An interesting, though often overlooked addition to Conestoga mall, The City of Waterloo Museum is a neat little place for a stop while shopping. Tucked discreetly into a corner of the food court, the museum showcases a variety of artifacts from Waterloo’s past to those of several countries around the world.
“The mall has donated this exhibition space to us in which we are able to display the city’s heritage collection,” explains museum curator Karen VandenBrink.
“The heritage collection came about when the Seagram museum closed in 1997 and a collection of the artifacts from that museum were transferred to the city.”
Presently, the museum is showing an exhibit called In Case You’re Curious, composed of an assortment of objects that are interesting, but don’t fit into any particular theme. So, they were given their own.
Out of the 10,000 piece collection, those selected for this particular exhibit include pottery miniatures from 1st century B.C. Egypt that were used as burial gifts to serve the dead in the afterlife. Also on display were peat bog clogs from Ireland and an old grape-drying mat from Spain, dating back to the early 20th century.
From the museum’s own city of Waterloo, an old wooden pipe section is displayed from the 19th century, a homey addition to the numerous worldly pieces that the museum has to offer.
This particular exhibit will run from Mar. 9 until Apr. 29. “We change our exhibits every three to four months so there’s always something new,” says VandenBrink. The next one will be an exhibition of 20th century appearances called Nuclear Fashion: Selling Style to Suburbia from 1946-1964.
