Highlights - Glenbow Museum

Glenbow Museum began with the remarkable vision of Eric Lafferty Harvie. Mr. Harvie
came into his fortune when oil was discovered on the land to which he held the
mineral rights to, with the discovery in Leduc in 1947 and in Redwater in 1949. With this
prosperity, he decided to pursue his favourite passion – collecting – and simultaneously
return some of his good fortune back to the land that had been so generous to him.
His goal was to collect the objects representing the history and culture of Western
Canada as well as from around the world.
Establishing the Glenbow Foundation in 1954, Harvie
began extensively collecting artifacts from North
America that tell the fascinating story of Aboriginal
people, frontier exploration, and the development of
western life. He built on these North American
collections with extraordinary artifacts and art from
West Africa, Asia, South America, and Islands in the
Pacific, eventually amassing a huge museum collection.
The Glenbow Foundation became an eclectic blend of
western history and international art and artifacts.
Peigan pictograph
robe, 19 th century.
R676.7
Blackfoot woman with baby on her
back, ca. 1886. Glenbow Archives,
NA-354-25
From the beginning, Eric Harvie was fascinated in the
lives and culture of North American Natives. The largest
and most significant of Glenbow’s ethnology collections
is the material relating to the peoples of the Great
Plains – The Assinaboine, Blackfoot, Sarcee, Cree, and
others. Glenbow Museum continues to maintain a close
relationship with our First Nations community working
with an Advisory Council to continue to develop
exhibits and programming relating to Native cultures.
In 1966, Eric Harvie and his family donated his impressive
collection of art, artifacts, and historical documents to
the people of Alberta. Today, Glenbow Museum is one
of the largest museums in Canada, playing an essential
role in defining Western Canadian culture and we
continue Eric Harvie’s vision to be “Where the World
Meets the West”. In the spirit of Eric Harvie’s vision,
join us to celebrate Alberta’s 100 th anniversary at
Glenbow Museum and explore the history and culture
of our exceptional province.
NWMP Waltzes poster
from 1880. Glenbow
Archives, NA-2246-1
Lieutenant Colonel James F. Macleod,
North-West Mounted Police, 1879.
Glenbow Archives, NA-354-1
Established in 1873 to bring law and order to the West,
the Mounted Police were key figures in the settlement
between the Natives and the large influx of settlers and
immigrants to the West. Glenbow’s Library has one of
the largest collections of Mounted Police books, and
the Archives is a major research base. Among
Glenbow’s many Mounted Police treasures, the collection
includes paintings, uniforms, rifles, hand guns, swords,
and cap badges.
4 Glenbow Museum ANNUAL REPORT 2003/04