Located in the recently renovated Loretto Convent, atop the hill at Norfolk Street, and beside the landmark Church of Our Lady, the museum is home to a collection of over 30,000 artifacts that bring Guelph’s past to life.

[4] The museum was closed to the public on June 30, 2011, in preparation for a transition to a new building,[5] and reopened at 52 Norfolk Street in January 2012.

The proposal for a memory bank of significant parts of events in Guelph was first brought about by the Museum Board of Management, which was formed in 1964.

[8] The building that housed the museum for over thirty years at 6 Dublin Street South has a fair amount of history of its own.

The building was used as a boarding house for the Ontario Agricultural College, by the Great War Veterans Association, and finally by the Canadian Legion and the Knights of Columbus as a meeting hall until it was sold to the city in 1977.

[10] A sculpture of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae by Ruth Abernethy was erected in the foreground of the Guelph Civic Museum in 2015.

The statue shows the destruction of the battlefield and, at his feet, the poppies, which are a symbol of the memory of World War I and all armed conflicts since.

[4] In addition, human history-related objects and decorative arts (such as pottery and tapestries) are also exhibited and stored by the museum.

[7] Staff as of 2019 includes:[17] On September 21, 2010, Capital Campaign Chair John Valeriote announced a $200,000 donation from the estate of Hugh Guthrie, Q.C.