Welcome

Amherst Island’s Neilson Store Museum and Cultural Centre opened its doors in 2004. The Museum highlights Island artifacts from Islanders and their history.

Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, the Museum building itself is also an exhibit having once been owned by James S. Neilson, an Island grain merchant who opened his first general store in 1873. The store remained in the Neilson family for one hundred years.

Items in the collection include the 1857 Wm. Perceval Manuscript Map, and the M.V. Amherst Islander’s ship’s wheel, bell, and logs.

MUSEUM VIRTUAL TOUR

Please take a virtual tour of the Neilson Store Museum and the Weasel & Easel. You can stroll around the Museum in your browser with the click of a button, all from the comfort of your home. Explore the space, read the points of interest and look forward to a sojourn to our Island in person.

YOUR MUSEUM

The Museum continues to receive artifacts for our collection. If you discover family collectibles that you think are valuable and worthwhile documenting, then please consider sharing your family treasures and heirlooms with us and your fellow Islanders. We accept artifacts as donations to the Museum, or on a “lending” basis that will be returned to you, after using in our displays. Simply contact one of the Museum Board members for information. We also have books that outline the history of Amherst Island that we will lend out, 1857 Amherst Island maps for sale, as well as a “Birds of Amherst Island” poster and “Stone Walls of Amherst Island” booklets for sale.

Some recent additions to the Amherst Island History:

• William Perceval 1857 Manuscript Map of Amherst Island

• Alphabetical List of Amherst Islanders shown on the William Percival 1857 Map

• 1935 Assessment Roll description

• 1935 Assessment Roll Township of Amherst Island

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the Spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, the Neilson Store Museum and Cultural Centre acknowledges that we are situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat First Peoples. We are working towards a more robust understanding of the rich history of the island.