Pier 21

Pier 21, Canada's National Museum of Immigration
Established	1999
Location	Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Type	Immigration Museum and National Historic Site of Canada
Website	www.pier21.ca/
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name: Pier 21 National Historic Site of Canada
Designated:	1997

Pier 21, located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is Canada's national museum of immigration. It operated as an ocean liner terminal and immigration shed from 1928 to 1971. It became an immigration museum in 1999. Pier 21 is Canada's last remaining ocean immigration shed. The facility is often compared to Ellis Island, although this term is also used to describe the immigration station at Grosse Isle, Quebec. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1997, and officially became a National Museum of Canada in 2011.

History

New arrivals at Pier 21 in 1952

Part of the exhibition in 2007

Point of entry

Located in Halifax's South End in the Halifax Ocean Terminals, Pier 21 was used as a passenger terminal for trans-Atlantic ocean liners from 1928 until 1971. It replaced an earlier immigration facility at Halifax's Pier 2 in the Halifax's North End. Liners docked at a long seawall wharf divided into Piers 20, 21, 22 and 23. The immigration facilities were located at Pier 21, although the term is often used to describe all the Ocean Terminal piers. Pier 21 had a railway booking office and passenger train sidings for special immigration trains as well as an overhead walkway to the Halifax, Nova Scotia railway station. The Pier was the primary point of entry for over one million immigrants and refugees from Europe and elsewhere, as well as the departure point for 496,000 military personal Canadian troops during World War Two. The facility became known informally as the 'Gateway to Canada.' It closed in March 1971, due to a significant drop in immigration traffic as transportation modes switched from ocean-going-ships to jet airliners.^[1]

From 1971 until the late 1990s, Pier 21 sat as little-used warehouse space, although the former immigration quarters did provide popular studio and workshop space for artists. The ocean liner pier itself became increasingly used as the Halifax Port Authority's cruise ship dock.

Museum

The facility is often compared to Ellis Island, in terms of its importance to mid-20th century immigration to Canada; although this term is also used to describe the immigration station at Grosse Isle, Quebec.^[2] In 1990, the Pier 21 Society was co-founded by J.P. LeBlanc and Ruth Goldbloom to raise funds and renew the public's interest in the derelict shed, which was the last of its kind in Canada.^[3] Goldbloom became the organization's second president in 1993, and the push to turn the property into a National Historic Site and museum proceeded quickly.^[4] On September 22, 1997 the site was designated a National Historic Site on the advice the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.^[5] In cooperation with the Halifax Port Authority, Pier 21 was re-opened as a museum on Canada Day in 1999, and began its new role to celebrate the 1.5 million immigrants that passed through its doors.^[6] On June 25, 2009 Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a Statement of Intentions to designate a National Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.^[7] Later that year, Pier 21 was chosen to compete in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) "Seven Wonders of Canada" television show, placing out of the top seven places.^[8]

National Museum

In 2009, the Government of Canada, the Pier 21 Society, the Pier 21 Foundation and the Halifax Port Authority agreed to partner in support of a new national museum at Pier 21.^[9] As the sixth national museum in Canada—and only the second national museum outside of Canada's National Capital Region—Pier 21 joined Canada's five other national museums officially on February 7, 2011.^[10]

Collection

Pier 21 currently holds 2,000 stories, 500 oral history interviews, 700 donated books, 300 films and thousands of archival images and scans of immigration and WWII documents. Many of the resources can be found on the website and all can be accessed by contacting Pier 21’s Scotiabank Family History Centre.

The Pier 21 story collection has broadened from those who actually passed through Pier 21’s doors, to include stories about immigration from all points of entry from the early beginnings of Canada (including First Nations) and concentrating on all immigration from 1867 to the present. Pier 21 is collecting family histories that go back to 1867 and is eager to begin collecting stories from those that arrived after 1971. These stories will be among the raw materials used to create future exhibits.

An Oral History Coordinator onsite conducts oral history interviews. These are vital to Pier 21’s collection and its ongoing commitment to preserving and sharing stories of all Canadians.

The image collection includes thousands of scanned newspaper clippings, immigration related documents and ship memorabilia, as well as digital photos donated by individual families and many organizations.

MS St. Louis memorial

On January 20, 2011, a memorial sculpture, the "Wheel of Conscience", was unveiled.^[11] It commemorates the German passenger liner MS St. Louis's 1939 voyage from Europe to North America. Its Jewish passengers, fleeing the early stages of the Holocaust, were turned away as refugees from many North American ports due to Antisemitism in Canada and the United States.^[12] Designed by Daniel Libeskind with graphic design by David Berman and Trevor Johnston, it was produced by the Canadian Jewish Congress.^[13] The memorial is a polished stainless steel wheel that reflects back the observers' feelings as they experience the focus of what led to the turning away of the passengers on the MS St. Louis.^[11] Symbolizing the hateful and racist policies that turned away more than 900 Jewish refugees, the wheel incorporates within it four gears of descending size, upon which each has a word inscribed to represent the transmission of influences that - in turning each of the smaller gears - sped up the process that led to the turning away of the vessel and its passengers from sanctuary - antisemitism, xenophobia, racism, and then hatred. On the back of the memorial is a list of the passengers aboard the MS St. Louis.^[14][15]

Programs and services

Research

The Scotiabank Family History Centre houses a large collection of archival information available to the public. Visitors can search for the basic arrival information of anyone arriving through a Canadian port between 1865 and 1935, and the records of individuals coming through Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal or Saint John between 1925 and 1935 can be accessed on microfilm.

Pier 21’s most important project is collecting the personal recollections of immigrants whether they arrived in the busy post-war years or yesterday.

Education

Pier 21's Manulife Education Program offers a fun, active, educational visit in the Windsor Foundation Global Classroom. The various services include French and English tours and workshops for education groups, resources and information for educators and students, family fun days, March Break camps, summer camps, multicultural fairs, and public lectures.

Other services

Pier 21 also hosts a Café, Museum Gift Shop, and the Ralph and Rose Chiodo Harbourside Gallery. Pier 21 also provides rental facilities, hosting over 200 events each year. The museum's location has attracted conferences and corporate events. US President, George W. Bush gave a speech at Pier 21 during his first official visit to Canada on December 1, 2004.

See also

• Eswyn Lyster - warbride author

References

Coordinates: 44°38′16″N 63°33′57″W / 44.63778°N 63.56583°W / 44.63778; -63.56583

Further reading

• LeBlanc, J.P.; Mitic, Trudy (2011). Pier 21 Gateway that Changed Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus. ISBN 9781551099095.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Granfield, Linda (2000). Pier 21 : gateway of hope. Toronto: Tundra Books. ISBN 9780887765179. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pier 21.

• Pier 21

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