Collection spotlight

The Rideau Canal had its beginning in the early 1800s when the British were still shaken from the 1812 invasion from the United States. Seeing another attack on the horizon, they put Colonel John By in charge of the construction of a canal uniting the Ottawa River with the St. Lawrence Seaway. The fear was that if the United States were to reinvade, they might cut off access to the Saint Lawrence, eliminating all transport of naval vessels and supplies between Montreal and Kingston. Bytown, Colonel By’s base, eventually became the city of Ottawa and was selected the capital city of Canada in 1858. 

Figure 1:
Map Showing the Proposed Route for a Canal to Unite the Waters of Lake Ontario with the Ottawa River, 1828.
City of Ottawa Archives | MG110-AAAA 138

John By entered the Royal Military Academy in 1796 at the age of thirteen where he began training as a Royal Military Engineer. Filling the roles of “astronomer, geologist, surveyor, draftsman, artist, architect, traveler, explorer, antiquary, mechanic, diver, soldier and sailor,” the Royal Military Engineers were charged with facilitating the movement of their own armies and making it extremely difficult for the opponent to do the same.

Over five summers, Colonel By led the construction of forty-seven locks and fifty-two dams without the benefits of modern engineering. After the completion of the Rideau Canal, Bytown was expected to diminish to fundamentally nothing, just as a mining town will collapse once the mine driving the economy closes. Fortunately, the advent of a lucrative lumber industry reversed this diagnosis and Ottawa grew into a flourishing town set to become the capital of the Dominion.

Even as Bytown flourished, the lustre was already dimming on the new canal. Less than fifty years after its completion, the efficacy of the Rideau Canal was already under question. Prime Minister Mackenzie called it “neither useful nor ornamental” in just 1877. Though Mackenzie was disillusioned with the Rideau Canal, not everyone thought this way. Organizations such as the Rideau Canoe Club began using the canal recreationally by the early 1900s (Figure 2) and recreational boating on the canal began by at least 1923 when H.G. Billings bought a pass for pleasure craft to travel the canal in the 1923 season (Figure 3). Boaters were by no means the only ones using the canal recreationally. Photos of families, crowds and children skating on the canal go back at least to the 1950s. Gradually as Ottawa and environs grew, hotels and facilities appeared along the banks of the canal and area. Clubs based on boating, cross-country skiing, canoeing, skating, hunting, fishing, golfing and more started to take advantage of the water and the green space surrounding the canal.

Figure 2:
Rideau Canoe Club Championship Relay Crew 1906. The Topley Studio
City of Ottawa Archives | MG373.

Figure 3:
Season Pass for Pleasure Craft. 1923
City of Ottawa Archives | MG001-07-057

It was in the 1960s that responsibility for the canal shifted from the Department of Transport to Parks Canada. This transition resulted in more programs, historic restorations, and events. The preservation of original canal structures as well as the historical environment has been a focus of all levels of government. Tourism on the canal surged dramatically in the winter of 1970 to 1971 when the Rideau Canal Skateway opened for its first season. This entailed a switch in responsibility as the City transferred the authority over the Skateway to the National Capital Commission. Developments along the Rideau Canal continued over the following years with new projects and activities such as Winterlude in 1979 and the Canalside Heritage Route in 1989.  Today, the Rideau Canal has immense value as a well preserved and fully functioning canal.

Written by Shannon Fayer, City of Ottawa Archives, 2023.

As part of the Tapestry initiative, the City of Ottawa Archives recently acquired the community newspaper The Spectrum, which ran from 1984 to 2013. First launched by editor and publisher Ewart Walters in August 1984 as a weekly newspaper, The Spectrum soon became a monthly paper. It served as “a forum and a marketplace for information that fills the vacuum now being endured by the region’s large and continually growing multicultural society.” It was also the only newspaper dedicated to Ottawa’s Black community, covering topics and issues related to social justice, human rights, education, history, culture, music, the performing arts, and sports.

Ewart Walters (1940–2023) was born in Kingston, Jamaica and first moved to Ottawa in 1964 to attend Carleton University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 1968 and a Master of Journalism degree in 1979. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of The Carleton student newspaper from 1965–1966, becoming their first Black editor.

He worked for several newspapers in Jamaica, as well as Radio Jamaica and the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. He later served as a diplomat for the Jamaican government in Ottawa and New York, as well as for the Canadian federal public service. He also played an important role in the effort to harmonize relations between the Black communities and Ottawa Police Services.

In 2010, Ewart Walters was awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction (commander class) for the promotion and defence of minorities in Canada through journalism and community activism, as well as the Canadian Ethnic Media Association Award for Print Journalism, and the Martin Luther King Jr. DreamKeepers Award for community support through media. He also received the Order of Ottawa in 2015.

Photo: Ewart Walters receiving Martin Luther King Jr. Dreamkeepers award at Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, City Hall, January 18, 2010
City of Ottawa Archives | MG 934 / Spectrum, February 2010, p. 1

Photo: Order of Ottawa Recipient Ewart Walters at Ceremony, November 10, 2015
City of Ottawa Archives | CA027988

Ewart Walters’ inspiring address “Still searching for a Just Society” on receiving the Martin Luther King Jr. Dreamkeepers award was printed in the Spectrum with his reflections on his community activism and multiculturalism in Ottawa:

The object has always been to give visibility to sections of the community that were excluded or ignored. Whether it was parents struggling with a school board, unarmed citizens being wounded or killed by police bullets, racial profiling at the airport or on the roads, or people facing job discrimination, they are all issues that are still underreported or ignored by mainstream media. They were also all testament to the fact that we have still not accomplished the task of building a just society. . . . And so I challenge all within the sound of my voice to support leaders who are engendered with the spirit of Dr. King and Mr. [Pierre] Trudeau. Multiculturalism must be accorded its rightful equal place in the national discourse. Not the song and dance variety, but the authentic social policy which recognizes that all of us – Aboriginal, French and English, Arab and Jew, Black and Visible Minority – all are equal and require equal access and equal treatment. (MG934 “Still searching for a Just Society”, Spectrum, March 2010, p. 3)

Written by City of Ottawa Archives Archivist, Theresa Sorel, 2024.

