A pilot’s license, a flight log, and a photograph sit encased in glass at the Bytown Museum. One hundred years after the start of the First World War, these artifacts are all we have to remember some of those from Ottawa who lost their lives.
The Bytown Museum’s exhibit Ottawa Answers the Call, The Capital and the Great War commemorates this year’s 100th anniversary of what was called “the war to end all wars.”
Grant Vogl, the museum’s collections and exhibitions manager, says the exhibit is a significant reminder of the men and women who lost their lives in the First World War.
“I think as things move further and further into history, people tend to look at them as more of an event on paper instead of something that actually happened to real people,” he says.
Sandra O’Quinn, learning specialist at the Canadian War Museum, adds that people no longer “have a personal connection to the first world war . . . our connection to it is through stories, through objects, through archives.”
She adds: “It’s an event that changed Canada. The First World War is something that affected every Canadian.”
The Bytown exhibit includes a monitor that displays the name of every Canadian killed during the 1914-18 war. The 56-hour video shows 67,000 names, each for just a few seconds.
“Part of the major focus of the temporary exhibition was the real people of Ottawa . . . putting names and faces to stories,” Vogl says.
The exhibit also includes a biography on Centretown’s Lt. James Arthur Menzies. Menzies lived on Waverley Street with his parents Peter and Isabella Menzies.
The exhibit features a portrait of the Menzies family. The photo features Menzies, who went by Arthur, and three of his siblings in uniform. His brothers served in the military, while his sister Mary volunteered as a nurse.
“His story was very touching as he was a young man. He didn’t have (any children) to carry on his story,” Vogl explains.
Menzies was killed in a Zeppelin raid on Sept. 25, 1917. He was only 21 years old.
Across the hall from Ottawa Answers the Call there’s a collection of photos taken at Canadian battlefields 100 years later.
Front is a series of 30 images created by local photographer Rémi Thériault.
“What I find interesting is how different the sites are,” he says. Thériault got interested in the history behind different landscapes through a government job interviewing veterans across Canada.
“I think it’s great to do this and see little hints to the war at some of the places, and references to the Canadians that were there,” he says.
Some battlegrounds, like Vimy Forêt Dominiale are now just a highway and some places, such as Vimy Ridge, have a historical monument to mark the battleground.
Ottawa Answers the Call and Front will be on display at the Bytown Museum until January.