What to See at the Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum features on most Toronto itineraries. While the city is filled with museums, this is the museum to check out if you’ve only got time for one. Affectionately referred to as the ROM, the Museum opened in 1914 and provides a multifaceted array of exhibits that run the spectrum of human civilisation and the natural world. With galleries spanning over 3 main levels (there’s actually 4 if you include the temporary exhibitions), the Royal Ontario Museum is the largest museum in Canada. Its instantly recognisable today, thanks to its modern Crystal structure, which bursts out from the entrance of the original building. Since its the most visited museum in the country, you may as well add to those numbers on your Toronto trip.
You could spend the better part of a day doing a comprehensive tour of the Royal Ontario Museum. I didn’t have enough time to do that when I was in the city. In this post, I’m hoping to give you an overview of the ROM’s permanent galleries so you can choose which parts you want to focus on during your visit.
- If you’re looking for more to do in Toronto, check out my itinerary post HERE.
Royal Ontario Museum – The Basics
- Where? 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto
- When? The Museum is open daily from 10.00am to 5.30pm (although at the time of writing, it is closed on Mondays).
- How much? General admission to the Museum costs $23.00 CAD for adults. Children aged 4 – 14 years get in for $14.00, while youths admission (15 – 19 years) costs $18.00. Note that the Royal Ontario Museum is one of the attractions included in the Toronto CityPass. Admission to special exhibits costs extra.
- How to get there: If you’re coming from Downtown Toronto, the easiest way to reach the Museum is on the subway. Take the number 1 subway line to Museum Station (its about a 8 minute ride from Union Station).
- Website: https://www.rom.on.ca/en
Visiting the Royal Ontario Museum
First of all, be prepared for crowds when you visit the Royal Ontario Museum. I visited on a weekday afternoon in the middle of the summer holidays. It was also raining. Needless to say, the ROM was PACKED. While I wasn’t able to as I had dedicated my early morning hours to other attractions, I’d highly recommend getting to the Museum around opening time for the best odds of seeing it without too many crowds. If you do this, go to level two FIRST. Its where the dinosaurs are, and therefore thats where most people go.
Also, save time and book your tickets in advance. When I arrived, there was really long line for people wanting to purchase museum tickets. You can buy your tickets on the official website, but if you’re going to be in Toronto for a few days and checking out a number of the city’s attractions, buy the Toronto CityPass instead – it’ll save you money in the long run. For more details, visit the CityPass website. You’ll need to choose your day to visit the Museum beforehand if you use the CityPass, but you can do it moments before you go in.
With so much to see inside, I highly recommend taking a guided highlights tour. Running multiple times through the day, you’ll see some of the best parts of the museum, which will help you decide where you want to spend more time. They meet in the entrance hall. My tour started in the Canadian exhibit, went up to the dinosaurs and ended in the hall of ancient civilisations and my guide was really knowledgeable.
Floor One of the Royal Ontario Museum
When you enter the Museum, you’ll pass through the main entrance on the first floor. The first thing you’ll see is the massive skeleton of a dinosaur. Its not a t-rex or a triceratops, or any other dinosaur you’ve heard of though. This gigantic behemoth was called the Futalognkosaurus. Yeah, that’s a mouthful, but there’s no doubting how impressive of a way seeing its skeleton is to start your journey through time. The huge herbivore is one of the largest dinosaurs ever found and lived in Argentina over 80 million years ago. Its notable for being found in a relatively complete fossil form. I didn’t know this before my visit, but most dinosaur fossils contain very few remaining bones, so scientists have to piece the rest together to create a realistic image of the dinosaur. Futalognkosaurus bucked that trend, with over 70% of the skeleton in tact on its discovery.
Beyond the entrance to the Museum, you’ll pass into the Currelly Gallery, which serves as a main hall. From here, you can head upstairs, but for now we’ll stay on the ground, where part of Museum’s World Culture focus comes into view.
Canadian First Nations Gallery
One of my favourite galleries in the Royal Ontario Museum is the First Peoples Gallery. After all, being in Canada, I wanted to learn about its local history. The gallery contains over a thousand pieces of artwork and cultural heritage that gives you a real insight into the customs and heritage of the first Canadians. The objects on display here provide a wide ranging look at traditional First People life, including displays on travel, family life, spiritual beliefs and more. There’s totems and traditional wear and a whole lot more. One of my favourite displays in this section was the assortment of bark canoes that tribes used to traverse the waters of their sprawling homeland.
