Banff — Hot Springs, Railway & National Park
Banff Park Museum
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
The Banff Park Museum opened in the early twentieth century as a showcase of Rocky Mountain natural history.
Its collection of taxidermied animals belongs to an era when museums taught nature by collecting, classifying and displaying specimens. That approach now feels uncomfortable to many visitors, but it was central to early conservation science.
The building itself is a rare surviving example of the rustic architecture Parks Canada developed to make government facilities look appropriate in a mountain landscape.
There is a productive contradiction here: early national parks protected wildlife and scenery while museums simultaneously collected wildlife as specimens.
Conservation was evolving, not complete.
The museum also helped visitors learn what they were expected to notice in the park. Once a species has a label and a glass case, tourists begin looking for it outside.
National parks do not only protect nature. They teach people how to see nature.