My Favorite Museums III

In my last two articles about my favorite museums, I have looked at some great Natural History Museums in the United States that I love to visit. In this article, I would like to look at two Canadian museums that I really enjoy as well.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada is a medium-sized natural history museum. It has a very impressive number of fossils on display, incuding a juvenile Albertosaurus and a new exhibit about the famous Burgess Shale of Canada. The Tyrrell also has plenty of information about Geology, including Continental Drift. The Paleoconservatory contains plants that were around in Southern Alberta during the Mesozoic Era, the time of the dinosaurs. The Dinosaur Hall is very impressive, but I think my favorite fossil is the huge skull of a Dunkeleosteus, a nine meter long placoderm fish that was the top marine predator of its time.

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is a very impressive museum. One of the larger natural history museums in the world, it has a wide variety of subjects covered in its exhibits. In addition to travelling exhibits, it has permanent exhibits featuring its Life Sciences Galleries, Gallery of Earth Sciences, and Hands on biodiversity. Be sure to take the time to also visit the Gallery of Indigenous Peoples, the Gallery of Korean Art, the South Asian Gallery, and Medierranean World Exhibit Area. Even if you only want to see the dinosaurs, the cultural exhibits are well worth your time.

It is a great idea to become a member of your local natural history museum. Membership usually includes free or reduced admission to the museum and special events (often invitation to members-only events), as well as a discount at the museum gift shop. You will usually receive a calendar of upcoming events and often a monthly or quarterly publication of museum research. Some museum publications such as Natural History, published by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and Smithsonian, published by the Smithsonian Institution, are quite lush. Some museum memberships also offer a reciprocal membership to other museums. Membership is a great way to learn more about the natural world and to support your local museum.

Be sure to visit my web site for more links to natural history museums. If your local museum is not listed, please contact me with the URL, and I will add it!

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic