Within The Museum Of Nature

 The Canadian Museum of Nature is one of seven national museums in the area, done in a Tudor-Gothic Revival design. The Queens Lantern, seen here, is a more recent addition, dedicated in 2010 by Queen Elizabeth and named both for her and Queen Victoria.

It was Victoria to whom this building was erected in memory, and the building has given life to several of the national museums, which have started out here and expanded to new locations on their own. Built between 1905-11, the building is now exclusively home to the exhibit space for the Museum of Nature. Its exterior walls have animals carved into the stone.

The stained glass above the main entrance doors have a nature theme as well.

I took the elevator to the top floor and stepped out into the Lantern. Inside, a scale model of the Moon hangs overhead. 

The new architecture works well with the original, evoking an old tower that had to be removed, as it had been found to be unstable.

A look from here into the main atrium, where a scale model of the Earth hangs.

The ceiling within the main atrium.

And down below, the Earth. Properly titled, this model is Gaia, and by the same artist who is responsible for the Moon out in the Lantern.

I went into the first gallery, the Arctic Gallery. The first thing the visitor sees is this set of slabs of ice, with images projected onto them of life in the Far North.