Provincial Museum of Alberta
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New building in August 2016
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 Location in Edmonton
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| Former name | Provincial Museum of Alberta (1967-2005) |
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| Established | 6 December 1967 (Old building) 2018 (New building) |
| Dissolved | 5 December 2015 (Old building) |
| Location | 12845 102 Avenue NW Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5N 0M6 |
| Coordinates | 53°32′49″N 113°29′20″W / 53.5470651°N 113.48885°WCoordinates: 53°32′49″N 113°29′20″W / 53.5470651°N 113.48885°W |
| Type | Natural history, Human history |
| Accreditation | Royal patronage, Provincial historic site |
| Key holdings | Big Things 3 |
| Collections | Cultural studies, Earth science, Life science |
| Collection size | +10 million |
| Director | Chris Robinson |
| Architect | Raymond O. Harrison (1967) Ledcor, DIALOG (2017) |
| Owner | Government of Alberta |
| Public transit access | Edmonton Transit System |
| Website | royalalbertamuseum |
The Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) is a museum of human and natural history in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The current museum is located in downtown Edmonton, north of City Hall and east of CN Tower. Construction was completed on August 16, 2016, and was expected to open to the public in late 2017 before pushing back to 2018.
The new building will be the largest museum in western Canada with more than 82,000 square feet of exhibition space and 419,000 total square footage. The museum will feature expansive galleries chronicling Alberta's natural and cultural worlds, a feature gallery showcasing travelling exhibitions from Canada and around the world, an interactive, 7,000-square-foot dedicated children's gallery, and a bigger bug room with live invertebrates and visible nursery. The total cost of the new building and moving is estimated around CAD $375.5 million, with $253 million from the Government of Alberta, and $122.5 million from the federal government Building Canada Fund.[5]
The Canadian Federal Government’s Confederation Memorial Centennial Program and the Government of Alberta began planning for a museum in 1950. In 1962, they hired Raymond O. Harrison, an Australian architect who had been involved in the design of the Vancouver Maritime Museum to direct the planned museum. Harrison was given 5 million dollars house and staff the museum as well as to build the collections.
The museum opened to the public December 6, 1967 as the Provincial Museum of Alberta. On opening day, the museum's main floor featured galleries presenting the fur trade; native peoples of Alberta; early photographs of aboriginal people taken by Ernest Brown and Harry Pollard. Second floor galleries were less incomplete, but featured exhibits on agriculture; "pioneer" life; and industry and commerce. The museum expanded through the 1960s and 1970s with more exhibits, curatorial programs and staff. In 1968, new exhibits portraying Alberta's dinosaurs and "Adaptations for Survival" were added to the natural history section, and permanent exhibits of "Vehicles of Alberta's Past", "Uniforms of RCMP Superintendant H. C. Forbes", "R. R. Gonsett, Inventor" and "Early Building in Saskatchewan" were added to the human history section. In 1969, exhibits on volcanos, the thrush family were added to that natural history gallery, and displays of "Domestic Artifacts of Utility", the history of aboriginal people (including a display of Blackfoot clothing), and new agricultural artifacts were added to the human history gallery. The same year, a diorama of Pronghorns was created as the first of sixteen planned displays of Alberta's natural habitat.
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