Founded in 1925, the Pacific Museum of Earth was UBC’s first museum. It was originally named the Geological Museum and later the M.Y. Williams Geology Museum, after founder Dr. Merton Yarwood Williams. Over many decades, the museum acquired valuable minerals, rocks, and fossils, slowly expanding its collection, which was curated by Joe Nagel from 1971 onwards. In 1995, budget constraints closed the museum until 2000, when UBC alumni Ross Beaty recognized the museum’s value. In an attempt to preserve and expand its existing collection and exhibits, Mr. Beaty and other supporters opened the Pacific Mineral Museum in downtown Vancouver. The Pacific Mineral Museum showcased an extensive assembly of spectacular mineral specimens donated or on loan from numerous collectors.
In 2003, the M.Y. Williams Geology Museum and the Pacific Mineral Museum merged. The new museum returned to its roots at UBC and became what is now the Pacific Museum of Earth. This merger realized the original vision of an expanded Earth sciences museum on UBC’s campus. Mr. Beaty contributed the cabinets and mineral collections of the Pacific Mineral Museum and UBC contributed the physical space and historic collections of the M.Y. Williams Geology Museum.
With over 30,000 specimens, the museum serves thousands of visitors each year. Thanks to the extraordinary support of many scientists, donors, and the wider public, this historic collection has been continuously preserved and enhanced for generations to come.
In 2011, as part of updates to the Earth and Ocean Sciences Main Building, renovations began on the museum. Once building renovations were complete, construction of nearly fifty brand new displays began. Of the PME’s new exhibits, the new Globe and Gem Gallery, which holds the PME’s most valuable displays, is home to Canada’s first and only OmniGlobe. With the completion of the new Earth Sciences Building, came an expanded gallery space for the PME, part of which holds the new Life at the Edge exhibit.
A poster presentation about the history of PME’s fossil collection was produced by K. Brink, K. Hodge and S. Sutherland in 2017. (Click the image to read the poster!)
