The Musée de la civilisation, often directly translated in English-language media outside Quebec as the Museum of Civilization, is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

located in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It is situated in the historic

Old Quebec Old Quebec (french: Vieux-Québec) is a historic neighbourhood of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Comprising the Upper Town (french: Haute-Ville) and Lower Town (french: Basse-Ville), the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Administratively, Old ...

area near the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

. It was designed by architect

Moshe Safdie Moshe Safdie ( he, משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author, with Israeli, Canadian, and American citizenship. He is known for incorporating principles of socially responsible des ...

, and opened its doors to the public on 19 October 1988. The previous buildings of the ''Banque de Paris'' and the ''Maison Estèbe'', which were situated on Saint-Pierre street, were integrated in the museum's structure. Permanent and temporary exhibitions are held at the museum, usually related to

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

, and virtual exhibitions are also available. The institution also hosts ''Quartier des découvertes'' (Discovery Zone), geared towards children, and offers other services such as guided visits, a

French America French America (), sometimes called Franco-America, in contrast to Anglo-America, is the French-speaking community of people and their diaspora, notably those tracing back origins to New France, the early French colonization of the Americas. Th ...

reference centre, shows, souvenir boutiques, a cafeteria, and a leisure room.

Images

File:Maurice Cullen - Paysage de l'Ile d'Orléans.jpg, Paysage de l'Ile d'Orléans File:Louis-Jacques Casault.jpg, Louis-Jacques Casault File:Museum of Civilization, Quebec.jpg, Winter 2005, Dieu-Tsar-Revolution exhibition

Human Remains Controversy

During the spring of 2021, ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' published an article by journalist Kate Taylor about research concerning the museum's large collection of human remains. This collection, on long-term loan from the provincial Ministry of Public Security, includes more than one hundred body parts—such as tattooed skin from a twenty-nine-year old homicide victim named Mildred Brown—taken from the bodies of murder victims by Dr. Wilfrid Derome during the early twentieth century.Jamie Jelinski, “‘Go and Take a Look at Millie Now’: Murder, Tattooed Remains, and Museum Ethics in Quebec,” in ''Museums and the Working Class'', edited by, Adele Chynoweth, pg. 74-87, London: Routledge, 2021

Exhibitions

* ''Territoires'' (Territories) * ''Le Temps des Québécois'' (People of Québec ... then and Now) * ''Nous, les premières nations'' (Encounter with the First Nations)

Affiliations

The Museum is affiliated with: the Canadian Museums Association, the Canadian Heritage Information Network, and the

Virtual Museum of Canada The Digital Museums Canada (DMC; , ''MNC'') is a funding program in Canada "dedicated to online projects by the museum and heritage community," helping organizations to build digital capacity. Administered by the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) ...

References

External links