field trip for specimens. We love it when our collections objects are used in creative ways. A handful of bird specimens attended the seventh annual Afterwords Literary Festival.

Our NSM Zoology Collections intern is assisting with an inventory of our Herpetology collection. Featured here are Eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta picta). Each specimen is examined, logged in our collections database, assigned a storage location and, if needed, repackaged and labelled.

NSM Zoology & Conservation staff work together to organize and rearrange shelving in our collections space. This work offers the chance enhance our collections storage space, to do inventory, and to address the condition of specimens as part of ongoing collections care. #novascotia #behindthescenes

The NSM collections objects are often used for research, and sometimes this involves taking small subsamples for various types of analysis – we call this “destructive sampling”. #novascotia #zoology #behindthescenes

I made a new friend today. Isabella tiger moth caterpillar, aka the woolly bear, are a common sight across Nova Scotia. The larva emerges from an egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form.

The elegant “Swimming Swan” pattern on this pressed glass jar was identified in 1969 from shards found at the Nova Scotia Glass Company factory site. It’s easy to see why Nova Scotia glass wares have stood the test of time. The Museum of Industry exhibit feature an impressive display of this work.

This blue lobster is about one in two million, and displays the beautiful blue colouring due to a genetic mutation. This mutation suppresses other colours (red, yellow, green). #NovaScotia #Lobster

A bug’s world is full of pitfalls – killer frosts, spider webs, swishing tails …. but the danger that a pitcher plant poses to an insect is quite literally a pitfall. #Museum30 #Danger

Sometimes human interference with the environment can have bizarre consequences. This deep-sea coral species (Desmophyllum dianthus) is found throughout the world’s oceans. Nothing unusual here – except the piece you are looking at grew around a fibre-optic telephone cable.

Lisa Bower is a museum curator and historian who specializes in material culture studies about Nova Scotian samplers, needlework and 19th century African Nova Scotian schools. #Museum30 #specialist #novascotia

Check out our #BehindTheScenes video series 🌱 What is a herbarium? with Sean Haughian - Curator of Botany at the Nova Scotia Museum. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... #novascotia

Our collections, over a million objects reflect the diversity of Nova Scotia’s human & natural histories. Curators, researchers, interpreters & collections care professionals work with artifacts & specimens. Next time you visit think about the incredible people behind the scenes. #museum30 #careers

Perkins House Museum - open seasonally - from June to October. Every day for over 40 years, Simeon Perkins recorded details in his diary about life, family and business in Liverpool. #museum30 #diary #novascotia