The National Museum of Canada 
1910 to 1960 
Introduction 
Fifty years have elapsed since the collections and staff of what 
is now the National Museum of Canada were moved into the Victoria 
Memorial Museum building. During this period the Museum has 
emerged by stages as a distinctive institution with a contribution to 
make to the scientific and cultural life of Canada. Now, as greater 
possibilities are opening, it would seem to be an appropriate time 
to summarize the developments of the fifty years just past. 
A history of the National Museum of Canada, which dealt fully 
with the early years of the Museum as part of the Geological Survey 
of Canada, was given by W. H. Collins* in the Aimual Report of 
the National Museum for 1926; however, for the period from 
1910 to 1926 the Collins account is rather generalized. Other sources 
of information for the present resume have been the Annual Reports 
of the Geological Survey of Canada from 1910 to 1915, the Summary 
Reports of the Geological Survey from 1916 to 1920, the Annual 
Reports of the Department of Mines from 1921 to 1925, and the 
Annual Reports of the National Museum of Canada from 1926 to 
1955-56. These have been supplemented by the writer’s acquaintance 
with the National Museum and its staff since 1930, and by oral 
accounts of events in earlier years, given to him by those who 
participated. 
* National Museum of Canada, Bulletin No. 50, pp. 32-70, fig. 1, pis. I-X, 1928. 
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