Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario

[suspsy]

Ah, another Ottawan! Welcome, welcome! And thanks for the links.

[Doug Watson]

Cool to see this thread! I'm an Ottawa kid too. I really like the new fossil gallery, but the old one is the one I grew up with.
Doug Watson, it's cool to know that you sculpted the Safari mammoth toy! It's so similar to the lifesize bull mammoth that you did, I figured that either you sculpted it, or someone was ripping you off. Have you ever considered selling casts of your mammoth miniatures, the way you did with your Pteranodon miniatures?

Ottawans unite lets take over the forum!!! Just kidding, great to have another homey here. Thank you for the links, great nostalgia. I am old enough I remember when the totems stood at the four corners of the atrium and there was a circular information desk/gift counter in the middle where your photo shows the totems. Back then the giant Bull Moose mosaic on the floor of the entrance was uncovered and as a kid I would take great joy in stomping on its gonads when I walked in. Is it still there now that they have opened both sides?

One of these days I have to dig my slides out I am sure I have shots of the dino gallery as well, but glad to see yours since I couldn't find any googling.

The museum owns the miniature mammoth moulds so they own the reproduction rights. I sold a couple casts and had to give a royalty to the museum just like the pteranodons but I was the only one promoting them so I stopped since CMN wasn't doing anything to earn the kickback.

[suspsy]

Yes, the moose mosiac is back for all to see. I remember the totem poles as well from when I was very young. They were nifty.

Have to say too, I miss the Smilodon skeleton. I wish they'd incorporated it into the new exhibit. That and the huge mastodon skull---remember?

[Doug Watson]

Yes, the moose mosiac is back for all to see. I remember the totem poles as well from when I was very young. They were nifty.

Have to say too, I miss the Smilodon skeleton. I wish they'd incorporated it into the new exhibit. That and the huge mastodon skull---remember?

Glad to hear the moose and his package are back.

If I remember correctly that Smilodon was from La Brea, if you haven't already been the George C. Page Museum at the tar pits has to be on your bucket list. The wall of Dire Wolf skulls alone is worth going for but seeing the bubbling pits pretty much the way they were way back when is mind blowing. Even more mind blowing was seeing the museum in the heart of upscale Wilshire Blvd. I was expecting to see it in a landscape out of a Charles Knight painting. Thankfully the pits are unchanged.

Yes, I remember the Mastodon skull I fear some people may have missed it since it was hung above your head in the dark.

Looking at those old shots from CMN reminded me of a little known bit of diorama technician trivia that you may not be aware of. Sometimes the tech in charge of putting the diorama together would sign the diorama with his initials spelled out in foreground materials like flowers, leaves, mushrooms etc. It has to be somewhere busy so the initials get lost unless you know they are there. I did a Pacific Coast diorama once where I used artificial barnacles and in another one of the Shaw Woodlot, ON, I used bug bites in a maple leaf. Unfortunately both of those dioramas were removed. The only example that I know may still exist is the Grizzly Bear diorama, the tech's name was David Spence so you are looking for a DS. I won't say exactly where it is on the foreground so anyone here from Ottawa can try and find it. It could be when the diorama was moved and reinstalled the guy that put it back together may have screwed up the initials so I may be sending you on a wild goose chase, I'll have to get in there some day and check it out unless one of you finds it first.

[Doug Watson]

Cool to see this thread! I'm an Ottawa kid too. I really like the new fossil gallery, but the old one is the one I grew up with.
I managed to track down a bunch of photos of the old fossil gallery, and I used them to accompany this article by Asoka Weerasinghe that I reprinted on my museum blog: http://museumdreams.blogspot.com/2013/12/life-through-ages.html

Wow talk about nostalgia, I really have to thank you for posting that article Grant. I went back and read it, the first time I looked at it I didn't realize it was written by Asoka.
Asoka was still there when I started as a student in 1975 so I had some interaction with him then and also later when I was on contract working on the Animal Diversity Hall. Then there was Jacques St Cyr, who talked me out of leaving the division at a low point, my favourite botanist Albert Dugal, Dale Russell, Dick Harington and Dr. Louis Lemieux who bought one of my bronzes for the Museum art collection just to help out a young artist. What a trip down memory lane. I even learned something, I always thought that gallery was designed by another designer, unfortunately I never met Alan Todd. What I remember of Asoka was he was a very laid back, down to earth and friendly person, I am glad to hear he is still around.
Thank you again.

[Daspletodave]

The Troodons are amazing.
Too bad nobody makes one in plastic.....

[grantharding]

Cool to see this thread! I'm an Ottawa kid too. I really like the new fossil gallery, but the old one is the one I grew up with.
I managed to track down a bunch of photos of the old fossil gallery, and I used them to accompany this article by Asoka Weerasinghe that I reprinted on my museum blog: http://museumdreams.blogspot.com/2013/12/life-through-ages.html

Wow talk about nostalgia, I really have to thank you for posting that article Grant. I went back and read it, the first time I looked at it I didn't realize it was written by Asoka.
Asoka was still there when I started as a student in 1975 so I had some interaction with him then and also later when I was on contract working on the Animal Diversity Hall. Then there was Jacques St Cyr, who talked me out of leaving the division at a low point, my favourite botanist Albert Dugal, Dale Russell, Dick Harington and Dr. Louis Lemieux who bought one of my bronzes for the Museum art collection just to help out a young artist. What a trip down memory lane. I even learned something, I always thought that gallery was designed by another designer, unfortunately I never met Alan Todd. What I remember of Asoka was he was a very laid back, down to earth and friendly person, I am glad to hear he is still around.
Thank you again.

So glad you liked the links, Doug! It's exciting to be talking to you. I spent my entire childhood at that museum.

This is all really cool trivia, too -- I'll take a look at that bear diorama the next time I'm there. What did you do in the Animal Diversity hall?

And did I see in another thread that you also sculpted the Wild Safari Apatosaurus? That's one of my favourite ever dinosaur toys.

[Doug Watson]

I spent my entire childhood at that museum.

This is all really cool trivia, too -- I'll take a look at that bear diorama the next time I'm there. What did you do in the Animal Diversity hall?

And did I see in another thread that you also sculpted the Wild Safari Apatosaurus? That's one of my favourite ever dinosaur toys.

You and me both. When I was little my Dad used to take me into the VMMB every Sunday, usually he would leave me in the dinosaur hall (the version before the one you grew up on) and he would visit the rest of the museum and pick me up when it was time to go. When I grew up I was lucky enough to work there 17 years.

When I worked on the Animal Diversity Hall in 1975 my friend and I were unpaid students and we were given the jobs no one else wanted to do. The first job and I think it was a test, was to assemble and paint the bands on an enlarged model of a fruit fly polytene chromosome. The guy who built the model in his cabin in the woods snapped one day when he was about 90% done, brought it in unfinished and walked away. After that they tried every one in the shop plus people from admin to see if they could stand painting it. You had to match the banding in the same scale electron microscope images exactly or the staff biologist would make you start over. My friend and I finished it off to his satisfaction so I guess we passed the test. After that we finished off a bunch of other tedious jobs working on enlarged models of a Tachinid Fly, Flea, Earthworm and a lot of stuff I can't remember. After that I worked with the staff on the installation of the gallery. I believe my first paying jobs at the museum were working on the 4th floor Animal Communities Hall on contract.
I made miniature sculptures of Greylag Geese and Black Headed Gulls and I worked on three life-sized dioramas, a lake environment, a prairie scene and a nighttime scene in a woodlot. I also worked on the installation of the gallery. After that I worked on the Botany Hall until it opened and in 1981 all the contracts ended and I left the museum until 1985 when I returned and worked there as a full time staff member until 1997. There were also temporary and travelling exhibits that I worked on in both my periods of employment with the museums. From 75 to 81, I was with the Model & Diorama Shop that served all the national museums except Science and Tech and when I returned in 85, I worked exclusively for Nature's Model & Diorama Shop until 97.

I am glad you like the Apatosaurus, yes, that's one of mine.

[suspsy]

I miss that Animal Communities exhibit that used to be on the fourth floor. That and all the plants. Oh, and the live bees.

[suspsy]

Last week I visited the CMN to check out the Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit. That wasn't nearly as exciting for me as these two items though! First, a cast of the skull of Xenoceratops:



And second, a cast and the actual skull bones of Spiclypeus!

[suspsy]

https://canadianmuseumofnature.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/making-mammoths-come-to-life/

A summary about how Doug Watson created the life-sized woolly mammoths that still adorn the CMN's property to this day.

[Doug Watson]

https://canadianmuseumofnature.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/making-mammoths-come-to-life/

A summary about how Doug Watson created the life-sized woolly mammoths that still adorn the CMN's property to this day.

Thank you for posting that link Suspsy, Scott asked me for photos and information a few weeks ago and I had been checking the blog for the upload but after a while I forgot about it. He did a pretty good job, I only wish he had included the photos I sent him showing the casting of the full sized figures and the installation by crane at the museum since it showed some of the other people who actually worked on them. I guess he ran out of space.

[Uncle Rex]

I have really enjoyed this thread. I'm a Canadian but have been to Ottawa only once, some years ago, and did not get a chance to visit the museum. I'll be sure to see it on my next visit. I was surprised to see how good the Dino collection is. Thanks for posting the photos.

[fleshanthos]

I got some good shots in there - held the camera up high to get a face shot of those Daspleto models. I don't see how anyone could look down their gullet, but the models look great even down the throat! grrrrr for the rex skull with filthy little mammals using it for a playset. I think I'd rather we all be Russell's dinosauroid instead.

I'm not crazy for this new style of glass and white. They overdid it badly at the ROM. Guess this is the decor we're stuck with for the next 30-50 years.

[suspsy]

https://canadianmuseumofnature.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/making-mammoths-come-to-life/

A summary about how Doug Watson created the life-sized woolly mammoths that still adorn the CMN's property to this day.

Thank you for posting that link Suspsy, Scott asked me for photos and information a few weeks ago and I had been checking the blog for the upload but after a while I forgot about it. He did a pretty good job, I only wish he had included the photos I sent him showing the casting of the full sized figures and the installation by crane at the museum since it showed some of the other people who actually worked on them. I guess he ran out of space.

My pleasure, Doug. Have to say, the mammoths never looked better than they did in their original location with the patch of trees behind them. I'm not overly impressed by the current layout of the CMN lawn.

[Doug Watson]

Okay suspsy I said I would detail a diorama horror story, here she be.
Back in 1985 when I started my second stint with the National Museums of Canada, this time with CMN the model and diorama shop was in the middle of refurbishing the 4 James Perry Wilson dioramas from the Bird Hall: Point Pelee, Migration, Prairie and Western Mountain. I worked on plants for all of them, we replaced old out dated paper and wax leaves and stems with modern vacuum formed leaves and plastic or wire stems. We also refurbished the foregrounds. I know Wilson originally painted the backgrounds on the shells for all 4 but I don't know if he or CMN staff did the foregrounds. They went back on display later that year and all for were on display into the 90s but at some point the Point Pelee was taken off display and put in storage. In 1996 a display preparator from the Peabody came to Ottawa to research the 4 dioramas since Wilson was a longtime Peabody employee. He saw the three that were still on display and the shell for the Pelee but was told by someone that the foreground had been lost. At this point I was still an employee but I was on loan to Paleo since we were in the process of building the Aylmer facility and I no longer had a shop. No one bothered to ask the last remaining Model & Diorama technician, i.e. me. I knew where it was but wasn't asked. The preparator went back to the Peabody. He inquired about it again in 2004 when the museum was preparing for the major renovation of the VMMB but this time he was told the other 3 dioramas had most likely been destroyed in the renovation of CMN's building. This of course was false but it prompted the preparator to ask if the Peabody could have the Pelee background. He was amazed when CMN said yes, I am not but thank God they did. Sometime I guess after 2006 he brought it back to the Peabody and created a new foreground and the completed diorama is now on display there. But wait there is more, remember I said that I knew the foreground still existed. Well as it happens in 2005 I was asked to refurbish the other 3 Wilson dioramas for the reopening of the museum. After I completed those three I guess they liked the results and asked me to do the Pelee diorama. The shell was still there and SO WAS THE FOREGROUND. Sorry for shouting but this really pees me off. So I refurbished this apparently non-existant foreground that had been poorly stored in the museum warehouse including repairing all the plants and resurfacing the ground cover. I submitted a condition report for all the plants and then my work was done with the renovations. That was in 2006 so shortly after that I guess the Peabody preparator took custody of the shell without knowing the fully refurbished foreground was probably sitting on the shelving I left it on right near the SHELL! And it is probably still sitting there with no one knowing what it is. And the kicker to all this, the guy from CMN that was giving the preparator all this erroneous information was the head of the display section and the man that approved all of my contracts to work on those invisible dioramas. How is that for your tax dollars at work! The reason I found all this out was when I was trying to remember Wilson's name for you I did a search when I remembered  Perry Wilson and found a blog detailing the preparator's work to restore the diorama. I have since contacted him and he plans to get back to me later with more questions.

