How a boy from Hamilton became a banker, an art collector, and a museum founder.

By Dennis Duffy

Disclosure: An academic version of this article appeared in the Journal of Canadian Studies, Winter 2006

The Royal Ontario Museum on August 29, 1935. Photo from the City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1231, Item 682.

It’s true: The Royal Ontario Museum wasn’t built in a day. Three pivotal figures were all key to the success of the ROM. The first, Sir Edmund Walker, conceived of the ROM, the second, Charles T. Currelly, presided over its early years, and the third, George Crofts, proved instrumental in filling that museum space with art objects that back its claims to international standing.

Each of their stories can stand on its own, but they all fit into one bigger story of how Toronto came to be the culturally vibrant city that we now know and treasure.

This story is about about something more than another tale of individual achievement. It is about cultural transmission, about the fact that much of what we have achieved attains meaning through the efforts of those we have inspired or aided, even though what those successors achieve played no role in our own vision or planning.

Keep reading: Historicist: Sir Edmund Walker