In 1793, a young Black woman named Choe Clooey, against her loud protests, was forced into a boat and across the Niagara River to be sold in the United States. Several witnesses, horrified by Cooley’s plaintive cries for help, resolved to petition the Executive Council of Upper Canada for her immediate return and the arrest of the perpetrators.

Lord Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of the newly founded jurisdiction of Upper Canada, had for many years been a strong opponent of slavery and was outraged but powerless to intervene once Cooley had been removed across the border. Simcoe did, however, vow to introduce a bill to abolish slavery in Upper Canada. Simcoe's bill did eventually pass, but only after it had been weakened significantly by members of his own government, of which approximately half were enslavers of Black people themselves (or were members of families that enslaved people).

Simcoe's bill limited slavery Upper Canada, but not until further world events, including a revolt in Jamaica decades later, would slavery finally be abolished in Upper Canada and the rest of the British Empire.

Jayeur Joseph performs as Chloe Cooley

Ben Weiss receiving the Black History Ottawa President’s Award from BHO President June GirvanThe Chloe Cooley story was portrayed on stage at this year's opening event for Black History Month on January 28, 2023 at the National Gallery of Canada. Ben Weiss of the Historical Society of Ottawa was honoured to be asked to play the role of Lord Simcoe and, as he admits, was thankful to be surrounded by a cast of much better actors. It was, nonetheless, moving to be asked to take part in the performance.

Canada Post's 2023 stamp for Black History Month was also unveiled that afternoon, to great applause from the audience, featuring none other than Chloe Cooley herself.

Ben Weiss has for several years been the Historical Society of Ottawa's representative in its efforts to partner with Black History Ottawa and increase awareness of Black history. Ben was much honoured, during the afternoon's ceremonies, to be the recipient of Black History Ottawa's President's Award in recognition of ongoing contributions.

In celebration of our 125th anniversary, the Historical Society of Ottawa was recognized and honoured by being invited to contribute this year’s special Heritage Day “2023 Great Ottawa History Challenge”.

How well do you know Ottawa history? Take the challenge! https://ottawacitizen.com/news/heritage-day-try-the-2023-great-ottawa-history-challenge

As most of our older members, but few of our newer members know, the Historical Society of Ottawa is in strong financial shape because of former president George Neville’s prudent leadership. And now the next generation of directors are having fun finding meaningful projects to support around town that showcase local history.

On September 30, 2022, on only the second ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Ottawa Historical Society partnered with the Ottawa-based First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and Beechwood Cemetery for its annual educational activities.

Our donation provided a ride in style on the Lady Dive between Beechwood and Sparks Street where hourly walking tours were led up to St. Andrew’s at the corner of Wellington and Kent Streets.

Over 100 participants gathered at Beechwood at 10 am on the beautiful fall day, including HSO president Emma Kent and myself. First, we took in a children’s film produced by the First Nation Child and Family Caring Society to educate little ones about the history and enduring legacy of residential schools.

After the film we took the Beechwood tour which started off at Nicholas Floor Gavin’s memorial and ended at Peter Henderson Bryce’s. What most impressed me was the speaker’s focus on both their contributions and shortcomings. Gavin was a proponent of both women’s suffrage and the removal of Indigenous children from the “influence of the Wigwam”. Bryce documented and reported health abuses and high death rates in the residential school system while the chief medical officer of the Department of Indian Affairs; however, didn’t follow up on his observations with the publication of “The Story of a National Crime: An Appeal of Justice to the Indians of Canada” until after he had retired from the public service. Along the path down to Dr. Bryce’s memorial, there were 93 signs bearing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action.

We then headed over to Sparks Street on the Lady Dive where we learned more about the upcoming installation of the plaque “Reconciling History: Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce” – a trilingual (Algonquin, English, and French!) text that will be installed where his offices were located at 61 Sparks Street. The downtown tour ended at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1828, and which is now a strong supporter of the Every Child Matters movement. We were also provided with snacks and chats at St. Andrew’s and had the chance to take in the beautiful interior.

Many thanks to Nick McCarthy, Beechwood’s Director of Marketing, Communications and Community Outreach, for all of his support, and we hope to participate again next year!

You can see a very nervous yours truly and sincere Emma speaking about her experience on that day in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgpI0INDgKo

After four years as our President, the Board of Directors and HSO members would like to thank Karen Lynn Ouellette for a job well done. As former Past President George Neville can attest, the president’s job is a tough one—herding cats at the best of time! Doing it while holding down a full-time job made it all the more challenging for Karen Lynn. And let’s not even talk about the difficulties posed by two years of COVID, and running a virtual organization virtually, so to speak. But she did it with great verve and charm, making the herculean task look easy.

