Glenbow Museum
Encyclopedia
The Glenbow Museum in Calgary
is one of Western Canada
's largest museums, with over 93,000 square feet (8,600 m²) of exhibition space in more than 20 galleries, showcasing a selection of the Glenbow's collection of over a million objects.
The Glenbow-Alberta Institute was formed in 1966, when Eric Harvie
donated his vast historical collection to the people of Alberta
. Located in downtown
Calgary across from the Calgary Tower
, the Institute maintains the Glenbow Museum, open to the public, which houses not only its museum collections, but also a very extensive art collection, library, and archives. In 2007, a new permanent exhibit entitled "Mavericks" opened on the third floor; this exhibit traces the history of Alberta through a series of 48 influential and colourful personalities. Its current President and CEO is Kirstin Evenden. Former presidents and CEOs include Mike Robinson
and Jeff Spalding.
collection contains over 100,000 objects originating from many corners of the world, providing insight into the life in Western Canada from the late 19th century to the present day. Items in the collection reveal how people made a living, worshiped, and were governed, what they did to relax, how they dressed and ate, and how family mementos helped create a home in a new land. The cultural history collection also includes important holdings of Alberta pottery
, Western Canadian folk studies, northern explorations, numismatics
, pressed glass
, and textile
s.
The Glenbow ethnology collection contains approximately 48,000 items made or used by the indigenous peoples of North America, particularly the Northern Plains, as well as the Northwest Coast
, Arctic
, and Subarctic
regions, and select regions of South America
, Africa
, Oceania
, and Asia
.
an, Asia
n, and North America
n firearms and edged weapons. Also well represented are Japan
ese arms
and armour
, and Canadian medal
s, order
s, and decorations.
collection includes minerals and precious and semi-precious stones
from around the world, particularly Western Canada. Specimens were selected for exhibition value as well as mineralogical significance, and the 'Treasures of the Mineral World' exhibition is popular with geologist
s, rock hound
s, and visitors of all ages seeking to enjoy the depth and diversity of the Earth's minerals. The exhibit includes minerals that glow in the dark, a display of Fool's Gold, a piece of the Earth's oldest rock, and rock crystals in every colour of the rainbow.
In addition, the Glenbow has a substantial Asian collection on semi-permanent loan from the Bumper Development Corporation Ltd., including reliefs, masks, paintings and sculptures in stone, wood, and metal from the Buddhist and Hindu
cultures of Asia, from the 1st century to the 18th century.
. The collection contains an outstanding selection of landscape painting, a renowned Canadian prints
collection including works from Walter J. Phillips
and modernist printmaker Sybil Andrews
, First Nations
and Inuit
Art, American illustration, and wildlife Art. Works from other parts of the world provide a broader national and international frame of reference.
roamed the plains, to the coming of the railroad and settlement of the West, to political, economic and social events in Alberta
today. The collection includes rare illustrated equestrian literature from the 15th century, school books
from one-room school houses
, and numerous volumes and other material related to the Museum's collections of military history, ethnology, mineralogy and art.
and southern Alberta. Areas of specialty include First Nations
, Métis
genealogy
, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
, ranching and agriculture
, the petroleum
industry, politics
, labour, women, and business. Unique collections in the archives include catalogs, cookbooks, records of land sales by the Canadian Pacific Railway
, maps, school yearbooks, extensive genealogical resources, and an excellent collection of resources for the study of Métis genealogy.
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
is one of Western Canada
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
's largest museums, with over 93,000 square feet (8,600 m²) of exhibition space in more than 20 galleries, showcasing a selection of the Glenbow's collection of over a million objects.
The Glenbow-Alberta Institute was formed in 1966, when Eric Harvie
Eric Harvie
Eric Lafferty Harvie, was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Glenbow Museum, one of Western Canada's largest museum....
donated his vast historical collection to the people of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
. Located in downtown
Downtown Calgary
Downtown Calgary is a region of central Calgary, Alberta. It is not a single neighbourhood per se, but is actually a larger community containing three neighbourhoods and a number of districts....
Calgary across from the Calgary Tower
Calgary Tower
The Calgary Tower is a 191 metre free standing observation tower in Downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally called the Husky Tower, it was conceived as a joint venture between Marathon Realty Company Limited and Husky Oil as part of an urban renewal plan and to celebrate Canada's centennial...
