Top 10 Interesting Facts about Royal Ontario Museum

Roya Ontario Museum by Maksim Sokolov- Wikimedia commons

Top Ten Interesting Facts About Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum was formally established on 16 April 1912. It is a museum of art, world culture, and natural history. The museum then was jointly governed by the Government of Ontario and the University of Toronto. The affairs of the Museum currently, are managed and controlled by a board of trustees, consisting of twenty-one trustees.

The chair of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto, the president of the University of Toronto, and the director of the Museum are ex-officio members. Let’s go through the top ten interesting facts about the Royal Ontario Museum.

1. The museum was opened in 1914

Royal Ontario Museum by Fpittui – Wikimedia commons

Despite the fact that the museum was established officially in 1912, it took two more years to open the museum to the public. Duke of Connaught, also the Governor-General of Canada, was the one who officially opened the Royal Ontario Museum to the public. Duke of Connaught was the one who opened the museum to the public.

According to the Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology page 986, when the Royal Ontario Museum opened its doors on 19 March 1914, one of the five original sections, was the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, associated with the University of Toronto and containing a classical section. 

2. It’s home to Patricia Harris Gallery of Costumes and Textiles

The Gallery holds about 200 artifacts from the Royal Ontario Museum’s textile and costume collections. The pieces of textile and costume exclusively range from the 1st century BC to the present day. They are rotated frequently because of their fragile nature.

The gallery showcases transformations in textile design, manufacturing, and cultural relevance throughout different lifetimes. Also, needlework, weaving, printed archaeological textiles, and silks are all located in the Patricia Harris gallery.

3. The Roloff Beny Gallery is hosts the museum’s exhibitions

The Roloff Beny Gallery is a part of the Institute for the Contemporary Culture (ICC). It is high-ceilinged with a space of approximately 600 m². The multimedia gallery hosts the Royal Ontario Museums’ contemporary art exhibitions.

Since its establishment, it has featured exhibitions on fashion photography, street art, modern Chinese urban design and architecture, and contemporary Japanese art.

In 2018, the Roloff Beny Gallery was the venue for the exhibition ” Here We Are: Black Canadian Contemporary Art” the exhibition was featuring black Canadian artists such as Sandra Brewster, Sylvia D. Hamilton, Esmaa Mohamoud, Charmaine Lurch, Bushra Junaid, and Michèle Pearson Clarke. 

4. The museum houses the Natural History Galleries

The Natural History galleries are situated on the second floor of the museum. The gallery exclusively contains collections and samples of various animals. Some of the animals stored in the gallery are birds, bats, bears, and dinosaur bones and skeletons.

Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of biodiversity is part of the Natural History Galleries. It was designed by Reich and Petch and was opened in 2009. It is organized into three zones namely Life is Diverse, Life is Interconnected, and Life is at Risk. It features endangered species.

Samples in The Life in Crisis gallery are a polar bear, a giant panda, a white rhinoceros, a Burmese python, a Canadian coral, a leatherback sea turtle, and a coelacanth, and Rafflesia flower, and many other many more species.

5. The museum contains the Tech Suite of Galleries

Mineral galleries in ROM by Daniel MacDonald – Wikimedia commons

The gallery consists mainly of Earth treasures. It houses more than 3000 specimens dating from 4.5 billion years ago. some of the specimens are minerals, gems meteorites, and rocks. the items were collected from different locations in the solar system including the earth, moon, and beyond.

They represent the world’s geologic movement. The world’s largest facet of lead carbonate, The Light of The Desert, and fragments of the Tagish Lake meteorite are also featured in this gallery.

6. It has the Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals

Eoraptor fossil at the ROM by The Lord of Allosaurs – Wikimedia commons

The gallery explores the rise of mammals through the earth’s current geological era called the Cenozoic Era. The Era is after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Specimens from North America and South America are more than 400 in the gallery.

nimravid Dinictis a false saber-toothed cat from the Nimravidae family is the special highlight of this gallery. Other galleries that feature fossils from mammals are The James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs and Gallery of the Age of Mammals, and The Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life which was opened in 2021.

7. The museum has world Culture galleries

Indian art exhibit in ROM by Greg –Wikimedia commons

The World Culture galleries display a wide variety of objects around the world. The implements in the gallery are collected from over the parts of the world such as China and Africa. These implements range from the Stone Age period to the 20t century art and design.

The galleries are located on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th floors of the museum. The Government of Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum raised C$2.575 million for the project.

8. The museum houses galleries containing ancient items

China, Ming Dynasty iron cast by Daderot – Wikimedia commons

The gallery has The Eaton Gallery of Rome which is home to a millennium, of ancient Roman Culture, The Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Rome, and the Near East which depicts the lifestyle and culture of societies under roman rule and their influence on the Near East.

The A. G. Leventis Foundation Gallery of Ancient Cyprus which houses art created in Cyprus, The Gallery of Africa: Egypt which focuses on the life and afterlife of ancient Eqyptians, The Gallery of Africa: Nubia which features a collection of objects from the Nubian Civilization present-day Sudan. 

9. Then museum gained an international reputation

Manitouwabing meteorite in ROM by Liz Mc – Wikimedia commons

The museum has more than 6 million items on display to the public. It also houses 40 galleries. The items are from diverse collections of world culture and natural history which includes a collection of dinosaurs, minerals, and meteorites, and Canadian and European historical artifacts, and therefore gain an international reputation.

10. It hosts educational public programs

Beginning of 2002, the museum underwent a major renovation and expansion. The Government of Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum contributed $60 million towards the project. The project aimed at increasing the number of visitors to between 1. and 1.6 million from 700, 000.

Also, the funding was to support the museum,’s research, conservation, galleries, and most importantly to foster education programs. Students could access the facility for their research purposes. 

The Royal Ontario Museum is a sure visit place in Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than 1 million visitors yearly which is almost the target of 1.4 million. It is north of Queen’s park, in the University of Toronto district.