astronomy

Redpath Museum

Redpath Museum is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Redpath Museum rather than just read about it. In short: The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University and located on the university's campus on Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath.

Key takeaways

Redpath Museum belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Redpath Museum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Redpath Museum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University and located on the university's campus on Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath. It houses collections of interest to ethnology, biology, paleontology, and mineralogy/geology. The collections were started by some of the same individuals who founded the Smithsonian and Royal Ontario Museum collections. The current director is Catherine Turgeon. Commissioned by Redpath to mark the 25th anniversary of Sir John William Dawson's appointment as principal, the museum was designed by A.C. Hutchison and A.D. Steele. McGill University's Redpath Museum website characterizes it as an "idiosyncratic expression of eclectic Victorian Classicism" as well as "an unusual and late example of the Greek Revival in North America." It is the oldest building built specifically to be a museum in Canada. Both the museum's interior and exterior have been utilized as a set, for movies and commercials.

Collections

Geology (mineralogy) Five collections, containing approximately 16,000 specimens from all over the world, are identified by their initial letters:

'D' Doell collection for Dr Donald Doell, a physician who contributed many of the more recent materials in the collection. 'F' Ferrier collection for Walter Frederick Ferrier, famous mining engineer who contributed this pre-eminent collection of minerals from many classic locations. 'J' Jeffrey collection for Jeffrey de Fourestier, mineralogist and former volunteer at the museum. 'P' Palache collection for Charles Palache, mineralogist and Harvard professor. 'SC' Shirley Collection for the wife of Sir Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan who donated the collection in the early 1880s. 'NS' New System collection for the general collection catalogue. This collection contains the main body of specimens including the collection of the former Natural History Society of Montreal and specimens from the collection of Lord Strathcona.

Entomology The Lyman entomology collections were transferred in 1961 by D. Keith McE. Kevan to Macdonald Campus in Sainte Anne-de-Bellevue, leading to the creation of the Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory.

Paleontology The museum's important collection of fossils owes much of its beginning to Sir William Dawson who provided not only many of the fossils of plants from his native Nova Scotia, but procured many important specimens from around the world. Dr Thomas Clark, for many years up until his death, was a fixture at the museum and was renowned for his pioneering work on fossils from the Burgess Shale, some of the oldest known anywhere.

Ethnology The ethnological and archaeological collection is one of the oldest in North America and began with Sir William Dawson's collection. It received further material from the Natural History Society of Montreal. It now has over 17,000 items from Africa, ancient Egypt, Oceania, paleolithic Europe and South America. The collection of First Nations artifacts that were once part of the collection now are housed in the nearby McCord Museum in Montreal.

Affiliations The museum is affiliated with CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.

Metro The museum, accessible by walking from many downtown Montreal locations, is also near the McGill station on the Montreal Metro Green Line.

See also Redpath Library George Barnston

References

External links

Redpath Museum Redpath Museum Biodiversity website Archived 2009-05-06 at the Wayback Machine Images Archived 2004-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory 360 interactive panorama featuring the Albertosaurus in the Dawson gallery Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine Photograph:Redpath Museum, 1883 - McCord Museum Photograph:Redpath Museum, 1913 - McCord Museum Photograph:Interior of Redpath Museum, about 1893 - McCord Museum

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Redpath Museum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Redpath Museum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Redpath Museum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Redpath Museum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Redpath Museum

In research: Redpath Museum appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Redpath Museum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Redpath Museum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures completed in 1882, Egyptological collections in Canada, First Nations museums in Canada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Redpath Museum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Redpath Museum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Redpath Museum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Redpath Museum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Redpath Museum in simple terms?

Why does Redpath Museum matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Redpath Museum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Redpath Museum.