We are excited to share that the Rideau Archives, the City of Ottawa Archives’ branch in North Gower, is currently undertaking a modernization to improve our researchers’ experience and better make use of existing facilities, while respecting the heritage designated building.

Opened in 1990, the Rideau Archives was established in the former North Gower Township Hall by the Rideau Township and local volunteers to preserve the documentary history of that township. Just a decade later, it would become part of the City of Ottawa Archives, following amalgamation in 2001. A true community archives, its local focus and dedication of volunteers has continued over the succeeding years, with the addition of professional archival support from City Archives’ staff.

The facility’s vault was improved early on to include professional climate control measures ensuring the preservation of the local documentary heritage stored within. New library shelving was added as the reference collection grew, while retaining the heritage character of the building.

Photo: View of Rideau Archives before the renovations

In 2023, we began the current renovation project to convert a portion of the building for more archival storage and add more library shelving. These modest but notable changes will allow us to improve access to collections, particularly our local history reference collection that had been tucked away on temporary shelving.

At the same time, we have reviewed the facility floorplan to improve access to the exhibit area and research tools like the microfilm reader, modernize the volunteer workspaces, and add archival processing space. These efforts will make the space more accessible and enable us to be more efficient in how we manage donations.

At time of writing, the new shelving has been installed and the storage area re-configured, and we are in the midst of reshelving and rehousing materials. One of the challenges has been to continue serving our researchers while working through these changes, but this has been outweighed by the patience and team spirit shown by the volunteers and Archives’ staff.

Photo: Rideau Archives improved access to facilities and resources

Photo: Updates at Rideau Archives features improved storage

Our goal is to complete these updates by the end of 2023. Watch this space for more “after” photos, or come down to the Rideau Archives to see the changes in-person! The Rideau Archives are located at 6581 Fourth Line Road in North Gower and are open on Tuesdays from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. The coffee is always on.

Written by Claire Sutton, supporting Archivist to Rideau Archives.

For more Rideau Archives history, visit the exhibit:

North Gower Township Hall Restoration: 1980-1990. 

6581 Fourth Line Road, North Gower

June 6, 2023 to May 31, 2024

After a vicious stabbing in March 1950, Ottawa’s Chief Constable lamented the “teenage tyranny” endured by Canada’s main cities since the end of the Second World War. Throughout the 1950s, Ottawa’s newspapers continued to report on teen gang violence in London, Glasgow, New York and Detroit, and in Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Hull. This violence was often associated with teenage dances.

This was certainly the case in Ottawa: in 1956, a near-riot was caused by 150 teens at a St. Luke’s dance, with the Chaudière Recreation Centre’s dances cancelled that same year due to trouble from a youth gang on Wellington Street. Lindenlea Park and Westboro Kiwanis Park also had to close their dance programs by 1958. The instigators were often “greasers” who preferred rock-and-roll music, clothing and hairstyles and used hot rods and motorcycles to drown out the music and annoy the dancers. The Ottawa Welfare Council announced that there was an “organized juvenile delinquency threat” in the city and educators worried that gangs pressured kids to do poorly in school. Still others saw gangs primarily as social groups, rarely delinquent in their actions. Nevertheless, newspapers advised anxious parents and tried to blame films and literature for glamourizing gangs. The 1950s ended with a supposed “gang war” in 1959 between 30 kids in rival francophone gangs in Eastview, using sticks and pop bottles as weapons. Some were noted to be wearing “tight pants, flashy sports coats and long haircuts.”

In England the Teddy Boy movement of the 1950s, which had involved hundreds of gangs in London including the Eagle Gang and the Chain Gang, had split into “mods” and “rockers” by the late 1950s. Rockers were like American greasers with slicked hair and leather jackets, whereas the mods mixed the flash of the Teddy Boy with styles associated with fans of modern jazz: narrow pant legs, Italian scooters, pea coats and long mop top hair. The conflict between the two groups in England proved to be quite heated: on March 30, 1964, a thousand mods and rockers rioted at Clacton. The CBC reported from England that the youth violence had not just been about poverty, as in the past; it was now about boredom. In May that year at Bournemouth, 200 youths were held by police for “teenage violence.”

Ottawa’s teen gangs appeared to have followed suit, with the separate traits of mods and rockers being distinguishable by the time of the 1959 gang war. In 1961, City officials had stated there were six teen gangs. However, in the same year, a magistrate advised that “the gang situation in Ottawa [ was ] not serious yet.” The worst incident came on April 3, 1965, when 18 youths were arrested after the police had been tipped off about a large fight between the Squirrels (rockers) and the Yohawks (mods) at Billings Bridge Shopping Centre and elsewhere. A few carried knives or lumber with nails (not razors and sharpened bike chains, as in England), but most arrests were for liquor-related offences. This led the Ottawa Journal to report that the Ottawa versions of mods and rockers were “more quiet and conservative” than their English counterparts. Indeed, there was a general belief that the newspapers had been playing up the gang issue and that very few Ottawa teens were actually violent. References to the gang were sometimes even lighthearted: soon after the incident, a sports reporter joked that the Chicago Black Hawks should be renamed the Yohawks, due to the players' long hair.

