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On 22 September 1973, La Société Historique Acadienne du Comté de Yarmouth was formed for the purpose of studying the history of the Acadians in general, and those in Yarmouth County in particular. Its founding members were: President Désiré d'Eon, Vice-President Alfred B. d'Entremont, Secretary Rosie L. d'Entremont, and Treasurer Bennie Amirault. In 1977, the members purchased a house in the village of West Pubnico and transformed it into the Museé acadien et Archives. The name of the society was eventually changed to La Société Historique Acadienne de Pubnico-Ouest and officially incorporated in 1984.

H. Léander d'Entremont was born on 22 October 1862 at West Pubnico, Nova Scotia. He was the second son of Captain Nicolas d'Entremont and Anne Vitaline Amirault. He was a direct descendant of Sieur Phillippe d'Entremont, founder of Pubnico, first Baron of Pombcoup, and of Charles de St. Etienne de La Tour, first Governor of Acadia. He attended a local school until 1881, when he went to sea. Prior to 1881 he did spend some months fishing with his father. Circa 1875, he studied painting from an uncle who was a carriage builder. In 1882 he went to Massachusetts to work and returned to Pubnico that same fall to practice his trade until 1887. During this time, he also married and lost his wife, Marie Rose d'Entremont. Following the death of his wife, d'Entremont returned to Massachusetts. There he married Bridget Frances Curtin and developed an interest in Acadian history. After the death of his second wife he returned to East Pubnico, settled in his maternal grandfather's homestead, and married for the third time, Anne Suzanne Amirault. In 1926-30, he was instrumental in the erection of an Acadian Historic and War Memorial monument at Center East Pubnico. D'Entremont produced numerous publications on the Acadians including his 1926 essay "The Norse Settlement of America," for which he won the Maritime Library Association Gold Medal. In 1931, he published his first work The Baronnie de Pombcoup and the Acadians. In 1938, he published The Forts of Cape Sable of the Seventeenth Century and New Findings in the Early History of Acadia. He became a well-known public speaker and was featured several times on the radio. D'Entremont was also a collector. In 1931, he opened up his large house as the "De La Tour Museum", to the public. It contained a large collection of antiques, curios and relics, and a library. The library itself contained a large collection of histories relating to Acadia and the Acadians, and numerous rare books. H. Léander d'Entremont died on December 11, 1944.

In 1919 the NS Legislature passed the Water Act (SNS 1919 Chapter 4), which established the Province's control over the use of water and water courses and allowed it to license uses such as diversions for irrigation, the transportation of timber and wood in log drives, dams for power and the extraction of water from streams and lakes for domestic and industrial purposes. In the same year the NS Power Commission was created to generate and distribute electrical power to municipalities, industry and individual users. The Power Commission chiefly generated electrical energy from a number of hydro-electric facilities, but had administrative capacity and engineering expertise which allowed it to advise the Minister in Charge of the Water Act regarding water use applications. In essence the Minister delegated much of his power under the Act to the Power Commission. In 1963 chapter 42 of the Statutes of Nova Scotia transferred active responsibility for the Water Act to a board of commissioners constituted as the Nova Scotia Water Authority and expanded their powers to include the regulation of water and sewage systems and the ability to protect bodies of water and water courses from pollution. The original Water Act had less scope to regulate pollution and was limited to the regulation of obstructions to the flow of water such as the deposition of sawdust and waste wood. In 1973 the Water Authority was folded into the newly created Department of the Environment, with an Environmental Control Council created as an advisory body on applications and other matters submitted to it by the Minister.

John Bonsall Porter was born in Glendale, Ohio on 1 October 1861. He received his engineering degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1882 and 1884 respectively. After twelve years of professional work, in 1896 he was appointed Macdonald Professor of Mining and Metallurgy at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, a position he held until his retirement in 1927. In that position he gained international recognition as an expert on mining and authored a number of influential reports, including Coal Mines of Cape Breton and the six volume Coals of Canada. Porter married Ethel Harding circa 1888. They had one child, Elizabeth. Dr. Porter first visited Guysborough, Nova Scotia in 1898. In 1900 he purchased an old farm there and used it as a summer residence. Following his retirement, Dr. Porter travelled extensively, visiting Europe, Bermuda, Jamaica, Nassau and Central America and wintering in La Jolla, California. He was an talented photographer and became a keen amateur filmmaker as film making technology became more accessible in the late 1920s. His film subjects were his home, his family and his travels. John Bonsall Porter died on 16 April 1944 in Montreal, Quebec.

