The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder

Ian A. Andrews is editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus and co-author of Becoming a Teacher.

Canada is home to many wonderful museums and archives containing
millions of historical artifacts and documents. Living museums like
Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Kings Landing, and the
Acadian Village in New Brunswick receive hundreds of thousands of
visitors each year. Virtual museums through the Internet combine, often
in spectacular fashion, the benefits of all the above. But the sheer
expanse of Canada precludes most residents from a physical visit to many
museums. And virtual museums require computer access on screens not
conducive to hours of intensive viewing.

This is where The Museum Called Canada becomes so effective. Between
its covers are displayed more than 700 pages of selected artifacts and
documents. Author Charlotte Gray includes explanatory essays for each
section, plus brief illuminating comments for each visual. Divided
chronologically into 25 distinctive rooms, this museum includes fossils
dating from hundreds of millions of years to the experimental Ballard
Mark 902 fuel-cell power module. First Nations appear in the First
Peoples Room, the North West Gallery, the Western Salon, and the Rights
Auditorium. Our martial history is featured in the War Room, the
Generals Collection, and the Loyalist Lounge. The last 50 years inhabit
the Better Living Room, Global Village Square, Centennial Pavilion, and
Earth and Sky Atrium.

Although material relating to political and military history abounds,
so do the social history artifacts of the average citizen. Among the
fascinating items featured in these eclectic collections are a wooden
mailing tube containing an influenza vaccine ampoule from the 1918–19
Spanish influenza epidemic, a clumsy iron lung used for polio victims, a
gas canister fired by police at Summit of the Americas protesters in
Quebec City in 2001, and the gift French President Charles de Gaulle
would have received at a state dinner planned for him in Rideau Hall in
1967.

The Museum of Canada is an excellent resource for all Canadians.