TOTEM POLES AND MORE: Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC, Vancouver, BC:

Great Hall, Museum of Anthropology, UBC, Vancouver, Canada.

A “must see” when you are visiting Vancouver, BC, Canada’s gateway to the Pacific, is the Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Nowhere are there more totem poles and other artifacts of the Northern Pacific Coast indigenous cultures in one place.

There are 35 languages and many dialects in the Pacific Northwest. This exhibit shows the word for "paddle" in eleven different languages.

After walking down the center ramp of the museum to the Great Hall you find yourself in a large light-filled space filled with totem poles more than two stories high, giant carved figures, ceremonial objects and much more. 

Animal images carved and painted on a totem pole.

The enormous scale of the totem poles becomes obvious as you crane your neck to see the top. Only at eye level can you see the details of the paint and carving up close.

Totem poles and carved figures.

Through the tall windows the objects inside the museum appear to merge with the outdoor scenery.

Mask and ceremonial bowls.

In one exhibit, which at first glance seems to be a riding toy for children, is actually a series of ceremonial feast dishes. Such dishes were passed down from father to son.  Panels describe the tradition of the potlach, at which such vessels would be used. At a potlach, hereditary chiefs and their families displayed claims of certain rights and privileges in front of invited guests. They are feasted and paid gifts for accepting the host’s claims and remembering all that has happened at the event. It is an ancient ceremonial tradition. The potlach ceremony was outlawed in Canada from 1889 to 1951.

While the totem poles and other objects inside the museum are protected from the weather, other totem poles and examples of traditional log houses are exhibited outside. Informational panels explain how indigenous communities were decimated by diseases introduced by Europeans, causing them to abandon their villages. A drawing of one of these villages, made from information found in the village ruins, shows what it would have looked like when it was inhabited.

Drawing of reconstruction of abandoned village.

Painted figure.

Figures made of broken ceramic tiles and mirrors, by Sally Michener, 1994. in the Koerner European Ceramics Gallery.

Although most of the museum focuses on the cultures of the Northwest Coast indigenous people, there is more. In the Koerner European Ceramics Gallery, there is a surprising focus on the art of ceramic tile stoves--both artistic and useful! They are believed to have had their origin in the Alps in the 16th century..

Tiled  stove from Germany or Slovakia, ca 1560..

On the lower level of the museum are galleries filled with display cases crammed with smaller objects—baskets, masks, tools, clothing—both from Northwest Coast indigenous people, and from cultures around the world.

Traditional Northwest Coast masks are among the thousands of items displayed in the lower galleries.

Stick puppets from Asia.

But the main draw of the museum is the wealth of native American material, accompanied by excellent informational panels.

A visit to the Anthropology Museum is an opportunity to appreciate the richness of the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest, which continue many of the traditions that have been practiced for centuries, as well as to see cultural objects from around the world. 

An excellent gift shop is on the entrance level of the museum, as well as a coffee shop with drinks and snacks. 

Pond, walking path, and totem pole behind the museum.

DINOSAURS, ROCKS, MINERALS AND MORE: Hands-On Science at the Pacific Museum of Earth at UBC, Vancouver, Canada

Amethyst crystals and Lambeosurus skeleton, Pacific Museum of Earth, UBC, Vancouver, Canada.

How do dinosaur fossils, rocks and minerals, petrified wood, climate and weather help us learn about the history of the Earth? The place to go to find out is the Pacific Museum of Earth in the Earth and Oceanic Science building at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

This small museum is filled with kid-friendly (and adult-friendly too) interactive exhibits—from touchable dinosaur bones and giant crystals, a 3-D “map” you can manipulate to change its contours, a machine that spins a tiny tornado, to a green screen that allows you to be your own weather forecaster and more. In an adjacent building you can find more fossils and a history of human evolution.

Dromaeosaurus albertensus

I visited the Pacific Museum of Earth in July when I spent several days in Vancouver. I discovered it by accident on a  walk across the UBC campus. When I spotted the dinosaur skeletons displayed in the main lobby of the Earth Sciences building, I couldn't resist going inside to find out more. 

A touch screen provided an introduction and questions to ask: From there signs pointed me to the next building (EOS) and the Pacific Museum of Earth.

Petrified redwood, 40-50 million years old. Collected and donated by Dr. P. B. Read.

Throughout the museum signs invite visitors to touch or to explore.

Kids recreating the landscape in this 3-D map display.

