The Canadian Museum of History, situated in Gatineau, Quebec, ranks as the most frequently visited museum in the entire country, since each year well over a million people tour its extensive galleries and participate in its numerous programs, which encompass lectures, films, demonstrations, concerts, and theatrical performances. Beyond its public role, the museum operates as a major research institution, conducting fieldwork and conservation projects both domestically and internationally. Originally opened to the public under an earlier name during the nineteenth century, the institution is today recognized as a federal Crown corporation of the Government of Canada.

The museum owes much of its contemporary character to two remarkably different figures: Edward Sapir, a linguist-turned-anthropologist who assembled its earliest collections, and Douglas Cardinal, an Albertan architect of Indigenous heritage who conceived its flowing, curved home. Whereas the former endeavoured to record the languages and traditions of First Nations before they could disappear, the latter envisioned a building that would rise from the land like carved rock rather than resembling a plain stone box. Although Cardinal initially established his reputation through churches and community halls, he eventually came to concentrate on cultural landmarks. Consequently, the museum stands as one of a kind among the nation's institutions, uniting science and art beneath a single roof.