Vancouver Museum

The Vancouver Museum has had many homes over the years (at one point it shared space with the Vancouver library but as part of Canada's Centennial in 1967 it got a permanent home where it sits today on the south shore of False Creek in Vanier Park.

Originally, the space was meant to only be a museum but the legendary British Columbia timber magnate H.R. MacMillan generously provided funds and a planetarium was incorporated in the design.

Like Canada Place and Science World the Vancouver Museum has a distinctive roof.

The top of the Vancouver Museum/H. R. MacMillian Space Center (planetarium) is designed and shaped to look like a woven basket hat like the traditional ones made by Northwest Coast First Nations Peoples.

The Vancouver Museum has hundreds of thousands of artifacts, specimens and treasures that have been donated from all over the world including a bona fide Egyptian mummy from the burial chamber of Tutankahamen.

Collections at the Vancouver Museum include:

The Vancouver Collection

• history of the lower mainland

The First Nations Collection

• history of the Aboriginal(Native North American Indians) peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast

The Pacific Rim Collection

• China, Japan and Oceania

The World Heritage Collection

• specimens from all over the world

The kids will have a blast in some of the other exhibits like writing your name in hieroglyphics near the mummy display, dressing up in turn of the century clothes and playing with toys from the 1920's.

For a jammed packed day of Vancouver sightseeing and tours you can get a pass to explore the Vancouver Museum, the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium and the Maritime Museum right next door.

If you run out of time you don't have to do them all in the same day and for a break since you are right at Vanier Park bring along a kite because this area is one of the favorite places in Vancouver for kite flying.

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