Nova Scotia Museum
LightNews LightNews
banner
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Nova Scotia Museum
@novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
2.6K followers 170 following 700 posts
Telling Nova Scotia’s extraordinary stories.
Posts Replies Media Videos
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Did you know that the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is officially Rainbow Registered? 🌈 What's that? It's a fantastic program by Canada's 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce that accredits businesses as 2SLGBTQI+ friendly spaces for guests, staff, and volunteers.

#NovaScotia #Museum30 #Rainbow
Visitors experiencing the interactive animation at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, exterior, waterside. Small craft gallery at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
November 10, 2025 at 3:06 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Lady's work-bag or reticule. Late 1700's or early 1800's, the embroidery is a fine chain stitch resembling tambour work - a popular form of needlework in the eighteenth century. Reticule 64.54.2
#museum30 #Stitch #novascotia
Lady's work-bag or reticule; fine, white cotton tabby; of four triangular pieces, squared at the top with 2 pink ribbon ties; embroidered with flowers & joined together with embroidery.
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Today is Viola Desmond Day in Nova Scotia.

On this day in 1946, Viola Desmond, an African Nova Scotian entrepreneur and mentor, was arrested for daring to violate racial segregation in a New Glasgow theatre, marking a watershed moment for civil rights in Canada.
Photograph of a young Viola Desmond in the salon.
November 8, 2025 at 2:54 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
This dispatch box was presented by the citizens of Halifax to Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Sir Charles Hastings Doyle upon his retirement in May of 1873 & originally surmounted by a gilt moose on a polished slab of gold-bearing quartz made by Windsor, Nova Scotia jeweller John Frederic Herbin.
Highly decorative antique wooden dispatch box.
November 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Museum hours vary from site to site. Please check online before visiting on November 11.
museum.novascotia.ca

#RemembranceDay #LestWeForget #CanadaRemembers
Graphic with a blue background and a red poppy, with the text November 11, Remembrance Day, Lest we forget.
November 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Long interested in the ceramic arts, Alice Egan Hagen did not turn her own hand to the potter’s wheel until she was 60. But she certainly made up for lost time. Using Nova Scotia clays, Hagen combined the construction and decorative processes to create beautiful pieces like these bowls. #Museum30
Four ceramic bowls in various sizes and shapes, resting on a white surface. The bowls feature swirling, multicolored glazes that create a marbled or agate effect. The colors include blues, greens, browns, reds, and whites.
November 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
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. We love sharing Nova Scotia's extraordinary stories with the world! museum.novascotia.ca/our-museums

#Museum30 #Sharing #novascotia
Amber Laurie Curator of Marine History cleaning a canoe. A juvenile mastodon jaw with has 3 teeth, but a new tooth was developing. Pjila'si gallery at the Museum of Natural History. The center has a translucent projection screen beneath a striking ceiling installation of radiating wooden slats forming an eight-pointed star. On the right, a large blue screen displays a map, with the text "Discover Mi'kma'ki". Several visitors are standing throughout the space, looking at the exhibits. Vincent Coleman's telegraph key, recovered in the wreckage of the telegraph station from the 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion.
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Drawing of a North Atlantic Right Whale vertebra by Harry Piers from 1916. It was found 8 feet below surface of soil and 500 feet from high water mark Bog Brook, south of Apple River basin, Cumberland county, 1904. #museum30 #novascotia
Detailed drawings of a whale vertebrae Whale vertebrae specimen
November 4, 2025 at 3:08 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Too soon to start thinking about these little guys?

Northern Spring Peepers are a thumbnail sized tree frog. They are tan, grey, or rusty brown to dark brown. There is a dark X-shaped mark on the back, along with a V-shaped mark on the head between the eyes. #museum30 #eyes #novascotia
Northern Spring Peepers clasping a branch.
November 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
The Nova Scotia Museum has 7 year-round sites.

We love having you visit, but please remember that our hours often change as the seasons shift.

A quick check online will confirm the current schedule and help avoid disappointment. museum.novascotia.ca
Three visitors, one in the foreground, two in the distance, explore the exterior of the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre. A display of classic firetrucks at the Firefighters’ Museum of Nova Scotia. Wide interior shot of the gallery space at the Fundy Geological Museum. A Prosauropod skeleton dominates the space. Fragments of the ships displayed the Explosion in The Narrows: The 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
November 3, 2025 at 5:38 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Thanks for joining us on a tour of Stranger Things from the Nova Scotia Museum collections.

