Publications and Presentations

Did you have a story to share about the history of Ottawa? Would you like to publish or present with the Historical Society of Ottawa? HSO looks at topics within the Ottawa-Gatineau area and the Ottawa Valley. We are dedicated to highlighting the diverse experiences of Indigenous peoples, racialized groups, underrepresented communities (including but not limited to: children/youth, low income/in poverty, women, elder, etc.), 2SLGBTQI+ groups, and others, who continue to enrich our communities. We have many options for you, presented below.

French Presentations/Publications

We offer publications and a series of conferences in French. You can contact Christine (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for more details.

Speaker's Series

We host over a dozen Speaker's Series sessions each year, either in person at the Ottawa Public Library or virtually on Zoom, each being about one hour followed by a Q&A session. You can contact Scheherazade at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information. Past sessions are outlined in the meetings section of our website and recordings available via our YouTube channel.

Memory Project 

The HSO’s Memory Project is an initiative designed to preserve and celebrate the history of our community and its members. This project aims to collect, digitize and preserve the personal stories, photographs and documents of those who call, or have called, Ottawa home. 

Through this project, we hope to preserve these stories for future generations and to provide accessible, educational resources for all those interested in learning more about the history of our city. By celebrating our shared history, we're building a stronger, more connected community where everyone's story is valued and remembered. 

If you have a story you’d like to share, please reach out to John at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and you can view the stories on the Memory Project page of our website.

Social Media

We have active Facebook and Instagram pages. Ben (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) can help you there if you wish to make a post  or simply join us and jump with your comments on our posts on social media! 

Quarterly Newsletter

For content that is roughly of a page or two, we have the Capital Chronicle newsletter which Richard spearheads (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ). You can read past issues on the newsletters section of our website.

Blog

Are you a historian, heritage professional or member of the public who is actively engaged in historical research related to the Ottawa area? Interested in sharing your research in a shorter (500-1000 words) blog format? The HSO blog team would love to hear from you! Full details and past blog posts can be viewed on the Blog page of our website.

The HSO blog team would also love to hear from student bloggers. As an extension of the HSO blog platform, The Student Corner gives students a space to showcase their knowledge of the history of the Ottawa area through blogging. More information can be found on the Student Corner page of our website.

If you are interested in writing for us, please get in touch with Kirsten by emailing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Pamphlet Series

Is your story or research between  10 to 60 pages, with or without photographs, that you would like to see published? HSO has been publishing a pamphlet series for over 40 years and we have well over 100 titles. You can read digital versions of them in the Bytown Pamphlets section of our website.

HSO can offer some assistance with editing and we do all the formatting. Pamphlets are assigned an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) from Library and Archives and HSO deposits copies there, at the Ottawa Public Library, and at the City of Ottawa Archives, which adds a veritable permanence to your work.

We print over 150 copies of the pamphlets and distribute them to our members along with electronic access to the public. Contact Erik at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

Other Options

For Ottawa Stories, featured interactive publications, multimedia, or anything else you would like to pitch, please send Erik an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you have questions, you can always reach us at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We look forward to hearing from you! 

While not entirely present in this photograph, according to the by-laws of the same year, the club’s uniform consisted of a “Peaked Cap, Tunic, Knickerbockers, and Ribbed Stockings all of a Dark Blue Color. [with] the trimmings to be of Black Braid…”

The bicycle, in its various forms, became an established form of amusement in the 1860s. [[1]] It was however, not until the late 1890s, that the bicycle craze was in full swing. It was during this time that the bicycle became the site of much public discussion. For Ottawa, the craze had taken hold by April of 1895, with The Ottawa Journal declaring the Capital, “all hot for wheels.” [[2]] In the same year, according to the Ottawa business directory, a concentration of bicycle shops could be found on Bank and Sparks Streets, six on Sparks and two on Bank. [[3]] One of these shops was McFarlane Bros, located at 115 Bank Street, it was originally an iron foundry that took up bicycle manufacturing during this period.

