Canadian Museum of History
The Canadian Museum of History is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of Canada, as well as support related research. The museum is based in a designed by Douglas Cardinal.
The museum originated from one established by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1856, which later expanded to include an anthropology division in 1910. In 1927, the institution was renamed the National Museum of Canada. The national museum was later split into several separate institutions in 1968, with the anthropology and human history departments forming the National Museum of Man. The museum relocated to its present location in Gatineau in 1989 and adopted the name Canadian Museum of Civilization the following year. In 2013, the museum adopted its current name, the Canadian Museum of History, and modified its mandate to emphasize Canadian identity and history.
The museum's collection contains over three million artifacts and documents, with some on display in the museum's permanent exhibitions. The museum also hosts and organizes a number of temporary, travelling, and online exhibitions, like the Virtual Museum of New France.
History
Early museum (1856–1968)
The Canadian Museum of History originates from the collecting efforts of the Geological Survey of Canada, an organization established in 1842 in Montreal. In 1856 the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada passed an act that enabled the GSC to establish a museum to exhibit items found from its geological and archaeological field trips; with the museum initially established in Montreal on Great St. James Street. The museum held its first ethnological exhibit from 1862 to 1863, showcasing stone implements and fragments of pottery by First Nations. In 1877, the museum mandate was formally expanded to include the study of modern fauna and flora, in addition to human history, languages, and traditions.In 1881, the museum relocated from Montreal to downtown Ottawa to what is now referred to as Former Geological Survey of Canada Building; although space in the new facility soon proved to be inadequate, with the Royal Society of Canada petitioning the federal government to build a new building for the museum by 1896. Preliminary plans for a new building were drawn up by 1899, although work on the building did not begin until 1906. In the following year, management of the museum was handed over from the GSC to the Department of Mines, with the mandate formally expanded to include anthropological studies. The new museum building, the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, was also completed in 1910, although it was not opened to the public until 1911.
Under the Department of Mines, the museum formally established an anthropology division under the direction of Edward Sapir in 1910. Another anthropologist, Marius Barbeau, was also hired by the museum in the following year to assist Sapir. The anthropology division was charged with the preservation of the cultural heritage of people in Canada and assembling objects related to these cultures. Under Sapir's direction, the institution's research initially focused on Aboriginal communities across Canada they believed were imperilled by rapid acculturation. The museum's first anthropological exhibits were organized by Sapir and his protege, Franz Boas. Since this period, the museum had become a centre for Canadian anthropology, having attracted notable anthropologists including Diamond Jenness after the Second World War.
In 1927, the museum division of the Department of Mines was renamed the National Museum of Canada. Management of the National Museum is transferred from the Department of Mines to the Department of Resources and Development in 1950. In 1965, the museum was split into two branches, one focused on natural history and another on human history. The mandate of the museum further expanded in the following decades, with the museum assuming the management of the Canadian War Museum in 1958, and its human history branch establishing a history division in 1964.
Museum of anthropology and history (1968–present)
On 1 April 1968, the branches of the National Museum of Canada were formally split into separate museums. The Canadian Museum of History originated from the human history branch of the museum, initially incorporated as the National Museum of Man. The natural history branch of the former National Museum of Canada became the National Museum of Natural Sciences, while the science and technology branch became the National Museum of Science and Technology. The National Museums of Canada Corporation was formed by the federal government in order to manage these national museums, in addition to the National Gallery of Canada. Although the institutions were split, the National Museum of Man and the National Museum of Natural History continued to share the Victoria Memorial building; with the National Museum of Man occupying the western half of the building.In April 1972, the National Museum of Man established a Communications Division in order to provide media communications regarding the museum's education and information programs. During the 1970s, the staff of the institution adopted a philosophy that stressed public access to its heritage collection. Because the Victoria Memorial Museum building had insufficient space to exhibit the museum's growing collection, the museum's collection and staff were scattered across 17 buildings, with these buildings acting as decentralized units of the museum.
In 1980, management of the National Museums of Canada Corporation is transferred to the Department of Communications. The following year in June 1981, the cabinet of Canada approved several plans concerning several national museums of Canada, including moving the National Museum of Man into a new structure. The plan was formally announced to the public in February 1982. After a study of potential locations saw four sites in Ottawa and one in Gatineau. A site acquired by the National Capital Commission from the E.B Eddy Company in Gatineau was chosen as the site for the new museum; due to it already being public land, being linked to Confederation Boulevard, and because it was prominently visible from the Ottawa River. The site was also selected because the NCC had desired to develop Hull, and incorporate it into the design of the capital region; while officials in Gatineau had similar desires to develop the area into an urban park. On 10 February 1983, the site for the new museum was announced to the public; and Douglas Cardinal Architect Limited was named as the project's design architect, in association with Montreal-based architectural firm Tétreault, Parent, Languedoc et Associés. The design created by Cardinal was approved in 1983 by the Cabinet of Canada.
In an effort to avoid stereotypes in languages, the name of the museum was changed to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1986. In 1988, the institution absorbed the museum operated by the department of the Minister responsible for Canada Post Corporation, although its philatelic collection was transferred to the National Archives of Canada. The museum opened its new building in Gatineau in 1989. However, the building opened with only two permanent exhibitions, Canada Hall and the exhibitions on the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, as budgetary shortfalls prevented the museum from opening the exhibitions it had originally planned for the museum.
In 1990, the Museum Act was passed by the federal government, replacing the defunct National Museums of Canada Corporation and forming several new entities to manage the national museums of Canada; with the Canadian Museum of Civilization corporation formed on 1 July 1990 to manage the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the Canadian War Museum.
21st century
In 2007, the museum organized a temporary exhibition, Treasures from China, in partnership with the National Museum of China. The partnership saw artifacts leave China to be exhibited only at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. As a part of the agreement, the Canadian Museum of Civilization prepared Indigenous Canadian artifacts for its own exhibition, First Peoples of Canada: Masterworks from the Canadian Museum of Civilization, at the Palace Museum in Beijing.In October 2012, James Moore, the minister of Canadian Heritage announced the ministry would provide $25 million to overhaul the museum and renovate Canada Hall. The government later announced plans to update and reopen the gallery in 2017, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Canada. Approximately 24,000 people from across nine Canadian cities were surveyed about the updates to the exhibition. The museum consulted a women's history committee, an indigenous history committee, and three historic time-period committees.
In December 2013, the Canadian Museum of History Act received Royal Assent, which shifted the museum's mandate from developing a collection with a "special but not exclusive reference to Canada," to one that enhanced the knowledge of Canadian history and identity; and expanding the museum's focus to include social and political history. The Act also changed the institution's name from the Canadian Museum of Civilization to the Canadian Museum of History. The Canadian Postal Museum, a department of the Canadian Museum of Civilization corporation that operated from within the institution was shut down in 2012 as a result of the museum's transition into the Canadian Museum of History.
Some have criticized the new mandate and updating of Canada Hall as a part of a wider plan by the incumbent Conservative government to redirect public historical understanding to emphasize aspects of Canadian military history and monarchism; as well as elide problematic elements of Canadian history in favour of achievements. However, the museum contended that new exhibits planned for the museum will include a range of themes and topics, and will also explore the country's "dark episodes". The updated gallery was completed at approximately $30 million and was opened on Canada Day in 2017 by Charles, Prince of Wales and Mélanie Joly, the minister of Canadian Heritage. Partisan concerns were alleviated after Canadian History Hall was unveiled to the public.
In 2025, a hobbyist built a Lego replica of the museum. Architect Douglas Cardinal sent him 80 pages of architectural blueprints for the project.