A Letter from our Director and CEO
The Family Museum
Archive
ICC: In Conversation
Dr. Carla Shapiro, a research fellow at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs, speaks with Francisco Alvarez, managing director of the ROM’s Institute for Contemporary Culture, about the upcoming ICC exhibition Observance and Memorial: Photographs from S-21, Cambodia. This important exhibition presents a rare archive of photographs found at the S-21 prison run by the notorious Khmer Rouge (the Communist Party of Cambodia, which ruled the country from 1975 to 1979) and provides the historical context on events that led to the archive’s creation.
Capturing Giants
How the ROM is using multimedia technology to bring ancient dinosaurs to screens everywhere
Mending History: The seamless art of a textiles conservator
Shirley Ellis
SENIOR TEXTILE CONSERVATOR
Department of Conservation
ROM SPACES: The Sigmund Samuel Gallery of Canada
A tribute to the great ROM patron Dr. Sigmund Samuel (1867–1962), the gallery is situated in the Weston Family Wing of the Museum’s historic Queen’s Park building (1933).
First Word
A Letter from our Director and CEO
ROM 100: Charles Currelly and the beginnings of the Museum's first century
The Royal Ontario Museum was established on April 16, 1912, by the signing of the Royal Ontario Museum Act in the Ontario legislature and officially opened to the public on March 19, 1914. The first ROM director, Charles Currelly, through his intelligence, charm, powers of persuasion, and stamina, amassed content for the new Museum.
Glimpsing Eternity: Notes from the Museum's keeper of gems
Katherine Dunnell
MINERALOGY TECHNICIAN
Department of Natural History
Shelter from the Sea: Wedgwood’s art and the science of the paper nautilus
Celebrated potter Josiah Wedgwood I (1730–1795) took great interest in the latest science and technology. His enthusiasm for conchology, the study of shells, inspired designs for a dessert service introduced by Wedgwood around 1790, including the bowl on which this one is based. Periodically, the Wedgwood Factory has revived models from the original service. This version of the "Nautilus Footed Bowl," with its coral stem and shell foot, was redesigned for Wedgwood in the 1930s by architect Keith Murray.
Aliens Among Us: Why we want to believe
Memory being the mind's dark mansion, I can't be certain this actually happened, but I think it did. In 1973 Rod Serling, then at the height of his Twilight Zone fame and a favourite subject of voice imitators everywhere, narrated a film called In Search of Ancient Astronauts. Based on the German documentary Chariots of the Gods (1970), Serling's film was widely screened in schools on 16 mm prints.
Portals to Paradise: Reflections at the Maya ruins
On the Yucatan Peninsula, a publisher finds the paradisal realm of the sun and conduits to the Maya god of rain.
People of the Corn
This staple crop, known as “the great mother,” fuelled the bodies and spirits of the ancient Maya.
Wild in Toronto
Experts team up to produce a free booklet series that encourages city residents to appreciate their local biodiversity.
Watching Angels
These piscatorial prizes of many a living-room were graced with good looks by intricate evolutionary processes in their homeland.
Even for those who have never owned an aquarium, freshwater angelfish such as this Pterophyllum altum are among the most readily recognizable aquarium fishes.
Burton and Isabelle Pipistrelle: Echo-locating mysterious worlds
The St. Clair Cave, a subterranean river grotto in southeast Jamaica, is home to half of the island's 20 bat species. The ROM's recently revamped Bat Cave is modelled on the Jamaican cavern, which is reproduced so accurately—replicated, it seems—that ROM visitors familiar with St. Clair quickly get their bearings.
The Day Before Toronto: Managing the city’s prehistory
At the eastern edge of greater Toronto, the Rouge River winds through wetlands abundant with birdlife—herons and egrets, mallards and teals, wrens and bitterns, kingfishers and sandpipers—before finding Rouge Beach and Lake Ontario.
Another Day at the Office: Searching for herpetological species in the jungles of Vietnam
Backyard Biodiversity
Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of Biodiversity
The History of T.O.'s H2O
For more than two centuries, an abundant supply of fresh water has fuelled Toronto's growth and prosperity. The city's many waterways have offered pleasurable places for recreation and abundant sources of fresh food, but they've also been the source of outbreaks of cholera and typhoid fever. In many ways, Toronto's water has shaped the city we know today.
Discoveries, Dispatches, and Discourse
New Acquisitions: Don't Be Cruel
How African puppet plays contribute to community life
News: Alexandra Cousteau at the ROM
Book Shelf
Paul Kane/the Artist/: Wilderness to Studio
In the Wake of Kane: ROM ethnologist sheds new light on Canadian art icon
For Kenneth Lister, the door to a ROM art storeroom would prove to be a portal to a world that would intrigue, enchant, and some might say obsess the intrepid ethnographer for decades to come.
Direct from the New Director
First attracted to the ROM by the diversity of its collections, director and CEO Janet Carding is determined to encourage a lively culture of innovation at the Museum.
Built For Speed
With the aid of face-to-beak observation, a visiting ROM researcher uncovers the secrets of an exceedingly efficient marathon runner.
Renaissance Man
A museum-side chat with William Thorsell, who this summer steps down as director and CEO after a decade of ushering in an era of revitalization at the ROM.
Dior's Scandalous New Look
When Christian Dior’s extravagantly feminine New Look burst upon the fashion-starved post-World War II scene, not everyone accepted it—French saleswomen literally tore the dresses apart, spawning numerous anti-New Look protests. A glimpse into the rise of—and shock waves caused by—a fashion icon.
- 1
- 2