Henry Charles Hatfield was born on 11 October 1899 in London, England. He served in both the British and Canadian merchant navies during the First and Second World Wars. By 1945 he had moved to Toronto, Ontario, married Elsie [surname unknown] and was serving as a merchant seaman with Canadian National Steamships.

Rev. William James Swetnam was born in Wolverhampton, England in May 1878, the son of William and Ellen (Wood) Swetnam. He came to Canada in 1902 as a lay minister with the Methodist Church and after studies in Montreal was ordained in Riverport, Nova Scotia. Thereafter, he held charges in Truro, Whitney Pier, Glace Bay, Parrsboro, Halifax, Bridgetown, Bermuda, Pugwash, Nappan, Shelburne, Gabarus, and Port Mouton. He was first married to Elizabeth “Lizzie” Louise Astbury, the daughter of Rev. John and Frances (Lowe) Astbury, born in August 1879. They had two children: Carman A. who was born in January 1910 and Dorothy Louise who was born in Glace Bay on 27 March 1911. At the time of the Halifax Explosion in 1917, Rev. Swetnam was the minister at the Kaye Street Methodist Church. His wife and his son were both killed during the explosion. He remained in Halifax for two years afterward overseeing the reconstruction of the church but ultimately moved to Truro, Nova Scotia. He subsequently remarried to A. Jean MacDonald and had two children: William D. and Isabel. Rev. Swetnam died on 13 January 1973.

Dorothy Louise Swetnam was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia on 27 March 1911, the daughter of Rev. William James and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Louise (Astbury) Swetnam. Her mother and brother were both killed during the Halifax Explosion on 6 December 1917. Dorothy was an accomplished pianist, having studied at Mount Allison University. She served as the head of the piano department at the Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan, taught at Mount Royal College in Calgary, and toured with a variety of performers. She married Clayton Hare in 1943 and together they were instrumental in founding the Victoria Summer School of Music. She died on 8 June 2002 in Calgary, Alberta.

The Women for Music Society dates back to 1952 when a group of women met in the home of Mrs. Angus L. Macdonald to establish an auxiliary for the Halifax Symphony Orchestra. The organization was originally called the Women's Auxiliary of the Atlantic Symphony Inc. However, in 1983 the name changed to the present Women for Music Society, with a mandate to support and promote live performances of music and to assist with the ongoing work of Symphony Nova Scotia.

Godfrey Jacobs Sr. was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1770, the son of Richard (1735-1798) and Mary (Ricklams) (1740-1789) Jacobs. He married Sarah O'Brien, daughter of Lewis O'Brien on 16 December 1792 in St. Paul's Anglican Church, Halifax. Together they had a family of eleven children. His son Godfrey Jacobs Jr. was born on 29 August 1794 and married Mary Anne Shreve (1802-1876) on 12 July 1821. Godfrey Jacobs Jr. was a doctor who was educated and practiced in Europe and was later a surgeon in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The couple had thirteen children: Sarah Abigail who married William Hartshorne, Mary Anne Elizabeth who married Thomas Rowland Braine, Martha Shreve, Charles Godfrey, Arabella Gertrude, Georgina Amelia who married Lewis Herbert LeBlanc, Ellen Maria, Augustus Henry who married Lucy Parker Binney, Emily Ester, James Stannage, Lewis Herbert, Thomas Shreve who married Sarah A. Wells and Sophia Jane. The other children of Godfrey Jacobs Sr included: Mary, born 3 July 1796, married Thomas Wright James; Eliza, married Mary Anne Shreve's brother, the Reverend James Shreve; Isabella Jacobs, married Michael Rudolf on 11 September 1823; Sarah Jacobs; Sophia Jacobs, married John H. Braine on 17 August 1833; Amelia, born 1812, died 31 January 1899, never married; Rosina, born 1806, married John Smith on 19 March 1833, died on 19 October 1898. The latter couple had six children; James Godfrey, Sarah Gertrude, Horatio, Maria Augusta, John Sanford who married Sarah Jane Anderton, and Robert Jacobs.

Frank Clifford Goulding Smith was born in Montreal, Quebec on 15 October 1890, the son of Frank C. and Ida (Haskett) Smith. He was educated at Acadia University, taking his engineering course between 1912 and 1914. Thereafter, he served with the Canadian Army and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He subsequently worked as a hydrographer in various capacities in Canada, ultimately becoming the Dominion Hydrographer in 1952 and serving in that capacity until 1957. He married Abbie Marie Danielsen on 16 July 1918. He died on 27 November 1983 in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.