We’re excited for #Halloween 👻Wishing you a spooky day filled with tricks and treats (and creepy dolls who will never stop staring at you).
Barbara Ann Scott doll wearing skating costume trimmed in blue feather, skates in imitation white leather with metal Blades.
October 31, 2025 at 12:26 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Dried skull of a monkfish or goosefish (Lophius americanus). This is a bottom dwelling fish that has a small lure on its head that it uses to attract prey.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.
#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
Dried skull of a monkfish or goosefish.
October 31, 2025 at 12:20 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Tarantulas from the Zoology sections Arachnid collection. Arguably, the largest part of the Zoology collection is comprised of insects. Spiders, not insects, are known as arachnids and are generally preserved as wet specimens. However, a small proportion are preserved dry, as shown here. 🕷
A collection of preserved and pinned spiders and tarantulas displayed in a grid of small, open, white boxes, typical of an entomological or arachnological specimen collection.
October 31, 2025 at 12:15 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Deaths head hawkmoth (Acherontia species). Can you see the face? This species was featured in the horror movie, The Silence of the Lambs. This species is not native to Nova Scotia.
Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.
#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
A detailed, close-up photograph of a Death's-head Hawkmoth (likely Acherontia atropos), a large moth with a stout, furry body and broad wings, pinned and displayed against a plain white background. The moth's forewings are a mottled pattern of dark brown, black, and reddish-orange. The hindwings are bright yellow with two broad, dark black bands. The moth's thorax features the characteristic, pale marking that strikingly resembles a human skull, giving the moth its common name. The abdomen is robust and also yellow with black banding.
October 31, 2025 at 12:13 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
C'est l'Halloween!

A handful of snakes, pulled from a bucket in NSM Zoology wet collections.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.
#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
A handful of snakes.
October 31, 2025 at 12:07 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Nest of an organ pipe mud dauber wasp (Trypoxylon politum). Look closely! This wasp lays its eggs within narrow cavities constructed of mud, it then fills each cavity with paralysed spiders and lays an egg. When the eggs hatch, the larva have a meal waiting!
#halloween #nsmstrange #novascotia
Nest of an organ pipe mud dauber wasp.
October 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
A mummified squirrel in nest. On close view the skin is wonderfully preserved, and fair follicles can be observed.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.

#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
A high-angle close-up view looking down into a white bucket. Inside, a small, deceased squirrel is nestled in a thick, circular bed of brown nesting material, which appears to be a mix of dried grass, fine twigs, and shredded white paper. The animal’s body is partially decomposed, dark brown, and small; its head and eye socket are visible near the top center, and a bit of dark brown, bushy tail fur is visible on the right edge.
October 30, 2025 at 2:24 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Preserved American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) skin. This is a very unique method of specimen preservation where a frog or snakes’ skin is removed and preserved dried on paper, much like a herbarium plant specimen.

www.nbm-mnb.ca/en/2019/09/1...
An overhead close-up view of a preserved, dissected bullfrog skin specimen. The skin is mostly yellowish-tan with dark brown/black patches running down the centre. The specimen is taped flat against a white background using several small strips of white tape across the outstretched limbs, which feature visible toes/fingers.
October 30, 2025 at 1:16 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Myotis lucifugus (LeConte) - Little Brown Bat; collected at Lake View, between Bedford & Windsor Junction, Hx. Co., N.S.; July 18, 1904.
Mounted bat specimen (dorsal view) with brown fur and outstretched wings, displayed with a Nova Scotia Museum of Science label dated August 2, 1904, and a centimeter scale bar. Mounted bat specimen with brown fur and outstretched wings, displayed with a Nova Scotia Museum of Science label dated August 2, 1904, and a centimeter scale bar.
October 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Rat, found in collections freezer and held up by Zoology collections intern.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.

#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
A person wearing a white lab coat and blue nitrile gloves holds up a preserved rat specimen. The animal is stiff, with dark, matted fur, visible teeth, and a long tail. The background is a blurred laboratory.
October 29, 2025 at 12:08 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Mummified cat and mouse. I guess neither of them won.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.

#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia

(The cat feature in this image was found in the wall of a house, it probably ate poison meant for a mouse.)
A preserved, mummified specimen of a cat with dry, light-colored skin stretched over bones, resting in a storage box. Near its leg is a small, clear, cup containing a tiny, shrunken, preserved mouse.
October 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Raven (Corvus corax) taxidermy specimen. One of the primary ways to distinguish a raven from a crow is by their larger beak.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.

#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
Raven.
October 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Owl claw. Unlike humans, in a relaxed state an owl’s claws are clenched.

Thanks to Dr. Brenna Frasier Curator of Zoology for these posts.

#halloween #spooky #nsmstrange #novascotia
Owl’s claw, clenched.
October 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Happy Halloween from Luella. Given to Mary Davis when her parents visited from sea. Mary lived with her grandparents until age 5, then joined her parents at sea from 1873-1878. Luella has “real hair” & watches you while you sleep. 👻
Close-up of an antique doll with blonde, curly hair, blue eyes, and rosy cheeks, wearing a black dress with an ornate lace collar, a museum exhibit in the back ground.
October 27, 2025 at 1:47 PM
novascotiamuseum.bsky.social
Our Senior Conservator, Ian Loughead took some time this morning to vacuum our robot vacuum, Todd, with his tiny handle vacuum.

#museumlife #novascotia
Our Senior Conservator, Ian Loughead sitting is a chair vacuuming a robot vacuum with a small handheld vacuum.
October 23, 2025 at 1:25 PM