China and Korea Galleries
On the opposite side of the Currelly Gallery, you’ll be transported across the globe to East Asia, where the Museum focuses on Chinese (and to a less prominent degree Korean) culture. As someone that has always been fascinated by Chinese customs and history, this was another part of the Museum that I found really interesting. The Chinese collection covers almost 10,000 years of history and is actually ranked in the top ten collections of Chinese artefacts outside of China. The objects on display range from prehistoric times all the way to the Qing Dynasty of the 20th Century. Did you know that the Chinese were responsible for the development of paper, gunpowder, porcelain and even the compass? You will after visiting this gallery.
While the Korean collection is smaller, here you’ll learn how the Koreans were the first in the world to develop the woodblock text printing system and other aspects of their historical legacy.
There’s tons to see in these exhibits, but if I had to pick only one thing to see, it would easily be the spectacular reconstruction of the Imperial Palace Hall from Beijing’s Forbidden City. One day I’ll make it to the real thing!
Floor Two of the Royal Ontario Museum
When you go up to the ROM’s second floor, you’ll be leaving the realm of human history behind for a bit. The second floor is almost entirely dedicated to earth’s natural history, and the myriad of species that have lived on our planet over the course of time. While the Natural History Galleries can be broadly grouped together, there’s a number of distinct themes here, so we’ll continue our tour of the Royal Ontario Museum by breaking down the main ones.
Biodiversity Galleries
The ROM’s Biodiversity Galleries explore life on earth, both today and from times long past. In this part of the Museum, there are tons of taxidermic specimens on display, covering different of animals from various parts of the planet. You’ll see a tiger, a polar bear, a rhino and everything else in between, while learning about the various adaptations that allow them to survive in the wild, and the important role they play in their ecosystems. The impact of humans on the environment is also a major theme in this part of the museum, as the information pulls no punches on the devastating impact human behaviour has had on numerous species, some of which have become endangered or extinct.
While technically a separate exhibit, the Gallery of Birds is adjacent to this section, and contains over a hundred species of birds displayed in full flight. Its one of Canada’s most comprehensive bird collections (I’m sensing a theme here at the Royal Ontario Museum).
One of my favourite parts of the Biodiversity displays though is the themed diorama of a Canadian woodland in the Fall, filled with local wildlife such as deers and bears.
The Bat Cave
Linked to the Biodiversity halls but deserving of its own mention is the Royal Ontario Museum Bat Cave. Sorry Bruce Wayne, its not your lair. The Bat Cave is an incredibly cool immersive exhibit where you’ll actually walk through a replicated version of St Clair Cave in Jamaica. The exhibit came about as a result of fieldwork carried out by ROM scientists in 2011 and is a really unique way of putting this habitat on display for all to see. The “cave” is filled with limestone formations, dim lighting and of course, the bats. Many of them. Don’t worry, they’re not real, but the cave contains over 800 models of bats (you think that’s a lot – the real thing contains over 50,000!). Whatever you do, don’t miss the Bat Cave on your tour of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Dinosaurs and Mammals
This is the definitely the most crowded part of the Museum. These two halls focus on the massive species that ruled the earth in a time period millions of years ago. Those species were of course, the dinosaurs, and subsequently the megafauna (think mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers et al).
Everyone wants to see dinosaurs when they come to a natural history museum, so while its packed, you should definitely spend some time in their hall. If you thought the Futalognkosaurus in the lobby was huge, wait until you see the 27 metre long Barosaurus – one of only three fully assembled skeletons of this massive dinosaur in the entire world! You’ll also come across the usual suspects here – Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus and more. Unleash your inner palaeontologist as you inspect the fossils and replicas throughout one of the world’s most comprehensive dinosaur collections.
Following the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the megafauna came into being. In this adjacent hall you’ll see some of these species. While you’ll recognise some right away (thank Ice Age for that kids), there’s others you may have never heard of, such as the appropriately named Torontocerous, a giant deer that called the Toronto area its home a very long time ago.
The Dawn of Life
The Dawn of Life Gallery is one of the newer additions to the Natural History halls of the Royal Ontario Museum. Unlike many of the galleries that you can explore in any order you see fit, this one follows a distinct pathway, taking you through the epic journey of earth’s creation and the evolution of life over the course of more than 4 billion years. Its the first exhibit of its kind in North America, and my tour guide spoke very highly of its addition to the Museum.
