Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history based in Toronto. It is one of the largest museums in North America! At the turn of the 20th century, a small group of Torontonians envisioned a museum in the city of international stature. People of some position and influence, they championed the cause and persuaded both the Government of Ontario and the University of Toronto to fund the future museum. The Royal Ontario Museum was formally created by the signing of the ROM Act in the Ontario Legislature on April 16, 1912. When the Duke of Connaught, then Governor-General of Canada, opened the new building to the public at 3:00 pm on March 19, 1914, it instantly became an object of pride for Toronto. Today, the graceful structure of buff-coloured brick and terracotta, designed by Toronto-based architects Darling and Pearson, is the west wing of the ROM’s ensemble of buildings. Flanking Philosophers’ Walk, with its main entrance on Bloor Street West, this historic building originally housed five separate museums: the Royal Ontario Museums of Archaeology, Palaeontology, Mineralogy, Zoology, and Geology.