Beginning on November 26, 2025, subscribers to Rogers TV will be able to enjoy a brand new season of our series, “Time Travelling with the Historical Society of Ottawa”, a collaboration between Rogers TV and the Historical Society of Ottawa.

Each week's new episode will air Wednesday @ 7:30 p.m. and then be rebroadcast Friday at 5:30 p.m. and the following Tuesday @ 10:00 a.m. on Rogers TV Channel 22.

Here is the schedule of episodes and our featured presenters:

Wednesday, November 26, 2025 @ 7:30 p.m. - Call To Arms: The Fenian Threat with Phil Gurski

Wednesday, December 3 @ 7:30 p.m. - Canada’s Historic Beechwood Cemetery with Nick McCarthy

Wednesday, December 10 @ 7:30 p.m. - John Egan: Pine, Politics & the Ottawa Valley with Michael McBane

Wednesday, December 17 @ 7:30 p.m. - The History of Ottawa’s 2SLGBTQ+ Community with Glenn Crawford

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 @ 7:30 p.m. - Play Ball! The History of Baseball in Early Ottawa with Steve Rennie

Wednesday, January 14 @ 7:30 p.m. - The Château Laurier (If These Walls Could Talk!) with Dominique Lajoie

Wednesday, January 21 @ 7:30 p.m. -  Under the Archway: A History of Ottawa’s Chinese Community with Jeff Wang

Wednesday, February 4 @ 7:30 p.m. -  “Pops” & Estelle Brown: Ottawa’s First Black Business Owners with Albert Bedward

All episodes were recorded at the Beechwood Cemetery pavilion. After initial exclusive broadcast on Rogers TV, the series will be made accessible on the HSO website, where you will also find our great episodes from Season #1.

We are saddened to learn that long-time HSO member and WWII veteran Elsa Lessard has passed away at the age of 103.

A “WREN”, a member of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, and Bletchley Park “Secret Listener” during WWII, Elsa has been described as a national treasure” by the CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault and by Admiral Topshee, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Read the Ottawa Citizen obituary.

Listen to a CBC interview with Elsa.

Read more about the story of the WRENs in Bytown Pamphlet #104: Our "Capitol" Wrens.

Read about Ottawa's Bletchley Park in Bytown Pamplhet #100: Canada’s Bletchley Park: The Examination Unit in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill 1941–1945. 

Let’s hear your stories about Bytown and the Rideau Canal as we begin to mark 2026, the 200th anniversary of the beginning of both!

All contributions are welcome. Selected submissions will be shared on a special webpage on the HSO website for all to access, including educators. Eligible contributions can be submitted in a variety of formats, including written or audio/video.

We hope to also incorporate selected contributions into our many other platforms – such as our blog, the HSO Capital Chronicle newsletter, website articles and the Ottawa Stories sections and potentially our pamphlet series. All will be shared through our social media platforms well.

We welcome stories that pertain to the Rideau Canal or Bytown (1826-1855) or the Ottawa area’s history beforehand, as well as stories exploring the impact that the establishment of both had on the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous people.

We welcome new as well as updated or previously-published materials for submission. Contributors will allow HSO the right to publish their materials while also retaining the right to do so themselves.

Contact us to learn more: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We will also be happy to discuss any proposals for submissions you may have.

Have a look at our collection of stories: www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/resources/bytown-200

Beginning on April 2, 2025, subscribers to Rogers TV will be able to enjoy a fascinating new weekly series, “Time Travelling with the Historical Society of Ottawa”, a collaboration between Rogers TV and the HSO.

Each week's new episode will air Wednesday @ 7:30 p.m. and then be rebroadcast Friday at 5:30 p.m. and the following Tuesday @ 10:00 a.m. on Rogers TV Channel 22.

