Redpath Museum

Musk ox at the Redpath Museum

Opened in 1882, McGill University’s Redpath Museum is one of Canada’s oldest museums with exhibits showcasing a large variety of biological and geological specimens as well as cultural artifacts from around the world. In my four years at McGill I think the only time that I stepped in the Redpath was when I got lost trying to find the library. However, I do remember coming here as a kid. The bulk of the displays are collections, which highlight better than words can the breadth and depth of our natural world. There is a simple wonder in seeing all of these specimens, particularly in a social climate where we are urgently called to protect a natural world we have increasingly destroyed.


For university students the collection and the research that goes into it are evident, but the wonder of the old-school approach is great for igniting passion in young visitors. On the day of my visit the only other people in the Redpath were a few families. Let me say off the bat that I absolutely think parents should bring their children to museums. Museums can be places of wonder, especially for children seeing objects for the first time. In addition I’m a strong believer in informal education and how it can complement or add to what children learn in classrooms. That said, the upper level displays overlook the atrium, creating what can be interpreted as a racetrack. Two parents were looking at displays with half of their kids, while the other two chased each other around the exhibit. It took a staff member, whose office is in a room off the second floor gallery, to come out and call up to the boys to calm down and stop running before their parents did anything. The mom brought her boy downstairs and made him apologize, but that put him in a foul mood. Noise travels easily in this 19th-century building and reading text panels was soon overshadowed by whining, hitting, crying, screaming. It was difficult to concentrate but I guess I have to admire the mom's determination to expose her children to the museum.

Despite interruptions I really enjoyed my visit, both as a learner and a museologist. The Redpath is a teaching institution, and it does some interesting things with its collection. The museum puts itself and its practice on exhibit. A display entitled “A Curator’s Conundrum” explores the process of identifying objects, a kind of transparency that isn't often on display. Also interesting were the nineteenth-century display cases that highlight how curatorial practice has changed over time. Changes include terminology, as what was once the “Ethnology Collection” is now referred to as “World Cultures.” The Redpath might feel the same as I remember from childhood visits, but its not stuck in the past, thus it becomes contemporary while remaining familiar.

I think the Redpath is a good example of a curatorially-driven institution that communicates well with its visitors. The text panels are detail laden and scientific, but understandable. Some of the attempts at communicating with the visitor fall short, such as the text panels that end in specific questions but have no answers. Yet, for the most part the modernist top-down approach to knowledge sharing works because the information and the research behind it are clearly laid out. The Redpath tells us what we should know, but it also tells us why we should know it, which is all I’ve ever wanted from any educational institution.


The Redpath doesn't have a rotation of temporary exhibits or flashy interactives. It has objects, lots of them, and plenty of information about them. It is definitely worth a trip, and a return visit.

5 down, 27 to go.