Canadian Museum of History

The Canadian Museum of History, established in 1856, is Canada’s national museum of human history, located in Gatineau, Quebec. It houses over four million artifacts, including the world’s largest indoor collection of totem poles, and offers exhibitions on Canadian history, Indigenous cultures, and more.

Planning your visit

The Canadian Museum of History faces Parliament Hill across the Ottawa river, and Douglas Cardinal's building — curving, layered stone forms meant to evoke the Canadian Shield and glacial erosion — is among the country's most significant works of architecture, designed by a Blackfoot architect for a national institution.

The Grand Hall holds the world's largest indoor collection of totem poles, standing before a reconstructed Pacific Northwest Coast village facade with the river behind glass.

The Canadian History Hall, reopened in 2017, covers 15,000 years from Indigenous presence through contact, colonisation, confederation and the modern state — and it was substantially rewritten to give Indigenous perspectives, residential schools and difficult episodes proper weight rather than treating them as footnotes.

The Children's Museum within the building is excellent in its own right.

The collections run to over four million objects.

Bookable options are admission tickets. Current availability is shown below.