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The Museum of Vancouver is the city's civic museum, devoted to the history, culture and changing identity of Vancouver and the surrounding region, and the oldest museum in the city, tracing its origins to 1894. It occupies a striking modernist building in Vanier Park near the waterfront, whose sweeping conical roof, often likened to the woven hat worn by the coastal First Nations, is crowned by a stainless-steel crab sculpture set in a fountain, and it shares the building with the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. The museum's permanent galleries explore the social history of the city decade by decade, with evocative recreations and collections that bring to life the Vancouver of the early twentieth century, the neon-lit streets of mid-century, the counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s, and the waves of immigration and change that have shaped the modern metropolis, drawing on a vast collection of artefacts ranging from everyday objects and clothing to neon signs salvaged from the city's streets. Alongside these displays, the museum mounts temporary exhibitions on contemporary urban themes, design, Indigenous culture and pressing local issues, often inviting debate about the city's future as well as its past. By focusing squarely on Vancouver itself rather than on art or natural history, the museum offers residents and visitors a thoughtful and intimate portrait of the place, its peoples and its evolution, and it serves as a centre for reflection on what the city has been and what it is becoming. The building that houses the museum is itself a landmark, its sweeping conical roof, designed to echo the cedar-bark hats of the Coast Salish peoples, rising above the green lawns of Vanier Park beside the water, and crowned by a gleaming stainless-steel crab that stands in a fountain at the entrance and has become a much-loved emblem. Within, the decade-by-decade galleries form a vivid social history of the city, and among the most popular are the recreations of life in the early twentieth century and the evocation of the neon-lit streets and rebellious youth culture of the mid-century, drawing on a remarkable collection of vintage neon signs rescued from the city's streets. By concentrating on Vancouver itself, its peoples, neighbourhoods and transformations, the museum offers an unusually intimate portrait of a single place, and its temporary exhibitions frequently tackle contemporary themes, inviting visitors to consider where the city is going.