VICTORIA, B.C. - This city's Royal British Columbia Museum does everything in excellent style, from its reconstruction of Victorian storefronts to extensive exhibits on the art and lifestyles of Northwest Coast Indians.
Now the museum has another winner, a special exhibit on whales which opened this spring and continues until March next year.
Called "Whales: The Enduring Legacy," the exhibit explores the natural history of whale species (there are 78 species worldwide, with orcas and gray whales among the best known in the Pacific Northwest). But the exhibit's major focus is humans' links to whales, from commercial whaling and conservation battles to whales' dominating role in the life and legends of the native peoples of the B.C. coast (and the Makah of Washington's Olympic Peninsula).
The exhibit includes 19th-century photos of whaling stations; baskets, blankets and other everyday items adorned by coastal Indians with whale-motif decorations; computers, with interactive programs on whales; and a woman's 19th-century bodice reinforced with whale bone. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a life-size model of a gray whale's skeleton surrounded by an Indian whaling canoe, commercial whalers' harpoons, native ceremonial masks and more.
Flickering lights play over the displays, like sunlight filtering through sea water. Recordings of whales' mournful, eerie calls echo through the display, furthering the marine atmosphere.
The exhibit covers 8,000 square feet on one floor of the three-floor museum (although a chunk of the space is devoted to a gift shop.)
It's a compact, but excellent, exhibit. And judging by the people flocking through on a recent mid-week afternoon, it's compelling for anyone from grade-schoolers to adults.
IF YOU GO
Royal B.C. Museum
Where: The Royal B.C. Museum is located on Victoria's Inner Harbour, at 675 Belleville St., between the Empress Hotel and the Parliament buildings. Phone 800-661-5411.
Hours: The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: A family admission is $14 Cdn. during the summer high season; individual adult admission is $7 Cdn. There are discounts for seniors and youths; no charge for children 5 and under.
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