Guest Post
Connor J. Thompson is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Alberta, where he studies symbolic representation of the Canadian Prairie pioneer. Thompson has a particular interest in public history on the Canadian Prairies, and the ways in which museums, commemorative events, and local histories shaped Prairie Canadian culture.
When I heard about the decision to demolish the original Royal Alberta Museum building, I was in the midst of researching the history of museums in Alberta, the RAM among them. The main reason I was shocked is that one of the first museums I remember visiting as a child was the RAM when I was as an elementary school student, as so many Edmontonians and Albertans have over its decades in the Glenora structure. Like many other Albertans have expressed, the announcement felt somewhat personal, as if I, myself, was losing something. But another reason the news shocked me is that what I was researching was the designing and opening of the Museum: as the documentary record made clear, the levelling of this building to the ground would have been unthinkable when it was opened in 1967. The original RAM building (then known as the Provincial Museum and Archives of Alberta, or PMAA) was designed as a Centennial project, and so was intended as a lasting memorial to Confederation and as a legacy for Albertans which would stand long into the future. The optimism and joy associated with the structure’s unveiling contrasted sharply with the ignominious fate it faces in the present. For it not to even reach 60 years of life seems utterly bizarre.
As Senator Paula Simons pointed out shortly after the announcement, while the United Conservative Party has the ultimate blame for this decision, this government is not alone. Previous provincial governments – the Alberta New Democratic Party and the Progressive Conservatives – failed to fully maintain the building or protect it through historical designation. This building, meant to stand as a permanent monument, has been neglected rather than respected. Poor stewardship does not mean it needs to be demolished, however. The building still stands and can be revitalized in any number of ways.
I wanted to contribute a somewhat different perspective to the discussion and activism around the original RAM building by looking back as its conceptualization and construction. What was the intent of the PMAA when it was opened? What were the aspirations for the building? What decisions were made regarding its design? This is one more way of helping us to understand what we’d be losing, should the structure be torn down. It will also highlight the absurdity of the idea that demolition is the best course of action for this building. Its status as a legacy for Albertans calls upon our government to do exactly that: steward this structure for the future of the province’s citizens.
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Alberta was one of the last provinces in Canada to create a Provincial Museum. Long pressured by a variety of grassroots organizations, funding from the Confederation Memorial Centennial Project grants program offered a natural opportunity to build this long-desired institution. Created by the federal government as a means of providing lasting memorials across Canada for Confederation, the grant program offered each province $2.5 million for a single large-scale project, an amount which had to be matched by the province. Shortly after the announcement, a Museums Branch was established within the Alberta government’s Department of the Provincial Secretary, and a museum consultant was hired in 1962 to undertake transnational studies of leading museums throughout North America. The Provincial Museum and Archives of Alberta (PMAA), as the institution was then-known, was underway.
That museum consultant was Raymond O. Harrison, who was hired by the Alberta government from a number of highly capable candidates to oversee the Provincial Museum’s design and construction. Harrison was an architect whose previous work included designing the Vancouver Maritime Museum and working as Extension Supervisor at the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History. Building on initial studies begun in 1958, Harrison set to work. Among the earliest concerns was selecting a site. This process involved several tough, but ultimately prescient decisions: the old Calgary Courthouse was considered, but ultimately, this building was leased to the Glenbow, which allowed for world-class museums in both Calgary and Edmonton (Glenbow moved into its new building in 1976). The site near Government House was ultimately selected for the Provincial Museum, based on the government’s ownership of the land as well as the multitude of historic connections therein, including a picturesque view of a main fur trade thoroughfare – the North Saskatchewan River.
All involved were intent on creating a state-of-the-art institution to communicate and preserve Alberta’s natural and human history. A long-range plan was created by Harrison and associates, and a sweeping effort undertaken to assemble collections. These early collections included a large assortment of Niitsítapi (Blackfoot) sacred and ceremonial items. World-class museums in Canada and the United States were studied and toured by staff as reference for the museum’s overall plan. The building was designed as a more people-scaled rather than vertical structure, and was built as several “masses” so that it would feel inviting rather than imposing. This design choice allowed for all the facilities required in a large-scale modern museum to be spread over a larger area, giving the structure a sense of dignified closeness. To quote from the museum’s opening booklet: “an architectural expression of friendliness and intimacy in scale, yet permanence and solidity, was the basis of the design.”i
The Confederation theme was reflected in the inclusion of stone from across Canada. The Public Facilities Block was built with Tweed Pearl Marble sourced from Ontario and Black Granite from Québec. Alberta slate was used for the walkways and, perhaps most famously, Tyndall limestone was used for the main walls. A distinctive component of these stones is the fact that they are fossil-bearing, a much-beloved feature of the building. Tyndall limestone has long been recognized for its importance: it was used for buildings in Fort Garry, in the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, and the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa. In 2023, it was designated a global heritage stone by the International Union of Geological Sciences.
