Celebrating a bang-up first year—by the numbers
Wow, cake decorating has come a long way! It was tasty, too.
Forgetting a birthday is an unforgivable sin in most families. But at the Museum, we were so caught up in our Canada Day programming that thoughts about our first birthday got pushed to the back of our collective mind. Luckily, somebody at the office was on the ball and we held a brief celebration with the whole Bank Communications Department the following Tuesday morning. There was plenty of cake and plenty to celebrate.
In 2017, in the first 6 months of operation, we welcomed 40,000 people through our doors; in our first full year our visitor numbers pushed past 70,000. That’s a 91 per cent over the numbers from our last year before closing (pause while the audience claps). And for icing on the birthday cake, we logged nearly as many guests for our 2018 Canada Day event as we clocked for those coming through the doors during our grand opening.
Our first birthday was the hottest Canada Day in recent memory. But we still welcomed over 2,700 visitors.
Both of those times, and for all the times in between, our Visitor Services Team rose to the challenge. Most of our first year’s events drew—easily—double the numbers of their 2012 counterparts, as we welcomed people for a broad variety of activities and themed programming on topics from tulips to counterfeiting. Police officers, artists, trappers, currency experts and our own curators popped in to help make the programming a success with speeches, displays and tours. For Doors Open 2018, our numbers were a whopping four times the figures we saw the last time we participated in this event, with visitors showing a surprising appetite for the guided tour format. Growing interest in guided tours has prompted us to add them to our 2018 summer season schedule. Drop by and check them out.
During our Winterlude events, fur trapper and educator Archie Martin displayed trapping artifacts while he told stories about the fur trade.
RCMP Corporal John McMath manages some very curious crowds at the counterfeit kiosk during Fraud Prevention Month.
Artist and teacher Monique Martin giving an origami workshop at our Canadian Tulip Festival program.
Running a museum is always going to be a learning process, but year one is especially intense. It’s when you learn that demonstrating the stain resistance of polymer bank notes results in guides with blue fingers; it’s how you figure out just how quickly complimentary ice cream can disappear on the hottest Canada Day on record; where you see that people really, really like to touch props and artifacts (particularly soft, furry ones); and how you discover that in an age of do‑it‑yourself museum tours, lots of folks still like a little knowledgeable guidance. Next year’s learning curve should be slightly flatter. Or not...
Over 6 metres long and displaying 400+ artifacts, our digital touch wall came online in December. It’s one of the biggest of its kind in North America.
The touch wall might be cool, but visitors still love to handle artifacts when they get a chance. Touching a salt brick at the Tulip Festival.
Our favourite visitors were the Ice Hogs, Winterlude’s own furry celebrities.
Nobody takes a selfie where they’re not having fun: Canada Day 2018.
OK, I just tooted our horn for over 600 words and I did it mostly with statistics (we are a central bank museum, after all). Still, thanks for your patience with our shameless bragging and an even bigger thanks for your wonderful patronage during our first year of operation. You deserve a slice of cake as well, but I’m afraid we finished it all.
We want to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see?
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The Museum Blog
October 29, 2015
Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
By: Raewyn Passmore
Nova Scotia has long been a centre of trade that connected Europe, New England and the West Indies. Following the American Revolution, Halifax became the primary British port in North America and a hub of financial activity.
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September 28, 2015
Merchant scrip from Labrador
By: David Bergeron
Before banks were established in remote regions of Canada, paying employees involved shipping currency long distances into wild and often lawless locations. The alternative to this risky enterprise was for the company to issue its own money. Called scrip…
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September 15, 2015
The 2015 Commemorative $20 Bank Note Revealed
By: Graham Iddon
It’s a historic day for us as well. It isn’t every day that the Bank of Canada introduces a new commemorative note.
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August 19, 2015
The 1954 series: the artwork of Charles F. Comfort
By: David Bergeron
During 1952, Comfort produced a number of pencil and watercolour design models for the face of the new notes. Some were updates of the traditional style while others were radically modern treatments.
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August 5, 2015
Swindle! Canadian Phantom Banks
By: Graham Iddon
In exchange for pizza and a day out of the office, several Bank employees were persuaded to dress up in period costumes and re-enact three key moments from the history of this shady “bank”.
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July 21, 2015
Vignettes for a $1,000 bank note that never was
By: David Bergeron
In the mid 60s, high denomination notes were in such low circulation that Bank of Canada Governor Louis Rasminsky and the Minister of Finance discussed the possibility of actually dropping the denomination altogether.
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June 23, 2015
New Acquisitions
By: Paul S. Berry
The Canadian financial system of today is diverse… A little known but once prolific system member was loan and building societies. These firms made loans for the construction or purchase of property against mortgages as collateral.
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May 21, 2015
New Acquisitions
By: Raewyn Passmore
Everyone loves getting presents, and we’re no exception. We recently received a very exciting donation of 50 silver coins. The collection was purchased in Lima, Peru, at an estate sale in the 1950s.
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April 6, 2015
The Adventure of Exhibit Planning IX
By: Graham Iddon
Our little team from the Museum stood in the education space of the Sherbrooke Nature and Science Museum on a chill November morning while the exhibition technicians assembled our finished exhibition. Yes, finished.
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