The Royal BC Museum is the quintessential museum every big city has with exhibits about the geological and human history of the province. It is seriously over rated and over priced. At $15, its price is only second to the Royal Ontario Museum (well worth its $22 ticket fee) and a joke when compared to the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s $12. I know what I sound like, the jaded, ‘been there, done that’ traveler, but I do feel that I my observations are valid. Someone visiting the RBC museum who has never been to this type of museum would definitely get a lot out of it and find the entry fee worthwhile. A seasoned traveler might read this and decide to save their money for something else.
So, the RBC has two levels of exhibits with an Imax theatre (not included in the basic $15 ticket fee). The first exhibit floor is about the geological history of BC and the second level is about the history of the native people and settlers of the province. The exhibits were extremely well done and up to date; I was really impressed with a lot of the dioramas and the occasional touch screen information panels. Money is definitely well spent at the RBC museum.
The highlight of the museum for me was the theatre in ‘old town’ that played a scene from the Charlie Chaplin movie The Gold Rush, which I had never seen! Everyone was in stitches watching him and a friend try to get out of a house teetering on the edge of a cliff.
Flash photography isn’t allowed in museums and the RBC is kept very dark, so I only got a few shots worth sharing, but they will provide a good taste of this museum:
this magnificent mammoth is the first exhibit you’ll see
this plaque is about the 2003 Kelowna forest fire and was included to show just how up to date the exhibits are
this guy is a gigantic pine beetle, the scourge of the lumber industry
a plaque about the pine beetle
this is an interactive touch screen; pressing the yellow button brings up new information
I thought this was a good explanation of the difference between climate and weather
this exhibit was about climate extremes in BC
Ashcroft BC is the driest place in Canada other than the Arctic
this is exhibit is about the hardy Sitka spruce, the only deciduous tree capable of withstanding the harsh coastal Pacific climate
I liked this walrus
an exhibit that made me realise just how hardy are creatures who live on exposed beaches
an exhibit about the return of sea otters to BC
the differences between sea and river otters (sea otters are the cute ones who float on their backs and use their chests as tables)
I thought this cliff with seagulls was well done
an exhibit about the Fraser River, which drains one quarter of BC
This marsh exhibit with lots of birds was impressive. I learned that the reddish brown plumage is rust caused by iron-rich soil.
Alaska king crab. Yum!!! (weird since spiders give me the willies!)
this exhibit was well done; it is a wall covered with sea creatures that you view through a ‘port hole’
orca tooth
view of the Netherlands carillon from the 2nd floor
view of the Legislative Building from the 2nd floor
view of the Empress Hotel from the 2nd floor
this man greets you at the entrace to the First Nations exhibit
this exhibit is about the smooth black shale-like stone used for carving
there was lots…
and LOTS to see! Impressive works of art!
more about the stone
interior of a real lodge house that was relocated to the museum
interior of a real lodge house that was relocated to the museum
hall of totems
ceremonial dress
this exhibit was about how small pox decimated the First Nations population because of their lack of immunity
this exhibit was about the prohibition of potlachs–extravagant gift giving exchanges that marked changes in power
this man accused of celebrating a potlach insisted that it was actually a Christmas celebration, but the authorities still jailed him
This plaque talks about marriages between important families being more about treaties and wealth than about love. Sounds rather ‘European’ to me…
ceremonial dress
The following plaques are about the Nisga’a Treaty, a major milestone in Canadian-First Nations history. It is the first step in redressing the many wrongs of the Indian Act.
as part of the treaty, the RBC has sent back many exhibits to the Nisga’a people
this was a rock carving that spawned the legend of the man who fell from the sky… and lived to tell the tale (another visitor an I had a mad laugh about this man!)
plaque about the pit house
pit house, showing the ‘staircase’ used to climb out of the smoke hole
pit house interior
pit house exterior showing poles covered with mud
a shawl (?)
plaque about the Slim Jim painting
The Slim Jim painting that once hung in the BC Legislature (it is worth Googling more about it)
entrance to old town
a 1920’s ice cream churn
love the image 🙂
June 1945
This exhibit about the 1990’s features a poster of Vancouver’s Bryan Adams, my favourite singer of that decade
a 1990’s cell phone
real floppy discs!
a VHS camera!
Leonardo! My Little Pony! NINTENDO! (And I can’t believe I remembered that the Ninja Turtle with the blue is Leonardo!)
a walkman!
a Discman!
a Victorian toilet
Charlie Chaplin in a house teetering on the edge of a cliff
a house teetering on the edge of a cliff
there is indeed
Old Town
this is what a kitchen should look like 🙂
a plaque about washday pre-washing machines
I was surprised to learn from this plaque that people actually imported food instead of growing it locally
horse at pasture on a farm
paddlewheel
farm outbuilding
salmon cannery
the Chinese were so efficient at butchering fish that when a machine was invented that could almost match their speed it was called the Iron Chink!
tins of salmon
Diorama of the Stikine Valley (gold rush era)
the HMS Discovery
the HMS Discovery
the HMS Discovery
Plaque about George Vancouver. He was a good captain who cared for his men. He lost only 5 of 180 in all his journeys.
outside a ‘pub’
outside a ‘pub’
I think the 1990’s exhibit, small as it was, was my favourite. I can’t believe that things out of my childhood are now antiques! 😀
The museum can be done in 1.5 to 3 hours depending on how much you decide to read. I did it in 2, mostly because there are a lot specialized interpreters and I stopped to listen to what they had to say.
Did you notice that the scene with the deer, bears, and such actually went through a day cycle? In Gastown, did you go down the back alley and trip the cat’s yowl? I agree that it is truly overpriced, but we had a membership, so it was a great way to kill a lunch hour when weather was inclement.
Also, there is usually 1 or 2 travelling exhibits that come yearly.
Yes, I did notice it!
I missed the back alley…
Yearly memberships are usually a good idea, if only for the traveling exhibits.