After months of shut downs across Manitoba, one museum is ready to reopen its doors.
The Winnipeg Police Museum is set to welcome the public back starting July 8 with new displays in celebration of Manitoba’s 150th birthday.
Curator Tammy Skrabek told 680 CJOB during the closure she was able to create something different for when the museum could finally open its doors: a history of Manitoba policing.
Skrabek said the display will feature artifacts they gathered after contacting families of former police officers, including letters and memorabilia from the past 150 years.
“All of these stories are told by veteran police officers who are volunteers now.”
In addition to displays, Skrabek said the museum will also touch on executions that people might not know about, dangerous offenders the police have captured over the years and more notable names such as Earle Nelson, an American serial killer who was executed in a Winnipeg jail in 1928.
The museum will also be open for the first time in its history on Saturdays.
“We can showcase more stuff on a Saturday,” said Skrabek. “We plan to have the vehicles out, invite people within the Winnipeg Police Service to come out and interact with the public and the children.”
The police museum isn’t the only place you can travel back in time this summer, with the Dalnavert Museum providing multiple options for you to tour its historic home.
The museum has been open since May offering socially distanced tours.
Spokesperson Charlene Van Beukenhourt told 680 CJOB the house holds true to its 19th-century history.
“It’s all furnished in Victorian-era furnishings, it’s like stepping back in time,” she said.
The museum was also home to the family of a particularly notable Canadian.
“It was the home of Sir John A. Macdonald’s son, Sir Hugh John A. Macdonald and his family,” she said.
Van Beukenhourt said the entrance has a sink for people to wash their hands in compliance with COVID-19 protocols as well as a hand sanitizing station.
Anyone who is unable to or not comfortable going out yet is also able to take a virtual tour of the museum online.