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Saturday, 11 July 2026 12:32
Billings Estate National Historic Site Tour: Seeing History Preserved
Zoe-Elizabeth Cook
On July 3rd 2026, the Museum Club visited the Billings Estate National Historic Site. Our guide Aiden led us through a detailed tour of the estate that went over the contributions of the five generations that lived in this house, on the property and to the surrounding community. The home had been built by Braddish Billings, after his wife Lamira Dow didn’t like the home that he had on the shores of the Rideau River. We began the tour in what used to be the family kitchen, with the original…
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On Tuesday June 9. 2026, the HSO Museum Club had the privilege of visiting Beechwood Cemetery for a tour, led by Nicolas McCarthy, about the history of Bytown and the role that Beechwood played in it. As the tour began, we learnt that Beechwood is a non-denominational cemetery which could be seen in the layout of the plots and in the symbols present throughout the cemetery. Our first stop as we walked was the gazebo on the property that provides a gorgeous view of Parliament Hill, which is fitting given…
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Monday, 01 June 2026 22:17
Museum Club Starts the Season with National Holocaust Monument Tour
Zoe-Elizabeth Cook
On Sunday May 31, 2026, the HSO Museum Club had the privilege of touring the National Holocaust Monument, led by members of the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES), Artur Wilczynski and Alyssa Novick. The monument was inaugurated in September of 2017, after a student had proposed a monument back in 2013, and had helped to get a parliamentary bill passed to construct one. Our tour began with an explanation of the symbolism behind the shape of the monument. The monument is made up of six triangular sections, and…
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On the evening of Thursday, May 14, 2026, the staff at the Beechwood Cemetery launched a new book on their history. Attending were the two authors, Erika Wagner and Nicolas McCarthy, the current and former Beechwood management and staff, and a large crowd, all who had gathered in the Sacred Space at the cemetery for the formal part of the launch. Erika Wagner acted as the emcee for the evening, introducing key project members and thanking the audience for their attendance. She went on to explain the somewhat long and…
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On April 25, 2026, the Society hosted the third presentation of its Bytown200 series. It followed a February presentation by Dr. Lynn Gehl on the past, present and future of the Anishinaabeg Algonquin of the Ottawa Valley, and one in March by Allison Margot Smith who gave a screening of her documentary on the Rideau Canal. Presented by Society member James Powell, the third and final part of the Bytown200 trilogy focused on Bytown itself. Despite stiff competition from two hockey games that afternoon with both the Ottawa Senators and…
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Ruth Hall-McMillan’s immense contributions to the Historical Society of Ottawa spanned four decades. Ruth passed away on December 8 2025, at the age of 93. Inspired by Ottawa’s 150th anniversary in 1976, with the encouragement of HSO, Ruth produced a magnificent series of oil paintings, a collection called “The Rideau Canal Before 1900”. These works, featured in a solo exhibition at Ottawa City Hall, represented a meticulously researched visual record of the canal’s 19th century history. In 1991, the HSO was honoured to publish a pamphlet by the same name, written by…
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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…
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On Saturday March 28, 2026, Allison Margot Smith gave a film-screening of her recent film “Two Wars, Three Watersheds, a Slew of Surveys and a Canal.” The film describes the history of the Rideau Canal, and in particular, the planning of the route of the canal, starting in the 1780s. The reasons for building the canal changed over time, as did ideas for the route. So, it took more than fifty years to arrive at a plan for the canal. Even the geography of the land mass to be transited…
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One of the perks of being a member of the Historical Society of Ottawa is that we occasionally receive an invitation to a fundraising event for an important heritage cause, to enjoy a delicious meal and some cultural entertainment. A banquet hosted by the Vietnamese Canadian Centre was held at the Sala San Marco Event Centre on March 28, 2026, to raise funds for the Vietnamese Boat People Museum, to be built at the northeast corner of Preston and Somerset Streets. The Historical Society of Ottawa has had a special…
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