This bicycle boom reflects Victorian ideals and preoccupations, namely that of health and respectability. At a time when there was a growing concern over cities being unhealthy spaces, bicycling was seen as the right kind of sport for the health of the nation, as it benefited both physical and moral health. Regarding morality, the perspective at the time concerning morality and sport, viewed amateur sports as pure, reflecting respectability, while professional sports, where money was earned, as corrupt. In examining the Ottawa Bicycle Club (established in 1882), this attitude regarding the bicycle comes into view, as the clubs’ mandate which stated that the club was only open to amateurs.

The stated objective of the Ottawa Bicycle Club, according to the by-laws from 1890, was “to promote the general interest of cycling and to encourage and facilitate “touring.’” [[4]] By the last decade of the 19 ^th century, there was a growing concern for the proper use of bicycles in public spaces in an era of the ‘safe bicycle.’ This era meant, not only changes to the bicycle itself but concerns for the activity of cycling. The club, and other clubs like it, engaged in family-oriented bicycling, whereby rowdy, reckless cycling (read masculine qualities) was viewed as improper. Before this, during the highwheeler (a bicycle with a large front wheel and a small back one) phase, clubs operated on a more informal basis. Members would engage in Victorian chivalry, taking on the role of ‘two-wheeled knights.’ [[5]] In highlighting ‘touring,’ the mandate of the Ottawa Bicycle Club heeded this concern for proper bicycling etiquette. Etiquette was reflected in the respectability of the club members and through maintaining proper order in public spaces. The activity of touring indicates a level of activity that was seen as being beneficial to one’s physical health while maintaining respectability.

Maintaining one’s respectability was especially important for women who, with the development of the safe bicycle, took up cycling. Admittance of women into the club likely occurred around the time that the above photograph was taken, as between 1890-1891 greater numbers of women actively took up cycling in Canada. By the late 1890s, women accounted for between one-quarter and one-third of all riders. [[6]] In addition to the Ottawa Bicycle Club opening its door to women, other ladies’ clubs within the Capital also took up learning to ride bicycles. [[7]] As The Ottawa Journal stated in 1896, “…it is no uncommon thing to see a number of women on bicycles riding along our roads.” [[8]]

Mrs. Albert H. Campbell on Wheel (1897) - James Ballantyne / Library and Archives Canada / PA-130015.

Unlike previous iterations, the safety bicycle did not pre-empt women from the activity of cycling. This was in part because Victorian Women’s dress codes, which had made it possible to ride, could be accommodated, even creating new fashions directly linked to the leisure activity. The creation of a skirt, designed to meet “every requirement of the wheelwoman,” was the subject of an article from the February 12, 1897, issue of The Ottawa Citizen , which describes the skirt as seeming to “answer every requirement of modesty as well as convenience.” [[9]] Divided in the front and back to accommodate the frame of the bicycle, the skirt concealed the movement of limbs, while at the same time affording freedom. Women taking up cycling was, as with many other things where women entered the public sphere, not without objection. Those involved in reform, for example, expressed concern that it facilitated inappropriate relations between men and women. An article from the Dominion Medical Monthly and Ontario Medical Journal states that some objection to female cyclists was “…because it is injurious to the rider herself and decidedly immoral in its tendencies.” In response to the article, both cycling organizations and publications wrote to the editor to dispute the article’s claims regarding the question of women riders. [[10]] Women who rode became a ‘flaneur[use] on wheels,’ displaying good taste, appropriate attire, commitment to healthy motherhood, and bourgeois propriety in public while touring. [[11]] In addition to touring, women, as well as children, took part in public bicycle tournaments or “bicycle gymkhana” (something originally associated with equestrian skill) which had gained popularity at the time.

