Redpath Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Redpath Museum

Established	1882
Location	859 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Type	Museum of natural history
Public transit access	at Peel station at McGill station

Interior of the museum

The Redpath Museum is a cool place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It's a museum of natural history that belongs to McGill University. You can find it on the university's campus.

This museum was built way back in 1882. It was a gift from a rich sugar businessman named Peter Redpath. The museum holds amazing collections about ethnology (human cultures), biology (living things), paleontology (fossils), and mineralogy/geology (rocks and minerals). Some of its first collections were started by the same people who helped create the famous Smithsonian and Royal Ontario Museum.

The Redpath Museum is the oldest building in Canada that was built just to be a museum! Both the inside and outside of the museum have been used for movies and commercials.

What You Can See: The Collections

The Redpath Museum has many exciting things to explore. Here are some of the main collections:

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  A dinosaur skeleton inside the Redpath Museum.

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  A Gorgosaurus skeleton in the museum's main exhibit area.

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  Fossilized scallops from the museum's collection.

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  A fossil of Claudiosaurus germaini.

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  A fossil of Marrella splendens.

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  A cast of Limnoscelis.

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  A fossil of Pecopteris bucklandi.

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  A specimen of the Labrador duck.

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  The skull of Dendrerpeton.

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  A specimen of the Carolina parakeet.

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  The skeleton of an anaconda.

Rocks and Minerals (Geology)

The museum has about 16,000 rock and mineral samples from all over the world! These amazing collections have been built up over many years. Some of the important collections include:

• Doell collection: Named after Dr. Donald Doell, who added many newer materials.
• Ferrier collection: From Walter Frederick Ferrier, a famous mining engineer. It has many great minerals from classic locations.
• Jeffrey collection: From Jeffrey de Fourestier, a mineral expert and former volunteer.
• Palache collection: From Charles Palache, a mineralogist and professor at Harvard University.
• Shirley Collection: Donated by the wife of Sir Hugh Graham in the 1880s.
• New System collection: This is the main collection. It includes items from the old Natural History Society of Montreal and from Lord Strathcona.

Insects (Entomology)

The museum used to have a large collection of insects. In 1961, these insect collections were moved to the Macdonald Campus of McGill University. This led to the creation of the Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory, which is now a big center for insect studies.

Fossils (Paleontology)

The museum has a very important collection of fossils. Many of these fossils were first gathered by Sir William Dawson. He found many plant fossils from his home in Nova Scotia. He also helped get many other important fossils from around the world.

Dr. Thomas Clark was another key person for the museum's fossil collection. He was known for his amazing work on fossils from the Burgess Shale. These are some of the oldest known fossils anywhere!

Human Cultures (Ethnology)

The museum's collection about human cultures and ancient objects is one of the oldest in North America. It started with Sir William Dawson's collection. It also received items from the Natural History Society of Montreal.

Today, this collection has over 17,000 items! These come from places like Africa, ancient Egypt, Oceania, ancient Europe, and South America. The collection of items from First Nations people, which used to be here, is now kept at the nearby McCord Museum in Montreal.

Museum Connections

The Redpath Museum works with other important groups. These include the CMA, the CHIN, and the Virtual Museum of Canada.

Getting There by Metro

You can easily walk to the museum from many places in downtown Montreal. It's also very close to the McGill station on the Montreal Metro's Green Line.

See also

• Redpath Library
• George Barnston