Working to preserve Ottawa's past
for future generations.
Our guest speaker for May 12, 2021 was James Powell, who is a long-time member of the Ottawa Historical Society, and a director on the HSO board. For his presentation James spoke about one of the most tragic heroes in Canada’s history. Thomas D’Arcy McGee was murdered near his Sparks Street apartment on a chilly April evening in 1868. James talked about McGee’s early life in Ireland and his brief stay in the United States. While in the US he visited Canada, and it was here that McGee felt Ireland’s…
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Our meeting on April 28, 2021, was as much a romance story as it was a history lesson. HSO member Dorothy Phillips has researched the life of the Duke of Devonshire, Victor Cavendish and his wife, Lady Evelyn Petty-Fitzmaurice, which the duke affectionately called “Evie”. In 2017, Dorothy assembled her extensive research into a book, Victor and Evie: British Aristocrats in Wartime Rideau Hall. Unlike many of Canada’s governors general who accepted their posting as just a stepping stone to better political opportunities in the UK, or to a future…
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In recent years we’ve enjoyed many presentations by Phil, where he has brought a joyful presence to Ottawa’s past, in story and song, but Phil has a special passion for the old neighbourhood of LeBreton Flats, and it’s hard to tell the story of this community without diving into the troubled waters of this troubled land. Vacant since the late 1960s, there’s a generation of Ottawa residents unaware that a close-knit community once thrived here before it was removed as part of something called “urban renewal”. Phil has many stories…
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Our March 31st guest speaker shares an interest history’s darker side. Author of nine award-winning books on Canadian history, Charlotte Gray published Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise in 2019 to tell the story of the rise to wealth, and the unsolved murder of Sir Harry Oakes. Harry’s life was not a rags-to-riches story (his father was a lawyer, and Sir Harry studied to be a doctor) but his life became one of adventure (with a bit luck here and there)…
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The Historical Society of Ottawa went underground for our March 10th presentation, following author Andrew King on a journey to some of the hidden secrets of Ottawa’s past. In 2019, Andrew wrote Ottawa Rewind: A Book of Curios and Mysteries. This was a collection of stories Andrew had written individually for local publications, about lesser-known people, places and events in Ottawa’s past. He followed this book up recently with Ottawa Rewind 2: More Curios and Mysteries, which takes a more “in-depth” look at the city beneath our feet. One of…
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If you missed our virtual Speaker Series presentation "Kettle Island: A Bridge to Ottawa's Past" with Randy Boswell, or you'd just like to watch it again, you can view this presentation online. Here's a link to the recorded video of Randy's talk. Enjoy!
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Friday, 20 November 2020 07:44
Discoveries Unearthed Prior to the Renovations on Parliament Hill
Historical Society of Ottawa
Wow! Did you miss our virtual Speaker Series presentation "Uncovering Canada's Past: Digging Up Parliament Hill" with Stephen Jarrett? What an amazing presentation it was! The good news is... here is the video link to enjoy Stephen's talk in its entirety! Our apologies to those who were unable to attend Stephen's presentation due to Zoom's 100 attendee limit. We had processed the request to increase attendance but we seem to have experienced a technical glitch. We're so sorry! The November 2020 presentation was our third foray into the new world…
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We’ve all been obligated to face many new challenges this year, and it was with some concern that the Historical Society of Ottawa chose to make a transition to on-line meetings so that we can continue to reach out to our members and the community during this difficult time. We weren’t certain how well the transition would go. Perhaps people might pass on HSO presentations if they were to be presented via computer. However, for our second online lecture we gathered 86 participants. That compares favourably to some of our…
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The September 14th 2020 presentation of the Historical Society of Ottawa took us on two journeys. One was to the Middle East; but more on that in a moment. The other journey was shorter in distance but was a big step technologically. With recent social restrictions forcing us to cancel live presentations at the Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library (for the time being) our Regular Events coordinator, Ben Weiss, asked guest speaker Michael Kent if he’d be interested in making a presentation online through a video conferencing application…
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