Ontario. Educational Museum

• Educational Museum

• Provincial Education Museum

• Ontario. Provincial Museum

• Ontario. Provincial Museum and Art Gallery

The head of the Department of Public Instruction was the Chief Superintendent of Education, Egerton Ryerson. He reported to the Executive Council and the Legislative Assembly through the Provincial Secretary. It was Ryerson who established the Educational Museum, later known as the Provincial Museum.

The Educational Museum was established in 1857. In it, Ryerson installed many reproductions of European masterpiece paintings and antiquities that he had purchased while travelling through Europe in the 1850s. These were displayed in order to expose student teachers and the public to European artistic styles. Along with the painting and sculpture, the Educational Museum held collections of school apparatus, agricultural implements, mineralogy, specimens of natural history and archaeological artefacts.

Ryerson retired in 1876 and was replaced by Adam Crooks, Provincial Treasurer and the first Minister of Education for Ontario. Crooks closed both the Museum and the Depository in 1880, and in 1881, the Department sold off the Museum's educational apparatus and scientific collections. Some specimens went to other educational institutions, while art and history material either remained on display or went into storage, passing on to the Ontario Provincial Museum and Art Gallery, which replaced the Educational Museum in 1895. A third floor was added to the building in 1896, allowing the Provincial Museum to expand its collections to include zoology and biology galleries. The archaeology section of the Canadian Institute's museum moved to the third floor of the Normal School in 1897.

On April 16th, 1912, the Museum Act was passed, providing for the construction of a new museum building on the University of Toronto campus, known today as the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Many of the Provincial Museum's collections, along with collections from the University of Toronto, were eventually transferred to the Royal Ontario Museum and in 1933, the Provincial Museum closed. The artwork acquired for the Provincial Museum circulated amongst the Normal schools for many years, but is now part of the Government of Ontario's Art Collection, administered by the Archives of Ontario.

The function of the Educational Museum was to exhibit educational material sold at the Normal School Depository, such as prints, models and globes. The second function of the Museum was to supply illustrations for the Normal School curriculum, and to enrich teachers' preparation in arts and sciences, with a strong initial emphasis on natural history. As the Museum's history progressed, a focus on educational appraratus was replaced by an emphasis on art and history.

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Lessons Learned: The Evolution of Education in Ontario - online exhibit by the Archives of Ontario (Andrea Robbins)

Royal Ontario Museum website

The Royal Ontario Museum : a prehistory, 1830 to 1914 by J. Lynne Teather

Archivist(s):
Coulter