T h e R o y a l O n t a r i o M u s e u m

The Royal Ontario Museum is Canada's Largest Public Museum, made grander by a recent $55 millions renovation and expansion project. Opened in 1914 the Museum today attracts more than one million visitors a year. Among its impressive holdings, which number more than six million objects and specimens, are a Roman gallery, housing the country's most extensive collection of antiquities; the famous dinosaur gallery, with a mastodon, stegosaurus, and other prehistoric creatures in jungle settings; a textile collection with costumes and richly patterned fabrics; the Chinese collection, with 800 pieces displayed in traditional room settings and special gallery areas. Of particular note are the giant stone camels and guardian figures of the Ming Tomb, the only Chinese tomb in the Western world. There are also galleries devoted to artifacts of Ontario and Canada. Next door is the McLaughlin Planetarium where the Theater of the Stars uses 85 slide and video projectors to create planets, exploding stars, and other galactic phenomena. The Sigmund Samuel Building, a few blocks south of the main Museum building, focuses on Canada's rich cultural heritage with displays of antique toys, cooking utensils, oil paintings, pottery and sculpture. The George R. Gardener Museum of Ceramic Art, the only museum specializing in ceramic in North America.