, the Institute maintains the Glenbow Museum, open to the public, which houses not only its museum collections, but also a very extensive art collection, library, and archives. In 2007, a new permanent exhibit entitled "Mavericks" opened on the third floor; this exhibit traces the history of Alberta through a series of 48 influential and colourful personalities. Its current President and CEO is Kirstin Evenden. Former presidents and CEOs include Mike Robinson
Mike Robinson (Alberta politician)
Mike Robinson, CM is the former President & CEO of Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He retired from that job in December 2007 and ran unsuccessfully for the Alberta Liberal Party in Calgary Foothills in the Alberta general election, 2008....
and Jeff Spalding.
Museum
The museum has four primary collections:- Cultural History
- Ethnology
- Military History
- Mineralogy
Cultural history
The Glenbow cultural historyCultural history
The term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...
collection contains over 100,000 objects originating from many corners of the world, providing insight into the life in Western Canada from the late 19th century to the present day. Items in the collection reveal how people made a living, worshiped, and were governed, what they did to relax, how they dressed and ate, and how family mementos helped create a home in a new land. The cultural history collection also includes important holdings of Alberta pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
, Western Canadian folk studies, northern explorations, numismatics
Numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
, pressed glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
, and textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
s.
Ethnology
British Columbia Coast
The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....
, Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
, and Subarctic
Subarctic
The Subarctic is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic and covering much of Alaska, Canada, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and northern Mongolia...
regions, and select regions of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
Military history
The Glenbow's military collection is the most diverse in Western Canada, with 26,000 items, spanning many countries over nearly five centuries, particularly EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n, and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n firearms and edged weapons. Also well represented are Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese arms
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
and armour
Armour
Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
, and Canadian medal
Medal
A medal, or medallion, is generally a circular object that has been sculpted, molded, cast, struck, stamped, or some way rendered with an insignia, portrait, or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific,...
s, order
Order (decoration)
An order or order of merit is a visible honour, awarded by a government, dynastic house or international organization to an individual, usually in recognition of distinguished service to a nation or to humanity. The distinction between orders and decorations is somewhat vague, except that most...
s, and decorations.
Mineralogy
The Glenbow's extensive mineralogyMineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...
collection includes minerals and precious and semi-precious stones
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
from around the world, particularly Western Canada. Specimens were selected for exhibition value as well as mineralogical significance, and the 'Treasures of the Mineral World' exhibition is popular with geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
s, rock hound
Rockhounding
Amateur geology is the recreational study and hobby of collecting rocks and mineral specimens from their natural environment.-Collecting:...
s, and visitors of all ages seeking to enjoy the depth and diversity of the Earth's minerals. The exhibit includes minerals that glow in the dark, a display of Fool's Gold, a piece of the Earth's oldest rock, and rock crystals in every colour of the rainbow.
Asian collection
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
cultures of Asia, from the 1st century to the 18th century.
Art collection
The Glenbow's art collection comprises 28,000 works, mainly dating from the 19th century to the present, primarily historical, modern, and contemporary work from or pertaining to the northwest of North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The collection contains an outstanding selection of landscape painting, a renowned Canadian prints
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
collection including works from Walter J. Phillips
Walter J. Phillips
Walter Joseph Phillips was an English-born Canadian painter and woodcutter, acclaimed as one of Canada's most famous printmakers and for popularizing the colour woodcut in the style of the Japanese....
and modernist printmaker Sybil Andrews
Sybil Andrews
Sybil Andrews was a British-born Canadian printmaker best known for her modernist linocuts.-Life in England:...
, First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
and Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
Art, American illustration, and wildlife Art. Works from other parts of the world provide a broader national and international frame of reference.
Library
The Glenbow's library contains 100,000 books, periodicals, newspapers, maps, and pamphlets with relevance to Western Canada, from the time buffaloAmerican Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
roamed the plains, to the coming of the railroad and settlement of the West, to political, economic and social events in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
today. The collection includes rare illustrated equestrian literature from the 15th century, school books
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
from one-room school houses
One-room school
One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...
, and numerous volumes and other material related to the Museum's collections of military history, ethnology, mineralogy and art.
Archives
The Glenbow archives are one of Canada's largest non-governmental repositories and a major research centre for historians, writers, students, genealogists, and the media. They comprise an extremely large collection of archival records of individuals, families, organizations and businesses from Western Canada and includes 3,500 metres of textual records, over a million photographs, 350 hours of film footage, and 1,500 sound recordings. The Archives range from the 1870s to the 1990s, documenting the social, political and economic history of Western Canada, particularly CalgaryCalgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
and southern Alberta. Areas of specialty include First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
, Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
, ranching and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, the petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
industry, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, labour, women, and business. Unique collections in the archives include catalogs, cookbooks, records of land sales by the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
, maps, school yearbooks, extensive genealogical resources, and an excellent collection of resources for the study of Métis genealogy.