Ann Meelker, a spokesperson for the Lord Elgin Hotel, explains the history of the replica busts of the 8th Earl of Elgin, governor general of the United Canadas from 1847-1854, and his wife, Lady Mary Lambton.
The Lord Elgin Hotel isn’t giving up the fight but acknowledges that it’s “unlikely” to recover two historic, marble busts that once graced the hotel lobby but are now in the possession of Rideau Hall.
The tug-of-war between the Elgin Street hotel and Rideau Hall involves a 70-year-old marble bust honouring the 19th-century governor general who gave the hotel its name, along with a second statuette of his wife.\
In 1941, the busts of the 8th Earl of Elgin – governor general of the United Canadas from 1847 to 1854 – and his wife Lady Mary Lambton were placed on display in the front lobby of the Lord Elgin Hotel, a landmark Centretown building on the downtown street also named for the vice-regal representative.
Today, however, they can be seen in the ballroom of Rideau Hall, the official residence of Canada’s governors general. The busts were relocated there in 2003 for an exhibit celebrating Lord and Lady Elgin’s contributions to Canadian culture and democracy.
At the time, the managers of the Lord Elgin Hotel were under the impression that the busts would be returned once the exhibit was over.
Instead, they were given replicas, and the marble originals have remained at Rideau Hall ever since.
Rideau Hall spokesperson Christelle Legault says the government received the two marble busts in 1941 and offered them to the Lord Elgin Hotel under an arrangement by which they would be displayed “for an indefinite period of time, with the provision that the Government of Canada could choose to remove and relocate the busts elsewhere in the future.”
But hotel spokesperson Ann Meelker says it was then-prime minister Mackenzie King who gave the marble busts to the hotel in July 1941, and that King intended the busts to be displayed permanently at the hotel.
“The current Lord Elgin wants to see them at the hotel,” just as his predecessor in the post “intended them to be,” says Meelker.
However, says Legault, both the Elgin family and the Canadian government – on the recommendation of Rideau Hall experts – have agreed to leave the busts on display at the vice-regal residence on Sussex Drive.
“It is a secure and controlled environment where they can be seen by the widest number of people and where their story can be told through guided tours,” says Legault.
Paul Litt, a history professor at Carleton University, says the 8th Lord Elgin is credited with having introduced responsible government to Canada.
He is a “symbol of the British connection, one that is magnanimous,” says Litt.
Elgin was the first governor general to give up his authority over Canadian political affairs.
Litt says it was a move that allowed Canadians to begin determining their own domestic affairs through their own elected representatives.
Litt says that, regrettably, the marble busts of Lord and Lady Elgin hold little historical significance for Canadians today.
“Canadian history is not as important as it once was,” he says.
In regards to the Canadian historical context, Litt says the busts mean more to Rideau Hall than to the average Canadian hotel guest.
Even though the busts have not been returned to the hotel, it wasn’t for a lack of trying on the part of the hotel staff, says Meelker.
She says the hotel’s previous general manager made several attempts to correspond with Rideau Hall, but all that was offered were the replicas.
“It’s unlikely that the hotel will have the marble busts returned,” she acknowledges, but adds: “It was an honour to have them on display in the hotel’s lobby.”