The Royal Alberta Museum

The Royal Alberta Museum

The Royal Alberta Museum is the largest and most popular public museum in the Edmonton area. It locates at the western suburban area and only ten minute drive from downtown. Royal Alberta museum provides a general introduction to history, culture, flora and fauna of Alberta region. Since the Royal Alberta Museum has a convenient location, you can reach it by bus route number one and number one-twenty. It basically includes four main galleries and collections, like wild Alberta Gallery, Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal culture, Natural History Gallery and a gallery that is using for presenting the travelling exhibits and host exhibits. People can visit the museum in different time period and also exploring the different experience from there. 

History of Royal Alberta Museum

The Royal Alberta Museum opened to the public on December 6, 1967 but its original name is The Provincial Museum of Alberta. Since the museum is run by a partnership between the federal government’s Confederation Memorial Centennial Program and the Government of Alberta. They began planning in the 1950s, but there is not any museum professional was hired to build the project until 1962. In 1964, the funding from federal and provincial finally were announced. There are also a very important Australian named Raymond O. Harrison was hired and given $5M and three years’ time to seek a site, find employee, build collections, construct a museum and prepare exhibits to fill 4000 square meters. The name has not been changed until 24 May 2005 when Queen Elizabeth II visited the museum and bestowing royal patronage. In order to honor the visit, the name of museum has changed to Royal Alberta Museum.

The museum is cared by the society and community. People love the museum and start to be part of museum activities. In 1980s, local residence formed The Friends of the Provincial Museum Society. This active society of valuable volunteers is involved in fundraising, public and school programs and collection acquisitions. The Royal Alberta Museum cannot be success without the help from all the people who are participating into the program.

The museum also has a lot of success from national wide. Throughout the 1980s, the Museum fulfilled a vital role in the dissemination of information about Alberta through guides, interpretive programs and curatorial research that appeared in professional journals, Occasional Papers and Special Publications. As well, the Museum began creating computer data records for as many collections as possible. The Natural History research collections became recognized as among the best curated in the country. All the resources that museum has been collected has an important role in contributing into the national history field.

The museum not only provides its own collections and exhibits, but also creates the Travelling Exhibits program. The travelling exhibits program prepares exhibits to travel locally, provincially and nationally. This program was a highly creativity training field for museum specialists such as artists and designers. This program enhances the communication between each museum who is participating in the program. Though the program, all the exhibits from different museum allowed to be present in different communities which are a very good channel for people to learn and absorbed the different culture for more than 10 years.

Colorful Galleries

As one of the most popular museum in Alberta region, Royal Alberta museum has several galleries that are worth your trips. The most popular gallery is called Wild Alberta Gallery.

 The Wild Alberta gallery contains dioramas, which show Alberta animals in replicated natural habitats. The gallery also gives visitors information on the ecosystems of Alberta and how animals, microorganisms and humans interact in the environment. As we all know, the animals are related to our lives, it is a great opportunities for visitors to closely observe the creatures that lived in the Alberta region. As a foreigner, the animals are really amazing; the museum not only presents the animal specimens, they also provide a real animal sound through a system. While the visitors closely observe the showcase, visitors also can hear the sound of animal and make the experience more exciting. From the vision of history, human, animal and all other creatures are shared the same home called earth. The museum not only simulated the true environment or habitat of animal, but also brings the animal more closely to our lives and let us knows that we are not alone. While we destroy the environment, we may want to consider the changes whether will affect them. Any species disappear from the planet would cause the disaster of the ecosystem. The food chain will change since any one of the food chain member disappear from earth would affect every member of the environment.

Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture also is the valuable gallery that visitor should definitely visit. The gallery explores the history of North American Aboriginals with over 3000 artifacts spanning 11,000 years of history. It starts at the last ice age and explores aboriginal settlement, livelihood and culture. While you are visiting this gallery, you may feel you are actually visiting the aboriginal tribes in real life. It presents the actual tools of native people using during their daily life. The museum makes so many restore tribal models to make everyone can actually experience. It is important for people to understand the aboriginal culture and respect their living styles. Through the gallery, visitor could increase their knowledge about the aboriginal culture and learns how to respect them. The first nation people have lived this continent over thousands years, understanding their culture could help us explore more experience and knowledge. In the museum, it also presents that the first nation population also has its own culture diversity. There are several major tribes in the Alberta region. Like Cree, blackfoot, chipewyan, Nakoda. Each tribe has its own language, which is surprise me. At first, I only thought the first nation people are come from the same tribe.

