The town of Digby was named in honor of
Admiral Robert Digby, (20 December 1732 – 25 February 1815), an officer in the Royal Navy who also served briefly as a Member of Parliament. At the end of the American Revolution Digby helped to organize the evacuation of some 1,500 United Empire Loyalists to the small port of Conway in Nova Scotia. Conway was a small settlement in southwestern Nova Scotia which, with the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists, was formally surveyed as the Town of Digby in June 1783.
The museum is housed in a mid eighteenth century Georgian Home, one of the oldest structures in the Town of Digby. It features period rooms decorated and furnished with various themes. The Marine Room deals with maritime history, the Costume Room displays vintage clothing, the Loyalist Room features documents, ledgers and artifacts of the founders of Digby, the United Empire Loyalists. Of interest in the Parlour on the first floor are an 1870s organ, a 1909 Edison Phonograph, a melodeon (1840-1870) and an 1890s hand-crafted grandfather clock.
In the 1970s the building served the town as the Admiral Digby Library, operated by the Admiral Digby Library Association. In 1972 the name was changed to the Admiral Digby Library & Historical Society which now operates the museum.
Their extensive genealogical holdings include 10,000 photos, 4,000 of which have been digitized, family records, probate records, old town records, old church records, census records, old Digby newspapers, reference books, land grant maps and funeral home records.
Outside the building, at the rear of the lot, is an old (1904) bronze bell, cast by the MC Shane Bell Foundry of Baltimore, MD.
On their website the museum warns that due to labour shortages they may be closed on occasion in the months of March – May and September – December.
See a
Virtual Tour of the Museum.