But Ottawa teens, if no longer as violent as in the 1950s, were now just as bored as their British counterparts. In May 1965, a place in Hull called Yohawk Haven  where the gang had taken to the new fad of skateboarding — was shut down due to problems stemming from up to a 1,000 “skurfers” on NCC land blocking traffic and retail. Without Yohawk Haven, and no replacement despite City promises, local teens were upset. A local teen, Susan Montgomery, advised the Journal that “Ottawa offers nothing to us teenagers.” Not only did she lament that the skateboarding area had been taken away, but she also felt there was no radio for teens, no Beatles concerts in the city, only parks that she felt were “for old people.”

Gangs persisted as the 1960s continued. But the emphasis on the cults of mods and rockers had faded in Ottawa, according to a Journal reporter, even one year after the 1965 arrests. Meanwhile, in Toronto’s Yorkville, May 1966 saw a battle between the Villagers and Greasers, with policemen trapped atop their cars by three hundred teens wielding bottles and (hockey) sticks. But all was about to change with the burgeoning hippie movement.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Stuart Clarkson, 2023.

For more rock and roll history, visit the Ottawa Rocks - Reunion Tour in the Barbara Ann Scott Gallery at City Hall, November 8, 2023 to September 3, 2025.

Post-war Ottawa underwent a dramatic phase of growth and expansion. As Ottawa’s importance grew both nationally and internationally, it became an attractive venue for entertainers. Throughout the 1950’s, a number of big-name performers graced Ottawa’s stages, including Fats Domino, Josephine Baker, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Tony Bennet, Duke Ellington, and teen idol Paul Anka. But, perhaps the most important entertainer to visit the city was Elvis Presley.

As the capital of this country, Ottawa played host to the world, hosting visiting dignitaries like Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir, the first female foreign minister in the world. American Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt also spent time in the city.

Title/Description: Crowd at Elvis Presley concert. Over nine thousand people attended the Presley concerts. The Ottawa Citizen reported that the fans were screaming so loud that it was impossible to actually hear Presley on stage. Fans carried pictures, buttons and other items to show their devotion to the rock 'n roll star.
Photographer: A. Andrews, C. Buckman, D. Gall, T. Grant.
Date: April 3, 1957.
Credit: Andrews-Newton Photographers Fonds / City of Ottawa Archives / MG393-AN-049378-026.
Copyright: City of Ottawa Archives.

Elvis Presley

Perhaps there was no greater pop-culture event in Ottawa during the 1950’s than the Elvis Presley concerts held at the Auditorium in April 1957. Presley embodied the spirit of rock n’ roll, a new phenomenon unfamiliar to adults. His presence in the city sent thousands of teenagers and young adults into fits of impassioned hysteria.

The “King” arrived in Ottawa on April 3, 1957. Teenagers traveled from as far as Montreal to attend the shows. A special train, nicknamed the “Rock N’ Roll Cannon Ball” was packed with over 500 concert-goers. When Presley stepped onto the stage, the audience of over 9,000 were so loud it was almost impossible to hear Presley singing. The fans were in a frenzy of Elvis worship: “some wept, some moaned; some clutched their heads in ecstasy; everybody screamed, stamped, clapped hands, flailed arms, one person got down on all fours and pounded the floor” (Parmeler 13). The police were out in record numbers because there was concern that the screaming fans would rush the stage.

Elvis Presley was a controversial entertainer because his ‘suggestive’ pelvis thrusting and dance moves scandalized many parents and authority figures. The Notre Dame Convent, viewing Presley as immoral and un-Christian, forbade its students from attending the concert. Eight students were expelled after going to see the King, and controversy gripped the city. The nuns later nullified the expulsions, but at least half of the girls remained enrolled in different schools. Elvis Presley definitely made an impression on Ottawa.

Title/Description: Elvis Presley at the Auditorium. Elvis performing on stage with guitar.
Photographer: A. Andrews, C. Buckman, D. Gall, T. Grant.
Date: April 3,1957.
Credit: Andrews-Newton Photographers Fonds / City of Ottawa Archives / MG393-AN-049378-109.
Copyright: City of Ottawa Archives.

Paul Anka

Singer Paul Anka was born in Ottawa on July 30, 1941. Anka showed a remarkable talent for music at an early age, often favouring his music over his studies at Fisher Park High School.

His father wanted him to focus on his studies, and sent him to live with his uncle in Hollywood. In 1957, Anka managed to travel to New York, and pitched his music to record companies there. By the age of 16, Paul Anka became one of the first Canadian rock n’ roll stars with the release of the self-composed single ‘ Diana ’.

Title/Description: Portrait of Paul Anka. Anka was born in Ottawa and became rose to become one of the greatest selling musicians in North America. His first song "Diana," written about his Ottawa baby-sitter, reached the top of the charts in only a few weeks. He went on to write hit after hit throughout the 1950's and 1960's. Anka is also famous for compositions written for other singers, such as Frank Sinatra and Tom Jones.
Photographer: Doug Bartlett.
Date: December 1956.
Credit: Andrews-Newton Photographers Fonds / City of Ottawa Archives / MG393-AN-P-003195-014.
Copyright: City of Ottawa Archives.

