The Pacific Museum of the Earth

The Pacific Museum of the Earth

The Geological Museum was founded by R.W. Brock, who had earlier founded the National Museum in Ottawa. The museum, the first at UBC, was included in the preliminary plans of the Applied Sciences Building (now the Geography Building) in 1923. The building was completed and the museum came into being in 1925. Professor M.Y. Williams had been interested in museums from childhood and, with Brock, was the de facto Curator. As the years passed, Williams assumed complete responsibility for the museum. Before joining the UBC faculty in 1920, Williams had had an office in the Peabody Museum at Yale for three years, and subsequently in the National Museum in Ottawa for eight years. Williams and Brock built up the mineral collections by solicitation and purchase from many persons and institutions. All gifts were accepted and suitable materials, including relief maps and models, zoological and anthropological specimens, were exhibited.

As time passed and anthropological and zoological museums became established at UBC, suitable materials and collections were turned over to them, leaving the geological museum with typical collections of minerals, ores, rocks, fossils relief models and a few biological specimens representing conspicuous living forms in contrast with their forerunners. The late Edward Mahon donated a very fine skull and antlers of the extinct Irish Elk. In the 1980s, the late Mrs. Laura Lou Mathews (BA, Chicago; MS, Berkeley), wife of William H. Mathews and a vertebrate paleontologist by training, worked many weeks on the skull and antlers to prepare it for display. Miss Victoria Rendell (BA, UBC) presented three skulls of Bison crassicon and teeth and bones of the American mammoth from the gold gravels of the Yukon Territory. In 1950, Dr. F.J. Alcock, Curator of the National Museum of Canada, authorized the permanent loan to the Department of Geology of a fine mounted specimen of the skeleton of a duckbilled hooded dinosaur Lambeosaurus sp., which has been a prominent feature of the museum ever since. The specimen was collected in 1913 from the Upper Cretaceous of the Red Deer Valley near Steveville, Alberta by C.H. Sternberg and Sons. The specimen was prepared in Ottawa and mounted at UBC by Charles M. Sternberg. The enterprise was sponsored by Dr. H.R. MacMillan.

A collection of minerals, the W.J. Sutton collection, originally included 728 different mineral species. It was renamed the Sutton-Thompson Collection, to commemorate Professor R.M. (Bob) Thompson, who cared for and donated 36 specimens to the collection. In the original Paleontological Laboratory in Room 119 of the Applied Science Building, glass cases and standing cabinets contained upwards of 500 trays of fossils. M.Y. Williams’ fossil collection represented Ontario, the Mackenzie River Valley, northeastern British Columbia, the southern plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Churchill Manitoba, and Hong Kong. Dr. V.J. Okulitch’s collections included archeocyathids from Australia, Labrador, Mexico, California and British Columbia. A large collection of trilobites from the Lower Cambrian of Fort Steel, near Cranbrook was made by Colonel Pullen and Mr. C. Garratt.

In February 1969, the name of the Museum was changed to the M.Y. Williams Geology Museum. Professor Emeritus M.Y. Williams was the Honorary Curator.

In 1972, the museum was moved from West Mall to the new Geological Sciences Building (now Earth and Ocean Sciences Main). The move was supervised by the Chief Technician, Mr. Edward Montgomery, and the newly appointed Curator, Mr. James Haight, the first non-faculty curator. The Lambeosaurus skeleton was moved in one piece from the museum in the Geology and Geography Building to the new location on the ground floor of the Geological Sciences Centre; part of the south wall of the old building had to be removed to allow egress, and the piece was wheeled to the new building on roller skates.

In 1982 James Haight was succeeded by Mr. Joseph Nagel (MSc, Geology, UBC). Joe Nagel was an outstanding Curator. He created a computer system to catalog the specimens in the collection. Displays of rocks and minerals were created by Nagel and Mr. Carlo Giovanella (BASc Queens; MSc Washington), Senior Instructor, to supplement undergraduate laboratories. Nagel organized innovative displays in the Museum, such as an outstanding gem show and ‘Harvard Gold’, a display of gold specimens from the Harvard Mineralogical Museum, which attracted widespread attention both inside and outside the University. During Mr. Nagel's tenure, the Museum was given the Colvin Mineral Collection, which provided some outstanding display material. Some of the collection was sold off to raise much-needed funds; thirty-five specimens from this collection remain in the permanent museum collection.

