Glenbow Museum facts for kids
 |
|
| Established | 1966 |
|---|---|
| Location | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Type | Anthropology, art, history, mineralogy |
| Visitors | 148,668 (2019) |
| Founder | Eric Lafferty Harvie |
| Public transit access | City Hall C-Train station |
The Glenbow Museum is a cool art and history museum located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It's a place where you can explore the history and culture of Western Canada, including the stories and traditions of Indigenous peoples.
The museum started as a private non-profit group in 1955. It was founded by a lawyer and businessman named Eric Lafferty Harvie. He used items from his own huge collection to get it started!
The Glenbow Museum moved to its current building in downtown Calgary in 1976. It gets money from the governments of Calgary, Alberta, and Canada, plus from generous people who donate. In 2019, nearly 150,000 people visited the museum.
Right now, the museum is closed for big renovations. It plans to open its doors again in 2026. Good news! Since February 2022, it's free to get in, thanks to a large donation from the Shaw Family Foundation. Part of this money helps keep admission free, and another part supports a new art institute.
Contents
Discovering the Glenbow Museum's Story
How the Museum Began
The Glenbow Museum's story starts with Eric Lafferty Harvie, an Alberta lawyer and businessman. In the 1940s, he became very wealthy from the oil and gas industry.
After becoming a millionaire, Harvie decided to use his fortune for something special. In 1955, he created the Glenbow Foundation. He named it after his ranch and a nearby train station. His goal was to help people better understand the history of Western Canada. He wanted to do this by collecting and saving art, documents, and old artifacts.
At first, the foundation just collected items. They worked with other museums to show off their growing collection. The foundation quickly gathered many items, including things from Indigenous peoples of North America. Harvie was very interested in these artifacts.
Harvie collected items from Western Canada, but also things from all over the world that he found interesting. So, the collection had two parts: "Canadiana" (Canadian items) and "Harvieana" (Harvie's worldwide collection). He even bought the entire studio of a famous wildlife artist, Carl Rungius, collecting over 2,600 of his artworks!
Becoming the Glenbow–Alberta Institute
In 1964, the Glenbow Foundation opened a museum with the help of the Alberta government. It was in an old courthouse in Calgary. However, the building was too small for all the collections.
A big change happened in 1966. Eric Harvie, who was having health problems, decided to give his entire collection to the people of Alberta. It was a special gift for Canada's 100th birthday! This gift officially created the Glenbow–Alberta Institute.
The new institute was run by a group of volunteers. It received matching donations of $5 million from Harvie and the Alberta government. In 1973, the institute also became responsible for keeping all of Calgary's old city records.
Soon, plans were made for a brand new, much larger building. The Alberta government paid for most of it, with help from the Canadian government and the City of Calgary. The new eight-story building opened to the public on September 22, 1976. It was built right across from the Calgary Tower.
In the 1980s, the museum faced money problems when oil prices dropped. But people in Alberta donated money to help keep the museum's library and archives open.
The Museum Today
In 2007, a cool permanent exhibit called Mavericks opened. It tells the history of Alberta through the stories of 48 important and interesting people.
In 2021, the Glenbow Museum received a huge amount of money – $94 million – from the Canadian and Alberta governments, and the City of Calgary. This money is for redesigning and renovating the entire eight-story building. The total project will cost $115 million.
The museum closed on August 29, 2021, for these big renovations. It will reopen in 2025. While it's closed, the museum is still showing some exhibits at other locations.
As mentioned, admission to the museum became free forever in February 2022. This was made possible by a $25 million donation from the Shaw Family Foundation. A big part of this money will keep admissions free, and another part will create the new JR Shaw Institute for Canadian Art.
What You Can Explore at Glenbow
The Archives: A Treasure Trove of History
The Glenbow archives are like a giant memory bank for Western Canada. They hold one of Canada's largest collections of non-government records. This makes them a major place for historians, writers, and students to do research.
The archives include tons of written records, over a million photographs, hundreds of hours of film, and many sound recordings. These items cover the history of Western Canada from the 1870s to the 1990s. They show how people lived, worked, and governed.
You can find special collections here about First Nations and Métis families, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ranching, and the oil industry. There are also old maps, school yearbooks, and resources for tracing family histories.
The Amazing Art Collection
The Glenbow's art collection has about 33,000 artworks. Most of these pieces are from the 19th century to today. They mainly focus on historical, modern, and contemporary art from or about northwestern North America.
The collection includes beautiful landscape paintings, Canadian prints by artists like Walter J. Phillips, and art by First Nations and Inuit artists. There are also American illustrations and wildlife art. Art from other parts of the world helps show a wider view of art history.
