Ottawa's history is more than the buildings and monuments, says Mike Steinhauer, director of the Bytown Museum.
It's also the stories people have of their neighbourhoods, stories which have sometimes been overlooked.
The museum has created a new website, capitalneighbourhoods.ca, to collect and share this aspect of Ottawa's history.
It’s an interactive website showing the geographic and historical context of landmarks in central Ottawa’s historic communities. National history, such as D’Arcy McGee’s assassination, is presented alongside local landmarks such as the Plant Bath and Lisgar Collegiate.
The Centretown component is divided into Downtown, which is separated from Centretown by Lisgar Street. Centretown West goes from Bronson Avenue to Bayview.
Visitors to the site can watch videos introducing the neighbourhoods, read about present and past landmarks and even contribute their own stories.
The site’s interactive component was a key part of the project, says Steinhauer.
“Our intent was to go beyond the jewels and bridges and monuments and go into the story of Ottawa,” Steinhauer says. “The aim is to collect other stories that fall within these neighbourhoods.”
The project began in 2008 under Christina Tassier, the former director of the Bytown Museum. Steinhauer took over the project in April 2009, when he became director.
The site was funded by a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage. It was launched on Feb. 16, to coincide with Ottawa's Heritage Day festival.
The launch also coincides with a separate exhibit, “My Neighbourhood, My Voice,” for which city residents were asked to tell the story of their neighbourhoods through photographs.
The project's steering committee tried to choose landmarks that were reflective of the neighbourhoods and that people could relate to, says David Flemming, a former president of Heritage Ottawa and member of the committee.
“The challenging thing is, it could become huge, because there’s so much material there,” says Flemming.
This is the most ambitious social media website the design team has worked on, said Jonathan Lathigee, the project coordinator. The company, ZeroOne Design Inc., specializes in websites for museums.
“We hope that those who contribute will feel a sense of ownership in the site, telling their friends,” Lathigee said in an email. “But more importantly we want them to feel a part of Ottawa's ongoing story and realize that museums in general, and the Bytown Museum specifically, are important partners in helping to tell that story.”
Lathigee said that the company deliberately kept the design simple in order to encourage visitors to contribute. He said he hopes the user-generated content will make the site more accessible and egalitarian.
Charles Akben-Marchand, chairs of the the heritage committee for the Centretown Citizens Community Association, agrees that the “Wiki” model can be effective.
“The Bytown Museum has really been emphasizing that history is not an institutional thing, it is about the people,” Akben-Marchand says.
Soon, visitors to the Bytown Museum will be able to explore the website at an Internet kiosk.
Although there are no user contributions yet and only a few comments, Steinhauer said he hopes the site will attract attention.
He mentions stories such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young’s performances at the Le Hibou coffee shop in Lowertown as examples of oral history the site will preserve.
“People who lived here for a long time might know them, but if we don’t document them, we might lose them,” Steinhauer says. “We are sure there are many stories like these that we aren’t even aware of.”