Museums - Mary March Provincial Museum

The Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador (formerly the Newfoundland Museum) has grown for more than a century from a “collection of curiosities” to a modern institution. It currently has three branches, one each in St. John’s, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Grand Bank. The latter is a sea and fishing museum. Its institutional headquarters are located within the St. John’s branch.
The museums’ origins lie in a natural history collection that was installed around 1850 in the St. John’s Mechanics’ Institute. In 1911, after decades of effort, the current building opened with a large natural history and geological collection, and quite a few “curiosities,” including Beothuk artifacts. Occasional government support and a slew of nineteenth-century colonial expositions had greatly increased its holdings. It had a bumpy time between the 1930s and the 1970s, but in 1979 it reopened with updated installations and a professional staff. The Grand Falls-Windsor branch opened later. Plans to open a new facility have been delayed until at least 2005.
Significant collections are maintained in three curatorial subject areas: Archaeology and Ethnology, History, and Natural History. Most of the collections have a direct relevance to the Newfoundland and Labrador region. At last count, the collections contained more than a million artifacts.