Over the six years that I’ve been in Montreal, I had visited the lecture hall at the Redpath Museum ^[1] for professional lectures.  The corridor leading to the hall had skeletons of various sea creatures and there was a nice little diorama near the entrance.  Since this is on the campus of McGill University, I assumed that there were either classrooms or offices on the floors above and that this was the extent of the “museum”.

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Then one day last fall our office was asked to do some consulting work on the building.  This required climbing to the floors above and eventually the roof.  When I reached the second floor, I was completely blown away.  It was like finding a hidden treasure.  A full natural history museum complete with a dinosaur skeleton.

So I resolved that I would return with the family in order to get a better look.  Our daughter had suddenly become infatuated with dinosaurs this spring after being introduced to them in school.  So we made an excursion downtown to visit the museum.  I have to say I’m greatly impressed. My point of comparison is the Field Museum ^[3] back in my old hometown of Chicago.  The Redpath Museum has all the main exhibits that the Field Museum has, but boiled down enough to be covered in a leisurely Sunday afternoon (or maybe even a long lunch hour).  It also has an emphasis on items from Quebec.

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And on top of it all, the museum is free.  It is open from 9 to 5 during the week and only from 1 to 5 on Sunday during the weekend.  It’s definitely worth a visit for both the young and old.