Established on 16 April 1912 and opened on 19 March 1914, The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM, French: Musée royal de l’Ontario) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America, the largest in Canada, and attracts over one million visitors every year, the second most for a Canadian art museum after the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum is north of Queen’s Park, in the University of Toronto district, with its main entrance on Bloor Street West. The Museum subway station is named after the ROM, and since 2008, it is decorated to resemble the institution’s collection. St. George station is also close to the museum’s new entrance as well.
Admission:$17
This is the original building of Royal Ontario Museum. The window on the ground floor was the entrance door. Currently this wing houses ROM’s Chinese/Japanese/Korean collections.
Gallery of Greece tells the story of the development of the Greek world from the Archaic and Classical periods, when the individual Greek cities competed for power, wealth and influence, through the Hellenistic period, when Alexander the Great consolidated and expanded the Greek empire, until Greece was conquered by the Romans.
Prince Takamado Gallery of Japan
Explore the civilization that gave us household words such as Samurai and netsuke. From Kyoto and Satsuma to Tokyo, Japanese culture unfolds in an outstanding presentation of ceramics, religious sculpture, prints, paintings, lacquers, furniture and armour.
In the gallery, unique and beautiful objects make reference to daily life during the Edo period, and Samurai armour conjures a time when these warriors were the ruling elite. Objects of porcelain and modern ceramics trace a legacy of artistry and creativity from the 15th century to the present. The gallery is named in memory of Prince Takamado (1954 – 2002), who was known in his native Japan as “Canada’s Prince”. The gallery celebrates his attachment to Canada and creates a lasting link between the two countries.
The ROM’s renowned European collections bear witness to the legacy of European style with objects prized for their beauty, rarity, and cultural importance. An entire wing in the gallery is dedicated to displays that provide a context for specialized collections themed to Culture & Context, Judaica, Art Deco and a ROM favourite – Arms and Armour.
Examine the influence these changes had through the lens of decorative arts development in central and Western Europe. Walk among period rooms and vignettes, including those of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Victorian periods, and discover the different stylistic signatures of each.
Wirth Gallery of the Middle East focuses on a geographic part of the Middle East, referred to as the Fertile Crescent, that stretches from the Eastern Mediterranean and Iraq to Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
More than 1,000 artifacts from the Middle East are presented in thematic displays of Documents & Writing, Technology, Spirituality & Religion, Art in Life, and Arms & Armour.
The Natural History galleries are all gathered on the second floor of the museum. The gallery contains collections and samples of various animals such as bats, birds, and dinosaur bones and skeletons.