Anka was no ‘one-hit-wonder’. The list of songs composed by Anka is surprising and extensive. He successfully followed up on “ Diana ” with a number of hits including, “ Put Your Head on my Shoulder, ” “ You are my Destiny ,” “ Puppy Love ,” and “ Lonely Boy .” He also wrote “ My Way ” for Frank Sinatra and “ She’s a Lady ” for Tom Jones. He composed the theme song for The Tonight Show. He once said about his writing:

I can feel something making me write! It scares me sometimes, because I have a feeling it’s something outside of me coming in and taking over. I have to sit down and write, and everything falls into place. Sometimes I change a note or syllable later, but not much (Gardener 283).

By 1957, Anka had earned over $100,000; in 1958 this amount increased to $400,000. He became involved in Hollywood films, contributing as an actor, singer, and composer. Anka received a number of awards and recognitions, including 15 gold records and the 1961 Young Canadian Award. 1972, Mayor Pierre Benoit awarded him the key to the city, and declared August 27 “ Paul Anka Day ”.

Title/Description: Portrait of Paul Anka.
Photographer: Unknown.
Date: October 30, 1956.
Credit: Andrews-Newton Photographers Fonds / City of Ottawa Archives / MG393-AN-NP-P-003195-005.
Copyright: City of Ottawa Archives.

Seen here, speaking at the 1984 annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Civil Liberties and Human Rights Associations at Montreal, is civil liberties and Indigenous activist Don Whiteside (also known as sin a paw), born in New York, with a PhD from Stanford, and for many years a civil servant for the Canadian government. In 1970, Whiteside moored the ailing Civil Liberties Association, National Capital Region [CLA-NCR] after it was rocked with early leadership and structural issues and soon was instrumental in establishing the Federation as a national umbrella group in 1971.

Several years before this meeting, Whiteside butted heads with recently graduated lawyer Lawrence Greenspon over the leadership and direction of CLA-NCR, with Whiteside (who claimed CLA-NCR itself had experienced RCMP interference) seeing police overreach as the greatest threat to Canadian civil liberties and Greenspon wanting to focus instead on accessibility rights. Greenspon moved on, and Whiteside led the CLA-NCR (and the Federation) into the 1980s, when the Federation was renamed the Canadian Rights and Liberties Federation.

With Whiteside’s health deteriorating in the early 1990s, leading up to his death in Nepean in 1993 at the age of 62, the Federation faltered and never recovered.

Title: Federation AGM, Montreal, March 1984
Source: MG259-9-1 / 2014.0075.1

Written by Archivist Stuart Clarkson, City of Ottawa Archives | August 2023

Club Moustache served as the National Capital Region’s first formal 2SLGBTQ+ organization that brought folks together through sports and recreation. Established in 1986, the organization was the brainchild of a small group of people who were meeting regularly to play recreational volleyball. The initial idea was floated at a house party one night, and quickly resulted in the establishment of the bilingual not-for-profit organization. Club Moustache’s objectives centered around providing a forum for education, skills improvement, community building, and support for the National Capital Region’s 2SLGBTQ+ community, against the backdrop of sports and recreation.

Club Moustache quickly expanded to include a bowling and ‘stitch & bitch’ group.  Within a few short years, it had over 130 members and offered a wide range of activities from badminton, self-defence, cycling, brunch, weekend retreats, square dancing, curling, swimming, movie nights, and much more. At its height, the organization had over 300 members.

Club Moustache not only brought folks together locally, but also organized and took part in 2SLGBTQ+ events and activities across the country and internationally. In 1990, it sent a contingent to the third International Gay Games hosted in Vancouver. Approximately 50 participants from the National Capital Region participated in the event. The organization also took part in various IGLOO (International Gay and Lesbian Outdoor Organizations) events held internationally.

In 1994, Club Moustache changed its name to Time Out/Temps Libre to better represent its members and be more inclusive.

Club Moustache’s organizational records can be found at the City of Ottawa Archives.  These records provide evidence of 2SLGBTQ+ organizing and community building in the National Capital Region through the 1980s and 1990s.

Written by Archivist Ariana Ho, City of Ottawa Archives, August 2023

Title/Description: Club Moustache retreat Brochure – Villa Renascence®, August 15-17, 1986
Source: MG422 Lambda Foundation for Excellence fonds

Title/Description: Club Moustache Holiday Bulletin, December 1990
Source: MG422 Lambda Foundation for Excellence fonds

Title/Description: Arts and Parks Cycle tours. Club Moustache, 1988
Source: MG422 Lambda Foundation for Excellence fonds

Ottawa Rough Riders Drum Majorette Dorothy Lepine practicing with the Ottawa Technical High School band, 1946
City of Ottawa Archives | CA025531

Dorothy Lepine Wilkie on her visit to see the Archives’ 2017 display on her time as the Rough Riders Drum Majorette, July 27, 2017

The City of Ottawa Archives is probably best known for its bright yellow custom-built facility on Tallwood Drive in Nepean, the Central branch. Here we preserve and make accessible the records of the City of Ottawa, host our partner organizations, and broadly engage with the community. However, the Archives also has two satellite branches that make collections available in their respective communities in Gloucester and Rideau ward. Our current news relates to the Rideau branch, which is housed at the former North Gower Township Hall.

Formerly known as the Rideau Township Archives, this facility and its collection were established and managed by a group of devoted heritage volunteers with support from the former Rideau Township in 1990. After amalgamation in 2001, it became part of the City of Ottawa Archives but retained its local focus and its collections have remained on-site. It continues to be run largely by the same Friends of the Rideau Archives group as at its formation, with support from the City Archives staff providing professional guidance and resources for preservation and access. The collection is particularly strong in rural, agricultural history, and the dedicated volunteers are mostly local residents who can share first-hand knowledge of the area’s rich past that adds greatly to the collections found there.

