Scott Robson’s career at the Nova Scotia Museum (NSM) has spanned more than four decades. He began his work with the collection of historical artifacts in 1966, just after high school, and continued every summer during university.
In 1971, Scott was hired as Curator of Historic Buildings and Furnishings to acquire furnishings for the Sherbrooke Village restoration project. His curatorial work included presenting the artifacts in an authentic context of period rooms and buildings. “Sherbrooke Village portrays Nova Scotian village life as it was lived from about 1860 to World War I,” says Scott.
During the 1970s and 80s, Scott and a team of curatorial staff set out to enhance the inventories and records for thousands of artifacts at various NSM sites around the province. Through this project, the NSM became one of the first museums in the country to develop a computerized system for collection inventories.
Among the wide range of artifacts in the NSM’s collection, Scott took particular interest in textiles in the province—handwoven, hooked, and quilted. Scott co-authored with Sharon MacDonald a book entitled
Old Nova Scotian Quilts (
Courtepointes anciennes de la Nouvelle-Écosse) (1995), which featured fifty of the best quilts in the NSM collection and described the history of quilt-making in the province. Scott has lectured across Canada on this topic.
“A curator’s work centres on the collection,” says Scott, but he points out that his task is much broader than acquisition. “A curator studies and cares for the collection and develops ways to present it and make it accessible to the public," he says.
“Presenting artifacts in their original context is important,” says Scott. Consider the portrait of Susanna Francklin, which – along with paintings of her husband, Lieutenant Governor Michael Francklin, and her parents, the Boutineaus – had been brought into the Uniacke family in the 1840s, where it had graced the walls of the old house at Mount Uniacke until 1927. Susanna’s portrait then passed by inheritance to a family member in Europe.
In 2005, with generous support from the NSM Board of Governors through its Endowment Fund and with a federal Movable Cultural Property grant, Scott played a key role in returning Susanna’s portrait to the house, where it is now displayed surrounded by original Uniacke family furniture and accessories. Visitors to Uniacke Estate Museum Park can now view Susanna’s portrait rejoined with her husband’s, acquired in 1982—also with funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Whether at Uniacke Estate or Wile Carding Mill, visitors to the 27 NSM sites can step into the past and glimpse life in Nova Scotia as it was lived generations ago. “Whether you have been here for generations or have just arrived, the collection gives you a sense of this place,” says Scott.