Museums - Canadian Museum of Civilization

The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada’s largest cultural institution. The building, which opened in 1989 and was designed by Native-Canadian architect Douglas J. Cardinal, faces the Ottawa River and has 270,000 square feet of display space.
The origins of the CMC are linked to the research and collection activities of the Geological Survey of Canada, which was established in 1842, becoming the National Museum of Canada in 1927. In 1968, the National Museum of Man was established as a separate institution, and changed its name to the CMC in 1986.
The CMC’s collection numbers in excess of five million objects representing 140 Native cultures. The display collection is arrayed in a number of permanent installations ranging from First Nations of the Northwest Coast and From Time Immemorial: Tsimshian Prehistory to the recently installed First People’s Hall. More appear in an active program of temporary exhibitions, of which several are generally on view at any given time. In addition to its collection of artifacts, the CMC has a photographic collection of more than 300,000 negatives and transparencies, and a research library of over 100,000 volumes.