Canadian War Museum in Ottawa

First, since this is a blog about wordcurrents, I will mention my Sapphic stanzas poem, "Remembrance at the War Museum", in which I speak of the emotionally charged tour Flora and I took through there with good friends Jane and John Cornwall, who were visiting from Mississauga, and who had visited us with the idea of visiting the museum, along with the Petra exhibit at the Museum of Civilization, across the river in Gatineau (Hull) Quebec. Both museums are within a few blocks of each other, have indoor parking, and are administratively connected so that you can purchase combined tickets to exhibits at both, as the "Civilization" link above indicates.

We visited on a Monday, and there were hardly any people in the vast place. I would recommend Monday as a pretty good time to visit. Parking was not expensive, nor did we have very far to walk to the stairs/elevator. By the way, the web site lists dates and times and conditions in which admission is free, although I imagine the parking fee is still charged.

So much for admin details.

I learned quite a bit from the first exhibit we saw: Clash of Empires: The War That Made Canada 1754-1763 — I had no idea that war started in Pittsburgh, nor that Winston Churchill had called the Seven Years War "The first world war." There were many interesting touches, video and artifacts, displays and documents, that were very interesting, showing such details as Washington's early campaigns while he was still fighting for England. There were knowledgeable volunteer guides there and really in aboth museums, who were really helpful. This is not a permanent exhibit, so if you are interested, I suggest you get in there this fall.

I really will let "Remembrance at the War Museum" do most of my speaking for me, although I will say this: some striking aspects of the exhibit are Hitler's actual open-topped black Mercedes-Benz with bullet-spattered windshields and photos of him in it, a realistic view of Normandy beach from inside a landing craft, the stories of several wartime internees from that insanely black part of our history, and much more, including a wonderful encounter with two vet volunteers.

The Virtual museum site is also a rich source of material. Either way, especially at this time of year, these things are worth thinking about.