The Royal Ontario Museum, commonly known as the ROM, is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's largest museum of world culture and natural history.[1] The ROM is the fifth largest museum in North America, containing more than six million items and over 40 galleries. It has notable collections of dinosaurs, Near Eastern and African art, East Asian art, European history, and Canadian history. It contains the world's largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale with more than 150,000 specimens. It has also hosted many traveling exhibits.
The museum is located at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road, north of Queen's Park and on the east side of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto. Established as the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts in 1857 at the Toronto Normal School, the museum's current incarnation began in 1912 with the enactment of the Royal Ontario Museum Act by the provincial government. Operated by the University of Toronto until 1968, the museum is now an independent institution but still maintains close relations with the university, often sharing expertise and resources.