Redpath Museum
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The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath. It is rumoured that it was part of an effort to ensure that Sir William Dawson would not leave the university. It houses collections of interest to ethnology, biology, paleontology, and mineralogy/geology. The collections were started by some of the same individuals who founded the Smithsonian and Royal Ontario Museum collections.
It is the oldest building built specifically to be a museum in North America. Although small, its striking architecture is an important example of neo-classical design. It has figured as a set, both inside and out, for movies and commercials. (See Barnum (1986) starring Burt Lancaster, Eye of the Beholder, (1999) starring Ashley Judd).
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Ethnology collection
The ethnological and archaeological collection is one of the oldest in North America and began with Sir William Dawson's collection. It received further material from the Natural History Society of Montreal. It now has over 17,000 items from Africa, ancient Egypt, Oceania, paleolithic Europe and South America. The collection of First Nations artifacts that were once part of the collection now are housed in the McCord Museum in Montreal.
Paleontology collection
The museum's important collection of fossils owes much of its beginning to Sir William Dawson who provided not only many of the fossils of plants from his native Nova Scotia, but procured many important specimens from around the world. Dr. Thomas Clark, for many years up until his death, was a fixture at the museum and was renowned for his pioneering work on fossils from the Burgess Shale, some of the oldest known anywhere.
Geology (mineralogy) collection
Five collections, containing approximately 16,000 specimens from all over the world, are identified by their initial letters:
- 'D' Doell collection for Dr. Donald Doell, a physician who contributed many of the more recent material in the collection.
- 'F' Ferrier collection for Walter Frederick Ferrier, famous mining engineer who contributed this preeminent collection of minerals from many classic locations.
- 'J' Jeffrey collection for Jeffrey de Fourestier, mineralogist and former volunteer at the museum.
- 'SC' Shirley Collection
- 'NS' New System collection for the general collection catalogue. This collection contains the main body of specimens including the collection of the former Natural History Society of Montreal and specimens from the collection of Lord Strathcona.
External links
- Redpath Museum (http://www.mcgill.ca/redpath/)
- Redpath Museum Biodiversity website (http://www.redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/)
- images (http://blackader.library.mcgill.ca/campus/buildings/Redpath_Museum.html)