The Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum is excited to announce funding for a new project, the goal of which is
to gather, preserve, and share the unique and rarely told stories of how the Mennonite community
transformed Niagara. This project has been made possible in part by the Documentary Heritage
Communities Program offered by Library and Archives Canada.
A collection of oral histories will be recorded to document how the Mennonite community helped to
create one of the most complex, richest, and most successful agricultural growing areas in Canada, as
well as providing a safe haven for a displaced people.
Sarah Kaufman, the NOTL Museum’s Managing Director says, “the project will be made available on the
Museum's oral history website, which includes excerpts from more than 100 oral history interviews
conducted over the past 12 years (www.memoriesofniagara.wordpress.com). It will include
complementary audio-visual material such as diaries, maps, photographs, music, and family
memorabilia.”
Six families will be the primary source for this heritage collection, documenting their arrival in
Niagara, their experiences leaving a war-ravaged Europe, the displaced persons camps, prison-of war-
camps, and the development of their new community in Virgil. “They brought with them their survival
skills, their knowledge of the land, their faith, and their sense of community”, says Kaufman. “The voices
of these families need to be heard, recorded, and preserved.”
This project is another example of how the NOTL Museum is making history more accessible by creating
a digital archive of memories and memorabilia from a community that has had a major impact on the
development of Niagara-on-the-Lake, but that few visitors know much about.
The result will be incorporated into the new permanent exhibition being developed at the Museum,
which will include more interactive and digital components, and which will be a major part of the
Museum’s planned expansion. If you want to support the development of the new exhibitions or the
expansion of the Museum, you can donate at www.notlmuseum.ca/expansion.
The Mennonites of Niagara project will be available by the end of 2024. For more information, or if you
think your family can contribute to the project, please call the Museum at 905-468-3912 or visit
www.notlmuseum.ca