Manitoba Museum

The Nonsuch is the museum's centrepiece: a full-size seaworthy replica of the ketch that sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668 and returned with a cargo of furs, the voyage that led to the Hudson's Bay Company charter in 1670. Built in England in 1968 for the company's tercentenary, she sailed and toured before being given to the museum, and the gallery was constructed around her as a dockside scene, so the building could not release the ship now if it wanted to. Other galleries cover the boreal forest, the Arctic, the grasslands and a walk-through 1920s Winnipeg street. A planetarium and science gallery adjoin.

History

The Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba began collecting in 1879, and in the early 1890s a museum was reportedly housed in the basement of Winnipeg's City Hall; the Manitoba Museum Association, founded in 1932, opened the museum on 15 December 1932 in the new Civic Auditorium, run by volunteer curators. Planning for a new building began in 1954, the present museum was designed in 1965 by Herbert Henry Gatenby Moody and funded largely for the 1967 centennial, and in 1994 the Hudson's Bay Company gave it its historic collection, the largest corporate donation the museum has received (Wikipedia, Manitoba Museum).

What you'll find

• The Nonsuch - a full-size 1668 ketch replica in a built dockside setting.
• The 1920 Winnipeg street - a walk-through recreation of the city at its peak.
• The regional galleries - Arctic, boreal, grassland and Hudson Bay Lowlands.
• The planetarium - a dome theatre in the same complex.

When to go

Year-round; the museum closes some Mondays outside summer. Galleries have been progressively renewed, so returning visitors find changes. Allow half a day with the planetarium.

What to expect

The planetarium and science gallery are priced separately. Some older galleries feel dated next to the renewed ones. It is indoors, which matters in a Winnipeg winter.

Nearby

The Exchange District surrounds it; The Forks lies south.

Key facts