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Stuart Willox drives the tractor pulling visitors on a tour of Macdonal Farm on McGill's Macdonald College campus.
Keeping a legacy alive
Museum honours the work of William Macdonald
The Gazette
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Stuart Willox drives the tractor pulling visitors on a tour of Macdonal Farm on McGill's Macdonald College campus.
Stuart Willox is a man on a mission: to preserve the memory of Macdonald College and its founder, Sir William Macdonald.
And to that end, Willox, who has worked at what is now the Macdonald campus of McGill University for the past 36 years – his father also worked at the farm for 43 years – has put together a small museum of artifacts used at the college which taught agriculture, teaching and domestic sciences from 1907 to 1971.
Located in the stall section
attached to the century-old round stone show barn on the Macdonald campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Willox has used each stall to showcase
individual categories. The largest stall shows a portrait of Macdonald – who used much of the money amassed from the Macdonald Tobacco Co. for philanthropic purposes – alongside a horse-drawn sled and carriage he used when visiting the college.
The stall closest to that one is dedicated to the domestic sciences taught in the early 1900’s with such then state-of-the-art items as an apple-juicer, apple peeler, bread slicer, rolling pin, meat grinder, an old Singers’ foot-operated sewing machine and much more.
The stall also has a few photographs of students from that era.
“Some of these items were donated,” Willox said, adding that he welcomes any help or donations of items stemming from Macdonald College.
Another stall contains the stuff needed to run a blacksmith shop, while another stall shows how seeds were sorted and categorized at the time.
There are farm implements, snowshoes, lawn mowers, scythes, scales and even a medical stretcher dating back to the 1940’s when soldiers were temporarily living on campus during the Second World War.
The collection includes a 1928 Hart Parr tractor with metal wheels that had holes built in should a farmer need to attach spikes for traction. Next to that is on old-time gas pump. The Macdonald College museum
also has a newer tractor, a bright red Massey-Harris model dating back to 1940.
“That too was donated to us,” said Willox, adding that he is
always on the lookout for more items; in fact, he just came across a 1958 Macdonald farm handbook in pristine condition and a 1919 Macdonald College reunion book.
Willox said the very young children who tour the museum are usually more interested in the live animals in the show ring section of the barn, but added that older children and adults are more taken with the items showcased in the stalls.
“And whenever a reunion from former graduating classes from McGill’s agriculture
department take place, there is always a request to see the museum,” he said. “Macdonald’s legacy does live on.”
For more information, call 514-398-7701.