Museum of Anthropology
 The museum building from the garden side |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Vancouver , British Columbia |
| Art |
Anthropological Museum
|
| architect | Arthur Erickson |
| opening | 1947 |
| Number of visitors (annually) | ~ 140,000 (2013/2014) |
| management |
Anthony Shelton (Director)
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| Website | |
The Museum of Anthropology near Vancouver is one of the premier museums of First Nations culture in the Pacific Northwest . It is a major tourist attraction and is located on Marine Drive in the University Endowment Lands , an unincorporated area west of the city. The museum is closely associated with the University of British Columbia (UBC). The extensive collection is housed in a concrete building, the style of which is reminiscent of the half-timbering of the local natives.
exhibition
The museum has numerous large sculptures, totem poles and cultural objects. Although the museum specializes in the indigenous peoples of the Pacific northwest coast, the collection, which consists of around 38,000 ethnographic and around 535,000 archaeological objects, also includes objects from all other continents. The collection consists of both historical and contemporary objects.
The best known is probably the exhibition object made from the wood of Nootka cypress sculpture "The Raven and the First Men" (The Raven and the first humans) by Bill Reid depicted on the Canadian 20-dollar bill. Other important works by Reid are its bears and Wasco sculptures, some examples of his gold jewelry and a prototype of the Haida - dugout , he for the world exhibition Expo 86 carved.
The museum holds several large artifacts from the Musqueam tribe from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are particularly rare, as the Musqueam were one of the first peoples in the northwest to be resettled by the Europeans and decimated by introduced epidemics. The museum also has an extensive collection from the South Pacific region and the Koerner Ceramics Gallery with 600 European ceramic objects.
history
The museum was founded in 1947 when various objects from the UBC's ethnographic collection were on public display in the basement of the university library. Dr. Harry Hawthorn was the first director of the new museum, while his wife, Dr. Audrey Hawthorn served as the first female curator.
In 1971 the museum received grants from the Canadian government and the UBC to build a new museum building. This was designed by the renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson and opened in 1976. In 1975, Walter and Marianne Koerner donated their extensive collection of Indian art to the museum, which today still makes up a large part of the objects on display.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annual Report 2013-2014. (PDF; 1.15 MB) Museum of Anthropology, accessed on January 3, 2016 (English).
Coordinates: 49 ° 16'9 " N , 123 ° 15'35" W.