Exhibition 
rhe Geological Survey moved its Museum into the Victoria 
Memorial Museum building in 1910 with high hopes for a greatly 
expanded exhibition programme. Director Brock set forth the 
Museum policy in terms that can scarcely be stated better today: 
"‘For the present it is the intention to restrict the Museum to Cana- 
dian material (except in educational collections where necessary 
objects may be lacking in Canada) in order to make it, first of all, 
the great Canadian Museum, whose collections in Canadian material 
will surpass all others. When this has been accomplished in all divi- 
sions it may be advisable to enlarge its scope, and make it a world 
museum. It is proposed to utilize some space for scientific collections. 
As a National Museum it is the natural repository for all Canadian 
objects of scientific value. Much of such material is of no interest 
to the general public, and therefore, should not take up valuable 
space in the exhibition halls, but should be so arranged, catalogued, 
and stored as to be accessible to Canadian students and scientists 
from abroad who may wish to study Canadian material.” 
Unfortunately, it was soon found that building up a great 
Museum as a side line to the activities of a national Geological 
Survey was a slow process. New cases had to be built or purchased, 
new exhibits designed, new specimens prepared for exhibition, and 
new labels written. By 1912 some of the new cases had been installed 
in the two Anthropology halls. A temporary exhibit of birds had 
been set up, and temporary displays of minerals placed on view. 
Exhibits in geology and invertebrate palaeontology had been pre- 
pared, and a start made on exhibits in vertebrate palaeontology, 
thanks to the arrival of Charles H. Sternberg and his three sons, 
who began a very fruitful programme of collecting and preparation. 
By 1916, when Parliament took over the Museum building, the 
exhibition halls were as follows — ^first floor, east hall: temporary 
exhibits in vertebrate palaeontology; first floor, east-centre hall: exten- 
sive displays of invertebrate palaeontology and stratigraphy (Fig. 17); 
first floor, west-centre hall: mineralogy and petrology (Fig. 18); 
second floor, east-centre hall: systematic series of Canadian birds 
and mammals; second floor, west-centre hall: ethnology of the Eastern 
and Central Tribes of Canada; second floor, west hall: Ethnology of 
the West Coast Tribes and the Eskimos. The second to fourth floor 
east halls were occupied by the National Gallery, an arrangement 
that was confidently regarded by both Museum and Gallery as of 
a very temporary nature. 
25 
