{"id":833036,"date":"2026-07-29T05:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833036\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T05:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:55:24","slug":"how-the-bytown-museum-is-telling-200-years-of-ottawa-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833036\/","title":{"rendered":"How the ByTown Museum is telling 200 years of Ottawa history"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the edge of the Rideau Canal, where green water slips past the Ottawa locks before meeting the Ottawa River, sits a squat stone building that predates the country.<\/p>\n

Built in 1827 during the construction of the Rideau Canal, the old Commissariat building once served as the military supply hub for Colonel John By\u2019s ambitious engineering project. Inside its thick limestone walls were offices, records, food stores, money, gunpowder and alcohol destined for the thousands of workers carving a water route through the wilderness between Ottawa and Kingston.<\/p>\n

Today, the building houses the Bytown Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Much of the structure remains remarkably unchanged. The heavy wooden rafters overhead are original. So is the vault where supplies and spirits were once locked away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founded by the Women\u2019s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa in 1917, the museum moved into the building in 1951 and opened there the following year.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s permanent exhibition, Where Ottawa Begins, traces the city\u2019s story from long before Bytown existed through to the First World War. Along the way are thousands of artifacts tied to canal workers, lumber barons, politicians, soldiers, photographers and ordinary residents who helped shape the capital.<\/p>\n

Long before Colonel By arrived, the Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau rivers served as gathering places, transportation corridors and trade routes for Indigenous communities. A recent renewal of the museum\u2019s galleries has placed greater emphasis on those histories and perspectives.<\/p>\n

\"\"The original cellar on the main floor of the ByTown Museum. Photo by Ellen Bond. <\/p>\n

Towering over the entrance staircase is River to Sky, a two-storey mural created by local Indigenous artists Claire Brazeau and Emily Brascoup\u00e9 of the Three Sisters Art Collective. Nearby are some of the museum\u2019s oldest objects: stone tools discovered along the banks of the Kichi Z\u012bb\u012b, or Ottawa River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are some stone tools that are found along the banks of the Kichi Z\u012bb\u012b or the Ottawa River,\u201d said Chloe Dennis, exhibition and collections manager at the Bytown Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From there, the museum moves into the arrival of Colonel John By and the massive undertaking that transformed a rugged settlement into Bytown.<\/p>\n

One display contains a trunk that belonged to Colonel By himself. Beside it are silhouettes of By, his wife and daughters, considered among the only true likenesses of him.<\/p>\n

Another artifact reflects the prestige and politics tied to the canal project. The Drummond Cup, a silver presentation cup commissioned by By for contractor Robert Drummond, is considered one of the museum\u2019s most valuable objects. Inscribed on the side is May 1831 \u2014 the canal\u2019s original completion target. The waterway would not officially open until the following year.<\/p>\n

It was a tough life for the labourers who built the canal. Most were Irish immigrants, along with Scottish, English, French Canadian, and American workers who spent years clearing forests, blasting rock, and digging channels through swampy terrain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really hard, laborious work,\u201d Dennis said. \u201cThey worked long days, six days a week. There was disease, danger, explosions, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum estimates roughly 1,000 workers died during canal construction.<\/p>\n

\"\"Machinery used to build the Rideau Canal. Photo by Ellen Bond. <\/p>\n

Even the vault downstairs tells part of that story. Dennis pointed out that the original stone floor had to be replaced with wood because workers\u2019 spiked boots could spark against the stone.<\/p>\n

The lumber era<\/p>\n

There are also large historic photographs showing mountains of stacked lumber once lining the Ottawa River. A detailed model of the E.B. Eddy lumber complex \u2014 originally displayed at the Philadelphia World\u2019s Fair \u2014 demonstrates the scale of the industry that once dominated the region.<\/p>\n

Other artifacts feel more personal: heavy cork boots used by loggers, tools belonging to canal supervisors, and paintings depicting the rough camps and mills that emerged along Chaudi\u00e8re Falls.<\/p>\n

The museum also highlights stories that were overlooked for generations. One watercolour showing Philemon Wright\u2019s first timber raft on the Ottawa River long omitted the presence of London Oxford, believed to be the first Black man in the Ottawa Valley and a businessman who worked alongside Wright.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found the raft manifest that listed all the people on the boat, and London Oxford\u2019s name is on there,\u201d Dennis said. \u201cHe was very much a key figure at the start of the lumber industry in Ottawa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The staff behind the ByTown Museum. Photo by Ellen Bond. <\/p>\n

In the mid-1800s, Bytown had a reputation for violence, taverns and class division. Rivalries between Irish and French Canadian workers frequently erupted into conflict, while Upper Town and Lower Town residents competed economically and politically.<\/p>\n

One section explores the story of Mother McGinty \u2014 born Sarah Ritchie \u2014 the formidable tavern owner of Corktown, the Irish settlement near today\u2019s Corktown Footbridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was known to be a very domineering woman,\u201d Dennis said. \u201cKeeping people\u2019s bar tabs \u2014 you couldn\u2019t really get anything past her.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 1855, the rough canal settlement officially became the City of Ottawa. A few years later, Queen Victoria selected it as the capital of the Province of Canada, partly because it sat between English and French Canada and far from the American border.<\/p>\n

Artifacts from that era include one of the city\u2019s original ceremonial keys and a mayoral chair belonging to Henry Friel, the last official mayor of Bytown.<\/p>\n

One of the museum\u2019s most fascinating spaces recreates Ottawa\u2019s Victorian period, when the city tried to shed its frontier image. Delicate mourning jewelry woven from human hair sits beside photographs from some of Ottawa\u2019s earliest studios.<\/p>\n

Another display explores the Russell Hotel, once among the city\u2019s most prestigious destinations. Politicians, tourists and literary figures such as Oscar Wilde stayed there before it closed in the 1920s and later burned down.<\/p>\n

\"\"The plaster hand of Thomas D\u2019arcy McGee. Photo by Ellen Bond. <\/p>\n

A city of fires<\/p>\n

Ottawa has a history of catching fire. The Great Fire of 1900, which spread from Hull across the river through piles of lumber, destroyed huge sections of Ottawa\u2019s west end. Among the surviving objects is a damaged photograph fused with shards of glass from the intense heat.<\/p>\n

Nearby are artifacts from the 1916 Parliament fire, including a warped clock hand from the old Centre Block tower and a flag said to have hung from Victoria Tower during the blaze.<\/p>\n

One of the museum\u2019s most haunting artifacts belongs to Thomas D\u2019Arcy McGee, a journalist, politician and Father of Confederation, who was assassinated outside his Sparks Street boarding house in 1868.<\/p>\n

Because of the nature of his death, a traditional Victorian death mask could not be made. Instead, a cast was taken of his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fitting, as he wrote poetry, was a writer, and was a journalist,\u201d Dennis said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A souvenir book on the Great Fire of 1900. Photo by Ellen Bond. <\/p>\n

The permanent exhibition concludes with Ottawa\u2019s wartime contributions, including stories of local nurses, soldiers and community groups during the South African War and First World War.<\/p>\n

One particularly striking object is a small Bible carried by Ottawa soldier John C. Denmark. A bullet lodged inside its pages after striking the book in his pocket, likely saving his life.<\/p>\n

Though the museum once focused almost entirely on Ottawa before the First World War, Dennis said its mandate has evolved in recent years better to reflect the city\u2019s broader, more diverse history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a capital city, but we\u2019re still a community museum,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we try and focus on local history on a national stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the edge of the Rideau Canal, where green water slips past the Ottawa locks before meeting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-833036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}