Royal British Columbia Museum

About

The Royal British Columbia Museum (or Royal BC Museum), founded in 1886, is a history museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The "Royal" title was approved by Queen Elizabeth II and bestowed by Prince Philip in 1987, to coincide with a royal tour of that year. The museum merged with the British Columbia Provincial Archives in 2003. The Royal BC Museum includes three permanent galleries: Natural History, Becoming BC, and the First Peoples Gallery. The museum's collections comprise approximately 7 million objects, including natural history specimens, artifacts, and archival records. 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, Palaeontology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Zoology, Herpetology, Mammalogy, and Ornithology. The museum also hosts touring exhibitions. Previous exhibitions have included artifacts related to the RMS Titanic, Leonardo da Vinci, Egyptian artifacts, the Vikings, the British Columbia gold rushes and Genghis Khan. The Royal BC Museum partners with and houses the IMAX Victoria theater, which shows...

The BC Government founded the British Columbia Provincial Museum in 1886 in response to a petition from prominent citizens who were concerned about the loss of British Columbian natural products and native artifacts. Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie, Charles Semlin, William Fraser Tolmie, and former Premier George A. Walkem were amongst those who wanted to stop European and American museums from appropriating BC artifacts. Notably, the petitioners argued that the export of First Nations artifacts was particularly troubling, under the premise that “their loss [was] frequently irreparable.”

On October 25, 1886, the 15-by-20-foot Provincial Museum of Natural History and Anthropology opened in the Birdcages (the former BC Legislative buildings). The first curator was naturalist John Fannin, who donated his own large collection of preserved birds and animals to the museum. After its inception, the Royal BC Museum continually expanded. In 1896, the museum was given space in the east wing of the new Legislative buildings. The museum's mandate was updated by the BC government in 1913, and the collection of natural history specimens and anthropological material became official parts of the museum's operations, as well as the dissemination of knowledge to the people of British Columbia. In 1921, the basement of the east annex of the Legislature was excavated to provide the museum with additional room.

As part of the 1967 Canadian centenary celebrations, BC Premier W. A. C. Bennett committed to building a new home for the Royal BC Museum. It opened on August 16, 1968, with a final construction budget of $9.5 million. The museum remains housed in this building.

One of the most prized displays is John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce. It was purchased by Vancouver billionaire Jim Pattison and donated to the museum.

The museum is situated in the cultural precinct, an area comprising various significant historical buildings near the Inner Harbour. The cultural precinct occupies the space between Douglas Street, Belleville Street, and Government Street. Included in the cultural precinct is the BC Archives, Helmcken House, St. Ann's Schoolhouse (built in 1844), the Netherlands Centennial Carillon, Thunderbird Park, and Mungo Martin House, Wawadit'la, a traditional big house built by Mungo Martin and his family.

The Royal BC Museum hosts 3 permanent galleries (Becoming BC, Natural History, and First Peoples galleries) focused on BC history and heritage.

The First Peoples gallery on the third floor contains a large collection of First Nations artifacts, and many of the artifacts in the gallery are from the Haida people. Artifacts in the First Peoples Gallery include a village model, as well as indigenous totem poles, garb, and masks (including Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonial masks made by Chief Nakap'ankam ( Mungo Martin )). Notably, the gallery maintains the long house of Chief Kwakwabalasami (Jonathan Hunt), a Kwakwaka'wakw chief from Tsaxis ( Fort Rupert ). The house and surrounding carvings were created by his son, Henry Hunt, and his grandsons, Tony Hunt and Richard Hunt. An exhibit of artist Bill Reid's argillite carvings are also available for viewing.

The gallery has been criticized by indigenous scholars for its portrayal of First Nations people, and its use of controversial images and film from Edward Curtis. In 2010, many of the museum's Nisga'a artifacts were returned to the Nisga'a people and now reside in the Nisga'a Museum in northwestern British Columbia.

In early 2023 a totem pole belonging to Nuxalk First Nations was returned after it was sold to the museum in 1915.

The Becoming BC galleries on the third floor (12,524 sq. ft.) begins with "Century Hall," a collection of artifacts and replicas of BC's history over the last 200 years. Visitors pass into "Old Town," a life-sized model of Victoria in the 1870s–1920s. Old Town was designed and constructed between 1969 and 1972, and presents twenty separate building displays of various scales, including a replica of a cobblestone streetscape of early twentieth-century Victoria (with a 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 Cornish water wheel ).

Also within the Becoming BC galleries is an exploration narrative containing models of the original Fort Victoria, a Port Moody train station, the 1902 Tremblay Homestead (from Peace River District ), and a large-scale replica of Captain George Vancouver 's ship HMS Discovery.

The natural history gallery on the second floor (12,387 sq./ft.) contains information, artifacts, and life-sized displays of the diverse geography of the province from prehistoric time to present day (including the Fraser River delta and the popular woolly mammoth ). There is a range of fossils and taxidermic specimens, and a tide pool that contains live crabs, limpids, and starfish, among constructed specimens.

More recently, a section on climate was added to the Natural History gallery, including information on the effects of modern climate change. Visitors may also view the Ocean Station in this gallery, a mock Victorian-era submarine that houses a 360-litre aquarium.

The First Peoples gallery on the third floor contains a large collection of First Nations artifacts, and many of the artifacts in the gallery are from the Haida people. Artifacts in the First Peoples Gallery include a village model, as well as indigenous totem poles, garb, and masks (including Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonial masks made by Chief Nakap'ankam ( Mungo Martin )). Notably, the gallery maintains the long house of Chief Kwakwabalasami (Jonathan Hunt), a Kwakwaka'wakw chief from Tsaxis ( Fort Rupert ). The house and surrounding carvings were created by his son, Henry Hunt, and his grandsons, Tony Hunt and Richard Hunt. An exhibit of artist Bill Reid's argillite carvings are also available for viewing.

The gallery has been criticized by indigenous scholars for its portrayal of First Nations people, and its use of controversial images and film from Edward Curtis. In 2010, many of the museum's Nisga'a artifacts were returned to the Nisga'a people and now reside in the Nisga'a Museum in northwestern British Columbia.

In early 2023 a totem pole belonging to Nuxalk First Nations was returned after it was sold to the museum in 1915.

The Becoming BC galleries on the third floor (12,524 sq. ft.) begins with "Century Hall," a collection of artifacts and replicas of BC's history over the last 200 years. Visitors pass into "Old Town," a life-sized model of Victoria in the 1870s–1920s. Old Town was designed and constructed between 1969 and 1972, and presents twenty separate building displays of various scales, including a replica of a cobblestone streetscape of early twentieth-century Victoria (with a 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 Cornish water wheel ).

Also within the Becoming BC galleries is an exploration narrative containing models of the original Fort Victoria, a Port Moody train station, the 1902 Tremblay Homestead (from Peace River District ), and a large-scale replica of Captain George Vancouver 's ship HMS Discovery.

The natural history gallery on the second floor (12,387 sq./ft.) contains information, artifacts, and life-sized displays of the diverse geography of the province from prehistoric time to present day (including the Fraser River delta and the popular woolly mammoth ). There is a range of fossils and taxidermic specimens, and a tide pool that contains live crabs, limpids, and starfish, among constructed specimens.