Here is the schedule of episodes and our featured presenters:

Wednesday, April 2 @ 7:30 p.m.
"Go Exploring" with Paul Weber

Wednesday, April 9 @ 7:30 p.m.
"Glimpses of Forgotten Ottawa" with Kevin Ballantyne

Wednesday, April 16 @ 7:30 p.m.
"Philemon Wright and his town" with Rick Henderson

Wednesday, April 23 @ 7:30 p.m.
"Gord Atkinson: Ottawa's Oldest Teenager" with Peter Atkinson

Wednesday, April 30 @ 7:30 p.m.
"Bytown 1847: Elisabeth Bruyere and the Irish Famine Refugees" with Michael McBane

Wednesday, May 7 @ 7:30 p.m.
"Ottawa's Golden Age of Rock and Roll" with Jim Hurcomb

Wednesday, May 14 @ 7:30 p.m.
"The Changing World of Photography" with Paul Couvrette

Wednesday, May 21 @ 7:30pm
"From Steamboats to the NHL: The Cowley Family" with Christine Jackson

Wednesday, May 28 @ 7:30pm
"Ottawa's Surprising Connections to Basketball's Beginnings" with Leo Doyle

Wednesday June 4 @ 7:30pm
"An Archaeologist's Perspective: Uncovering the Ottawa Area's Ancient Past" with Jean-Luc Pilon

Wednesday, June 11 @ 7:30pm
"Black History in Ottawa Streets" with Jean-Marie Guerrier

In addition, a series of French-language episodes have been been recorded to be broadcast on Rogers TV Cable 23.

All episodes were recording last Fall at the Rockcliffe Park pavilion, courtesy of the National Capital Commission.

After initial exclusive broadcast on Rogers TV, the series will be made accessible on the HSO website.

The French version of the series “Time Travelling” will being airing on May 14, 2025 on Rogers TV 23.

Timeslots will be as follows:

• Dominique Lajoie “Château Laurier: Si les murs pouvaient parler” – May 14, 2025
• Rick Henderson “Philemon Wright et son village” – May 21, 2025

Wednesday 9:00pm (mercredi 21h) *original timeslot*

Thursday 12:30pm (jeudi 12h30)

Thursday 8:30pm (jeudi 20h30)

Friday 4:00pm (vendredi 16h)

Monday 11:00am (lundi 11h)

Both shows will be available on the TV Rogers YouTube site at a later date.

Storyteller Award winners : Linda Seccaspina, Denise Chong and Glenn Clark with Jane Waterston. Photo by Sonja McKay.

The HSO François Bregha Storyteller Award is presented each year to individuals in recognition of their outstanding contribution toward increasing awareness of Ottawa area history – the mission of the Historical Society of Ottawa for the past 127 years.

On Saturday, April 26th it was our great pleasure to present the 2025 HSO François Bregha Storyteller Award to the first three of this year’s five esteemed recipients, Linda Seccaspina, Denise Chong and Glenn Clark.

We were again privileged to welcome Jane Waterston to present the award named in honour of her late husband, former HSO member François Bregha, who was also, posthumously in 2022, the inaugural recipient of this award.

Congratulations to Linda, Denise and Glenn… and many thanks for your wonderful work!

Ben Weiss presenting the HSO Storyteller Award winners David Dean and Sarah Templier with Jane Waterston. Photo by Jenny Armina.

In addition, congratulations to our final two 2025 recipients, David Dean and Sarah Templier. Many thanks for your wonderful work!

The awards were presented on June 16, 2025, during our HSO Speaker Series event with guest speaker Ursula Buchan.

We were again privileged to welcome Jane Waterston to present the award named in honour of her late husband, former HSO member François Bregha, who was also, posthumously in 2022, the inaugural recipient of this award.

On the evening of Wednesday, October 9, 2024, the Historical Society of Ottawa delved into its own past with an exploration of the early decades of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa (WCHSO) and the remarkable women who formed and ran it. We were pleased to again welcome Connie Wren-Gunn, who reprised the session she had presented at our 125^th Birthday Bash in the summer of 2023. Connie is a professional historian, being the Director, Content & Interpretative Products for Know History. She holds an M.A. in History from Carleton University and is an accomplished writer and passionate researcher.

Connie explained that the women who founded the WCHSO were primarily women of privilege, from prominent local families, who were also responsible for the formation and operation of many other organizations and charities within Ottawa. Women had few rights in the late 1890s, and a number of organizations were created by women, such as the National Council of Women and the International Order of the Daughters of the Empire, which were focused on improving the position of women in society. Although a number of working women were involved in the formation of the WCHSO, they did not remain active with the organization for long. This may be due, in part, to the WCHSO holding its meetings on weekday afternoons.

Connie pointed out that the women who formed the WCHSO were trailblazers, giving women a voice they had never had before. Although some 20 Historical Societies were formed in Canada between 1869 and 1900, the WCHSO was the only one formed and managed entirely by women. It was also the first Canadian Historical Society to send a delegate to the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, Jenny Simpson, in 1909.

