Royal Military College of Canada Museum, Military museum in Fort Frederick, Ontario, Canada.
The Royal Military College of Canada Museum occupies Fort Frederick, a Martello tower of earthworks with a stone north wall on the college campus at Point Frederick in Kingston. Its 7,000 items include 16th- to 20th-century arms, uniforms, flags and military art. The lower floor covers the War of 1812 and the Point Frederick dockyard; the main floor covers college history and mementos of the Old Eighteen, the first class of 1876. Original cannons stand on the gun platform.
The museum was established in 1962 in Fort Frederick, a Martello tower named after Frederick, Prince of Wales. The tower is one of four built by the Corps of Royal Engineers between 1846 and 1848 to strengthen Kingston's defences; its site had earlier been a 1790 fortification of earthworks with a stone north wall. In 2016 restoration work began on the fort and the museum moved out of the tower, leaving it without a designated public exhibition space.
The museum's name honours Fort Frederick, the Martello tower named after Frederick, Prince of Wales. Its lower floor covers the War of 1812 and the Point Frederick dockyard, while the main floor holds mementos of the Old Eighteen, the first class enrolled in 1876. A gun platform at the top keeps the original cannons.
Restoration work begun in 2016 moved the museum out of Fort Frederick tower, so there is currently no designated public exhibition space; check before travelling. Until 2016 it opened from the last weekend in June until Labour Day, with free admission and donations accepted. Guided tours were given in English and French, and archival and genealogical help was offered for college history and ex-cadet inquiries within privacy rules. The museum and site can also be visited through the Virtual Museum.
The Douglas Arms Collection, given by Walter Douglas (RMC 1890), holds over 400 guns that were originally owned by Mexican President General Porfirio Díaz. A separate donation, the Nanton Arms Collection of No 78 Colborne J. Nanton (RMC 1882), contains Indian daggers and other arms presented to him by the Maharajah of Cooch Behar before the First World War.
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