Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year, making it the most-visited museum in Canada.[2] It is north of Queen's Park, in the University of Toronto district, with its main entrance on Bloor Street West. Museum subway station is named after it and, since a 2008 renovation, is decorated to resemble the ROM's collection at the platform level.
Established
16 April 1912
18,000,000+
1,440,000[1]
Josh Basseches
1910–1914, addition: 1931–32
Darling & Pearson, addition: Chapman & Oxley
Wm. Oosterhoff
2003
Heritage Easement Agreement AT347470
Established on April 16, 1912, and opened on March 19, 1914, the ROM has maintained close relations with the University of Toronto throughout its history, often sharing expertise and resources.[3] It was under direct control and management of the University of Toronto until 1968, when it became an independent Crown agency of the Government of Ontario.[4][5] It is Canada's largest field-research institution, with research and conservation activities worldwide.[6]
With more than 18 million items and 40 galleries, the museum's diverse collections of world culture and natural history contribute to its international reputation.[6] It contains a collection of dinosaurs, minerals and meteorites; Canadian and European historical artifacts; as well as African, Near Eastern, and East Asian art. It houses the world's largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia with more than 150,000 specimens.[7] The museum also contains an extensive collection of design and fine art, including clothing, interior, and product design, especially Art Deco.
In popular culture[edit]
The 2000 novel Calculating God by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer is mainly set in the ROM. The novel received nominations for both the Hugo and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards in 2001.[141] In the novel Bugs Potter Live at Nickaninny by Canadian children's fiction author Gordon Korman, one of the primary characters searching for the lost Naka-mee-chee (fictional) tribe was from the ROM. A large part of Life Before Man, a 1979 novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, takes place in ROM. Three of the four main characters of the novel work there. The museum is described in the novel in great detail, including the dinosaur gallery with its exhibits, contemporary to the time when the novel takes place. The novel was a finalist for the Governor General's Award.
The museum was also filmed in several television shows. It was featured in Zoboomafoo, an American-Canadian children's television series in the season 1 episode "Dinosaurs", where the Kratt brothers (Chris and Martin) were invited to see the museum's dinosaur bones. The museum appeared as itself in the Canadian police procedural television series Flashpoint for an episode of the third season and the Canadian historical detective series Frankie Drake Mysteries in the season 2 episode "The Old Switcheroo". The Crystal was featured in the pilot of American science-fiction television series Fringe as a company headquarters and the season 2 episode "Shiizakana" of American television series Hannibal as a fossil exhibit.[142]