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.
Read more about this topic: Royal British Columbia Museum
Famous quotes containing the words permanent and/or galleries:
“There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. Twenty five years ago, I was a hired laborer. The hired laborer of yesterday, labors on his own account today; and will hire others to labor for him tomorrow. Advancement—improvement in condition—is the order of things in a society of equals.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I have got enough of the old masters! Brown says he has “shook” them, and I think I will shake them, too. You wander through a mile of picture galleries and stare stupidly at ghastly old nightmares done in lampblack and lightning, and listen to the ecstatic encomiums of the guides, and try to get up some enthusiasm, but it won’t come.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)