The Rideau Archives is currently undergoing a renovation to expand the library and archives storage areas, to ensure we can keep up with donations and continue to professionally manage the holdings. These renovations have caused us to reflect on where we have come from, as many such projects do. With that in mind, we are launching an exhibit this June on the restoration project of the North Gower Township Hall, which took place between 1980 and 1990 and was completed just prior to the Archives’ opening. The exhibit reveals the building’s history and demonstrates just how comprehensive the restoration project was, as these before and after photographs of the exterior show (CA027712 and CA027722).

Description: North Gower Town Hall (pre-renovation) [1967-1980]
Source: City of Ottawa Archives | CA027712

Description: North Gower Town Hall after restoration, [after 1990] n.d.
Source: City of Ottawa Archives | CA027722

We hope that visitors will enjoy learning about the architectural gem that is the former Township Hall while meeting our volunteers and seeing the resources available in the reference room. The Rideau Archives are located at 6581 Fourth Line Road in North Gower and are open on Tuesdays from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. We think you’ll find it’s worth the trip to experience this unique community archives.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist Claire Sutton, June 2023.

The café Le Hibou presented a venue for showcasing the artistry not only of musicians but also of graphic artists. Robert Rosewarne and David Andoff are two of the more notable artists who created promotional posters for shows.

Rosewarne:

Le Hibou poster featuring: David Rea, Cedric Smith, Donna Marie De Bolt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lenny Breau, February 18 – March 23, 1969
City of Ottawa Archives | CA027588

Le Hibou poster featuring: Bruce Cockburn, A. Rosewood Daydream, Peter and Susan Hoghson and Nev Wells, MRQ [Modern Rock Quartet, Otis Pann benefit (Ann Brady, Bill Stevenson, David Wiffen, Brent Titcomb, Crabgrass & Gillis, et al) May 6 – June 28, 1970
City of Ottawa Archives | CA027582

Andoff:

Le Hibou poster featuring: Main Line! [Mainline], August 3-8, 1971
City of Ottawa Archives | CA027595

Around 1970, soon after the folk explosion of 1968, Le Hibou’s poster style was befittingly eclectic.

The posters were mainly for information. In terms of lettering, the designers tended to put the performer’s name in all-caps, le Hibou and performance info in all-lower case. Notable is the regular use of dry transfers instead of letterpress.

Both serifed (Times perhaps) and unserifed (mostly the ever-popular Helvetica) typefaces, though rarely together. The posters have a sense of sparseness, minimalism, sometimes even haste or insufficiency.

In one of the more complex posters, for Rooshikumar Pandya’s appearance in November 1970, the artist used a promo photo of the musician seated at a riverbank with his sitar, matching with this the Orea dry transfer letters just issued the year before by Mecanorma in imitation of the lettering used in the titles of the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie, due to their connection with India.

Complex posters covering several weeks of performers were more often hand lettered with little or no imagery; one of the more artistic examples of this shows only Bruce Cockburn’s left eye framed by the left lens of his glasses, for a summer-fall 1971 poster:

Le Hibou poster featuring: Shawn Phillips / The Sorry Muthas / Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee / Eric Anderson / Lenny Breau / Jerry Jeff Walker / Goose Creek Symphony / Murray McLauchlan / Bruce Cockburn / Syrinx | August 24 – October 31, 1971
City of Ottawa Archives | CA027587

Sometimes type was created by cutting paper out into letter shapes and gluing them on directly, often to match typefaces in the original art provided (Jerry Jeff Walker, Lenny Breau).

Often album artwork or promotional photographs were used, likely sourced from promotional kits sent by record labels in advance of the shows. Collage was occasionally employed (Dr. John), probably using multiple copies of a photo in the press kit.

Some images were reused – the photo of Lenny Breau (showing him at a live gig, probably from a press kit) was used for his January 6-11, 1970 appearance and differently for a February 9-14, 1971 poster which was then reused with little change (only dates) for May 25-30, 1971 appearance.

Limited to monochromatic printing. Sometimes this was used to artistic effect using high-contrast images (Lenny Breau), other times very low in contrast to be seen as photographs (Rooshikumar Pandya, Syrinx). Colours were generally blues and yellows and greens.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Stuart Clarkson, May 2023

The City of Ottawa Archives holds a photographic album that documents the assembly of the National War Memorial between 1938 and 1939, as well as the development of Confederation Square. All the photographs were taken by Alfred E. Day, Chief Photographer for the Federal Government of Public Works.

The National War Memorial stands in prominence in downtown at Ottawa in Confederation Square and is the site of Canada’s Remembrance Day ceremonies. There are 22 bronze statutes of military men and women, from all sectors of the Canadian Armed Forces, in uniform (two on horseback) and carrying equipment, dragging a large gun through a large arch with the allegorical figures of Peace and Freedom as guides.

Mounted bronze military statues at the National War Memorial, October 1938
City of Ottawa Archives | CA018630

The Canadian government wanted a monument in Ottawa to honour the men and women who during the First Word War (1914-1918) or as it was first known, “The Great War.” Emphasis was to be on self-sacrifice and individual bravery rather then a glorification of war. Vernon March (1891-1930), in 1926, won the world-wide competition. He titled the monument, “The Response.” The bronze figures were cast in England by March and his family, but before its completion, he died in 1930. It was left to his six brothers and sister Elsie (who were assisting) to complete the works, which were finished in 1932. After some delay, due to waiting on the construction of the granite arch in Ottawa, the pieces were finally shipped to Canada in 1937 in 35 boxes.