- Selected works
-
Tom Thomson, Autumn, Fall 1916
-
Emily Carr, Kitwancool, 1928.
-
Emily Carr, Among the Firs, c. 1931
The Library: Books and More!
The Glenbow's library holds 100,000 books, magazines, newspapers, maps, and pamphlets. All of these are important to the history of Western Canada. You can find out about everything from when buffalo roamed the plains to the arrival of the railroad and today's events in Alberta.
The collection even has rare books about horses from the 15th century! There are also old school books from one-room schoolhouses. Plus, you can find many items related to the museum's collections of military history, cultures, minerals, and art.
The Museum's Collections
The museum's main collection has artifacts from Western Canada and many other cultures around the world. It also has a cool collection of gems and minerals.
Community History: Everyday Life in Alberta
The Community History collection shows what life was like for people in southern Alberta from 1880 to 1970. It includes things like Albertan pottery, folk art, items from northern explorations, old coins, glass, and textiles.
This collection has over 100,000 objects from many places. They give us a peek into life in Western Canada from the late 1800s to today. You can see artifacts from the Doukhobor and Hutterite communities, and items from the Calgary Stampede. There are even some items from the search parties looking for Franklin's lost expedition.
Many items from this collection are in the Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta exhibit. This permanent exhibit tells Alberta's history through the stories of 48 unique individuals, called "mavericks."
Military and Mounted Police: Stories of Courage
The Military and Mounted Police collection has many artifacts about Canadian military history, especially in southern Alberta. It also includes European and Japanese armor, weapons, and firearms from around the world.
The Arms and Armour part of the collection has European and Japanese armor and weapons. The museum's collection of Japanese armor is the largest of its kind in Canada! The "Canada at War" section focuses on Canada's role in the North-West Rebellion, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. The Mounted Police section shows the history of the North-West Mounted Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Glenbow's military collection is the most varied in Western Canada, with 26,000 items. This includes 2,100 firearms, from the 16th century to today. Some items from famous people and battles were given by the Royal United Services Institute. In 2008, the museum got 60 objects from Sam Steele, a famous officer of the North-West Mounted Police. You can see these items on display.
Many items from this collection are in the Warriors: A Global Journey Through Five Centuries exhibit. This permanent exhibit compares how different cultures approached war throughout history.
Minerals: Earth's Hidden Gems
The museum's Minerals collection includes minerals and precious and semi-precious stones from all over the world, especially Western Canada. You can see minerals that glow in the dark, a display of fool's gold, a piece of the Earth's oldest rock, and colorful rock crystals. These specimens were chosen for their beauty and scientific importance.
Many items from the Mineral collection are in the Treasures of the Mineral World exhibit, which is a permanent display at the Glenbow Museum.
Native North America: Indigenous Cultures
The Native North America collection is a large group of artifacts from various indigenous peoples of North America, especially the Plains Indians. The museum organizes this collection into sections like Inuit, Métis, Northwest Coast, Plains, and Other First Peoples.
The Plains section focuses on the Indigenous peoples of the northwestern Plains, such as the Anishinaabe, the Niitsitapi, Cree, and Tsuut'ina Nation. The Northwest Coast section features items from groups like the Kwakwaka'wakw and the Nuu-chah-nulth. The "Other First Peoples" section includes artifacts from other Canadian First Nations groups, including the Dene, Iroqouis, and Mi'kmaq.
The Glenbow's collection of items related to cultures has about 48,000 pieces. Niitsitapiisinni: Our Way of Life is a permanent exhibit that focuses on the Niitsitapi people and features many items from the Native North America collection.
World Cultures: A Global Journey
The Glenbow Museum also has many artifacts from around the world. Its collection is divided into Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. The museum's African collection has over 5,000 artifacts, mostly from the 1960s. It focuses on West Africa, with items from the Akan, Bamileke, and Yoruba peoples.
The museum's Latin American collection also started in the 1960s. It mainly focuses on the Amazon Basin, with artifacts from groups like the Bororo and Karajá. The Oceania collection mostly has artifacts from Papua New Guinea, but also from other areas in Oceania.
"Many Faces, Many Paths: Art of Asia" has more than 80 statues and sculptures. These are Buddhist and Hindu art pieces, some dating back to the first century! Most of these were donated by a private oil and gas company from Calgary. The Asian collection includes art from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and Tibet.
Where Symbols Meet: A Celebration of West African Achievement is another permanent exhibit at Glenbow. It features many items from the museum's West African collection.
See also
- List of art museums
- List of museums in Alberta
