JULY 1, 1971

CANADA ANNOUNCES CREATION OF MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY

The Museum of Anthropology (originally, Museum for Aboriginal Artifacts) at the University of British Columbia (UBC), designed by Arthur Erickson, is a 66 000 square-foot building atop a cliff at the tip of Point Grey and featuring Northwest Coast First Nations’ art. Finally completed and opened in 1976, it employs a “visible storage” system allowing visitors can peruse the museum’s entire collection. The museum also includes teaching & research facilities for UBC. Erickson based the layout on a Haida waterfront village. Houses & totems provide a transition between land and sea. The landscape design, by Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, exhibits indigenous plants & grasses used by First Nations people. The building also incorporates 3 circular World War II gun emplacements. Erickson reused one as the base for installation of Haida artist Bill Reid’s cedar sculpture, The Raven and the First Man, from Haida legend. The great hall houses totem poles ranging from 12 to 40 feet in height.

Sources:
  David Theodore, “Museum of Anthropology,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2/6/2008. Retrieved 12/7/2021, Museum of Anthropology | The Canadian Encyclopedia
University of British Columbia website.  Retrieved 12/7/2021, The University of British Columbia (omicsonline.org)
Photo: Xicotencatl, 4/19/2015. Permissive Use.