Nagel organized the Friends of the M.Y. Williams Museum for interested parties from inside and outside the University and organized an annual series of lectures relating to geology, mineral collecting and various other related topics. He created the Collectors Shop within the Museum, where mineral specimens, fossils, and related items were sold. The stock came from purchases at mineral and fossil shows that Nagel attended, as well as from travelling mineral dealers, local entrepreneurs who collected minerals in the field, and donations and trades. Profits from sales from the shop financed purchase of specimens that were added to the permanent collections. Dr Art Soregaroli commented as follows: “As I remember, Joe formed the Friends of the Geological Museum to widen the scope of the museum by bringing in mineral collectors and other interested parties to UBC for organized presentations on various topics, some of which were travel logs, mineral collecting, geological, slide shows of highlights of mineral show displays, etc. The evening meetings served as a focus on the Collector Shop, especially after he returned from the shows and had new inventory. He had a good sense of entrepreneurship. The membership was eclectic--including professors and students (not just in the Geological Sciences), practising geologists, prospectors, rockhounds, collectors, etc. The meetings provided a venue for communication with people of similar interests--a place to learn, brag, admire, gab with friends, add to collections, admire minerals beyond your reach, etc.”

During a time of budget reductions in 1995, the Department of Geological Sciences terminated Nagel’s appointment (after he left UBC, Joe had some notable success as a museum consultant, applying the techniques he had developed while at UBC). The museum lacked a curator for the first time since it was founded by Brock and Williams in 1925. The museum was technically closed, but displays were left unchanged. Following Joe's departure, Mr. Mark Mauthner (BSc Geol, UBC) who had worked with Joe Nagel, operated the shop and renamed it The Collectable Earth.

The Pacific Mineral Museum

After the closure, Mr. Ross Beaty [B.Sc Hons Geology LLB, UBC; M.Sc (Royal School of Mines, U of London)], CEO of PanAmerican Silver, offered to rebuild the museum in the Geological Sciences Centre, but a suitable arrangement could not be worked out with the University. In January 2000 Mr. Beaty, supported by members of the mining community and other interested parties, opened the 'Pacific Mineral Museum' in downtown Vancouver adjacent to the BC Yukon Chamber of Mines building. Some material from the UBC collection was loaned to the downtown museum, the curator of which was Mr. Mauthner. In December 2002, for lack of footfall in its downtown location, and with the onset of a depressed business cycle, the venture was forced to close its doors. Mr. Beaty donated the cabinetry and displays that Mr. Mauthner had developed to UBC and returned the UBC minerals which were on loan. In addition, he loaned a large part of the minerals in the Pacific Mineral Museum to UBC for display. Mr. Beaty subsequently, with his wife Trisha (M.D., UBC) funded the "Beaty Biodiversity Museum" at UBC, part of the Biodiversity Research Centre to be located across the Main Mall at UBC opposite the EOS buildings. It is planned that the Beaty Biodiversity Museum will house the fossil collection.

The collections of the M.Y. Williams Museum and the Pacific Mineral Museum were merged to form the Pacific Museum of the Earth, with Ms. Mackenzie Parker (B.Sc Earth and Ocean Sciences, UBC) as Curator and General Manager. The merger began in January 2003 and the museum opened under its new name in June 2003. Today the Pacific Museum of the Earth runs 120 programs annually, of which 90 programs cater to some 1,600 schoolchildren and the remainder to about one thousand other visitors. There are also many visitors who don’t sign up for organized programming. The mineral collection numbers more than 10,000 specimens. A lecture series is run for the Friends of the Museum, and members of the general public are welcome to attend. The Friends provide expertise to the museum, including helping to price specimens for sale in the gift shop, performing appraisals, helping to identify display quality specimens, and giving talks. The museum shop sells minerals, fossils, relevant books and souvenirs. The incorporation of Oceanography, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences into the new Department has led to broadening of the scope of exhibits in the Museum, which now include seismographic, meteorological and other displays.

This history was put together by R.L.Chase. A typescript by M.Y. Williams gave information until 1959; history for the last half century was compiled with help from Carlo Giovanella, Art Soregaroli, Mackenzie Parker, and others.