          Karen Lynn OuelletteThe Ouellette years have been great years for the Historical Society of Ottawa. Under her leadership, our virtual speakers’ series is drawing large numbers of participants from across the country. Our Facebook page has been a spectacular success with more than 6,000 followers, and has prompted thousands to comment and debate issues, and to share their own stories of Ottawa history. Our website was modernized and expanded, allowing memberships to be purchased and donations made on line, a considerable advantage and convenience given the cancellation of in-person events. Karen Lynn also effectively reached out to younger demographic groups, including university students and young working people, showing that the love of history is not confined to those of more mature years. She also reached out to local Indigenous communities with some success. As a consequence, our membership is growing despite the pandemic …something that few heritage organizations can boast.

Karen Lynn’s influence was also evident behind the scenes. The organization has become more business-like. Job descriptions have been written, organization charts developed, welcome packages for new directors and officers assembled, and policies and procedures put in place. Such things may not be sexy but they sure are helpful in times of transition. No longer do we have to rely on our memory to recall what and how things should be done, something that is increasingly important as government requirements for non-profits like the Historical Society of Ottawa become more complex.

In sum, thank you Karen Lynn for your years of service to the Society. While we are sad to see you step down, we are delighted that you will continue to play an active role as Past President on the Board with a specific interest in working with young people.

We are also delighted to welcome Emma Kent who was elected President at our June 2022 Annual General Meeting. Congratulations Emma! Emma must be the youngest President the Society has ever had. She brings boundless enthusiasm to the job and lots of new ideas. Building on Karen Lynn’s work, she had informed the Board that she plans to focus on diversity, reaching out to groups whose stories may have been overlooked or not shared widely. In this, Emma, you have the Board’s full support and encouragement. We look forward to working with you over the coming years.

James Powell, June 2022.

A Word from our new President

Hello!

                   Emma KentI grew up in Ottawa and have always had a passion for history. In 2016, I completed my BA in History at Carleton University.

Thank you for welcoming me as the new president of the Historical Society of Ottawa. Over the past couple years I have greatly enjoyed my time with HSO. Attending the speaker series and reading the Bytown pamphlets have made me fall in love with our city again. I can’t wait to listen to more of its stories and as we move forward with in-person events. I’m so excited to meet you in person and or seeing you back on Zoom.

You may know me from the two speaker series talks I gave in 2021; one on my old Girl Guide summer camp, Camp Woolsey, and the other on my Grandpa Jack who was a British Home child. Both were incredibly meaningful projects for me and I’m so thankful to HSO for giving me an opportunity to share them.

We have an incredibly strong and gifted board of directors and I always look forward to working with them and learning from them. I would love to personally thank our Past President, Karen Lynn, for getting me involved with HSO and for her many years of leadership. We hope to continue her legacy of emphasizing diversity in our storytelling and activities.

All the best,

Emma Kent (She/Her), June 2022.

One early April afternoon, Karen Lynn Ouellette and myself had the honour of attending the last class of Dr. Sarah Templier’s Canadian Digital History course at the University of Ottawa. This was a big day for Dr. Templier’s students who in groups of two or three presented their digital history projects. All the projects were related to the Historical Society of Ottawa. Besides enjoying the wonderful presentations, our job was to help Dr. Templier and PhD candidate, Celeste Dagiovanni, to judge the students’ work, and to select the top three projects. Celeste is the student coordinator of the Venture Initiative Program working with Fahd Alhattab who is in charge of the program as the entrepreneur in residence at the Faculties of Arts, and of Social Sciences.

Sarah Templier, University of Ottawa.The idea of partnering with the HSO was the brainchild of Professor Templier. Before the start of the semester, she had contacted Karen Lynn with the idea of involving her fourth-year digital history students with the Society in some fashion. A number of ideas were floated, including going through the Society’s archives held by the City of Ottawa to document and digitize key documents. However, with the City Archives closed owing to Covid, an alternate project was selected under which student teams would develop websites that contributed to the HSO’s mission and online presence in a meaningful way.

In teams of two or three students, five website projects were presented—Epidemics in Ottawa by Jessica Barton and Victoria Pope, Ottawa and the Fur Trade by Danny Bengert and Jordan Johnstone, The Rideau Canal by Charles Wickens, Breanna Campbell and Jameson Holdip, The Murder of Thomas D’Arcy McGee and the Fenian Brotherhood by Jack Lapalme and Thomas Wagner, and The Galloping Gourmet by Rowan Moore and Brenna Roblin. The projects were judged on the basis of how the project contributed to the Society’s on-line presence and mission, the team’s research and ability to reach the target audience, their innovative use of visuals and digital tools that would enhance a reader’s experience, and the ability of each team to effectively “pitch” their project in the allotted time and answer questions.

