Showcasing some of Atlantic Canada’s trademarks, these four museums take a detailed and light-hearted
approach to displaying the illustrious history of the East Coast. The interactivity offered allows local
visitors to feel like they are travelling through time on the ride through Atlantic Canada’s history.
From its industrial history in mining to its cultural trademarks in fishing and agriculture, visitors get a
detailed look at Atlantic Canada’s rich heritage.
Cape Breton Miners’ Museum (Cape Breton Island, N.S.)
In a tribute to the region’s illustrious history of coal mining, the Cape Breton Miners’ Museum takes its
visitors on a journey. Offering an underground tour of the Oceans Deeps Colliery, a coal mine that is located
underneath the museum’s building, the tour’s guides are retired coal miners who provide a deep insight into
the mining work field.
In the museum’s exhibit area, visitors can learn about the different types of coal mining and mining
techniques and browse through the displays of equipment.
The Men of the Deeps is a famous choir of miners that the museum features in the summer months, when the
miners perform a concert at the museum theatre.
For more information visit minersmuseum.com
Prince Edward Island Potato Museum (O’Leary, P.E.I)
Providing its visitors with insight on P.E.I.’s signature trademark, the Prince Edward Island Potato Museum
prides itself on being the only museum of its kind in the world. According to the museum, they have the
world’s largest exhibit of potato artifacts.
In its prime location, surrounded by active potato growing fields, the museum showcases the province’s
heritage through its collection of farm machinery and potato industry displays that help visitors learn more
about the growing and harvesting of potatoes.
Some other attractions in the museum include the Potato Hall of Fame and their giant sculptured potato. The
potato, made of fibreglass, is 14 feet high and seven feet in diameter, providing the perfect photo-op for
its visitors.
For more information visit peipotatomuseum.com
The Atlantic Salmon Museum (Doaktown, N.B.)
As a Maritime favourite, Atlantic salmon is celebrated in the museum’s exhibits that cover everything from
the history and equipment to artwork. The museum’s library contains literature and journals with rare books
on salmon fishing and the Miramichi River.
The “Adopt a Salmon” program allows visitors to adopt one of the salmon parr from their aquarium, where they
get to name it and receive an adoption certificate. Every fall season, the adopters are invited to help with
the release of all adopted salmon as they are set free in the river. The educational program has been
designed to promote the conservation and preservation of Atlantic salmon.
The museum’s mission statement is “to preserve and promote the cultural and economic value of the Atlantic
salmon resource to the Miramichi River and New Brunswick. We also emphasize the importance of conservation so
this valuable resource can be preserved for future generations.”
For more information visit atlanticsalmonmuseum.com
The Rooms Provincial Museum (St. John’s, N.L.)
For insight into Newfoundland and Labrador’s illustrious history and heritage, The Rooms provides its
visitors with a look at the diversity of the Atlantic province. From plant life to animals and sea life, the
museum explores themes related to Atlantic Canada in its three floors of exhibit space.
One permanent exhibit, Connections: This Place and Its Early Peoples, gives visitors to the province insight
into Newfoundland and Labrador’s natural life with the history of the people who lived in the region, dating
from 9,000 years ago to 1730.
In the museum’s temporary exhibits, the theme is to focus on the province’s contemporary culture and help
visitors understand the region’s environment. The museum’s research collection contains more than one million
artifacts and specimens, making it an educational historical facility.
For more information visit therooms.ca/museum
