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.