All five presentations were excellent, making the choice of the top three very challenging. After more than thirty minutes, judges agreed that the top three presentations in order of preference were The Galloping Gourmet, The Rideau Canal, and Ottawa and the Fur Trade. Rowan and Brenna’s winning entry on the television show filmed in Ottawa from 1968 to 1971, styled their presentation in the form of a TV Guide. Their presentation featured recipes, a map of the locations Graham Kerr, a.k.a. the galloping gourmet, visited to inspire his recipes, an interview with a participant who viewed the filming of an episode at the Merivale Road studio, fashion in the 1960s, as well as a section on Graham Kerr’s life after the series ended. Their lively and fun presentation helped to bring to life the late 1960s as well as a little-known part of Ottawa’s television history. It is sure to delight Ottawa history buffs.

In second place, Charles Wickens, Breanna Campbell and Jameson Holdip’s presentation on The Rideau Canal had several innovative features. It was bilingual and acknowledged that the Canal cuts through Indigenous territory. The “then and now” feature was well done. In addition to the usual history of the Canal, the website featured sections on the financing of the canal and what the life of a labourer would have been like. The team noted the importance of the HSO highlighting the significance of the Canal for Ottawa’s upcoming bicentennial.

The third-placed presentation on Ottawa and the Fur Trade by Danny Bengert and Jordan Johnstone provided a useful reminder that life existed along the Ottawa River before the establishment of Bytown by European settlers. It filled a big gap in the HSO’s coverage of Ottawa’s history and heritage, highlighting the contribution of the area’s original Indigenous inhabitants to the fur trade in an engaging and informative fashion.

While the final two presentations on Ottawa pandemics from the early 1800s to the present by Jessica Barton and Victoria Pope, and on the assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee by Jack Lapalme and Thomas Wagner did not make the top three, they too treated their subjects well and provided useful insights. We wish we could have provided prizes to all the presenters.

After the students complete their projects, the HSO intends to link the Society’s website to the five student websites so that all those interested in Ottawa history and heritage can benefit from them. As thanks for their hard work on behalf of the Society, each student was given a copy of Controversy, Compromise and Celebration: The History of Canada’s National Flag by Glenn Wright, as well as a one-year membership in the Historical Society of Ottawa. The University also gave cash prizes to the top three projects.

We hope all those who participated in this digital history project learnt a lot about Ottawa’s rich history and had fun in the process. The Society would like to thank Dr. Templier for an excellent initiative and looks forward to future collaboration in the years to come.

James Powell, April 2022.

From small acorns do mighty oaks grow, the saying goes. And this is certainly true for the HSO Facebook page. It was almost four years ago that Karen Lynn Ouellette, our President, and Jen Seltzer, HSO Director, met to discuss the feasibility of using social media to promote the Historical Society of Ottawa. While our pamphlets, meetings, and website were valuable tools for spreading the word about Ottawa’s rich and fascinating history, they believed that social media had the potential to not only engage with our members, but also to attract a younger demographic and to reach out to the broader heritage community. The two quickly set up the Society’s Facebook page. Starting with only six followers, more quickly signed up as the news of the page spread. With a few months, there were several hundred followers. This rose to 660 by late 2019.

Ben WeissBut it was after the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020 that our site came into its own under the guidance and curation of Ben Weiss. With in-person meetings and special events cancelled, Facebook took up the slack, becoming the Society’s primary means for sharing heritage news, events, and stories with others interested in Ottawa-area history. The site’s followers increased rapidly in number, doubling by the end of 2020, with more than 16,000 visits to our page in any given month. Stories were shared, commented on, and discussed within our growing Facebook community.

While these results were fantastic, little did we know what was to come in 2021. The number of followers soared through the year as did the number of views. By late 2021, we had more than 4,400 followers and in a good month we could expect roughly 100,000 visits to our Facebook page—not bad for a small organization with fewer than 250 members!

But these remarkable numbers were blown out of the water by the reception received by a short article that Ben posted in December 2021 on the world’s first nuclear meltdown that occurred in 1952 at the Chalk River Nuclear Power Plant and the heroic roll played by future US president Jimmy Carter in the subsequent clean-up. The story went viral, receiving almost 800,000 visits within three days, with twelve thousand shares, more than three thousand likes, and hundreds of comments. The story was quickly picked up and re-posed by a host of other outlets including on Twitter. Given the social media buzz, Newsweek Magazine summarized the story, noting its HSO origins, and fact-checked it, giving it the magazine’s top “True” rating. CFRB in Toronto and CBC radio interviewed Ben on the story. There were also requests for interviews coming from as far away as Texas!

