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We began our speaker session of March 22, 2025 at the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library on a somber note as Ben Weiss informed us of the unexpected death of Jamie Bramburger who had been our guest speaker just one month earlier. All of us at the Historical Society of Ottawa extend our condolences to Jamie’s family, friends and colleagues. As March 7, 2025 marked the 225th anniversary of the arrival of Philemon Wright and his party to this area, we were pleased to welcome Rick Henderson, a…
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The weather on that evening, Sunday, December 27th 1942 was miserable. The Ottawa Valley was hit with a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain as the local 550 train made its way from Petawawa toward Ottawa. Mist rising from the rivers and the blackout, necessitated by the war added to the darkness. By contrast, it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, February 22nd, 2025 when almost 60 of us gathered at the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library to hear Jamie Bramburger relate the tragic story of the wreck…
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Speakers Presentations
Thursday, 20 March 2025 21:33
The Story of Us - The History of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa
Dave Kent
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 125th 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…
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The HSO team was happy to attend Ottawa’s Heritage Day celebrations at City Hall on February 18, 2025.
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It’s quiz time! Again this year, the Historical Society of Ottawa had the honour of preparing the 2025 “Great Ottawa History Challenge”, published every February during Heritage Week in the Ottawa Citizen. Here’s your chance to see how much you know about Ottawa’s past: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/ottawa-history-quiz
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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…
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On the morning of December 2nd, 2024, eight members of the Historical Society of Ottawa attended the final presentation of the HIS4135 Canadian Digital History Course at the University of Ottawa, The class had taken on the project of digitizing several of the scrapbooks created by our founders, the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa, (WCHSO), during the first half of the 20th Century. The students would then conduct some analysis of the contents of the scrapbooks. Their professor, Sarah Templier, explained that this project had been intended for a…
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Our final Museum Club outing for 2024 took place on the morning of Wednesday, November 20, and was a private tour of the National Research Council of Canada’s facility at 100 Sussex Drive. Thirteen of our members were greeted by Steven LeClair, Chief Archivist of the NRC. We were surprised to learn that apart from Library and Archives Canada, the NRC is the only federal agency that is permitted to operate an archive. All others must send their documents and artifacts to the LAC, but due to the need for…
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Special Events
Given that our 1st English language presentation of our 2024 / 2025 series fell on September 11, it was most appropriate that our guest that night, Peter McBride, spoke about the contrast between fire fighting in Bytown and early Ottawa, as compared to fire fighting in Ottawa today. Peter is the President of the Bytown Fire Brigade, with whom we were proud to partner for this evening’s presentation. Chief McBride is a 32 year veteran of the Ottawa Fire Department, a registered safety professional, and a passionate advocate of Fire…
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