Murney Tower Museum
King Street West at Barrie Street K7L4V6 Kingston, ON, Canada

Murney Tower Museum has a new team and we can’t wait to introduce them to you! Meet our Historical Interpreter, Sam Nicholls! @stnicholls After completing her BA in History at Queen’s University this spring, Sam has gained an appreciation for the history of her hometown and the institutions that celebrate it. Her passion for museums and local heritage are demonstrated through her pursuance of a MA in Public History from Carleton University, where she will be attending in ...Fall 2021. Sam has experience volunteering in local museums such as the South Frontenac Museum and Marine Museum at Kingston, and is looking forward to the new experiences Murney Tower will provide her. Although this is only her second week at the Museum, Sam is already grateful for what she has learned and is looking forward to working alongside the rest of the MTM team this summer! See more

We have received great ideas and submissions thus far. Don’t worry if you haven’t participated yet. There is still time left if you want to participate! We’re looking forward to hearing from you! The winning slogan will become Murney Tower’s official slogan and will be incorporated into our all-new website! Visit www.murneytower.com and submit your slogan ideas today!

We are wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing mothers of the world! For this special occasion, we would like to share with you a stereographic image from our archives. Entitled The Good Night Kiss, this image depicts a mother giving a good night kiss to her child. We could not think of a better image to celebrate this special day! May all the love and good night kisses you give to us come back to you a hundred times on this special day! #happymothersday #kingston #museums

Do you want your voice to be heard? Would you like to be involved in the museum’s future? Now is the time! We are currently in the process of setting our next five-year plan and we would like to hear from you! Fill out this quick, five-minute survey for the chance to tell us what you think about our little museum and win gift cards to local businesses! All you need to do is to click the link below: https://docs.google.com//1FAIpQLScm2Bm8thhEIFOX-B/viewform

We have exciting news to share with you! Our museum has a brand new website which is now LIVE! You can find us at www.murneytower.com. Tell us what you think!!! Over the past few months, our team has worked closely with the SPARK Creative Communications Agency to develop a new website for the museum that can reach you with more stories and share more aspects of our community. This project is made possible by the financial support of Visit Kingston and the Kingston Association of Museums, Art Galleries & Historic Sites. We can’t thank you enough for this opportunity. #website #MurneyTowerMuseum

Thank you Visit Kingston! We can't wait to see future submissions

Meghan here! Tea is my preferred beverage and in my childhood I would have tea parties with my mum. Thus, since I was young I have collected a lot of tea cups, but I definitely do not have a tea cup with a drawing of an asylum on it! Our collection highlight today is this tea cup, which would have been a collectible in the late 19th and early 20th century. The tea cup has an image of Rockwood Asylum on it, which was constructed in 1859 to house the criminally insane of Kingston Penitentiary. Rockwood Asylum was built by the inmates at the Kingston Penitentiary, and the image of Rockwood Asylum was used regularly for tourist souvenirs and postcards. An interesting fact about Rockwood Asylum is that it was one of the first buildings in Canada to have a central heating system!

Thanks Kingston Whig-Standard for featuring our photo contest! There is still time to enter!

Murney Tower was originally built in 1846 as part of the British Empire’s fortifications against the United States of America during the Oregon Crisis. You might be thinking to yourself, but Oregon is a state that is very far away from Kingston, why would the British Empire focus on building defensive towers in Kingston? In the early 19th century, the American government and the British Empire were discussing the position for the boundary between Canada and the United State...s after the latter gained independence from the British Empire. In 1842, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was drafted to have the boundary be drawn at the 49th Parallel from Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains. However, land west of the Rocky Mountains did not have a boundary set. This lack of boundary meant that American expansionists wanted to claim all of this land, which comprised most of British Columbia, Washington State and Oregon State. A popular slogan in America at the time was Fifty-four Forty or Fight, in which the boundary would be set at the 54 degrees 40 minutes Parallel, giving most of British Columbia to the United States. With the rising tension between the United States and Canada, the British needed to fortify their defences along the rest of Canada to make sure that any potential attack from the Americans would not be successful. Hence, Murney Tower was built! Murney Tower is located in a prime position on the lakefront of Kingston, where it can protect the St. Lawrence area, Lake Ontario and the entrance to the Rideau Canal.

We’re thrilled to announce that the November issue of our monthly e-newsletter, Murney News is out! We love staying connected with the community, and this issue will give you a sneak peek into what’s been happening behind-the-scenes at Murney Tower. It has been an exciting month full of changes at Murney Tower. One of the most exciting events that happened is that our former director, Graeme Watson, won the OMA Volunteer Service Award of Excellence! We’re also moving into a new storage unit, which will help our conservation and cataloguing efforts. We also expanded our team with hiring two new staff members, who you can learn more about in the e-newsletter! Be sure to check out our October and September issues as well in case you missed them!

