The Department of History at the Ottawa Regional Heritage Fair
Dozens of young historians of middle schools of the Ottawa-Gatineau region gathered at the Canadian Museum of War for the annual Ottawa Regional Heritage Fair. Several members of the Department of history were there to see what they were up to, and offer support. Doctoral candidates and Contract Instructors Rebecca Friend and Emma Awe prepared a show case of the work of students of History programs at Carleton. Their colleague Amie Wright was at the next table to speak of the activities and products of the Workers History Museum. John Walsh and David Dean, Faculty and retired Faculty respectively, reviewed the projects to select the best work in Public History. And Faculty member Dominique Marshall was one of the event’s judges.
Here are some pictures of the young historians and their work – taken by D. Marshall, and published with the permission of the Fair.
History of Ottawa – Using some of the research of our Departmental colleagues, a long visit to the Bytown museum, and learning to make parchment like paper, the two authors told a fresh history of Ottawa in a dozen of vignettes.The Oldest Restaurant in Canada – For their project on the history of the Auberge Saint-Gabriel operating in Montreal since 1688, the authors traveled there, sampled the food, and listened to the ghost stories gathered by the owner.Indigenous Jewellery – This project involved organising a workshop on beading, reading and listening to stories about the symbolic meaning of colours, and images, and the cultural meaning of jewels. It is now one of the two projects accepted on Canada’s History’s Heritage Fair National Showcase: You can go to the National Showcase two webpages (1 in French 1 in English) on CanadasHistory.ca/NationalShowcase and vote for Ottawa’s representatives! The online voting will remain open until July 1, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. (ET).History of Perth – It took a walk in the neighbourhood with new eyes and questions, some 3D printing, and a model of the local “giant cheese”, for this citizen of Perth to communicated to the Ottawa audience the weird and wonderful past of their place.Table of the Department of History – Emma Awe and Rebecca Friend, doctoral candidates and Contract Instructors (sitting), presented the work of graduate and undergraduate students in History.
