Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Anthropology museum at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
The Museum of Anthropology is an ethnographic and material culture institution at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. It comprises a main building with large windows and exposed concrete walls that allow daylight to fall on the displayed objects.
The museum was officially founded in 1947, growing from the Frank Burnett Collection acquired by UBC in 1927 and first shown in the Main Library basement. Harry Hawthorn was its first director and Audrey Hawthorn its first curator. The Arthur Erickson-designed concrete building opened in 1976, and a seismic upgrade closed the museum from 2022 until June 13, 2024.
The collection holds material evidence of cultures from around the world and displays in the great hall monumental carvings from Northwest Coast peoples. Visitors can see everyday tools, ritual masks, and carefully crafted objects that show how people shaped their ways of living.
Access is located on the university campus and can be reached by public transit or car. The rooms are largely at ground level and offer guided tours in several languages.
Bill Reid's yellow cedar sculpture The Raven and the First Men sits on a repurposed Second World War gun emplacement, not in a round chamber. Canada Post featured the work on a 46-cent stamp issued on 9 March 1999.
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