Saskatoon's Western Development Museum unveils new funeral home exhibit

The newest exhibit at Saskatoon's Western Development Museum looks at an inevitable part of life in Saskatchewan in 1910: death.

W.A. Edwards & Co. Funeral Directors is the newest exhibit at Boomtown, the museum's fictional Saskatchewan town from 1910.

"This has kind of been a missing element," said Joan Champ, the CEO of the museum.

Boomtown features many businesses and organizations that would be present in a typical Saskatchewan town at that time, but the funeral home is the first new exhibit in 15 years. The last new exhibit was the Royal Northwest Mounted Police which was built in 2000. Prior to that, all of the exhibits were built in the 1970s, according to Champ.

Their new exhibit may be the only one of its kind in all of Canada, according to the museum.

"It's a story that hasn't really been told very much in museums. And yet it's been such an integral part of every community and still is to this day. It's a fact of life that people die and there needs to be someone in the community to take care of making the arrangements," Champ said.

The exhibit was made possible by the Edwards family, who still run a funeral home in Saskatoon. They donated artifacts from 100 years ago, including stained glass windows, light fixtures, and traditional funeral clothes.

The exhibit also gives visitors a chance to learn about funeral and grieving traditions.

The funeral home is now open to the public and is a permanent part of Boomtown.