Guelph Civic Museum was established in the 1960s to preserve and share this city’s local history. Since then, our founding story has been told through the narrative of the Canada Company. Founded by John Galt, who became its first Superintendent, the Canada Company is responsible for colonizing over two million acres of land on the shores of Lake Huron, now known as the Huron Tract. This version of our founding story implies that Galt established Guelph on unpopulated land and negated, by omission, the local history of the Original Peoples.

Indigenizing Galt includes a local history timeline which documents the actions of government, of Mohawk leaders Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant, 1743–1807) and Ahyonwaeghs (John Brant, 1794–1832), and of Guelph’s founder John Galt (1779–1839), which continue to inform our present-day civic narrative.

The case also includes artifacts which until recently, the Museum’s City Gallery (located on the 3rd floor) displayed as part of Guelph’s founding story, told through a colonial narrative, repositioned and their stories extended to further our collective learning.