For those who missed all the excitement, the story centred on the role played by 28-year-old Lieutenant Carter in stabilizing and cleaning up the Chalk River facility which was awash with radioactive water after the accident. Carter, who was a nuclear expert working for the US Navy at the time, was called in to help Canadian and US scientists deal with the disaster. Leading a 24-person team, Carter divided his men into small groups, each working in 90-second shifts to minimize their radiation exposure as they were lowered into the damaged reactor. He and his teams absorbed a year-worth of radiation for every shift. Carter’s urine still tested radioactive six months after the event. His Chalk River experience left a profound impression on Carter’s views on nuclear power and weapons and coloured his decisions when he was in the Oval Office twenty-five years later.

Thank you, Ben, and congratulations for your terrific work on the Society’s Facebook page. Thanks also go to our many contributors and volunteers who have helped over the past four years to make the page what it is today. Thanks also to our Facebook community whose comments and discussions have enriched our knowledge of Ottawa history.

News Flash: As we post this article, the Chalk River/Jimmy Carter story has received just short of one million views.

If you interested in having a more in-depth knowledge of Ottawa rich and diverse history, the HSO’ s Bytown Pamphlet series is for you!

Since the early 1980s, the Society has regularly published monographs on various aspects of Ottawa’s history. These monographs are available free to members and through the Ottawa Public Library, Library and Archives Canada, and the City of Ottawa Archives. We are currently in the process of scanning and digitizing all of our pamphlets to make them more accessible to the general public. 

The first introductory pamphlet produced by the Historical Society of Ottawa contains excerpts from an address on the history of the Historical Society given by E.M. Taylor before the Ontario Genealogical Society (Ottawa Branch) on March 22, 1976.

Questions, queries, suggestions, comments? We'd love to hear from you!

The Historical Society of Ottawa

Box 523, Station "B",

Ottawa, ON

K1P 5P6

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Marconi Radio Station, CFCF, formerly XWA, Montreal, circa 1922
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On occasion, the Society publishes substantive research in the form of a book.
Prices of books vary — as shown below — and the cost of postage is extra.

To order, please contact the Historical Society of Ottawa by mail or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Title		Author	Date Published	Member Price	Non-member Price
	Introducing William Pittman Lett, Ottawa's First City Clerk and Bard, 1819-1892	Bryan Cook	2015	$15.00	$20.00
	To Be Continued . . . A Short History of The Historical Society of Ottawa	Dave Mullington	2013	$10.00	$15.00
	Controversy, Compromise and Celebration: The History of Canada’s National Flag (bilingual) Controverses, compromis et célébrations : L’histoire du drapeau national du Canada (bilingue)	Glenn Wright	2017	$10.00	$15.00

Looking for more local history books? Check out these titles available from the Cumberland Township Historical Society.

All are welcome, admission is free.

Our Speaker Series consists of in-person presentations and virtual (Zoom) presentations, in English and in French.

Our monthly English-language in-person Speaker Series presentations generally begin at 1:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library (120 Metcalfe St).

Our monthly French-language in-person Speaker Series presentations generally begin at 1:00 p.m. the St. Laurent Branch of the Ottawa Public Library (515 rue Coté).

Both library locations are wheelchair accessible.

Our monthly virtual Speaker Series presentations, via Zoom, generally begin at 7 p.m. Attendees may use the Zoom captions function to provide English language subtitles for French language presentations (and French language subtitles for English language presentations).

In addition, we conduct an Annual General Meeting (AGM), normally in May, an occasion for the board of directors to report on projects and activities during the preceding year and offer insight into plans for the future. All members are eligible to vote for candidates for the board of directors.

Interested in learning more about our Speaker Series or volunteering to help with our events? Please contact us by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

See below for our full schedule of upcoming presentations.

Upcoming Meetings

L'été 1847 à Bytown - Élisabeth Bruyère face à une épidémie Guest Speaker: Michael McBane DATE Apr 5 2025 TIME 01:00PM SERIES French-language Event Details

Ottawa’s Early Baseball History Guest Speaker: Steve Rennie DATE Apr 9 2025 TIME 07:00PM SERIES Evening Series Event Details

Through the Lens of the Non-Fiction Writer: A Search for Order in the Chaos of Real Life Guest Speaker: Denise Chong DATE Apr 26 2025 TIME 01:00PM SERIES Afternoon Series Event Details

View the full calendar

Past Meetings Reports