Today, we remember all those who have given their lives for our country. In honour of Canada’s fallen veterans, we’re sharing a very special object from our McGregor/McIntryre Collection. The collection was donated to the museum in 1970 by Mrs. W. Bruce McGregor. The items are from the estate of Miss Margaret McIntyre. The McIntyre Family were notable members of the Kingston community, with at least one member of the family, John McIntryre (Margaret’s uncle), serving as... mayor in 1878. The artifact is an International Order of Allied Mothers in Sacrifice medal, which was granted by the Associated King of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to mothers who lost their children in the Great War. This specific medal was bestowed on Margaret Ann McIntrye for the loss of her son, Lieutenant Douglas Neil McIntrye, who was killed on November 8, 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele while serving as an intelligence officer in command of a scout and observation corps. A Queen’s grad (BAH in English and Classics, 1903), Douglas Neil was once a Canadian sprinting champion. In later years, he was a resident of Victoria, served as deputy Commissioner of Fisheries for BC, and worked for multiple newspapers. He rests in peace at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium. #remembranceday #remembranceday2020 #remembrancedaycanada See more

Murney Tower is made of limestone, the dominant building material in Kingston. One of the reasons why limestone is so prominent is because Kingston is part of the Black River group, a geological region composed of limestone that expands in Canada throughout south-western Ontario and Quebec. These rocks are 470-458.4 million years old, which sounds really old, but are actually some of the youngest rocks in Ontario! The abundance of limestone in Kingston made it a logical material choice for the building of Murney Tower. For more facts on the importance of limestone for Murney Tower and Kingston, check out our Instagram!

Fun Fact Friday! Despite the fact that Murney Tower was built in 1846, it was only armed in 1861-62, an entire fifteen years later!

We love sharing our news with our community and keeping in touch with our friends, audience, and colleagues! The second issue of our monthly e-newsletter Murney News is ready, and it’s all about October We have been working onsite, cleaning and packing our artifacts and hiring a new museum assistant to assist us with our public programs and social media. In the meantime, two friends of the Tower received awards for their contributions to our community, Dr. Terri Lynn Brennan and Kevin Fox! Do you want to subscribe our mailing list and receive monthly updates from Murney? DM us or leave us a comment below! #museums #newsletter #October #museumfromhome #kingston #kingstonmuseums

How many of you are coin collectors? I collect coins, but I don’t have anything as old as this penny! This collection highlight is a British penny minted in 1891. The face shows a seated Britannia in military gear, holding a trident and a shield with the Union Jack. There is a lighthouse on the left of her, and a ship on the right. The trident, along with the lighthouse and ship are to suggest that Britain commanded the sea, and the power of the British Navy. A fun fact about this penny is that it’s also known as a Bun Penny, named after the bun on Queen Victoria’s head on the reverse of the coin. Feel free to comment your favourite coin!

One of the primary missions of museums is to preserve and care for the objects of historical significance. Over time, artifacts begin to deteriorate for a variety of reasons, such as environmental conditions, use and natural decay. Knowing how to handle and store the artifacts can add a significant number of years to the life of the artifacts. Take this pewter cup, for example, which found a new life under a caring hand. We were delighted to see this beatiful bird detail coming to life after cleaning and polishing. It was like seeing an old friend after a long time! #museums #collections #artifact #preservation #museumfromhome

Hello everyone, my name is Meghan and I recently got hired as Museum Assistant at Murney Tower! A little about myself is that I am currently studying at Queen's University doing a Double Degree in Geology and Art History. Despite Geology and Art History being a unique pairing, I am able to connect these two different subjects by focusing on structure and sculpture. Hence, one of my favourite parts of Murney Tower is the building itself and how it’s made, and how its structure is significantly important to Kingston’s (and Canada’s) history! I am in charge of Murney’s social media accounts along with being involved in the educational programming for the museum. There will be very exciting updates coming in the next couple of months, so stay tuned!

Collection highlight alert!! It isn’t immediately clear what this collection item is, but it is a reminder that day-to-day tasks weren’t always so easy. This is a clothes washing plunger, a very popular house tool in the 1800s, used both in rural and urban environments. The task of washing clothes in the 1800s involved heavy manual labour and it was a very labour intensive undertaking. These plungers were used to lift, push and beat the clothes. They allowed for movement of clothes with a mininum splashing. #museums #collections #domesticlife #kingstonmuseums #collectionhighlight #museumfromhome

What time is it? It’s collection highlight o’clock! Here’s a silver pocket watch from our collection. This silver pocket watch belonged to a Kingston resident. It is made of silver and china glass and contains black lettering and roman numerals. When you look closely, you can see cracks on the face. Those are the types of clues that the museum staff in museums look at objects to determine their status and use! Pocket watches are unique time measure items that managed to infuse themselves well into culture and the development of modern life. Since their invention in Germany in the early 16th century through the early 20th century, pocket watches were the most popular portable time measurement tools but were widely used to showcase fashion and style. #kingston #museums #collections #museumfromhome

You should check out our latest feature in the October issue of regional magazine, Fifty-Five Plus!! The story focuses on virtual daytrips, including the online gallery of the National Gallery of Canada, real-time cruise along the Rideau Canal, and 360-degree virtual tour of Murney Tower, all can be experienced from the comfort of your homes! Thank you Peter Johansen for this wonderful piece!! You can check out the story at: http://plus-magazine/october-ottawa-2020/...#31/ #kingston #kingstonmuseums #ontario #fiftyfiveplus #virtualtour #museumfromhome See more