Automotive history comes alive at museum

A collection of classic and vintage race cars, roadsters and motorcycles can be found in over 20 buildings in Essex Country representing one of the largest vehicle museums in Ontario.

The Canadian Transportion Museum and Heritage Village designed last weekend the Technology and Learning Expo: Exploring the Past, Looking to The Future – and Curator and Manager of Education Lisa Wacheski said that the expo had amazing sections.

“So, we have an incredible collection of things that we often don’t get to share with the public, who were looking for a new way to do that. And we decided that this would be a great event,” Wacheski said. “Hopefully it will become an annual event. So today we’re just kind of testing the waters. We had school groups here on Thursday and Friday, and today it’s open to the public.”

The event celebrated great inventors from the past in a unique way to engage visitors. Actors prepared and researched to cover all the information of the character they played to be ready for any questions from the audience.

“So, I was given my character I needed to play, and it was really interesting to learn about her learn how the first computer was made,” said Emily Adjin, who played Ada Lavale.

“You see a famous woman who had helped with such a thing, because I’m sure that wasn’t very popular back in the day for a woman to do something. So, I did a lot of research figuring out like, what it was she did, how she helped how she even managed to get to that point.”

The museum is playing a role in educating new generations and shedding light on humankind’s history of progress and development

Alisha Lesperance, an education assistant at the village, said the museum has multiple programs integrated with local school boards’ curriculi.

“Our most popular program is our pioneer for a day program and that targets our grade three students who are just starting to learn about Canadian history in their social studies classes,” Lesperance said.

Visitors enjoyed the collection in the museum with their kids and got to know more about each car presented in the showroom.

Chris Fournier, a controls engineer visited the expo with his child and said “the cars are all very, very impressive. I think it’s great that we get to show a future generation is just how the technology has evolved.”

The Canadian Transportation Museum and Heritage Village is lighting back the history that this land witnessed the dawn of the huge development and technology that we have now.