Country

 The cabinets here are full of curiosities of the Victorian era.

This painting is by Annabella McLeod, titled View Of The Ottawa River Looking Southeast Towards Parliament Hill and the Entrance of the Rideau Canal, painted in the 1880s.

Surgical methods of the era could be strange.

The 1860s saw the Confederation movement and the union of the Canadian colonies into one country as part of the British empire. While the Bytown Museum is by nature a local history museum, because this is the capital, part of its story is national in scope.

One of the most famous photographs of Canadian history- the Fathers of Confederation at the Charlottetown Conference of 1864.

Busts of two of the Fathers, and particularly driving forces of Confederation. John A. Macdonald and George-Etienne Cartier were co-premiers of the Canadas

Capital

 This is a model of Queen Victoria, who selected Ottawa initially to be the capital of the United Canadas, and subsequently the capital of the country as a whole when Confederation made the Canadian colonies into a country of its own.

A capital meant the building of Parliament.

Some said she pointed at a map and that's how the capital was chosen. Others said she looked at art sent to her of the region. Realistically, with its place at the boundary between the former Upper and Lower Canada, and its place some distance from the American border, Ottawa made sense for the capital.

These are items from the old Russell Hotel.

There had been a trend of moving capitals around in the colonies before Ottawa was settled on. Now the governor-general would come to town.

This dress belonged to Lady Minto, wife to Lord Minto, one of the governor-generals.

The Victorian era was transformative, as well as contradictory.

Sarah Olmstead had immigrated to Canada, where in 1808 she married Philemon Wright II. His father founded what is now Hull. He died a few years later. Sarah subsequently married Nicholas Sparks, who bought land that was subsequently made use of for the Rideau Canal. An unknown artist completed a portrait of her late in life, and it resides here.

Change

Some of the artifacts of the old Bytown with its violent ways.

There was no shortage of pubs, brothels, and the associated troubles.  

In 1900, the Great Fire occurred. Most of Hull on the Quebec side was destroyed by the fire, which jumped the river at the islands around the Chaudiere Falls, thanks to the many lumberyards being established around the area. Those yards caught fire, and the inferno spread into Ottawa, ultimately being brought to heel in Lebreton Flats. Some of the artifacts of the fire are found here, along with photographs. 

As 1854 passed into 1855, the new year brought a new name. Bytown became Ottawa, named after the river. Which in and of itself was a spelling mistake on the part of British surveyors in the 1790s- the proper term would have been the Odawa.

This was the mayor's chair in the 1850s-60s, carved in mahogany.

Here on the third floor, there are three models of the evolution of the city. It starts in 1832, with very little presence after the Canal has been built. Only one building appears in all three models- in this one it is seen at right, fenced in. That is the early version of the church now known as Notre Dame, which was rebuilt after its first incarnation. What is now Parliament Hill was at the time Barrack Hill, still recognizable across the Canal.

By the early 1850s, the city was developing more and more. Notre Dame is more obvious, while Barrack Hill is still its pre-Parliament self.

But by 1918, everything had changed. The reservoir basin of the Canal has shrunk, Parliament Hill is obvious (with Centre Block back under construction after the 1916 fire), and Notre Dame looks much as it does today.

Bytown

In the 1840s, Sister Elisabeth Bruyere and fellow Grey Nuns from Montreal came to Bytown, establishing a hospital, orphanage, school, and other social services. Sister Elisabeth's legacy remains today, with two hospitals in the city under the umbrella of the Bruyere organization, and a convent still active beside one of them.

After the Canal was built, timber was the dominant industry in the Ottawa Valley, and with both sides of the river being involved, the growing urban centers were keys to that industry. This is a remarkable artifact, a table carved by an employee of one of the lumber companies, done in three dimensions, showing the areas of the timber companies around the islands in the river.

The portrait on the wall is that of J.R. Booth, a lumber tycoon and railroad baron who established himself in what was Bytown and later became Ottawa. At one point, his lumber company was the largest in the world.

The actual work of the lumber men was a hard one, for months out of the year, out in the bush. 

This display case features some of their artifacts. 

Joseph Montferrand was one of the lumberjacks, a French-Canadian giant of a man who became a legend in the Ottawa Valley, today still remembered in folklore. It was said he once beat 150 men on the Chaudiere Bridge, members of an Irish street gang looking to make trouble.

Caulk boots, with nails or cleats on the soles, were used by the river drivers to pass over slippery logs. The bible box beside it was carved by Robert Spallin during time off in the camps.

This belt is an example of those worn by French-Canadian lumbermen.

Tools of the trade.

For a time, Bytown had a reputation as the most violent town in British North America, with riots, old-world biases spilling over into fights, and access to alcohol leading to troubles, all with minimal law enforcement in those early years.