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Capital City Portraits: Faces from the Topley Collection
One of the most popular collections at Library and Archives Canada is the William James Topley photograph collection, acquired in 1936. The Topley collection is comprised of over 150,000 glass plate...
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Ottawa Winter Carnival, 1922 edition
“A Week Without Worry!”… “Mirth Will be King for Carnival Week.” These were some of the slogans used to describe the first Canadian National Winter Carnival—otherwise known as the Ottawa Winter...
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The Children of Topley – Pint-sized portraits from the William Topley collection
The William Topley collection at Library and Archives Canada is an invaluable resource for those interested in nineteenth-century Canadian photographic portraiture. Comprised of over 150,000 glass...
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The Parliament Hill Precinct
The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa are some of the most recognizable structures in Canada. Although the Peace Tower may be the most iconic part of the exterior of the buildings, it’s the newest...
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Ottawa’s Uppertown: A lost neighbourhood uncovered
By Andrew Elliott On February 27, 1912, following what appears to have been at least a few years of behind the scenes deliberations, the federal government expropriated all properties located in...
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Newly digitized images of the construction of 395 Wellington
By Andrew Elliott Located on a site overlooking the Ottawa River, the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) building (known more fondly as 395 Wellington or, even more archaically, as PANL—Public Archives...
View ArticleRecent documents digitized through the DigiLab
By Karine Gélinas The DigiLab is a new hands-on facility for clients to digitize and contextualize documents from the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) collections. Since its launch in 2017, the...
View ArticleLouis Riel’s ill-fated Ottawa journey
By Anna Heffernan During his lifetime, Louis David Riel was a controversial figure—a leader of two uprisings, regarded as either a hero or a traitor—but today he is recognized for his contributions to...
View ArticleDressing Up at Ottawa’s Fancy Dress Balls and Skating Carnivals (1876–1896)
By: Emma Hamilton-Hobbs Don’t you just love to dress up, spending hours upon hours devoted to selecting, conducting research on, and finally creating an impressive outfit for an exclusive costumed...
View ArticleWomen’s hockey: She shoots, she scores!
By Ellen Bond In January 2020, the Canadian men’s team won the gold medal against Russia at the 2020 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championship. It was a hard-fought...
View ArticleThat sinking sensation: Leda clay in and near Ottawa
By Ellen Bond In the 1970s, there were two shows I looked forward to every weekend: The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday (feel-good stories) and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (cartoons) on...
View ArticleThe Life of Private Marcel Gauthier (Part 1)
By Ariane Gauthier I learned about Marcel Gauthier a few years ago when I was visiting the Canadian cemetery in Beny-sur-Mer in France. Although we have the same last name, Marcel is not my ancestor....
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