Effective October 19th, the Board of Directors of the Paris Museum & Historical Society approved the installation of vice-chair Carol Goar as acting chair of PMHS. This development was prompted by the resignation of Ursula O’Brien. Ursula served on the board for five years, the last two as chair. She guided the museum through the challenges of pandemic closures and lockdowns, organizing the first ever Paris Museum annual general meeting conducted online. She oversaw the continuing digitization of the museum, including remote access for researchers. Also leaving the board after two plus y ..read more

At the clip-clop of horse’s hooves, children grabbed their nickels and ran. The Ice Cream Man — also known as Frank McCombs — was coming. McCombs was one of the last ice-cream peddlers in Ontario. For 25 years, his horse-drawn ice cream wagon was a familiar sight on the streets of Paris. He worked from 10 am to 11:30 pm on summer days, serving as many as 1,000 cones a day. Most Parisians overlooked McCombs’ crutches, which was just the way he liked it. “I’m a cripple, but I’m also a realist,” he told a reporter from the Brantford Expositor at the time. “There’s a lot of people sitting around ..read more

The Paris Museum will be closed on Thursday, September 30th out of respect for the thousands of indigenous children who died or were abused in government-sponsored residential schools. National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which became a statutory holiday this year, was originally known by aboriginal peoples as “Orange Shirt Day.” For the past eight years, indigenous people have worn orange shirts on September 30th in honour of Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwpemc from the Stswecem’s Wgat’tem First Nation in British Columbia. The young girl arrived for her first day of school, proudly we ..read more

Recently a small crew of museum volunteers had occasion to get up close and personal with a horse sweep. Variously termed “horse sweep”, “horse powered sweep”, “power sweep” or “sweep power”, this 19th-century agricultural tool was the portable generator of its time, changing the power of horses walking in a circle into the turning of a drive shaft. The drive shaft could then be used to power a variety of implements including threshers, balers and grinders. The horse sweep, despite its size and weight, was also relatively portable and could be moved to where the work needed to be done. Figure ..read more

The Walker Press building at 3 Yeo Street, Paris The mural painted on the south wall of the Walker Press building on Willow Street symbolizes much of what has been going on at the Paris Museum, not just during the pandemic, but over the past few years. The stated mission of the Paris Museum and Historical Society is “…to collect, preserve and make accessible the rich cultural heritage of Paris and surrounding area…” Many people may not realize that the Paris Museum is also an archive, housing a deep collection of documents and images going back over 100 years. Our research team has been workin ..read more

The research team at the Paris Museum works so quietly and efficiently that its success caught many members by surprise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash In just the first quarter of 2021, our researchers brought in $395.00 for PMHS. Last year, they earned a total of $392.50. What’s more, they’ve built a reputation in the community for producing high-quality work. One PMHS member was so pleased with the work done on her family by researcher Marlene Dayman that she sent the museum a $500 donation. The team consists of Marg Deans, who specializes in genealogy; Steve ..read more

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash When the third wave of COVID-19 hit Ontario in early March, hearts sank among the small group of volunteers planning the Paris Museum’s Annual General Meeting. They had been hoping to host an in-person AGM on April 18, 2021. After five-and-a-half months of lockdowns, the museum needed a boost. Their last hope expired on March 17 when Ontario Premier Doug Ford imposed an emergency stay-at-home order, extending till late May. That left two choices: postpone the AGM indefinitely or try to hold it online, which would pose possibly technical and practical challeng ..read more

Sunday April 18th, 2 pm via Zoom This year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be different from all others. Due to pandemic restrictions, we will need to conduct the meeting via Zoom. All members will receive a Zoom link by email a few days before the meeting. The meeting will feature the following: Vote of Board Members Change to the Constitution Membership Updates Virtual Exhibit Tour Members we have lost In order to be able to vote at the AGM you will need to be a museum member. During the current lockdown membership fees can be paid as follows: Email Transfer – send an email money tr ..read more

Despite complications caused by COVID-19 restrictions, our hard-working museum volunteers have been busy in the community. In November, PMHS supplied some of the items for the Legion’s Remembrance Day display at Sobeys. In December, volunteers braved the cold winds to set up an oldtime “Waiting for Santa” display for the very well-attended drive-through Christmas event organized by the Paris Agricultural Society at the fairgrounds ..read more

My first full year as President of the Paris Museum has been interesting and very challenging. In the early part of the year the museum was hard at work making plans for events, fundraisers and our ever popular walking tours. Then COVID-19 changed everything. To help fight the spread of the pandemic we had to close the museum. After about four months volunteers were allowed in with restrictions and in limited numbers. Finally in October we were able to have visitors to the museum, again with restrictions and limited numbers. Gift Shop Closure One of the restrictions from the Brant County Heal ..read more