Throughout the course of the pandemic, the Huntley Township Historical Society has remained active and engaged with our members and the general community.
In the first round of quarantine or lock-down the focus changed from in-house to on-line research and then laneway drop-offs between Collection Committee members sourcing information from old Carp Reviews, actual and on-line, to facilitate the next step of transcription into our database of Deaths/Marriages in Huntley Township.
A member of the Collection Committee has contributed numerous interesting articles and photographs to a non-Society Facebook page (Carp Valley Vintage) that celebrates the history of the Carp Valley and surrounding area.
Our Society has continued to assist the general public with their requests about family history research and historical information on their property or business location using information from our own files and the membership. This exchange of information has been accomplished through either e-mail or porch drop-offs.
We have transitioned to Zoom meetings…for General Meetings as well as Directors’ Meetings… thanks to the skills of Roger Thomas who has also continued updating our website. As this pandemic continues, our Planning Committee has had to shift from speakers at General Meetings in the Carp Memorial Hall to online presentations via Zoom, so speakers who are comfortable with this method are being sought, and therefore our plan for 2021 has been changed.
We continue to meet ongoing pandemic challenges thanks to our dedicated volunteers.
Photo: Colleen Good with the Huntley Township Historical Society’s Collection Committee.
Photo: © Huntley Township Historical Society, 2020.
March 11, 2020 was the day we gathered in the Ottawa Public Library auditorium and enjoyed what we did not know would be the HSO’s final in-person ’Speaker Series’ presentation of 2020.
Little did we suspect that March 11, 2020 was destined to go down in history as ’The Day That Changed Everything’.
At 10:59 a.m. Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the U.S. Congress that the nation’s 647 COVID-19 cases were only the beginning.
At 12:26 p.m. the World Health Organization declared COVID a global pandemic.
At 9:31 p.m. the NBA announced that it was suspending its season.
Earlier in the day Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced the first $1 billion to be spent in response to the pandemic and re-assured Canadians that “we will get through this together”. By the end of the week most Ontarians had cancelled their March Break travel plans.
Ironically, the topic of our fascinating HSO presentation that day had been Élisabeth Bruyère’s Grey Nuns and their courageous battle against Bytown’s deadly 1847 typhus epidemic.
The next day the HSO was among the first in Ottawa to announce the suspension of our remaining Spring 2020 events.
Our Society was founded in 1898 and we have endured two World Wars, the 1918 flu and the Great Depression. Over the decades we have, out of necessity, adapted and evolved continuously.
We were established 122 years ago to honour our history. Over that time our Society has itself come to play an integral part in Ottawa’s history.
As have our sister organizations, the HSO discovered the wonder of virtual presentations — now drawing enthusiastic audiences even larger than we had accommodated in the OPL auditorium. Walking tours have been socially distanced, and publications have been shared electronically.
For better or for worse, all of us have been extraordinary witnesses to history this past year.
Photo: Historical Society of Ottawa’s early members in front of the Bytown Museum. Photo: © Historical Society of Ottawa.
This past year has certainly been a ‘pivoting’ one for Heritage Ottawa. COVID challenges meant making quick adjustments to our programs. First up was our Newsletter — our printer had closed! An online-only version, upgraded to full colour, helped sweeten the new format.
Next came juggling the changing rules associated with outdoor gatherings. Welcome ’Social-Distancing’ Walking Tours! A new online registration and payment tool capped the numbers to meet regulations and public health standards were strictly adhered to. Everyone donned masks and kept their distance and guides willingly added face shields. The tours sold out!
To make up for cancelled and postponed events that bring members and friends of heritage together, we added a new ’Explore’ website section. Social media and other tools were used to promote the dozens of virtual tours, lectures and films on offer. Hello armchair learning!
We could not have succeeded without our amazing volunteers who helped make it all possible!
Photo: Heritage Ottawa socially-distanced walking tour. Photo: © Heritage Ottawa, 2020.
