Nova Scotia Archives Celebrates Lunenburg's 250th Anniversary

TOURISM/CULTURE--Nova Scotia Archives Celebrates Lunenburg's 250th Anniversary

There must have been a sense of great anticipation in St. Paul's Church in the summer of 1753, as the German, Swiss and French Protestant males who were old enough to qualify as landowners lined up to receive lots of land in what was to be their new home, 120 kilometers to the southwest of Halifax.

The immigrants received their lots on the back of playing cards, and three of those cards are now on display on a new Web site exhibit to mark Lunenburg's 250th Anniversary.

The Web site will include 250 historical photographs, maps, documents and related memorabilia -- one image for each year of the town's history.

"Not everyone is able to visit us in Halifax to directly experience Nova Scotia's rich archival heritage," said Brian Speirs, provincial archivist. "Instead, we're using the World Wide Web to expand access to archival information about the province's past."

The online exhibit is separated into 12 chapters, each with a brief introduction. Individual themes include early Lunenburg history, building heritage, the fisheries, shipbuilding, leisure activities, material culture and the faces of townsfolk over the 250 years.

The exhibit includes rarely seen items, even by visitors to the archives in Halifax. Three of the playing cards used in a 1753 lottery and two 19th century oil portraits of the Kaulbach family and several examples of German decorative calligraphy, known as Fraktur.

Other images selected for online display are documents tracing Lunenburg's transition from farming to fishing and marine-based industries, as well as examples of campaign literature distributed locally during provincial elections in the 1870s and 1880s.

"Special events like the Lunenburg anniversary are ideal for us to present digitized material about Nova Scotia online to potential tourists, schoolchildren and armchair travelers everywhere," said Mr. Speirs. "We like to think that we're helping to put Nova Scotia's documentary and visual heritage on the map."

Lunenburg by the Sea: 250 Years of Challenge and Change can be found on the Web at www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/Lunenburg .