Nova Scotia Archives

Lunenburg by the Sea

Faces of Lunenburg

Captain Moorsom, writing in the 1820s, was surprisingly forthright in many of his observations regarding Nova Scotia and its colonial population. At a time when cultural standards were different and less stringent, pointed — even unflattering — comments were frequently made in praise of specific characteristics seen to be ethnic in origin. Thus Moorsom, going much further than today's observers ever would, paid Lunenburg a high but somewhat back-handed compliment when he wrote that:

     The inhabitants and country people of the neighbourhood are evidently a race widely differing in features from the generality of Anglo-Nova-Scotians. Germany is stamped upon their broad features and high cheekbones, and Helvetic origin shows itself in the florid complexion, and forms more square and bony than that of the lathy saplings we usually see reared in the hotbeds of America.

Moorsom observed that German was spoken as frequently as English by rural inhabitants, and that a number of Lunenburgers still retained the language almost exclusively. He further noted that "the accent is universally foreign, the pronunciation hard to an English ear." In the early decades of the twentieth century the use of German still lingered — but mostly among older folk who used it to discuss matters they did not want their grandchildren to understand.

Seventy years later, Lunenburg by the Sea (1896) used glowing adjectives and the Victorian phrasing of the time to celebrate early Lunenburgers — "brave, stout-hearted pioneers...their lofty courage, their faith, their toil," and their legacy of "hardship and heroism." With a note of ambiguity, the author observed that their descendants were "now reaping the harvest they [the immigrant generation] sowed in tribulation and watered with their tears. Between then and now how vast the difference."

By 1953, the Lunenburg Bicentennial Committee took a more measured and progressive approach to the community's collective inheritance. In dedicating their commemorative booklet, they singled out "those courageous men and women who founded Lunenburg 200 years ago. As one of the oldest communities in British North America, we are proud of their contribution as an ethnic group of virility and imagination to the stream of Canadian nationhood."

Results 1 to 15 of 17 from your search:

Oath of naturalization, George Frederick Bailly

Date: 1 April 1761

Reference: Bailly Family Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 vol. 105 no. 47

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Personal Record of Michael Hertli [Hirtle]

Date: 1777

Reference: Canon E.A. Harris Nova Scotia Archives MG 4 vol. 105 no. 9

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


John Henry Kaulbach

Date: ca. 1830

Format: oil on canvas

Artist: artist unknown

Reference: Documentary Art Collection Nova Scotia Archives 1979-147 no. 292

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Sophia Frederica Kaulbach

Date: ca. 1830

Format: oil on canvas

Artist: artist unknown

Reference: Documentary Art Collection Nova Scotia Archives 1979-147 no. 293

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


''Vote for Kaulbach. Don't Vote for Church"

Date: 1878

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives MG 100 vol. 39 no. 39

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


"An Act to Incorporate the Town of Lunenburg"

Date: 24 April 1885

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives NS Statutes 1885 chapter 72

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


"Down with Confederation! Forward to Repeal and Liberty!"

Date: 1886

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives MG 100 vol. 39 no. 40

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


"The First Town Council, 1888" and "The Present Town Council, 1952"

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives Library VF vol. 135 no. 23

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Little girls and their dolls

Date: ca. 1900

Reference: A. Silver Nova Scotia Archives no. 74

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Woman, girl and birdcage

Date: ca. 1900

Reference: Bailly Family Nova Scotia Archives 1985-562 no. 111 / negative FP/DN1403

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Two women and a woodpile

Date: ca. 1900

Reference: Bailly Family Nova Scotia Archives 1985-562 no. 127 / negative FP/DN1397

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Picnic under the trees

Date: ca. 1900

Reference: Bailly Family Nova Scotia Archives 1985-562 no. 142 / negative FP/DN1432

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Poem about Lunenburg families

Poet: W.T. Lindsay

Reference: Harry Piers Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 vol. 1465 no. 242

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


Joseph Karsh taking photograph of author Thomas H. Raddall

Date: ca. 1953

Photographer: Helen Creighton

Reference: Helen Creighton Nova Scotia Archives 1987-178 no. 744

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


"Militia in Lunenburg"

Date: ca. 1953

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives Library VF vol. 135 no. 23

Theme: Faces of Lunenburg


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