While I didn’t have time to go through this gallery comprehensively, it really provides a detailed look through time. There’s animations, fossils and even hands-on exhibits where you can learn about Canada’s rich fossil paleontological history and the technologies used today to understand what came so many, many years before us.
Other Exhibits
There’s a few other galleries on the second floor of the Royal Ontario Museum that are worth a quick stop. Directly across from the Dawn of Life, you’ll find the Earth’s Treasures Hall, which is all about rocks, meteorites and beautiful gemstones spanning over 4.5 billion years of history. Among other samples, you’ll find a giant pure gold coin (worth a lot more than a Canadian dollar!) and the spectacular purple interior of an amethyst geode.
Rather strangely (and basically at odds with the rest of the floor’s theming), there’s also a small gallery of Toy Soldiers on this level. This exhibit hosts a collection of soldier figurines that were donated to the ROM back in 1991 by Henry NR Jackman, a former Lt Governor of Ontario.
Floor Three of the Royal Ontario Museum
The third floor of the Royal Ontario Museum picks back up right where the first floor left off – back to the history of human civilisation. There’s an extremely large collection on this level, spanning centuries across many regions of the globe. As you duck in and out of the various galleries, don’t miss the stunning Byzantine style mosaic over the ceiling of the Eaton Court entrance hall. Made from carefully crafted venetian glass, it contains symbols across cultures from all around the world.
Ancient Civilisations
I’ve grouped a number of the halls together here to refer to the highlight of the ROM’s third level. This area is made up of the Museum’s Egyptian, Roman and Greek collections (with a bit of Cyprus, Byzantium, Nubia and the Aegean mixed in). Of these sections, I found the Egyptian gallery to be the most fascinating. No matter how many times I see them, I can’t get enough of the Ancient Egyptian sarcophaguses and hieroglyphics. There’s even a full scale reconstruction of the 2nd century Tomb of Kitines that you can step inside. There’s over 5,000 years of history in this gallery alone.
When you’re finished learning about the Ancient Egyptian afterlife, spend some time with the Emperors of Ancient Rome. This gallery houses the largest Roman collection in Canada. You’ll see busts and sculptures of all the most prominent Romans and even see a collection of coins each bearing the image of a different ruler.
When you make your way to Ancient Greece, you’ll come across an impressive scale replica of the Acropolis in Athens, further depictions of deities, and of course, the classical Greek tapestry art (think the muses from Hercules).
With so many artefacts in these halls, I only barely scratched the surface on my visit.
Middle East and South Asian Galleries
The Middle East gallery takes you right to the cradle of human civilisation. At the meeting point of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, this is where ancient societies first flourished. In these halls, you’ll see relics from civilisations such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Sumerians and more. One of the more notable displays here is the Lion facade from the Babylonian Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar II, creator of the legendary Tower of Babel.
Adjacent to this gallery is the section dedicated to the Indian subcontinent and its surroundings regions. With objects spanning across the South Asian region, here you’ll gain an insight into the origins of Buddhism as well as more contemporary art depictions. The gallery is especially significant due to Toronto’s significant South Asian population.
Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific
The ROM’s collection of objects from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas and Oceania is an excellent overview of the various cultural and spiritual lives of these different groups of people from distinctive regions of the world. Broken up into a number of sub-sections, you can see artefacts from civilisations ranging from the warriors of Mesoamerica, to the island tribes throughout Polynesia. Separate to all these historical objects and costumes is the centrepiece at the gallery’s entrance. The massive Straying Continents wall sculpture welcome guests into the gallery and was specifically created for the Museum by the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui. At 12 by 5 metres, its worth stopping to take this unique display in.
European Galleries
The Royal Ontario Museum also contains a renowned collection of European objects, icons, artwork and furnishings. Taking you on a time warp from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, in this gallery you’ll learn all about the innovations and developments that changed European lives throughout history. There’s lots of different sections in this gallery, but the one I enjoyed the most contained an assortment of rooms done up from different historical periods. It provided a way to visualise the everyday lives of different eras as civilisation flourished and progressed from humble beginnings.
With so much to see at the Royal Ontario Museum, there’s no way you’ll get to see everything on a single visit. The description I’ve given you should definitely seem overwhelming and you’ll feel rushed if you cram it all in. With that said, hopefully this post has given you an idea of what areas you’re most interested in. Focus on them on your visit, and you’ll get a lot out of your trip. If you’ve been to the ROM, let me know all about your favourite gallery or display.