Natural History Gallery is home to the popular “Bug Room”  where some of the world’s largest bugs are on display.  The gallery also boasts an area dedicated to the vegetation of Alberta as well as the birds that make Alberta home. The entrance to the gallery houses a large geology exhibit containing exquisite gems and rocks, as well as a collection of the rocks that make up the landscape of Alberta. People are like gems and medals, but how many of us really know the raw orbs looks like? It is very difficult for visitors to absorb that much information through a short visit. To closely observe the orbs or gems, visitors still could be very pleasant. Look around the Natural History Gallery, visitor could easily found various exhibits. Diamonds, crystals, and rare medals full fill the showroom. (Wonder those exhibits worth how much!)

The last stop is the feature gallery, this gallery displays the exhibits from worldwide and the museum also would present the different topic in different time period. When I go to the museum, there are two topics of feature exhibits, one is called “Winged Tapestries: Moths at Large” and the other is called “Wolf to Woof”.

Colourful treasures revealed in a stunning photographic exhibition showcasing the hidden beauty of Moths

A travelling exhibition from the Canadian Museum of Nature, Winged Tapestries: Moths at Large opens February 18th and runs until September 3rd at the Royal Alberta Museum.

The Ottawa photographer Jim des Rivières presents those large prints of moth are from the Ottawa region. The large prints are impressive and beautiful work; it shows the mystery side of moth. Three of the large pieces in the show room have almost two meters large, from the painting, visitors could closely observe the details form every point.

A seemingly dull brown moth spotted from a distance can prove to be a complex, colourful treasure when viewed up close. Des Rivières created these fascinating, larger than life images by placing each moth specimen on a flatbed scanner. He scanned them at the very high resolution of 4800 dpi. The results are spectacular–huge images revealing unexpected colours and intricate patterns.

Wolf to Woof

The largest and most comprehensive travelling exhibition on the history, biology and evolution of dogs, Wolf to Woof sniffs out the facts on man's best friend. This exhibit has four themed sections including multi-media displays, artifacts, photo murals and dioramas along with interactive, hands-on components.

For centuries, dogs and people have worked side by side. Dogs have served as hunters, herders, warriors. In order to suits the specific task that is designed. Dog breeders intend to select for physical traits like size and hunting ability, and also for personality traits that make a dog trainable, friendly, communicative and loyal. They were bred for speed, stamina, aggression, strength or size. Dogs were also bred for looks and style. Dogs now become the loyal companion of human being. There are several contributions have been done by the breeders.

Today, most dogs in the urban area are specified to be the role as a friend or pet for most of family. However, there are still some dogs would be trained as assistant dog for disabilities people or special task dogs like search and rescue dogs. It remains me the search dog at the airport. A durable puppy sniffs around try to find the illegal goods from the passengers’ luggage. 

The species of Canine has a special position in the animal world. Due to the close relationship between them and us, dogs have the most various types and sizes and also they are most trust worthy friend in the animal kingdom.

The museum also holds an event called Best Buddy Contest; now the top 30 dogs from the contest have their pictures on the wall of the gallery.

Final thoughts

The experience of visiting the Royal Alberta Museum is great. I am also grateful of choosing this course on summer. Without this assignment, I would never across the gate of Royal Alberta Museum. I think Royal Alberta Museum is a good place for a family day or a good family day. It is not only a decent place for young generation to learn but also a good place for family to spend their time together. The admission for the museum is quite reasonable. The museum has a different ticket price for different group of public. The schedule of museum is also good, it open 9 to 5 daily and only closed at December 24^th and 25^th. The only thing I could think the museum need to change is the instruments in the display room is getting old and some of the instruments are out of order. Besides this disappointment, I think the Royal Alberta Museum could be a nice location for any family to spend time together!