Museum Of History

 Today I begin a series from a visit made in December to the Canadian Museum of History, which resides on the shore of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, directly across from Parliament Hill, which can be seen in these two shots. The curatorial wing at left and the exhibition wing at right is the masterpiece design of First Nations architect Douglas Cardinal, who lives in the Ottawa area. He has buildings elsewhere on the continent; my American readers may have visited the National Museum of the American Indian, which is his design. I am a member of this museum and the War Museum.

I went through a couple of special exhibits but took no pictures (I'll have to remedy that on a future visit, as one of the items was a sheet of music written by Beethoven himself). I ended up in the First Peoples Hall, a winding corridor filled with artifacts, both centuries old and contemporary.

This is one of the first things you see, a blending of two images, past and present. A native encampment on the shore of the river, a few metres down slope from this spot, is from a painting in the 19th century. The far shore is how things look today.

Both images are below. The painting features more land to the east, while the photograph features more of the upstream view to the west. What is today Parliament Hill was known as Barrack's Hill at the time of the building of the Rideau Canal; buildings can be seen on its heights, and it occupies the right of the painting, as opposed to being central in the photograph. 

Into the Hall I went.

This coat is one of the Museum's prize artifacts. It belonged to Louis Riel, seen in the photograph to the right. Riel was the Metis leader who led his people in the latter 19th century to oppose the policies of the government. He was executed for treason. Today he's considered a Father of Confederation- the founder of Manitoba.