Exploring Exhibits: “Notman, Visionary Photographer” at the Canadian Museum of History

On yet another museum visit, Chris and I checked out the current temporary exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History, “Notman, Visionary Photographer.” This exhibit is the first retrospective entirely devoted to exploring the work of William Notman, a photographer originally from Scotland, who immigrated to Canada and over the course of the late 19th century founded a chain of studios under the name Wm. Notman & Son.

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Exploring Exhibits: “Medieval Europe: Power and Splendour” at the Canadian Museum of History

Recently Chris and I ventured to the Canadian Museum of History to catch the temporary exhibit, “Medieval Europe: Power and Splendour” before it closed. In a past undergraduate life I actually was a bit of a medievalist, so I was pretty interested to check out this exhibit.

Exploring Exhibits: Canadian Museum of Nature Research and Collections Facility Open House

This past Saturday, Chris and I decided to take a little adventure across the river and go to the Canadian Museum of Nature’s open house of their collections storage facility. This is an annual event that I’ve been meaning to go to for years, but this year the timing finally worked out, and I have to say that it was well worth the trip!

Exploring Exhibits: Instameet at the new Ottawa Art Gallery

On Wednesday, April 25, Chris and I had the opportunity to get a sneak-preview of the new Ottawa Art Gallery building with the Instagrammers of Ottawa! I work for the Canadian Museums Association, so the opening of the new gallery space was definitely on my radar, and from all of the articles anticipating it, I was pretty excited to check it out.

Exploring Exhibits: Butterflies in Flight at the Canadian Museum of Nature

Yesterday Chris and I took advantage of the beautiful long weekend to take in one of the last days of the Butterflies in Flight exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and let me  tell you, this one was really quite magical.

Research Ramblings: Having a Conversazione at the National Museum of Canada

Lately I’ve been looking through newspaper clippings to try to find anything I can about the national museums of Canada. In one of my online expeditions, I came across a clipping titled: “Keenly Interested in Fish Culture: Children So Numerous Lecture Given Twice.” Yes, you read that correctly.

Research Ramblings: OPINION Ottawa should have a National Museum.

I’ve been spending some time digging through the online archive for The Ottawa Journal recently, and I have to say that I’ve stumbled upon some pretty fun columns. One of the first ones to catch my attention was published on May 27, 1886. It provides an account of an address given the previous night by Sir William Dawson to the Royal Society of Canada. Dawson suggested that it would be an advantageous idea for Ottawa to have a National Museum. Considering that there are now four directly in Ottawa and another just across the river in Gatineau, I’d say he was probably on to something….

Research Ramblings: UPDATE – Tracking the Buffalo Exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature

It has been a few weeks since I posted the original story, and since that time I have been able to do a little more digging – or rather, enlisted the help of professionals in the collection!

I got in touch with the Canadian Museum of Nature Library staff to try and find out the answers to the questions I still had at the end of the first installment of this story. I still don’t have all of the answers, but I think I’m getting a little closer. I was put in touch with the Archivist, the Curator of the Vertebrate Collection, and an Assistant in Collections Services, who kindly and enthusiastically put their skills and knowledge to work for me.

Research Ramblings: Tracking the Buffalo Exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature

It should be no secret at this point that I basically live and breathe museums and want to know everything about how they work while working in and for and about them. This is how this story began. I decided to start using my free time to go to Library and Archives Canada to collect everything I possibly could that pertained in someway to Canada’s national museums. Collecting broadly and without a particular focus, I was open to whatever stories presented themselves to me and caught my attention. One of the first files that I collected was titled simply, “Specimens of wood bison for Victoria Memorial Museum.”

Research Ramblings: Kenneth Peacock and the Newfoundland Folk Music Revival, Part 6.

To conclude my research, I reflected on another concert experience that I had over the course of researching and writing about Kenneth Peacock and his role in the Newfoundland Folk Music Revival. On 21 November 2015, I attended a concert featuring two of my favourite musical groups, which I had purchased the tickets for myself several months before. My excitement over seeing the Barenaked Ladies for what would be my third time was at the highest possible level because they were being introduced by Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies, the new solo project by the Great Big Sea frontman. Somehow the fact that this would also be my third time seeing Alan Doyle perform did not diminish my excitement. For all of my building energy, months of listening to the music of both bands in preparation (despite already knowing all of their albums by heart), and sheer joy of being able to watch two of my favourite bands in one concert, what I did not expect was for the night to turn into a cathartic research moment.