I saw kids intrigued by an exhibit about mapping and how contour lines indicate elevation. A large tray (similar to a sandbox) filled with granules could be rearranged to make a 3-D landscape. As the elevations changed, colored lights projected from above change to correspond with the new contours.

Solar system display in the gem room.

Gems.

In another room a variety of gems are displayed in lighted boxes, almost as if in a jewelry shop. Below each window a pull-out drawer contains information about the gems. In the center of the room hangs a large orb representing the solar system. Using the screen below, you can change its appearance--making it into the planet of your choice.

The Lytton Jelly Roll.

An amazing example of how rocks can "fold" fills one wall.

Femur (leg bone) of a hypacrosaur.

The museum is clearly designed to appeal to school age kids, showing them how cool earth science can be. Who knows, perhaps some of them will grow up to be earth scientists themselves one day.

A green screen a computer camera has turned me into a weather reporter.

INDIGENOUS HISTORIES at the KODE MUSEUM OF ART, Bergen, Norway

Big Party (detail) by Patricia Rengifo. Indigenous Histories at the Kode Museum of Art, Bergen, Norway

On our recent trip to Norway I visited a fascinating exhibition at the Kode Museum of Art in Bergen called Indigenous Histories. With more than 285 items on display, the exhibition presents different accounts of indigenous experience from South America, North America, Oceania, and the Nordic region, through art and visual culture, curated by artists and researchers who are indigenous or of indigenous descent. It will be on view until August 25, 2024. Here are just a few examples illustrating the wide variety of items in the exhibit and where they are from.

SOUTH AMERICA

Peru

Brazil. Big Party by Patricia Rengifo

Brazil

Brazil

Peru

Brazil

Brazil

OCEANIA

Australia

Australia

Australia

Australia

New Zealand

NORTH AMERICA

Mexico

Mexico

Canada

Canada

NORDIC REGION

Norway

Norway

The Kode Museums include four art museums and three composers' homes. For more about the Kode Museums in Bergen check their website.

[Note: this post appeared at my Art and Books blog on June 22, 2024.]

MEETING A GIANT OF THE DINOSAUR AGE (Via Its Fossil Remains)

Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age. At the Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta

In May 2023 I visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Canada, the most amazing display of dinosaur fossils I have ever seen. (See my blogpost, June 19, 2023, for more about the exhibits.) I was especially interested in the room containing the remains of Shonisaurus, the giant sea reptile that is the on the cover of my book Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age (Clarion Books, 2007.)

I love learning about dinosaurs and what the world was like when they were alive. My book, Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age, looks at the diversity of large reptiles that once inhabited the world’s oceans. Like the dinosaurs, they all became extinct 65 million years ago. We know about them today from their fossil remains.

Opening pages of Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age

On my recent trip to the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada I was thrilled to see up close the remains of Shonisaurus sikanniensis, the huge ichthyosaur that I wrote about in the opening pages of the book. It fills an entire room at the museum. Here's what I wrote:

Fossil skeleton of Shonisaurus sikanniensis.

Two hundred and twenty million years ago, in waters that covered what is now western Canada, a huge marine reptile cruised the shallow seas. Propelling itself with flat, flipper-like limbs, the 70-foot long animal hunted for shellfish and other small ocean animals, which it sucked into its long, toothless snout and swallowed. This fearsome creature was Shonisaurus sikanniensis, a species of ichthyosaur, one of several types of large sea reptiles that inhabited the world’s oceans in the Dinosaur Age.

The fossil remains of Shonisaurus sikanniensis were first discovered in 1991 when a hiker in northern British Columbia spotted some big fossil bones eroding out of the banks of the Sikanni Chief River. He reported his find to the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, in Drumheller, Alberta, where one of the curators, Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls, was an expert on prehistoric sea reptiles. She visited the site and was amazed by what she saw. The bones were bigger than those of any known marine reptile, and, incredibly, most of the skeleton was intact. The only missing parts were the hind limbs. Over the course of three summers, the fossil skeleton was dug out of the ground and transported to the museum, where it was studied and prepared for exhibit. Every part of the animal proved to be huge. The massive skull weighed more than one and a half tons, and the largest vertebrae, which measured nearly 11 inches across, were the size of dinner plates. In 2006, the giant skull of Shonisaurus sikanniensis went on display at the museum. Along with the rest of the skeleton, it will help answer questions about the appearance and lifestyle of this giant prehistoric predator and why it grew so big.

As Elizabeth Nicholls is quoted in the museum display: "The world we live in right now is just a blink in the history of life on our planet. 220 million years ago there was a tremendous diversity of life that we know so little about."

Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age is illustrated with beautiful detailed watercolor paintings by Laurie Caple. The book is no longer available in print, but you can look for it in your local library.  It will introduce you to some of the most amazing creatures that ever swam in the oceans the world.

At the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

 

 

THE ROYAL TYRELL MUSEUM, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, a Prehistoric Treasure Trove

Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

In early May, Art and I were in Canada, landing in Calgary, then driving about an hour and a half across the Alberta wheat fields to the town of Drumheller, located in the Canadian Badlands, where some of the world’s most impressive dinosaur fossils have been found. Our goal was to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, a treasure trove of fossils from the Dinosaur Age.

Dinosaur fossils at the Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

After buying our tickets at the museum entrance, we followed signs to the first room, which we found filled with life size models of dinosaurs and an introduction to life in Cretaceous Alberta. We felt as if we had stepped into another world.

Cretaceous Alberta. Seventy million years ago, eastern Alberta was warmer and wetter than it is today and was teeming with wildlife—dinosaurs of all sorts of shapes and sizes!

Dinosaurs lived from about 230 to 64 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era.

A visit to the museum is a trip through time—3.9 billion years of evolution. 

While some skeletons are displayed in life-like poses, assembled as they would have been in the living animal---

Camarasaurus. The mounting of the skeletons in real-life poses recreates the drama of life in the past.

--or even as whole skeletons as they appeared when first discovered---

This T. rex skeleton is known as “black beauty". The bones became darkened by the element manganese during fossilization.

--it is more typical for fossil bones to be scattered, needing to be reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle.

A typical bonebed.

And not only are there fossils of dinosaurs at the museum, but also of plants, insects, fish, amphibians, birds, other reptiles.

Fossil impression of an early bird Confuciousornis sanctus (125-120 mya) from Liaoning Province China. Donated by the Chinese Academy of Science.

While most exhibits are just to look at, some invite participation. Standing next to this Camarasaurus hind limb, I look miniscule. In real life Camarasaurus grew to be 60 feet long and weighed 32 tons.

Camarasaurus right hind limb.

Albertosaurus sarcophagus hand--and my hand!

The remains of Borealopelta markmitchelli, found at a mine north of Fort McMurray, are of the best-preserved armored dinosaur in the world.  This dinosaur is named after Mark Mitchell, who worked on the specimen to prepare it for study and exhibit.  Analysis of pigments found with the skeleton suggest that the dinosaur was reddish-brown in real life.

Borealopelta markmitchelli

Most of the fossils on exhibit at the Tyrell Museum have been found in Canada, but some are from other places. A slab of fossilized ferns from a coal mine in Pennsylvania is mounted at the entrance to the Cretaceous Garden, a greenhouse with ferns, cycads, and other plants typical of the Dinosaur Age.

Ancient ferns preserved in coal.

Every day scientists are learning new things about dinosaurs. The large flat plates along the spine of Stegosaurus were probably used for display and species recognition, but traces of blood vessels suggest they may also have been used to help regulate body temperature.

Stegosaurus. This slow-moving, plant-eating dinosaur was about 20-25 feet long and weighed 2-5 tons.

 

Shonisaurus skeleton.

One whole room of the museum is devoted to the giant fossil of a sea reptile called Shonisaurus, the biggest and best-preserved giant sea reptile fossil ever found. I wrote about its discovery in my book Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age. It was a thrill to meet it in person--and to see all the other amazing fossils that fill the museum. (You can read more about Shonisaurus in a separate blog post at my Art and Books blog.)

The path through the museum winds its way through many rooms (including some on the second level) finally exiting through the gift shop. Among the many souvenirs for sale I was pleased to see a large selection of children's books about dinosaurs and the prehistoric world. We visited on a Saturday afternoon and the museum was filled with families of dinosaur enthusiasts. As we left the last room of the museum we were reminded of the importance of learning about the Earth's past:

Understanding ancient life and the circumstances in which it flourished or died, helps us recognize our place in nature, and how our decisions affect all life on Earth.

Royal Tyrell Museum seen from viewing platform.

During our visit we spent several hours in the museum, pausing for lunch in the museum cafeteria. We ate inside but on a warmer day one can sit on the patio overlooking a pond. At the end of the day, before going back to our car, we climbed the stairs to the top of the hill across from the museum for a panoramic view of the Red Deer River Valley. The next morning we returned for a hike around the Badlands Interpretive Trail and a visit to the hoodoos. (See my blog post of May 15, 2023.)

To plan a visit to the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, visit the museum website.

Daspletosaurus skull.