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Erin Secord holds up an example of a hazardous artifact. Oil for a printing machine in a bag.

Behind the scenes: Conservators face unique task handling hazardous artifacts

A photo of a podium that The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.

Volunteer week: The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum offers an unusual museum experience

Bill Weiler, a member of the Bytown Railway Society, stains wood planks in preparation for the restoration of the 1924 daycoach.

Volunteer Week: Bytown Railway Society preserves a passion for locomotives

Robert Day stands by the Lockheed 10E Electra, made famous by Amelia Earhart’s attempted trip around the world.

Volunteer week: An inside look at the volunteers at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum

Cristina Wood and Tom Everrett examine records of tailwater elevations from the Domtar/E.B. Eddy/J.R. Booth Collection, which provided some of the historical data sets used in the “Songs of the Ottawa” project.

Songs of the Ottawa: Using sound to interpret historical data

A mother and daughter weaving a carpet.

Unseen and unrecognized: Women’s key role in the history of computer memories

Cows walk in front of a building at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.

Virtual reality brings the farm life experience to students worldwide

The exterior of the new Collections Conservation Centre, set against a snowy landscape.

Ingenium’s Collections Conservation Centre: Bringing Canada’s Past into the Future

The rare book room with some new boxes.

Behind the scenes: Preparing Ingenium's library and archives for a big move

An oil painting depicts a hotel dwarfed by the mountains of Banff.

Why we collect

Two pairs of robotic legs are pictured next to a snowbank and a thermometer.

The punishing polar vortex is ideal for Cassie the Robot

An exterior view of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.

I do not expect to rise many feet from the ground...

From the Channel

Screen shot of Explore page on Ingenium's Digital Archives portal.

Social Science & Culture

Happy birthday to Ingenium's Digital Archives

Ingenium’s Digital Archives portal is now officially a year old! It’s hard to believe a year has flown by since we first offered unprecedented access to the archives of our three national museums. To celebrate this anniversary — and this year’s Archives Awareness Week in Ontario (April 1-7, 2019) —we’ve added three new collections to the portal. I invite you to take a look at the first images from the Hawker Siddeley fonds, the Ken Molson fonds, and the Trade Literature Collection. In the next

A prototype of the Kamov Sever-2 aerosled in its element. Anon., "’Mail Train’ to North." The Gazette, 26 March 1959, 2.

Road Transportation

Oh what fun it is to ride in a Kamov Sever-2

Rénald Fortier

Zdrasvstvuyti / hello, my reading friend, and welcome to what appears to be yet another non aeronautical or spacey issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee. Before you blow the proverbial gasket, please allow me to point out that there will be some aeronautical content in the paragraphs below. Indeed, may yours truly introduce the first element of this content, in order to prevent your discontent, by quoting the caption of the photo I found in the 26 March 1959 issue of The Gazette , a newspaper

The inmate instructor of the Cours de programmation expérimentale pour fins commerciales of the Federal Training Centre, Laval, Québec. Solange Chalvin, « St-Vincent-de-Paul pourra former des programmeurs diplômés. » Le Devoir, 21 March 1969, 3.

A remarkable training and rehabilitation program: The Cours de programmation expérimentale pour fins commerciales

Rénald Fortier

Hello, my reading friend, and welcome back to the wonderful world of aviation and space. Yours truly has a beautiful and good story for you, at least I hope so. This subject is no laughing matter but I hope it will please you. I met it quite by chance, if my memory is correct. And no, said encounter did not take place in the 21 March 1969 issue of a Montréal, Québec, daily, Le Devoir . I chose said issue of this utterly respectable and respected publication because of the quality of the

Curator with mask

Social Science & Culture

Behind the Scenes: #IngeniumBigMove

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The Collections Conservation Centre — currently under construction next to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa — will be a lot of things: a state-of-the-art home for Canada’s national science and technology collection, a place for research and digital initiatives (both on site and online), and a workplace for Ingenium staff. Over the last few months, employees have been extremely busy. They’ve been going through the collection (currently spread across three different warehouses),

microdensitometer

A space-age microscope for reading the stars

David Pantalony, PhD

Ingenium: Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Each object we move to the new Collections Conservation Centre comes with many stories, connections, and interpretations. As a curator for physical sciences and medicine, I have the privilege of examining incredibly diverse objects in the national science and technology collection. This microdensitometer stands out for a number of reasons; first, it has an illustrious connection to Canadian and international astronomy. The microdensitometer featured here came to Ingenium from the David Dunlap

The SIMCA Fulgur concept car. The French parachutist and model Colette Duval was at the controls. Anon., “Actualités.” La Patrie du dimanche, 1 March 1959, 2.

