This historical marker on the front of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum preserves the date it was opened in 1955, and the date Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Phillip visited during their royal tour of Canada in 1959.
The historical marker reads as follows:
"THE ROYAL SASKATCHEWAN MUSEUM
The Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History is dedicated to the honour of all the pioneers who came from many lands to settle in this part of Canada. A tribute to their vision, toil and courage which gave so much to Saskatchewan and this nation.
The museum was officially opened on May 16, 1955, by his excellency, the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada.
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the museum on July 23, 1959.
Museum Director: Fred G. Bard
Department of Natural Resources
1968"
From Wikipedia: (
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"The Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) is a Canadian natural history museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. Founded in 1906, it is the first museum in Saskatchewan, and the first provincial museum in the three Prairie Provinces. The institution was formed to secure and preserve natural history specimens and objects of historical and ethnological interest. Known as the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, the museum received royal patronage from Queen Elizabeth II, and was renamed the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in 1993.
History
Between 1906 and 1945 the Museum occupied several premises including the Regina Trading Company Building, the Provincial Legislative Building, and the Normal School (the easternmost historic building on the "College Avenue" campus of the University of Regina). During the Second World War the Museum's collections were taken out of public display and stored initially in the General Motors Building (east on Dewdney Avenue) to permit the Normal School to be used for the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and then, when the GM building was also requisitioned, in Pilkington's Glass Company Building. The collections returned to the Normal School in 1944 and opened to the public again in 1946.
In 1953, the provincial government began construction of the current museum building on the corner of Albert Street and College Avenue, the site of the abandoned Chateau Qu'Appelle Hotel, as a Saskatchewan Golden Jubilee project. Partly for aesthetic reasons and partly to avoid the expansive task of uprooting the pilings, the museum was built on an angle with a large front lawn. The new premises were opened by Governor General Vincent Massey on May 16, 1955. To reflect the areas of devotion, the museum adopted the name Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History. This name remained until 1993 when they received royal designation from Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada and became the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.
. . .
Collections
The museum's has a collection size of over 3.5 million, which includes 3 million archaeological artifacts, 250,000 insects, 37,500 fossils, 10,000 birds, 6,500 plants, 4,000 arachnids, 3,7000 mammals, 500 reptiles and 300 fish. This collection supports research that contributes to the knowledge of Saskatchewan's natural history and Indigenous cultures."
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"Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from Elizabeth's accession as queen on 6 February 1952 until his death in 2021, making him the longest-serving royal consort in history.
Philip was born in Greece, into the Greek and Danish royal families; his family was exiled from the country when he was eighteen months old. After being educated in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, he joined the Royal Navy in 1939, when he was 18 years old. In July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter and heir presumptive of King George VI. Philip had first met her in 1934. During the Second World War, he served with distinction in the British Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.
In the summer of 1946, the King granted Philip permission to marry Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement in July 1947, Philip stopped using his Greek and Danish royal titles and styles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents' surname Mountbatten. He married Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. The day prior to their wedding, the King granted Philip the style His Royal Highness. On the day of their wedding, he was additionally created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. Philip left active military service when Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, having reached the rank of commander. In 1957, he was created a British prince. Philip had four children with Elizabeth: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
A sports enthusiast, Philip helped develop the equestrian event of carriage driving. He was a patron, president, or member of over 780 organisations, including the World Wide Fund for Nature, and served as chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, a youth awards program for people aged 14 to 24. Philip is the longest-lived male member of the British royal family. He retired from his royal duties on 2 August 2017, aged 96, having completed 22,219 solo engagements and 5,493 speeches from 1952. Philip died in 2021 at Windsor Castle, at the age of 99."
From Encyclopedia Britannica: (
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"Elizabeth II, in full Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, officially Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, (born April 21, 1926, London, England—died September 8, 2022, Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from February 6, 1952, to September 8, 2022. In 2015 she surpassed Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
Early life
Elizabeth was the elder daughter of Prince Albert, duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. As the child of a younger son of King George V, the young Elizabeth had little prospect of acceding to the throne until her uncle, Edward VIII (afterward duke of Windsor), abdicated in her father’s favour on December 11, 1936, at which time her father became King George VI and she became heir presumptive. The princess’s education was supervised by her mother, who entrusted her daughters to a governess, Marion Crawford; the princess was also grounded in history by C.H.K. Marten, afterward provost of Eton College, and had instruction from visiting teachers in music and languages. During World War II she and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, perforce spent much of their time safely away from the London blitz and separated from their parents, living mostly at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and Windsor Castle.
Early in 1947 Princess Elizabeth went with the king and queen to South Africa. After her return there was an announcement of her betrothal to her distant cousin Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, formerly Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. The marriage took place in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. On the eve of the wedding her father, the king, conferred upon the bridegroom the titles of duke of Edinburgh, earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. They took residence at Clarence House in London. Their first child, Prince Charles (Charles Philip Arthur George), was born November 14, 1948, at Buckingham Palace."
Even more on Her Majesty the Queen, from the British Royal family website aybe found here: (
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