Connie then gave us the story of the founding of the WCHSO starting from June, 1898 when thirty-one women met at the home of Matilda Edgar, the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Their goal was to promote and preserve the history of Ottawa through publications and through the collection of artifacts. This collection eventually grew into the Bytown Museum, which opened in October 1917. The WCHSO was run as a formal organization, with a constitution, bylaws, officers with assigned responsibilities, scheduled meetings and a membership fee, initially 50 cents yearly, which was not raised until the 1930s. They also published a detailed annual report, which they began after about a decade of operation. The formality of the organization was an important point, as they realized that it would be too easy for them to be perceived simply as a group of ladies, sitting around, sipping tea and chatting. They were serious in what they were doing and wanted everyone to understand it.

Connie went on to describe some of the activities undertaken by the WCHSO in their early years. These included fundraising, money always being in short supply, the creation of scrapbooks based on local news clippings, see the link below, the staging of two major exhibitions of local artifacts and the lobbying of governments for the preservation of historic sites and the creation of plaques and monuments to honour significant events, such as Confederation, and  individuals, chief among these being Lieutenant-Colonel John By.

She then told us a bit about Transactions, a journal published by the WCHSO, which consisted of 10 volumes appearing between 1901 and 1928, which contained over 130 essays. Most of these papers were written by WCHSO members, and although some were based on archival documents, most were based on previously published books, or recorded the memories of local families. Much of the focus of the papers was on early life in Bytown and the Ottawa valley, reflecting the hardships faced and overcome by the early settlers.

Connie explained that in the early part of the 20^th century, universities began introducing mandatory methodologies for historical research for their graduate students requiring original research based solely on written archival documents. This professionalization of history discounted the work of passionate amateurs, such as the women of the WCHSO. Perhaps in response to the growing criticism from professional historians, the WCHSO modified their content of Transactions, reducing them in size and increasing the number of articles written by men. Connie pointed out that in the volume published in 1922, seven of the ten articles were written by men. The WCHSO, perhaps as a further response, shifted its focus away from its writings to the collection and preservation of artifacts in the Bytown Museum.  

In 1956 the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa became simply the Historical Society of Ottawa.

A full recording of Connie’s session can be viewed at: The Story of Us - The (Women's Canadian) Historical Society of Ottawa Est. 1898.

Connie’s Master’s Thesis can be read in full at: Etd | The Women's Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa: Constructing Public Memory and Preserving History in a Changing City, 1898-1932 | ID: j67314577 | Hyrax

The work performed by the 4^th year Digital History class of the University of Ottawa on the scrapbooks created by the WCHSO can be viewed at: Ottawa U Scrapbooking Ottawa History - The Historical Society of Ottawa

The Historical Society of Ottawa has a page on its website dedicated to the WCHSO, which can be viewed at:   WCHSO - The Historical Society of Ottawa  

The Historical Society of Ottawa (established as the Women's Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa in 1898) has been spreading awareness of Ottawa's fascinating past for 126+ years, including founding and operating the Bytown Museum for eight decades. Join us for an exploration of the beginnings and legacy of one of Canada's oldest historical societies. Guest speaker: Connie Wren-Gunn.

The HSO Blog has been live for a year! We launched this platform as an extension of our objective to preserve and increase public knowledge of the history of Ottawa, including its people and places. Our vision was to create a space where the history of the Ottawa area could be shared through an engaging blog platform.

Thank you to all who have contributed and shared their interest in the blog!

Be sure to catch up on past posts and other great HSO publications found under the publications section of our website.

As always, if you are interested in writing for the blog, please get in contact with us by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are always excited to see what fascinating stories make their way to us and can’t wait to see what this year brings!

The HSO Blog has been live for a year! We launched this platform as an extension of our objective to preserve and increase public knowledge of the history of Ottawa, including its people and places. Our vision was to create a space where the history of the Ottawa area could be shared through an engaging blog platform.

Thank you to all who have contributed and shared their interest in the blog!

Be sure to catch up on past posts and other great HSO publications found under the publications section of our website.

As always, if you are interested in writing for the blog, please get in contact with us by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are always excited to see what fascinating stories make their way to us and can’t wait to see what this year brings!