Examining Museum Ties to Resource Extraction from Historical Collections to Contemporary Sponsorship

The article explores connections between museums and extractive industries, tracing how 19th-century geological surveys that collected Indigenous artifacts for what became the Canadian Museum of History also laid groundwork for modern oil and mining sectors. It discusses contemporary controversies like the museum's 2017 sponsorship by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the 1988 Lubicon Nation boycott of a Shell-sponsored exhibition at Calgary's Glenbow Museum. The piece examines how museums face dual pressures to address decolonization and climate change while maintaining relationships with extractive industries, citing examples like the Royal Ontario Museum's 2021 appointment of a climate change curator alongside its mining sector partnerships. It argues that market-friendly solutions like green investing fail to address structural issues of extractive capitalism.