It’s a name is known by thousands of Manitobans.
But for the past six months, the Nonsuch has been closed to visitors.
On Friday, after weeks of restoration and years of planning, the Nonsuch Gallery reopened to the public.
While it still won’t be sailing anywhere, the renovated gallery at the Manitoba Museum, is ready to tell a different story for passengers looking to climb aboard.
WATCH: The Nonsuch to be closed until summer
Prior to the $2.5 million in renovations, the Nonsuch told the story of a ship ready to leave its English harbour in 1668 and set sail for Canada, where it would set up shop in the prairies for the Hudson’s Bay Company.
In today’s Nonsuch, the year is 1669, and the ship is back in England, laden with furs and stories from all over the world.
“Whether it’s the first time or your tenth time, I guarantee you will learn something new when you visit the renewed Nonsuch Gallery,” Claudette Leclerc, executive director of the Manitoba Museum.
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The enhancements include new audio of its captain sharing tales of his adventures on the sea. It will play out from the Boar’s Head Tavern.
There’s a new pier to view the ship from, a gigantic mural, and new lighting that will take visitors through the changes from sunrise to sunset.
“We really wanted to make people feel like you were in a different place and a different time,” said Amelia Fay, the curator of the exhibit. “Lots of people come here to learn about Manitoba and Canadian history, and so renewing projects like this really helps step it up. There’s lots of new technologies we can use, museology changes all the time, so it’s really excited to do renovations and renewals to really bring new information to light.”
Glady Thomson visited the display on opening day. She had been to the exhibit last year and said she enjoyed the new features.
“It was just a really encouraging and inspiring experience,” she said. “It’s very colourful and they’ve got it extremely well laid out”.
“It was like stepping into the past and experiencing what our ancestors had when they came over.”
Thomson used to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company and said her ancestors actually traveled on the ship along the St. Lawrence River to Montreal.
“It’s very encouraging that we can have this here and then touch our history because it’s our ancestors that pioneered and brought this here and it honours them and celebrates the accomplishments and being part of it is very, very special,” she said.
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The replica ship was built to honour of the 300th anniversary of HBC. In 1974 it sailed 14,000 kilometers from England to Canada where it eventually found its home at the museum. To make sure the Nonsuch fit, the ship was actually brought in first. Then the gallery walls were built around it.
Since then its been a staple destination for field trips, and for moms and dads looking to share with their children a little history of Manitoba’s fur trade.
But the gallery renovations go beyond the Nonsuch. What was known as the “Boreal Corridor” leading to the gallery now has 700 insect specimens and a history of the first encounter between the Cree and European explorers at James Bay, as told through the voice of Elder Louis Bird.
Plans are also underway for a Winnipeg exhibit, which will showcase the city during the 1920s. That display is set to open in 2019.
The gallery reopened to the public Friday.
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