[suspsy]

That's a pretty messed up story, Doug. Forgive me, but my memory is foggy. Which diorama was Point Pelee? I remember the big ones: the coastal diorama with the gannets, the spring tundra with the geese, and the marsh with all the ducks. And then there were the smaller ones, like the seabirds out on the green surf, a whole bunch of birds sitting on tree branches, the displaying grouse, and the hawk.

Did I ever tell you that I once worked as a day camp counsellor at the CMN during the summer of 1998? One of the girls I worked with ended up staying on there and becoming part of the admin staff. Cindy was her first name. Pretty sure she's still there now.

[Doug Watson]

That's a pretty messed up story, Doug. Forgive me, but my memory is foggy. Which diorama was Point Pelee? I remember the big ones: the coastal diorama with the gannets, the spring tundra with the geese, and the marsh with all the ducks. And then there were the smaller ones, like the seabirds out on the green surf, a whole bunch of birds sitting on tree branches, the displaying grouse, and the hawk.

Did I ever tell you that I once worked as a day camp counsellor at the CMN during the summer of 1998? One of the girls I worked with ended up staying on there and becoming part of the admin staff. Cindy was her first name. Pretty sure she's still there now.

It was one of four small dioramas with painted backgrounds on fibreglass shells made by Jonas studios. it was a sand dune scene with Warblers and Bobwhite etc, the other three were: Migration with the Hawk, Prairie with the Sage Grouse and Western Mountain with the melting snow & ice and birds.
Here is a shot of the Point Pelee diorama with the new foreground at the Peabody.


You and Cindy missed me by one year, I was let go and the Model & Diorama Shop shut down for good in 1997, did you know Gilles Proulx he was running the kids programs at the VMMB I believe? He was a little guy barely 5 feet tall if that.

[suspsy]

Ah yes, I do recall that one now. This is making me wish more than ever that I had documented all those old galleries back in the day. Or had a time machine.

Don't recall a Gilles, but it could be just my lousy memory. Dang, it's been eighteen years now. All those cute little kids I taught dinosaurs to are now in their twenties!

[Doug Watson]

Ah yes, I do recall that one now. This is making me wish more than ever that I had documented all those old galleries back in the day. Or had a time machine.

Don't recall a Gilles, but it could be just my lousy memory. Dang, it's been eighteen years now. All those cute little kids I taught dinosaurs to are now in their twenties!

You and me both, I swore I took pictures of things like the old dinosaur hall especially after I put sand and rock bases under all the free standing mounts but I'll be damned if I knew where they are. Some things I didn't take because you always think you will get around to it and then it is too late.

I searched online and Gilles is still there running the eduction programme but he must be near retirement. It was always funny to see him with the school groups because even some of the elementary kids were taller than him. He was a nice guy. We supplied and maintained a lot of the props they used like taxidermy mounts, fossil casts, reptile and amphibian casts. Those rough little buggers kept us busy at times. There was a lady who was Gilles' boss back then named Catherine Dumouchel but I think she left and there was another guy named John. I see a Cynthia Iburg listed as part of Gilles' team so that could be your Cindy. She is now project leader, adult programs.