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for future generations.
HSO 2026 Bytown200 Bicentennial Storytelling Collection
The Historical Society of Ottawa is proud to share stories about Bytown and the Rideau Canal to highlight the 200th anniversary of both in 2026.
Have a story to share as part of our Bytown200 Challenge? Follow this link to learn more: www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/hso-news/the-hso-2026-bytown200-bicentennial-storytelling-challenge
The HSO Bytown200 initiative has been made possible, in part, thanks to the generous legacy bequeathed to the Historical Society of Ottawa by the late Ms. Vivian Lawrence.
Jack Hanna – Centretown BUZZ Ottawa 200 series
16 February 2026
HSO
To mark Ottawa’s 200th anniversary, the Centretown BUZZ community newspaper has commissioned Jack Hanna to pen an eight-part series reflecting back on the history of our city. Jack Hanna is…
Ben Weiss – 1926 Centenary Flashback
15 February 2026
HSO
Join us as we (carefully) flip through the withering pages of a (barely) surviving copy of the August 16, 1926 edition of the Ottawa Evening Citizen -- and travel back…
André Pinard – Colonel By and the Founding of Bytown
14 February 2026
HSO
Who better to share the story of the Bytown’s beginnings than Lt. Colonel John By himself? Who more reliable to recount the construction of the Rideau Canal than the Royal…
Sonja McKay – Zéphérine Brunet, a French Canadian in Bytown
13 February 2026
HSO
Among the settlers who populated Bytown, many were francophones. By examining the stories of her own francophone ancestors, Sonja McKay reveals a window through which we obtain a glimpse of what…
Albert Dumont – The Kettle of Boiling Waters: Chaudière Falls, Algonquin Territory
4 February 2026
HSO
Algonquin elder Albert “South Wind” Dumont speaks of the immense spiritual significance of the Chaudière Falls, and cautions on the importance of decisions made regarding their future: The Kettle of…
David C. Martin – What a Surveyor Saw: John Burrows and the Rideau Canal
2 February 2026
HSO
What can we learn from the long-ago diaries of Rideau Canal surveyor John Burrows about how he perceived the landscape unfolding around him, through the lens of the British military,…
André Pinard – Première réunion publique bilingue à Bytown
31 January 2026
HSO
André Pinard takes us back to a pivotal moment in a period of cultural tension in Bytown. Read the story (in French): Première réunion publique bilingue à Bytown André Pinard is…
Bryan D. Cook – William Pittman Lett: Ottawa’s First City Clerk and Bard
28 December 2025
HSO
William Pittman Lett, who was 13 years old when the Rideau Canal opened, went on to witness and, through his poetry, chronicle the evolution of rough and tumble Bytown into…
Explore the Archives!
20 December 2025
Bryan D. Cook
Resources about Bytown and the Rideau Canal It is amazing what we can discover in our many Archives about Bytown and the Rideau Valley as they were before 1855. Archivists…
Chateau Lafayette Pre-History (1849-1863) – Ashley Newall
14 December 2025
HSO
Bytown’s taverns were notoriously abundant in number – but the Chateau Lafayette (“The Laff”) boasts the distinction of being the only of those Bytown era drinking houses to still remain…
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