The exploratory geologist, Douglas Kirwin, recently donated one of a kind mineral and ore collection to the Royal Ontario Museum. Kirwin’s collection comprised of an astounding collection of 21,000 specimens weighing about 10 tonnes. To accept the collection, they had to find Storage Solutions to house this magnificent collection. A significant update and an increase in the storage capacity of the museum was needed. They reached out to our experts at Spacesaver solutions to help them out. Our experts worked along with the Royal Ontario Museum to design a state of the art modern storage area which would house, protect and display the breathtaking mineralogy collection.
Custom – made cabinets, shelving and worktables
We specially designed a state of the art high-density carriage system with steel museum cabinets which are perfect for heavy-duty shelving especially for oversized and bulky items along with worktables. This special design also consisted of custom made cabinets with glass doors and lighting, to create “visible storage” so that the visitors can marvel at the magnificent collection.
Moving the tonnes of minerals made easier:
The special high-density system which we installed allowed the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum to move over 10 tonnes of minerals easily, with a simple turn of the handle. Each cabinet has been designed to store up to 50 pull out trays and each of these trays can hold up to 70lbs each.
A customized visible storage was designed especially for the museum:
A customized visible storage unit with glass doors and LED backlighting were specially designed for the Royal Ontario Museum. These units were designed while keeping in mind that this collection is to be shared with the students and visitors without having to handle the collection. These cabinets are an integral part of the teaching lab in which different groups of people come to learn about mineralogy. It is also an important collection for those doing research in the same field.
More about the Kirwin Collection:
Named after Douglas Kirwin, the Kirwin Collection is the largest single acquisition in the Earth Science’s history section of the Royal Ontario Museum. The collection donated by Kirwin consists of over 21,000 specimens weighing in at about10 tonnes. This collection not only helps us to reflect in the past and how evolution has taken place, but it also helps us to look forward to the next century. This collection helps us to also understand what the future might look like. The Kirwin collection has integrated perfectly with the already existing collection. The custom made Spacsaver solution museum cabinets have provided the perfect home to this collection.
