The Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society

Purpure on a pale of birchbark proper between two keys wards in base Or, an hourglass proper its stand Purpure;

Purple and gold represent the mineral wealth of the Thunder Bay region. The colour purple represents the gemstone amethyst, which has been designated as the provincial mineral of Ontario. Keys are frequently used as a symbol for museums, indicating both the unlocking of knowledge of the treasures of the past and the safeguarding of that knowledge and those treasures. The unique use of birchbark represents the Ojibway culture and Midewiwin scrolls, which record in pictographic images the traditions of the Midewiwin society of the Ojibway people. It also represents the birchbark canoe used for transportation and commerce in the fur trade era of Canadian history. The hourglass is symbolic of the passage of time.

An hourglass as in the Arms encircled by a wreath of mountain maple leaves and nodding trillium flowers proper;

The hourglass is repeated from the arms. It is surrounded by a wreath of mountain maple (acer spicatum) leaves and nodding trillium (trillium undulatum) flowers. These plants are indigenous to northwestern Ontario and are hardy varieties of the sugar maple and white trillium more usually found in Canadian symbolism.