These tournaments brought together all the ideals of the safety bicycle era as it “favoured bicycling decorum and propriety over athleticism, though many of the events of the gymkhana required significant bicycle-handling skill.” [[12]] These events also signified the proper use of public space, usually taking place in and around a park, which was a cultivated and clean space. Taking place largely during the summer season, the gymkhana events involved such things as a bicycle parade and bicycle decoration, as well as games including obstacle races. While Ottawa held its own gymkhana as the bicycle craze was drawing to a close in 1900, it did so in what seems to be a uniquely Ottawan fashion, with the gymkhana taking place in the middle of November at the indoor Rideau rink. Jointly organized as a benefit by the lady’s auxiliaries of St Luke’s and the children’s hospitals, the program included races and drills, as well as a military musical ride. While the event was said not to have gotten as many spectators on its second night, it was said to be a success. [[13]] If low attendance was thought to be a sign of decreased interest in bicycling, ‘the number of shops related to bicycles suggests otherwise, as there were over 10 in business in 1900. [[14]]

Whether out for a leisurely tour or participating in an organized event, the bicycle boom certainly did not go unnoticed in the Capital. In taking up the sport of bicycling, Ottawa residents heeded the call that it was indeed the right kind of sport for the health of the nation. While the actual craze only lasted until around the turn of the century, the interest in cycling has remained a part of the capital’s landscape, enjoyed by many no matter the season.

Kirsten Widdes is currently an independent researcher and writer. She holds an MA in History from Carleton University, as well as a BEd in Junior/Intermediate Education from the University of Ottawa. She has been a volunteer with the Historical Society of Ottawa since August 2023 and currently serves as the managing editor of HSO blog.

Julie Côté on Ottawa’s Camp Woolsey, Guiding, and the Power of its Community

Could you introduce yourself and tell us how you’re involved with Girl Guides?

My name’s Julie, but a common thing in Girl Guides, especially at Camp Woolsey, was to use fake names or ‘camp names’. So my camp name is Jaf, and that’s what most of the people involved in Guiding in Ottawa would know me as.

I’ve been a member of Girl Guides for basically my whole life. I started in 1997 when my family was posted in Germany. When my family moved back to Canada, I joined as a Brownie. Girl Guides of Canada has recently changed the branch name to Embers, but originally the branch was named after a type of Scottish Fairy.  After Brownies I did Guides, Pathfinders, and Rangers but took a break when I went to university. When I came back to Ottawa I became a Guider, and have been a Guider ever since, going on 10 years now. 

The biggest reason I stayed as a kid was because of two really good friends, who I met in Guides. They weren’t going to my school, so that was the only time I saw them. The three of us did the leadership training program at Woolsey together, and my first job was working at camp. It was this friendship that kept bringing me back. When I said earlier I took a break from Guides, that was only half true. While technically I wasn’t a member, I still worked at camp. When I got back to Ottawa, the reason I joined again was because some of my friends had a unit and asked me if I could help out. As a kid, I was never interested in working with other kids, but that changed and now I work for the school board.

When I was 12 or 13 there was a big change in the way Girl Guides was run. It became a lot more centralised. No longer did we have “districts” that handle their own affairs, like the Ottawa District for example. It was actually the Ottawa District that first bought and ran Woolsey right from the very start. There have also been program changes and uniform changes. The organisation is always trying to evolve and keep up with the times. 

Could you tell me a bit about the camp itself?

David (Dave) Kent - Beep Ball, Disability, and Sports Memory in Ottawa

In March 2024, the Historical Society of Ottawa sat down with David (Dave) Kent to discuss beep ball, disability and sports memory in Ottawa.

Why don’t we start by telling a bit about yourself and your life? 

Dave: Well I was born in Ottawa in the summer of 1951 and did almost all of my schooling, elementary, middle and high school in Ottawa. I went to the University of Ottawa in the early '70s and did an arts degree in Geography. I then went to the University of Manitoba to take a course in data processing, or what they call computer science now. I had normal vision until I was about 8 or 9, when I lost 90% of my sight. 

And what was it like attending public school with a visual impairment?