PROVINCIAL MUSEUM REPORT 
FOR THE YEAR 1919. 























In making the Annual Report for the year it is deemed advisable to give as much as 
possible of the inception, history, and progress of the Institution. 
A museum is an institution for the preservation of those objects which best illustrate Nature 
and the works of man; the use of these for the increase of knowledge and for the culture and 
enlightenment of the people; its special functions being to preserve and utilize objects of nature 
- and works of art and industry. It supplies a need which is felt in every intelligent community, 
which cannot be supplied by any other agency ; it does not exist, except among highly enlightened 
people, and attains its highest development only in great centres of civilization. 
The growth of a museum from day to day may seem very small, but, if taken year by year, 
it shows what is accomplished with hard work and deep study. 
It was on December 2nd, 1886, that the Provincial Museum was formally opened in a small 
room, 20 x 12 feet, in the old Government Building in the City of Victoria. The first Curator 
was the late John Fannin, who was informed that he would have to make the best of the 
accommodation until better quarters could be secured; in these quarters the first three years 
of the life of the Museum was spent. 
On the removal of the Supreme Court to a new building, the Provincial Museum was moved 
into the old Supreme Court Building, and was formally opened to the public on May 24th, 1889, 
and the work of building up the institution was commenced in earnest. Gradually, but surely, 
the development of the Museum advanced until again the accommodaticn was totally inadequate. 
Then, again, when the present Legislative Buildings were erected, the east wing was allotted to 
the Provincial Museum, into which building the natural-history specimens were transferred in 
April, 1898S, but the mineral exhibit, which had been part of the Provincial Museum up to this 
time, was transferred to the old Legislative Building for exhibition, and became part of the 
Department of Mines. The natural-history collections have now greatly outgrown the present 
building, which is used for exhibition purposes. All the valuable study series and a mass of 
material are stored in a wooden frame building at the rear, and cannot be exhibited on account 
of lack of exhibition space. 
The collection is worthy of a large building, and is a eredit not only to the Government, 
under whose direction it is managed, but to the people of the Province, whose individual efforts 
in the way of contributions have done so much to assist its growth. 
The only financial support the institution receives is the annual vote granted by the Legis- 
lative Assembly, which is used as economically as possible, so.as to get the best results. 
It was not until February 21st, 1913, that an Act of Legislature was passed, endorsing the 
establishment of a Provincial Museum, making it statutory, defining its objects, and making 
regulations governing the working of the institution. The Department is under the control of 
the Honourable J. D. MacLean, M.D., C.M., Provincial Secretary and Minister of Education. 
OBJECTS. 
(a.) To secure and preserve specimens illustrating the natural history of the Province. 
(b.) To collect anthropological material relating to the aboriginal races of the Province. 
(c.) To obtain information respecting the natural sciences, relating particularly to the 
natural history of the Province, and diffuse knowledge regarding the same. 
ADMISSION. 
The Provincial Museum is open, free, to the public daily throughout the year from 9 a.m. to 
65 p.m. (except New Year’s Day, Good Friday, and Christmas Day); it is also open on Sunday 
- afternoons from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. from May 1st until the end of October. 
VISITORS. 
The number of visitors to the Provincial Museum during the year 1919 has been a slight 
increase over that of 1918, over 40,000 having signed the visitors’ register. 
