It’s the Royal Ontario Museum’s 98th birthday today
On March 19th the Royal Ontario Museum celebrated it's 98th birthday. On 3:00pm on March 19th, 1914 fifteen hundred people gathered to watch the Governor General – Prince Arthur – officially open the ROM to the public.
The history of ROM dates back long before the 1914 opening, but in 1912 the Province of Ontario passed the Royal Ontario Museum Act – riding any doubt of the museum's eventuality.
When the ROM originally opened it was a collection of five separate museums, each devoted to different fields of scientific investigation – archaeology, geology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology. It wasn't until 1955, that all five collections merged into one.
As it stands today the ROM has a massive collection – roughly some 6 million items and continues to grow by about 60 thousand items a year.
For more information about the Royal Ontario Museum visit their website or the Toronto Public Library's website. Alturnatively, stop by any 32 prirority branches on a Saturday morning for your chance to pick-up a free Museum and Art pass to the Royal Ontario Museum or many other cultural gems throughout the city.
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