The Museum’s two–story exhibit block is undoubtedly what most people will remember about the Museum building, which included an orientation gallery featuring the Centennial inscription as well as two bronze sculptures depicting pronghorn antelope and a settler family. An auditorium which could accommodate 400 people was designed as an elegant resource for a variety of functions, as well as day-to-day educational programming. Less publicly, laboratories, workshop areas, studios, offices, darkroom, and shipping/receiving areas facilitated the diverse functions the building was designed to perform. A number of artistic works were included on the grounds and exterior of the building, including a wall featuring recreated petroglyphs from Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park (today known as Áísínai´pi National Historic Site of Canada). The area from which these petroglyphs derive is a sacred place for the Niitsítapi people, and the recognition of these artistic works on the Museum walls is a testament to the longstanding Indigenous artistic traditions in these lands.
As an institution, the PMAA became a leader in public history work. John B. Weaver, who created several of the sculptures on the Museum grounds, worked for six years as an exhibits specialist at the Smithsonian Institute before being hired by the PMAA. Remarking on why he left the Smithsonian to work in Edmonton, Weaver stated: “This will be a great museum. It is very well planned and it has room to grow.”ii The Department of the Provincial Secretary proudly reported in 1965 – two years before the Museum’s official opening! – that the Museum’s staff were assisting “in the writing of local histories and restoration of historical sites. A considerable amount of time was spent in assisting ten groups in the establishment and planning of museum buildings proposed as Centennial projects, as well as travelling and providing advice to other museums in the province.”iii This role in preserving Alberta’s history was, thus, not just the collections in the Museum itself: it was also an institution designed to connect people across the province to expert advice. Extension work was part of what was expected of a modern museum, and was central to how the Museum staff understood itself.
When the Museum opened in December, 1967, it was proudly described as being of “consistently high and world-ranking quality.”iv In its first year of operation, over 300,000 people visited, and it quickly became a popular destination. While it took some time after its opening to fully establish its exhibits, and its collections only grew more intricate over the years, the Museum was designed as a testament for the province. One of the most important things about the design of the building was that it was planned, from the first, for long-term use: plans for expansion were part of the original design. But above all, what was emphasized at its opening was its nature as an enduring legacy to the citizens of the Province. The inscription included in its main hall bears the following text: “Erected by the Province of Alberta in Permanent Commemoration of the Centennial of Confederation in Canada in 1967.”
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I want to be clear that my point is not that the Museum has to be maintained “just as it was” when it was opened, nor has it been to sideline or ignore the harmful aspects of the original RAM building. Like other museums, many aspects of its original design were littered with settler-colonial assumptions and components. There is no reason why such problematic things need to stay in the “celebratory” areas of the Museum grounds – they could be relegated to the interior of a museum themselves, where they can educate about the troubling elements of our past without celebrating them (I think, here, of the exterior sculpture representing human endeavor in Alberta as an evolutionary sequence, which odiously portrays First Nations peoples as essentially relics of the past). Moreover, the work the RAM has done in its new, downtown building is a testament to what is possible with a reimagined museum which features collaborative, relational approaches to exhibits. I fully agree with the Edmonton Heritage Council’s August statement that whatever is done with the original RAM building should include consultation with Indigenous communities.
My point is that this structure – the original RAM building – was created as a public legacy to all Albertans. Significant work on the part of many people went into ensuring it was a world-class structure Edmontonians could be proud of, and the decades of work in between its opening and closure facilitated an ongoing public institution whose impact on generations of Albertans is broad and deep. The building itself can continue to play this role if creative, imaginative effort is put into continued stewardship of the structure. This building is not yet lost. Work can be done to save and to preserve it. While the original RAM building was purpose-built as a museum, there are endless possibilities for purpose-built buildings to have new life serving other functions. The West End Telephone Exchange in the Wîhkwêntôwin neighborhood and Hudson’s Bay Company building downtown – now Enterprise Square – are fantastic Edmontonian examples of this, which have reinvigorated them as new community landmarks. Numerous adaptive re-use options have been put forward for the original RAM, such as housing a data center in the building, converting it to a multi-use public service facility, or moving the University of Alberta’s Museum collections under one roof.v The intent of the building’s design was to create a world-class, long-term legacy for the people of Alberta, Canada. While time is running out, it can still be just that.
References
1 Department of the Provincial Secretary, Provincial Museum and Archives of Alberta (Edmonton: L. S. Wall: 1967), 4. Available in GR68.206, File 7–8, Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton.
2 Edmonton Journal, July 6, 1966, “He’ll Bring Realism to History,” 14.
3 Department of the Provincial Secretary Annual Report, 1965 (Edmonton: Province of Alberta, 1965), 41.
4 Edmonton Journal, Dec. 5, 1967, “Provincial Museum and Archives Building,” 27.
5 This last example was put forward by Adriana A. Davies in the article “Making Old Museums Into New: The Future of the Old Royal Alberta Museum Building” Alberta History 72:2 (Spring 2024), 13–18. See also Marlena Wyman’s reflections in the same issue, “Sketch of the Old Royal Alberta Museum Building,” page 19.