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| - I have visited the Imperial War Museum in London, England, the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, and have to say, with a little bit of admitted bias, that this museum compares extremely favourably.
The reason the museum has managed to do so well is its focus; it began life as a regimental museum for four Calgary-based Army regiments. The main part of the museum continues in that capacity, recently adding galleries representing the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force. Each gallery benefits from its own group of curators and custodians, and tells a unique story. The RCN gallery was transferred from the Naval Museum of Alberta and is not just a transplant thrown on, but has a long history of its own and is really a separate museum. The RCAF display also has a long independent history and genesis. All are now under a single roof.
The galleries are all world-class presentations that are a mix of conventional artifact presentations (read: uniforms and medals under glass), interpretive exhibits using video and audio, miniature dioramas, and full-size vignettes using uniforms, equipment and vehicles (there is a Sherman tank right inside the foyer, and parts of other vehicles built right into other displays, letting you walk inside a C-130 carrying paratroopers, or hunker behind an M113 armoured personnel carrier in Serbia).
The four regiments that are the centrepiece of the Army museum are a balanced mix of two armoured regiments and two infantry regiments, divided between the regular and reserve force, giving a unique perspective of service life in Alberta over the last 100 years or so, including their service in the Boer War, the world wars, Korea, and various UN and NATO missions including Afghanistan.
This only scratches the surface of what is available, as there is also an outdoor armoured vehicle park, rotating displays, a modest gift shop, and full-blown library and archives for researchers, as well as planned activities for kid's groups, volunteer guides, and more.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am the webmaster for one of the regiments represented in the Army galleries, though I hold no position with the museum itself. The galleries are in a constant state of upgrade and improvement as grants and donations become available, and as with any professional museum, the majority of holdings are in storage, in concert with the mandate of conservation - meaning many good things are yet to come as far as public displays, as funds become available to finance these projects.
The museum tells important chapters of Calgary and Canadian history, and in compelling fashion.
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