Natural History Museums Nurture Local Sense of Place

This Royal Saskatchewan Museum golden eagle diorama has had quite a history. I saw it for the first time in the early 1980s. It struck me then as a vivid illustration of a land that had successfully maintained a definite sense of wilderness in the midst of massive agricultural transformation. In 1990, while the museum was undergoing major renovations, it was hit by fire. This diorama and many others were covered by black soot. The museum was closed to the public for a few months to repair the damage. The community and museum patrons pulled together, and invested in the creation of an even more ambitious set of galleries and displays that eventually yielded a spectacular First Nations Gallery.

Natural history museums play a subtle but critical role in helping shape a destination's brand identify. Their very presence in a community attests to the profound appreciation by its inhabitants of those aspects of life that enrich the local sense of place. Natural history museums highlight cultural capital and natural wealth. They are resource centres, learning opportunities for children, adults and visitors.

They are institutions tasked with the stewardship of artifact collections that researchers and citizens can enjoy in future generations. Perhaps more powerfully than other efforts, they eminently convey that private and public sector organizations are sometimes able to partner to achieve great projects. Perhaps studying what common ground was found among partners that allowed such institutions to be built might provide useful insight for all those who seek more mutually-beneficial partnerships in general.