National War Memorial construction site, August 8, 1938
City of Ottawa Archives | CA018610

Row of unpacked bronze military statutes for the National War Memorial, September 29, 1938
City of Ottawa Archives | CA018619

In 1938, three of March’s brothers (Sydney, Percival and Walter) were on-hand to supervise the assemblage of the monument. It was finally completed on October 19, 1939.

Sidney, Percy and Walter March on the steps of the National War Memorial, October 10, 1938
City of Ottawa Archives | CA018624

His Majesty King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were at the unveiling ceremony of the National War Memorial on May 21, 1939. The King and Queen surprised security at the end of the ceremony by disappearing into the large crowd for over 40 minutes to mingle with the approximately 10,000 First World War veterans who were present. An estimated 100,000 individuals were present that day.

Confederation Square, National War Memorial, 1939
City of Ottawa Archives | CA018632

The monument was originally conceived to commemorate the First World War however, it was finished mere month before the outbreak of the Second World War. Over the years additions have been made to the monument to honour the Second World War (1939-1945), the Korean War (1950-1953), the South African War (1899-1902), and the mission in Afghanistan (2001-2014). In 2000, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added to the site.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Jacinda Bain, April 2023.

Title/Description: City Hall after the fire, April 1, 1931
Item: City of Ottawa Archives | CA025474

On March 31, 1931 a fire devastated Ottawa’s second City Hall built in 1877. City records from the Board of Control as well as a photograph taken just after the fire from the Historical Society of Ottawa fonds, provide details on the fire and its aftermath.

Ottawa’s second City Hall located at Elgin Street between Queen and Albert streets was built between 1875 and 1877. In an 1872 report to Council, the Board of Works recommended the building of a new City Hall “to be in keeping with the improvement of the City, and to keep safe all the records of the Corporation, as the present one is in a very dilapidated state and unworthy of the Capital of the Dominion”. Ottawa’s first City Hall, the wooden West Ward Market building, was vermin infested and was not adequate to the needs of the growing city.

The new City Hall’s cornerstone was first laid on July 20, 1875.  The Ottawa Citizen reported that “[t]he magnanimous City Clerk, unwilling to allow the event to transpire without some celebration, allowed two dozen of ginger beer and a cocoa-nut, which the assembled crowd disposed of in a remarkably short time.” Embedded underneath the mortar of the stone was a copper box containing several Dominion coins, a copy of each city newspaper from 1875, a copy of Parliamentary Companion for 1875, a copy of William P. Lett’s Recollections of Bytown and its Old Inhabitants and a special document written by City Clerk William P. Lett including a brief history of Bytown and Ottawa and a list of municipal officials.

Designed by architects Horsey and Sheard, the elegant building built of Gloucester blue limestone and Ohio sandstone with its distinctive tower is a combination of the Second Empire and Italianate architectural styles of the nineteenth century. It cost $85,000 and was officially opened on June 18, 1877. The building was extensively renovated in 1910 by architect Colborne Powell Meredith who expanded interior office space and added third floor windows to the front two towers.

On March 31, 1931, a fire severely damaged the third and fourth floors of City Hall. It started in the Drafting Room and spread to adjoining offices. The Commissioner of Works office, the Assessment Department, the Engineering Department, and the Accounting Branch were the some of the areas most affected by the blaze. Papers and books on the various desks were destroyed but the fire did not consume most of the documents in the bookcases, filing cabinets and drawers. However, they were severely damaged by the smoke and the water. Apart from a few exceptions, all the assessment rolls and collector’s rolls were lost.

The fire burned through the floor in the Assessment Commissioner’s office. The floor collapsed into the Board of Control offices on the second floor, then into the Central Canada Exhibition office on the ground floor and at last crashed into the cellar. The Ottawa Journal reported that seven fire fighters were injured when they fell through the floor in the midst of smouldering debris.  

In the days and weeks that followed, the majority of the City Hall offices were moved into the Transportation Building, corner of Rideau Street and Little Sussex Street (now Col. By Drive). The elected officials negotiated a 37-month lease with the Booth family interest, owners of the building. As it turned out, they were to stay there for the next 27 years until the opening of the City Hall building located at 111 Sussex Drive.

In October 1931, City Council approved City Hall’s demolition after the building was deemed beyond repair.  D. E. McKenzie, the winning contractor, began the demolition that November.  The tender specifications stipulated that the underground heating plant not be demolished and that the cornerstone and bell be turned over to the City Clerk for safe keeping. After the removal of the cornerstone in January 1931 the contractor became involved in a legal dispute with the City over possession of the cornerstone’s time capsule claiming it as salvage. The box eventually was given to the custody of the City Clerk, although missing some of the contents including the coins and some documents. The cornerstone itself was moved 100 feet from the City Hall site and left outside on top of a foundation wall near the heating plant.  Both the cornerstone and the time capsule were donated to the Historical Society of Ottawa in 1958 where they were displayed at the Bytown Museum until they were returned again to the City as part of the collections of the City of Ottawa Archives. 

Other remnants from the City Hall fire include a bell and a carved stone device of arms which are on display at the City of Ottawa Archives.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivists, Theresa Sorel and Serge Barbe, published March 2023.

The café Le Hibou was a seminal Ottawa venue for Canadian and American musicians playing blues and gospel, the folk music of North America’s Black communities that had spread as musicians relocated in the Great Migrations.

Rev. Gary Davis, appearing at Le Hibou in October 1970, was a blind, self-taught guitarist who had contributed to the Piedmont blues style. Davis’ first record in 1954 was with fellow blind musician Sonny Terry, a harmonica player who performed in November 1969 with vocalist and long-time collaborator Brownie McGhee. Both Terry and Davis were influential on a younger generation of gifted blues musicians, including Taj Mahal, who headed off to tour Spain as a travelling musician soon after his March 1970 gig. Chicago blues players at Le Hibou included the James Cotton Blues Band, appearing in May 1971 to provide arrangements of blues favourites.