By the end of March, close to 100 Haunted Walks tour guides had been laid off as we struggled to find a path forward in uncertain times. In June, we relaunched our outdoor in-person experiences as ’Bubble Tours’, which focused on much smaller group sizes from a limited number of households. These tours were warmly embraced by locals eager to get out of the house to do something safe and fun, while also supporting local businesses. With COVID cases dropping throughout the summer, we were eventually able to conduct Bubble Tours at some indoor locations including the old Ottawa Jail, Fort Henry and Black Creek Pioneer Village.
We were simultaneously developing digital experiences, particularly for the Halloween Season when we knew we could not meet local demand, and those who would normally travel to take part in a Haunted Walk event would be interested but stuck at home. In mid-September we launched ’The Haunting at Home’ an online guided audio experience that shares the interesting history of parapsychology, while giving the listeners a night of eerie fun by challenging them to perform a series of spooky experiments using household objects. In October, we held a series of ’Virtual Haunted Campfires’ which were ticketed live streamed events featuring some of the best ghost storytellers from around the world. By Leveraging Federal and Provincial support, both initiatives were great successes with participants joining from all across Canada, and far-flung locations such as Hawaii, the UK, and Australia.
Photo: Haunted Walks guide with Rideau Canal and Union Station in the background. Photo: © Haunted Walks Inc, 2020.
The Goulbourn Museum is dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of the former Goulbourn Township.
With a nation-wide shutdown and Museum closure announced just days before our 2020 March Break Camp, staff quickly adapted and launched our inaugural virtual program, an online exhibit-creation competition. Staff continued to collaborate closely to deliver a robust slate of COVID-friendly programming. Adult audiences attended a four-part virtual lecture series and remote movie screening. Families with children enjoyed five take-home craft kits and an 8-week, web-facilitated summer camp. Three virtual collections tours gave the public a behind-the-scenes look at our artefacts.
To cap off the year, the Museum hosted a Virtual Holiday Market and outdoor photos with Santa. The challenges of remote work were considerable—especially for team members with children and new hires who had never seen the Museum in-person. The team persevered by focussing on one goal: to act as a pillar of support and engagement for the local community.
Photo: The winning entry from the Hambly family for the “My Family Is…” exhibit contest, Goulbourn Museum. Photo: © Goulbourn Museum, 2020.
In 2020, the Global Centre for Pluralism, headquartered in the beautiful heritage building at 330 Sussex Drive, took our signature approach to global convening and moved it online.
Our building’s stunning Dialogue Centre, featuring white oak panelling carved in a trefoil pattern, became the backdrop for over 20 virtual and hybrid events, meetings and roundtable discussions with participants from all over the world. We converted it into a production studio, with state-of-the-art A/V and lighting, from which we filmed video messages and keynote addresses. A virtual book launch with speakers from Kenya, Canada and the US attracted considerable interest, as well as other digital initiatives, including our Pluralism and the Pandemic Portal, a curated platform of commentary from leading thinkers on the inequalities surfaced by the pandemic and our Talking About Racism in the Classroom webinar, a professional development opportunity for Canadian teachers.
Photo: Meredith Preston, Secretary General with Global Centre for Pluralism in front of white oak panelling carved in a trefoil pattern. Photo: © Global Centre for Pluralism, 2020.
On July 8, 2020, the Diefenbunker successfully reopened its blast doors after a four-month closure. Since then, we welcomed 10,000 visitors and have received astounding accolades on our health and safety measures, protocols, and new visitor experience. Despite the challenging year, the Diefenbunker developed an eight-language audio guide, created new wayfinding and interpretative panels, and launched Artist-in-Residence exhibit by Greta Grip entitled Containment: Knit Your [p]art. We also continued crucial infrastructure upgrades to the building including a complete retrofit of our 200 level public washrooms.
“My 8 year old son was surprised that it was so clean! (Not exactly sure what he expected). And it was very comfortable – to the point where I didn’t give Covid a second thought… We are studying Modern History (20th Century) this year (have home-schooled all along)… I’ll have my boys (8 and 11) print out the pictures they took and create a narrative around it based on our visit. This was an interesting, painlessly educational, and memorable, family outing. I’m very glad we went!!” (9/8/2020) Visitor comment
Photo: The Honourable Dr. Merrilee Fullerton’s visit to the Diefenbunker Museum during COVID-19. Photo: © Diefenbunker Museum, 2020.
