Established | 1882 |
---|---|
Location | 859 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Type | Museum of natural history |
Director | Catherine Turgeon |
Public transit access | at Peel station at McGill station |
Website | www.mcgill.ca/redpath |
The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University[1] and located on the university's campus on Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath.[2]
It houses collections of interest to ethnology, biology, paleontology, and mineralogy/geology.[1] The collections were started by some of the same individuals who founded the Smithsonian and Royal Ontario Museum collections. The current director is Catherine Turgeon. Commissioned by Redpath to mark the 25th anniversary of Sir John William Dawson's appointment as Principal, the Museum was designed by A.C. Hutchison and A.D. Steele. McGill University's Redpath Museum website characterizes it as an "idiosyncratic expression of eclectic Victorian Classicism" as well as "an unusual and late example of the Greek Revival in North America."[3]
It is the oldest building built specifically to be a museum in Canada.[1][4] Both the museum's interior and exterior have been utilized as a set, for movies and commercials. [citation needed]