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.

HSO’s Declaration on Diversity of Perspective 2021 (updated)

HSO's Acknowledgement

The Historical Society of Ottawa's mission, since its founding in 1898, has been to preserve and increase public knowledge of our local history. 

We acknowledge that, in pursuing this mission, we have often done so within a narrow cultural perspective that has not always been inclusive of the equally important perspectives of those among us of different race, national or ethnic origin, mother tongue, colour, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

We are dedicated to highlighting the diverse experiences of Indigenous peoples, racialized groups, under-represented communities (including but not limited to children/youth, low income/in poverty, women, elderly, etc.), 2SLGBTQI+ groups, and others, who continue to enrich our communities.

HSO's Commitment

1. HSO shall do its utmost to ensure that our presentations, publications, and activities consider diverse cultural perspectives and address past and present injustices.
2. In further support of this commitment The Historical Society of Ottawa officially recognizes and embraces the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024)

In doing so, The Historical Society of Ottawa acknowledges the roles that the slave trade, colonialism, systemic racism, and civil and human rights violations have played in our history and which continue to resonate in present times.

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 Historical Society of Ottawa 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 A digital version of this book is now available online — see Introducing William Pittman Lett by Bryan D. Cook.	Bryan D. 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) A digital version of this book is now available online — see Controversy, Compromise and Celebration: The History of Canada's National Flag / Controverses, compromis et célébrations : L'histoire du drapeau national du Canada	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 take place 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 take place at the St. Laurent Branch of the Ottawa Public Library (515 rue Coté).

Both library locations are wheelchair accessible.

Our 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

The Rideau Canal Guest Speaker: Allison Margot Smith DATE Mar 28 2026 TIME 01:30PM SERIES Afternoon Series Event Details

Histoire de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne engagée (1905-1970) DATE Apr 4 2026 TIME 01:00PM SERIES French-language Event Details

The Era of Bytown Guest Speaker: James Powell DATE Apr 25 2026 TIME 01:30PM SERIES Afternoon Series Event Details

View the full calendar

Past Meetings Reports

Copyright Release

The Historical Society of Ottawa
Publications Committee
The Historical Society of Ottawa,
Postal Box 523, Station B, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5P6
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Contributor’s Certification

Manuscript Title ________________________________________________________

Publication Title ________________________________________________________

I certify that:
I have acquired permission to reproduce any previously copyrighted material which I have provided for use in my manuscript including, inter alia , sources, quotations and illustrations for which I have given accurate citation in the manuscript;

I agree to transfer to The Historical Society of Ottawa (HSO) publishing rights to the manuscript: that is, without relinquishing my proprietary rights as author, I transfer to HSO the rights to reproduce and distribute the article in HSO format, including figures and graphic reproductions, and the right to adapt the manuscript to conform to HSO publishing standards; and

(Please strike out one):
I agree that the article may be reprinted or copied for non-profit use by individuals and organizations without my written permission, providing proper credit is given to the source of the item
                                    or
I require that the article should be accompanied by the copyright symbol (©) denoting that
the article may not be printed or copied without my written permission.

Signature:             ____________________________________

Printed Name:      ____________________________________

Date:     _______________________

The Historical Society of Ottawa (HSO) is Ottawa’s oldest historical organization. It was founded in 1898 by a group of prominent Ottawa women interested in the preservation of Canada’s rich historical heritage at a time when there were few Canadian museums and little government funding for such activities. Initially known as the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa, the Society changed its name in 1955 when men were allowed to participate as full members.

The Society’s objective is to preserve and increase public knowledge of the history of Ottawa, including its people and places, through publications, meetings, tours, awards, sponsored research, participation in local heritage events; and to support and encourage heritage conservation.

At monthly meetings, held from September to June, guest speakers inform and engage members in a wide range of topics related to the history of Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. The monthly meetings are open to the general public as well as to members at no cost. Society members also receive a quarterly newsletter, and copies of HSO’s “Pamphlet Series” that examine local historical issues. The Society also organizes one-day bus tours for its members and guests to historic sites in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.

The Society is the official patron of the Ottawa Regional Heritage Fair for area youth (Grades 5-9) which is held annually. At the Fair, the Society presents awards in recognition of research excellence in subjects relevant to Ottawa’s history. 

The Society welcomes everybody with a love of history and an interest in Ottawa’s heritage, irrespective of race, religion, sex, age, country of origin, or any other attribute. 

The Historical Society of Ottawa is a non-profit organization and a registered charity - Registration no.: BN 10748 4081 RR 0001. To make a donation, see our online donation form. Many thanks! A charitable receipt for income tax purposes will be issued for donations. Please note that a receipt for tax purposes cannot be issued for membership fees.

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