Lessons from our Past

The history of the Vankleek Hill convent

A Story to Commemorate the Convent of the Sisters of Sainte-Marie de Namur On November 11, 2020, at the request of the Sisters of Sainte-Marie de Namur, a plaque was installed at the corner of Vankleek Hill’s Higginson Street and Stanley Street, to commemorate the century-long location of the Convent of the Sisters of St. […]

This digitized page appears on the Our Ontario site, and is from a Belleville Public Library book about Ontario Loyalists. It indicates that at his farm in Poughkeepsie, Simon Vankleek had slaves.

Addressing Racism in Vankleek Hill’s History

Museums have a responsibility to research and interpret the culture of their community. That includes the presence of racism and other destructive ‘isms’ that have or do impact members of our community. At the Vankleek Hill Museum, we tell the story of the laundryman Wing Lee who worked in Vankleek Hill, and in May on […]

‘Teen Magazine, 1970

On one of the 2020 summer students’ first days at the museum, they were delighted to find a ‘Teen Magazine from the year 1970 on display. Here they have analyzed it through a 21st century perspective: On first glance at the magazine, it was fascinating to see that many of the styles popular at the […]