As the COVID-19 pandemic endures, the City of Ottawa Archives continues to deliver uninterrupted services to clients throughout the crisis.
The City of Ottawa Archives’ highest priority is our visitors, volunteers, and staff’s safety and well-being. We have implemented robust safety measures to ensure all our staff’s well-being while providing access to records through online/alternative services.
While our facilities are now closed to the public, we continue to care for the collection. Our buildings may be closed, but staff continue to monitor the records, vaults, environmental controls and data, while on site.
During this time, the Archives have successfully supported clients by adopting three key characteristics – adaptability, reliability, and a customer-first attitude, adjusting operational activities with little effect to partners and customers.
The city archives have engaged key audiences in emerging community-relevant projects throughout the pandemic. Projects included:
Photo: City of Ottawa Archives COVID-19 Collection Project, Black Lives Matter. Photo: © City of Ottawa Archives, 2020.
The Bytown Museum has been Ottawa’s community museum for over a century. We continue to thrive.
In early 2020 our doors were abruptly closed and our team dispersed. We quickly realized that in order to continue to engage with our community, we would need to pivot to online offerings.
With limited resources, we produced an IGTV series, Bytown Bit by Bit’, an at-home version of Let Us Entertain You, installed new exhibitions, launched virtual tours, and made available online a plethora of free content.
Looking ahead, we have launched student-led ’Bit by Bit’ episodes, continue to strengthen our online offerings, and are excited to have kicked off our new Beyond Bytown virtual lecture series.
We are hopeful for a time when we can welcome back our community, but until then we will continue offering fun and original online content to all who are looking to engage with Ottawa’s history.
Photo: Teilhard Frost plays “Cuckoo” on an old maple syrup bottle as part of the Bytown Museum’s 2020 LUEY line-up. Photo: © Bytown Museum, 2020.
Black History Ottawa (BHO) is a registered Charity that engages Canadians to increase their knowledge, understanding and awareness of contributions of Black Canadians to Canadian History. We serve the community by developing and offering mentorship, youth leadership and health programs that are open to the public. Our programs are inclusive and create opportunities for positive interactions between diverse communities.
Once the pandemic began, we were challenged to find new ways to stay connected to a community worried about job losses, adapting to working from home, disrupted schooling, the inability to gather in-person and a host of new realities.
At first, we delayed the annual Health and Wellness Seminar that we organize with other members of the African Caribbean Canadian Coalition (ACCC). We came close to cancelling the event but like other organizations, we pivoted to online events and looked for creative ways to continue educating the public. We ended up hosting two online health seminars, one in July and one in September. We also applied ourselves at learning to better use social media to create awareness about our work.
Recognizing the opportunities presented by being able to connect with people virtually, we held an online panel discussion marking Emancipation Day on August 1st, featuring speakers in Toronto, Halifax and Washington, D.C.
When restrictions were extended and we couldn’t gather to honour our veterans as in the past for Remembrance Day, we showed our ability to adjust to the new conditions and offered a virtual event to remember, celebrate and properly honour our veterans.
We continue to connect with the public by doing more presentations to organizations across the country who more than ever are eager to deepen their knowledge of Canadian Black History and lived experiences.
Photo: Black History Ottawa’s ‘Connecting the Dots’ Ceremony. Photo: © Black History Ottawa, 2019.
Every one of us has felt the impacts of the current pandemic in immeasurable ways. In the face of all of these challenges and hardships, Heritage continues to forge an important foundation for our Capital community. Despite site closures, staff lay-offs, and a lack of financial resources, Heritage endures.
To understand how our Members have rallied and pivoted through this pandemic paradigm shift, we asked a single question.
“How has your organization shown strength during these unprecedented times?”
We were overwhelmed with the response.
From pivoting to online meetings, to developing new virtual experiences, to take-home education kits – these stories show strength and ingenuity.
In this living archive, you’ll discover the tenacity and true grit of our resilient Members.
These are their stories.