Royal British Columbia Museum
| Royal British Columbia Museum | |
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| Established | 1886 |
| Location | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. |
| Type | provincial history museum |
| Website | www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/ |
The Royal British Columbia Museum is a natural history and human history museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1886. The "Royal" title was approved by Queen Elizabeth II and bestowed by HRH Prince Philip in 1987, to coincide with a Royal tour that year.[1] It merged with the British Columbia Provincial Archives in 2003.
It includes three permanent galleries and an IMAX theatre which shows educational films as well as commercial entertainment such as the Spider-Man films, Inception, and others. It hosts touring exhibits from around the world. In recent years, these included exhibits on the RMS Titanic, Leonardo da Vinci, Egyptian artifacts and Genghis Khan.
The natural history collections have 750,000 records of specimens almost exclusively from BC and neighbouring states, provinces or territories. The collections are divided into eight disciplines: Entomology, Botany, Paleontology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Zoology, Herpetology, Mammals, and Ornithology. Bryophytes and Algae are not well represented.
The museum is in Victoria's Inner Harbour, between the Empress Hotel and the Legislature Buildings. The museum anchors the Royal BC Museum Cultural Precinct, a surrounding area with historical sites and monuments, including Thunderbird Park.
In October 2008, the museum was named one of BC's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc.[2]
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[edit] Permanent galleries
The natural history gallery on the second floor displays life-sized displays of the diverse geography of the province (such as the Fraser River delta, and prehistoric life (including a woolly mammoth), and a simulated journey to the depths of the ocean. More recently, a section on climate was added, including information on the effects of modern climate change.
The modern history gallery on the third floor begins with "Century Hall" which displays collections of artifacts of the 20th century. Visitors pass into a replica of a cobblestone streetscape of early 20th-century Victoria (with silent movie theatre, a hotel, a train station, old automobiles, and Chinatown). The display shifts to a tour of early forestry, fishing, and mining industries (including a mine shaft and water wheel), and then a history of exploration (that includes a model of the original Fort Victoria and a large scale replica of Captain George Vancouver's ship the HMS Discovery.
The First People's gallery on the third floor is a First Nations exhibit, portraying life before and after contact with Europeans. The gallery includes a collection of masks, totem poles, and a Kwakwaka'wakw longhouse built by Henry Hunt, and grandsons, Tony Hunt and Richard Hunt. The gallery is criticized by indigenous scholars for its portrayal of First Nations people, and its use of controversial images and film from Edward Curtis.[3]
[edit] Affiliations
The Museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.
[edit] Images
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Thunderbird Park with the museum in the background
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The popular woolly mammoth in the natural history gallery
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The recreated water wheel in the modern history gallery
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Stó:lō people fishing with traditional dipnets on the Fraser River
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Haida totem pole in Thunderbird Park
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Other Haida totems in Thunderbird Park
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A totem pole on the grounds of the Royal BC Museum
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Okanagan/Syilx family portrait
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A totem pole located outside the Royal BC Museum
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Historical ladies' accessories
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A recreated underwater exhibit at the Royal BC Museum
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A car in a recreated garage at the Royal BC Museum
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The main entrance of the Royal BC Museum
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Totem poles in front of the Royal BC Museum
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Several totem poles in Thunderbird Park
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Historical Record of Royal British Columbia Museum Corporation, Royal British Columbia Museum, p. 10
- ^ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 BC's Top Employers competition". http://www.eluta.ca/top-employer-royal-bc-museum.
- ^ Gloria Frank, "'That's my dinner on display': First Nations Reflection on Museum Culture," BC Studies 125/126 (2000)
[edit] External links
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Coordinates: 48°25′10″N 123°22′4″W / 48.41944°N 123.36778°W
