City Daily Photo Theme Day: Best Of The Year

Today I have favourite shots from the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River, with a definite emphasis on the Canadian Museum of History. During a visit I showed last January, the museum had an exhibit showing about Neanderthals. This reverse on the old stereotype made me smile.

The same applied to this at the end of the exhibit, a refreshingly modern look on what a Neanderthal might look like in the current day. It turned out to be an enlightening exhibit.

This look outside includes an art installation of a wolf in a canoe. The Ottawa River and Alexandra Bridge are in the background.

A church, St. Onuphrius, is at the heart of the permanent galleries in the museum.

Here we have a view upon leaving, of the Museum's curatorial wing at left and the entrance to the exhibit wing in the background.

A few months later I came across this mural in a courtyard near Gatineau's city hall.

The Tulip Festival is a tradition on both sides of the Ottawa River. These were near where the Portage Bridge emerges into Gatineau, a lovely mix of white, purple, and pink.

And here are some outside the Museum of History.

Late in the summer I paid a couple of return visits to the Museum. This is in the Great Hall, which is filled with First Nations totems and house facades.

And this is my favourite work of art in the region, Morning Star, by Alex Janvier, captured during this visit. The Dene artist painted this colourful abstract mural on one of the domes inside the Museum. It never fails to raise my spirits.

Further along in the permanent galleries is this, an elkskin with painted images on it in a circle. This is of the Blackfoot people of the plains, and it resides in a place of honour here in the museum.

Here we have powow regalia, given to the Museum by its owner, a First Nations powow dancer.

And I finish off with this view, outside the Museum, showing Parliament Hill and the Chateau Laurier across the river.