The Royal Ontario Museum

The ROM is the largest museum in Canada and one of the few anywhere that puts world cultures and natural history under one roof, with around eighteen million objects and specimens. Its strengths are unusual for a North American museum: a Chinese collection built up over decades that includes a full Ming tomb complex and temple wall paintings, a substantial Egyptian and Nubian holding, and a dinosaur gallery drawing on Alberta's badlands. In 2007 Daniel Libeskind added the Crystal, a set of interlocking prismatic volumes that cuts through the original 1914 building and out over the pavement; it is either the best or worst thing to happen to the museum depending on who you ask.

History

The museum was established on 16 April 1912, governed jointly by the Ontario government and the University of Toronto, and the Duke of Connaught, then Governor General, opened it on 19 March 1914 in a building on Bloor Street housing five museums, of archaeology, palaeontology, mineralogy, zoology and geology. An east wing facing Queen's Park opened on 12 October 1933, built during the Depression largely with local materials and hand-dug foundations, the museum belonged to the university from 1947 until 1968, and the Queen Elizabeth II Terrace Galleries, begun in 1978, were opened by the Queen in 1984 (Wikipedia, Royal Ontario Museum).

What to look for

• The Chinese galleries - a Ming tomb, temple paintings and sculpture.
• The dinosaur gallery - Alberta badlands specimens in the Crystal.
• Egypt and Nubia - one of the stronger collections in North America.
• The Crystal - Libeskind's prismatic addition cutting into the old building.

When to go

Year-round, and an obvious choice on a cold or wet day. Weekday mornings are quietest; weekends and school holidays are busy in the dinosaur and bat cave galleries. Some evenings run adult-only after-hours events. Major touring exhibitions carry a separate ticket.

Practical notes

The Crystal's sloping walls and awkward corners make some galleries genuinely hard to lay out, and several collections are shown more tightly than they deserve. It is large enough that trying to see everything in one visit is a mistake. Ticket prices are high, and special exhibitions cost extra on top.

Nearby

Yorkville and the university are next door; the Art Gallery of Ontario is south.

Key facts