Over the 1960s, blues had been surpassed in popularity by soul music, a combination of rhythm and blues with gospel. Trevor Payne had been called “Canada’s original soul crusader” but was, already by the time of his January 1970 shows at Le Hibou, turning more toward gospel music and has since gone on to still greater acclaim leading the Montreal Jubilee Gospel Choir.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Stuart Clarkson, January 2023.

For more rock and roll history, visit Ottawa Rocks - Reunion Tour in the Barbara Ann Scott Gallery at City Hall, November 8, 2023 to September 3, 2025
 

On 29 September 1955, a young man addressed an Ottawa gathering, sponsored by the Cooperative Union of Canada and the Unitarian Service Committee. His name was Lakshmi Chand Jain, who Sudhir Ghosh (Gandhi’s emissary) later said “combined compassion and administrative ability in an unusual measure.”

Jain had been invited to Canada to speak about India’s experience with cooperatives, which North American governments, gripped with mid-century McCarthyism, viewed suspiciously as borderline communist.

Jain argued to the contrary that the cooperatives in India were entrepreneurial in nature and would lead India toward a broader democracy. His experience of helping was deep – he had managed a refugee camp in the days of the Partition and had assisted Ghosh in the Faridabad resettlement project.

Much later in his career, he would be appointed Indian High Commissioner to South Africa. But on that day in 1955, he was still a young man, seen here in Ottawa with one of his sponsors, Lotta Hitschmanova, Executive Director of the Unitarian Service Committee Canada. She had her own lengthy career of helping refugees and distressed persons that began with Nazi occupation in Europe. Denied entry into the United States in 1942 due to restrictions on Jewish immigration when she herself fled, she settled in Ottawa, going on to run Unitarian Service Committee (USC) Canada for over forty years.

Photo: Lakshmi Chand Jain, executive secretary of the Indian Cooperative Union, with Lotta Hitschmanova [Lotte Hitschmann], Executive Director of the Canadian branch of the Unitarian Service Committee
City of Ottawa Archives | MG393-NP-38863-001 / 34 D 77

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Stuart Clarkson, January 2023.

Landed Firestone touring plane at Uplands Field, Ottawa, with tour group
City of Ottawa Archives | MGR033-09-012

Originally published in the Rideau Township Historical Society Newsletter, 2017, written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Stuart Clarkson.

Aerial photos from the Alexander Onoszko fonds are fascinating records showing Ottawa’s built landscape from the mid-twentieth century to the 1980s. One of the more striking images I discovered recently is CA008379, “Royal Ottawa Sanatorium”, which shows an institution on extensive grounds wedged between Carling Avenue and Highway 417 during the Queensway’s construction. Realizing I knew little about these buildings and the Royal Ottawa’s history, I set about investigating with help from the Sanatorium’s records, which are held by the Archives in our community records.

Title/Description: Royal Ottawa Sanatorium, 1960
Source: City of Ottawa Archives | Alex Onoszko, MG159, CA008379

Taken in 1960, the Onoszko photo shows the buildings towards the end of their life as a tuberculosis sanatorium. It is hard to believe from how closely the houses crowd around the hospital in the image, but this was once wide-open countryside, and the sanatorium was on the outskirts of the city. This isolation was intentional -- there were no drug treatments for the respiratory disease when it opened in 1910, and a diagnosis of tuberculosis or “consumption” was often seen as a death sentence. This must have been terrifying given its prevalence. In 1905, it was estimated there were over 500 consumptives in Ottawa, with the disease killing twice as many residents as all other infectious diseases combined. The only treatment was rest, fresh air, and good food, which most of Canada’s working-class population could not afford.

The National Sanatorium Association began working in the late nineteenth century to develop specialized hospitals to combat this terrible disease, at a time when hospitals were funded by charitable organizations or privately by its patients. With the local anti-tuberculosis association, they raised enough money from the public to pay for a new hospital in Ottawa for advanced cases, to be named the Lady Grey Hospital after the Governor General’s daughter, a major fundraiser for the new institution. It was only the third such hospital in Ontario.

The Lady Grey Hospital is visible in the Onoszko photo at the far right of the complex. It was built in a secluded wooded area with large grounds and housed 30 beds, all of which were filled within its first year. The hospital was designed to allow for all wards to open their windows towards the south for natural ventilation. This design can best be seen in an earlier photo of the hospital, CA001795.

Title/Description: Lady Grey Building, Royal Ottawa Sanatorium, ca. 1930,
Source: City of Ottawa Archives | Hands Studio, MG014, CA001795

Immediately after the hospital opened, there were plans to build a sanatorium for less extreme cases. The Perley Memorial Building (named after its largest funder, lumber merchant George Perley) was the result; in the Onoszko photo, this is the building with a curved front directly south of the water tower. When it was opened in 1913 by H.R.H. Duke of Connaught (Governor General, and son of Queen Victoria), the buildings became collectively known as the Royal Ottawa Sanatorium.

From all accounts, life here was challenging despite efforts to provide entertainment, since treatment consisted of continuous rest for most patients. Roger Power, the Sanatorium’s historian, writes in The Story of the Royal Ottawa Hospital (1985): “It is hard now to realize that patients spent months and years in the Sanatorium... For some, it was as much as half a normal life time.” (p 39) Such long periods of isolation from friends and family truly does seem impossible to imagine.

