Museums & Archives

New Westminster's Museums & Archives

New Westminster's Museums & Archives are managed across four city locations:

New Westminster Museum

Located on the third floor of the Anvil Centre, the long-term galleries explore over 10,000 years of New Westminster history, featured exhibitions explore contemporary stories aimed to inspire thoughtful discussion and community engagement

New Westminster Archives

Located on the second floor of the Anvil Centre, the Archives acquires, preserves, and makes accessible records that tell our story.

Irving House

Located in the heart of New Westminster, Irving House is one of the oldest community heritage sites in BC. Built in 1865, this Gothic Revival style colonial home belonged to Captain William Irving and family descendants.

Samson V Maritime Museum

Samson V, launched in 1937, is the last surviving wooden steam-powered sternwheeler built for the federal Department of Public Works for use as a snag-boat on the Fraser River.

About

The operations care for over 36,000 objects, 50,000 photographs, and 500 linear meters of archival records that celebrate and document our city's history. Our exhibits focus on the land, people, and development of the place now known as New Westminster. We aspire to be fun and entertaining places of learning and use the objects in the museum's collection as an entry-point to inquiry, discussion, and exploration about the city.

Mission

The New Westminster Museum and Archives strive to enhance knowledge and deepen understanding of the City and its diverse peoples by illuminating past events, exploring current issues and facilitating conversations around future possibilities.

Mandate

The New Westminster Museum and Archives will:

Collect, Preserve, & House

The objects, archival materials, natural history specimens and collective memories that best serve to illustrate the first peoples, environment, founding, settlement, relationships and development of the New Westminster area

Research, Make Available, Interpret, & Exhibit

Its collections for the use and benefit of the public

Engage

With all peoples and organizations that can inform and support the narratives of the New Westminster area

The New Westminster Museum & Archives gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Province of British Columbia.