2002 - Canadian Museum of Civilization

Chairman’s ReportPhoto: H. FosterThe notion of the museumgoes far back in humanhistory. Human beings havelong had the impulse to makecollections of natural and humanmadeobjects and to interpret thismaterial. Perhaps the earliestknown example of a museum labelis a tablet from the sixth centuryB.C., unearthed in the Babyloniancity of Ur, which describedinscriptions from the twenty-firstcentury B.C.But the development of themodern museum took a leapforward around the eighteenthcentury, with the Enlightenment.If private collections had longserved the spirit of inquiry and theadvancement of knowledge, itbegan to be seen as important toinstruct the public, and some ofthe first national museums beganto emerge. Museums were seen asinstitutions that would help tospread knowledge amonghumankind, while promotingadvances in art and science for thebetterment of all of society.Today’s museums have developeda clear mandate both to increasehuman understanding, throughresearch and the interpretation ofcollections, and to provide thepublic with access to thisknowledge base. At the CanadianMuseum of CivilizationCorporation (CMCC), we haveassumed the responsibility to offerthis access to the widest publicpossible, and to make of theCanadian Museum of Civilization(CMC) and the Canadian WarMuseum (CWM) repositories ofour heritage for all Canadians.This is no small endeavour. Themuseum public and potentialpublic represent all ages, manyplaces of origin, various languages,and a multitude of culturesfound within Canada. Some haveancestors native to this continent,while others are newly arrivedfrom Africa, Asia and otherregions of the world. On a givenday at the Canadian Museum ofCivilization, a visiting West CoastElder might recognize a mask orrattle displayed in the Grand Hallas having belonged to a relative orancestor; while a young firstgenerationCanadian may be ableto relate as easily to a work ofArabic calligraphy as to a replicaVoyageur canoe — and may deriveas much pride and interest in ourcountry’s heritage from both. Onevisitor to the Canadian WarMuseum may come to honour agreat-uncle lost in the Great War,while another learns about thework of Canadian peacekeepers ina country where she or her parentsor grandparents were born.With the CMCC’s nationalmandate, its museums must havesomething to offer to Canadianswhether or not they live in theNational Capital Region (NCR).The CMC and the CWM had acombined visitorship of over 1.4million in the past year, and it issatisfying to note that 86 per cent,during the peak season, arevisitors from outside the NCR.Over the past five years, of the6,700,000 visitors to the CMC, wecan estimate that over 5,000,000came from outside the region —across Ontario, Quebec,7