As Ottawa grew, and awareness in the community increased concerning the need to isolate tuberculosis sufferers, “the San” continued its building program. The Red Cross funded a Preventorium for children in the early 1920s, built to the north of the Lady Grey building (CA027487). Then in the mid-1920s, the Whitney building opened as another residence for adults. In the Onoszko photo, this is the large structure behind and to the north of the Lady Grey building. While WWII stalled further construction, another massive building campaign took place in the 1950s, which resulted in the Infirmary Building (later known as the Carmichael). This is the structure to the far left of the institution’s grounds in the Onoszko image.

The D. Palmer Howe scrapbook (MG825) is an intriguing album featuring a collection of original black and white photographic prints of Ottawa in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Created around Christmas of 1873, the scrapbook may have been compiled by Howe to commemorate his stay in Ottawa, when he represented the St. John Tribune on the parliamentary reporter’s Gallery. The images represent the city at a pivotal moment of change and tension as it became the capital of the new Dominion of Canada and provide evidence of the role of the press in this enterprise.

Title/Description: Looking towards Chaudiere Falls
Source: City of Ottawa Archives | MG825 - CA027328

Howe’s scrapbook opens with a spread of images of the new and contentiously expensive Parliament Buildings. Of the fifty-one photographs compiled by D. Palmer Howe (1846-1874), eleven depict what was then the largest building project in North America. The building project’s lengthy construction between 1859-1876 followed the designation of Ottawa as the capital and continued on far past Confederation. These photos include exteriors of the Centre, West, and East blocks as well as interiors of the House of Commons and Senate chambers, showing their grand Gothic-revival style evoking England’s Houses of Parliament and its parliamentary democracy.

The impressive parliament images are followed immediately by a dozen photographs of the Ottawa River and the lumber trade. These document the city’s timber slides, mills, and massive lumber pilings, which reveal the continuing dominance of the lumber trade at that time, both for the economy and for Ottawa’s physical landscape. One notable view possibly taken from the parliament escarpment looks towards Chaudière Falls (CA027328) and shows the area’s mix of industrial and residential structures, some of which appear precariously built into the side of gullies. Through Howe’s scrapbook, we see the contrast of Ottawa’s working class and rough industrial aspect next to the formality and regularity of the parliament buildings - a hint of the tension the city experienced in becoming the seat of government.

Indeed, conflict and tension were felt across the new Dominion in the 1860s and 1870s. For decades, Canadian politics had been controlled by the fractious, provincial, elite electorate of white property owners who controlled their position through limiting voting rights and election fraud. Confederation, which was partly intended to resolve inter-regional tensions, was achieved only after years of negotiation and without consultation with the electorate. Responsible government answerable to the people was only in nascent form in the late nineteenth century.

Title/Description: Reporter’s Gallery, Parliament Buildings
Source: City of Ottawa Archives | MG825 - CA027325

Playing a significant role in these early days of the dominion government was the press. From the first legislative session in Ottawa in 1866 until 1875, there were no formal recordings of parliamentary debates. It was down to a small group of newspaper reporters known as the Reporter’s Gallery to record the proceedings and transmit them to their newspapers’ readers. While the press had reported on government’s activities before Confederation, this new self-governing body (formed in 1867 under the authority of the Speaker of the House) gave their activities legitimacy. D. Palmer Howe was one of the early journalists working in Ottawa, moving to the city from New Brunswick to write for the St. John Tribune between 1871-1874. A key image in his scrapbook documents what the Reporter’s Gallery looked like in the original House of Commons building (CA027325). The Gallery is a broad mezzanine in the Gothic-revival style positioned directly behind the Speaker’s chair, its physical location demonstrating from where the press received its authority.

Title/Description: Portrait of the Reporter’s Gallery, March 1873
Item: City of Ottawa Archives | MG825 -  CA027326

If the press was part of the democratic process from Confederation onwards, it was also a biased enterprise, with reporters being associated with and receiving patronage from specific parties or politicians. For example, Tom White, whom Howe dubs the “Father of the Reporter’s Gallery” in his scrapbook, represented the Montreal Gazette during the same period as Howe and used his newspaper as both a mouthpiece for the Conservative party and a platform for his political career. Moreover, only the elite could become part of the Reporter’s Gallery. Elitism is evident in Howe’s scrapbook in a group portrait of the Gallery dating from 1873 (CA027326). Based on Howe’s captions, we see that the composition of the Gallery in March 1873 reflected the former colonies that had joined the new Dominion of Canada (newspapers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec are all represented). They are also all white, middle-class, and male, including Howe himself (shown seated at far left). From our vantage point today, this portrait documents those who were privileged to have a voice in the late nineteenth century, a voice that transmitted their interpretation of parliamentary proceedings and often legitimized the position of those in power, at a time when large numbers of Canadians were still not enfranchised, including Indigenous peoples, women, working class men, and people of colour.

There is more to say about the D. Palmer Howe scrapbook than there is space to discuss here. (The story of the images’ probable photographers, William Notman and William James Topley, whose studio sat across from parliament on Wellington Street, is worth a post on its own.) This striking scrapbook shows us a past that seems at once far away from the tidiness of modern Ottawa, and yet so near in terms of the social and political themes glimpsed here. Howe’s album hints at how democracy in Canada has always been contentious, a rough and tumble process that has often used exclusion to define and privilege those with power. It is important to remember as we identify past injustices, work towards reconciliation and inclusion, and when we see events that challenge democracy and freedom of expression. Howe’s scrapbook reminds us that democracy isn’t automatically inclusive or peaceful – we need to work at it to make it so.

Written by City of Ottawa Archivist, Claire Sutton, August 2021.