Canadian War Museum
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The Canadian War Museum, located in Ottawa, Ontario, is a Canadian museum that honours Canada's veterans and commemorates the wars and conflicts in which Canada has taken part. The museum is part of the Museum of Civilization Corporation, which also runs the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian Children's museum and the Canadian Postal Museum.
The Canadian War Museum traces the history of conflict from a Canadian perspective, from pre-Columbian times in Canada to the Gulf War and Canada's participation in peacekeeping efforts. The museum has an extensive collection of artifacts and war art, although one of the most popular exhibits remains Hitler's personal Mercedes limousine.
History
The museum originated in 1880 as a collection of military artifacts in the possession of the Canadian federal government, organized by militia officers of the Ottawa garrison. Its first facility was a series of rooms in the Cartier Square Drill Hall, and eventually the collection fell under the auspices of the Public Archives of Canada. The museum was officially established in 1942, but it did not enjoy its own dedicated facility until 1967 when it moved to the former Public Archives building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, located between the Royal Canadian Mint and the (then) future site of the National Gallery of Canada. This location was quite small and much of the Museum's collection had to be stored at a west-end warehouse known as Vimy House, which was formerly used as Ottawa's streetcar garage. The museum's Sussex Drive facility and Vimy House were finally closed to the public in September 2004.New building
In the 1990s, the government made plans to relocate the War Museum to a new site east of central Ottawa, near the Canadian Aviation Museum. The proposed site was criticized for its distance from downtown and most of the National Capital Region's other attractions. A new, more prominent location was chosen at Lebreton Flats, along the Ottawa River, just to the west of Parliament Hill and other national institutions. The new location also allowed for ceremonial processions between the National War Memorial and the new War Museum.The new facility was opened with much fanfare in May 2005. The new, modern building, subject to much architectural acclaim, emerges eastward from the ground, with textured concrete reminiscent of a bunker, but with rooftop gardens consistent with the museum's theme of regeneration. The building rises to a large fin, clad in copper that matches the rooftops of other prominent public buildings in the capital. The small windows on the fin spell out Lest we forget (in English) and N'oublions jamais (in French) in Morse code. The copper used on the interior of the building is from the roof of the Library of Parliament, which itself was refurbished in 2004.
Museum heads
The three most recent heads of the War Museum are:
- Victor Suthren 1986–1998
- Jack Granatstein 1998–2001
- Joe Geurts 2001–
See also
External links
- *WikiSatellite view at [WikiMapia]
- *Street map from [Mapquest] or [Google Maps]
- *Satellite image from [Google Maps]
- *Topographical map from [Maptech]
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