Road Transportation

It was fulgur, fulgur, fulgur, fulgurable

Rénald Fortier

Good day, my reading friend. How are you? Good, good, I’m delighted. Me too. Aware of the fact that, for some, there is more to life than airplanes, yes, yes, I know, I’m blabbering nonsense, but let’s not dwell, yours truly, say I, agrees to present you a subject that strays somewhat from the range of work of my employer, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, Ontario – one of the most interesting institutions of its kind in North America, if not the world. You smile, my reading

Tiny artifacts infographic

Social Science & Culture

Ingenium’s big move: Tiny artifacts in Canada’s national collection

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

INFOGRAPHIC Did you know that there are hundreds of thousands of science and technology artifacts in the national collection that are not much bigger than a 2 cm jelly bean? Check out this infographic to see just a few of the smallest artifacts — which will soon be moving to Ingenium's new Collections Conservation Centre!

Joseph Henri Maurice Richard at the wheel of the Škoda Felicia donated by Podniků Zahraničniho Obchodu Motokov, Prague, Czechoslovakia. Anon., “–.” Le Devoir, 18 March 1959, 10.

Road Transportation

The Rocket and the Felicia, or, A beautiful story from a country behind the iron curtain

Rénald Fortier

Hello, and welcome to another edition of our blog / bulletin / thingee dedicated to aviation and space that will not discuss aviation or space. I must admit to having been intrigued by the photo above. I’ve never seen Joseph Henri Maurice “Comet / Mr. Hockey / Rocket” Richard, a big star of the Club de hockey Canadien Incorporé, an organization mentioned in a July 2018 issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee, shoot and score but I have often heard about this man over the years. First player in

Social Science & Culture

Ingenium’s big move: Giant artifacts in Canada’s national collection

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

INFOGRAPHIC Did you know that there are over 50 science and technology artifacts in the national collection that weigh more than an African elephant? Check out this infographic to see just a few of the biggest artifacts — which will soon be moving to Ingenium's new Collections Conservation Centre!

An artist’s rendering of the Ingenium Collections Conservation Centre, currently under construction next to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.

Engineering & Technology

Not your average warehouse: Ingenium’s new Collections Conservation Centre

Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation

Ingenium’s new Collections Conservation Centre will open in only a few months. This is a dream come true for those of us who have been caring for Canada’s national collection of scientific and technological artifacts for our entire careers, and have been waiting for this moment for over a decade.

The Spirit of Canada hot air balloon. Peter Calamai, “Lots of hot air and a high old time.” Canadian, 26 August 1967, 14.

This magnificent man in his flying machine

Rénald Fortier

Greetings and salutations, my reading friend. Yours truly would like to offer you something special this week. If you don’t mind, I would like to step aside from our usual and anniversarial approach in order to deal with an acquisition received in March 2004, 15 years ago this month, by the Canada Aviation Museum, today’s Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, Ontario. This acquisition, say I, illustrates the breadth and depth of the stupendous collection of this national museum. So, are

Unseen and unrecognized: Women’s key role in the history of computer memories

Ghazaleh Jerban

Guest writer, Ingenium-University of Ottawa Fellowship in Gender, Science and Technology.

A shiny Emmy award sits on a blue table.

Social Science & Culture

Behind the scenes: Celebrity artifacts

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Ingenium’s collection includes a lot of intriguing artifacts — and some of them even have star power!

A snowy landscape with a large building — the Collections Conservation Centre — under construction in the distance.

Engineering & Technology

Social Science & Culture

Realizing a dream: The Collections Conservation Centre

Fernand (Fern) Proulx

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Currently under construction in Ottawa, the Collections Conservation Centre is the future home for hundreds of thousands of nationally-significant science and technology artifacts. These objects represent Ingenium’s three museums — the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum — but they’re also emblematic of Canadian ingenuity and Canadians’ everyday experience. To reflect on this incredible milestone and what it means

The road section monitored by the speed radar set of the Connecticut State Police, near Glastonbury, Connecticut. Anon., “L’actualité en images – Pièges à comboys.” La Patrie, 16 February 1949, 14.

Road Transportation

Cowboy traps did not appear yesterday

Rénald Fortier

May I begin this week’s issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee with a heartfelt welcome, my reading friend? Yours truly realises how long this winter has been and how much you look forward to be on the road again, to quote the title of a 1979 song made popular by Willie Hugh Nelson, and the theme song of a very popular Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series hosted by Wayne Victor Rostad, On the Road Again , which remained on the air between 1987 and 2007. It is therefore with some

A black-and-white image of a plane in flight.

The death of a dream: The sixtieth anniversary of Avro’s Black Friday

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Technology

Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the cancellation of the CF-105 Avro Arrow, Canada’s first and only supersonic fighter interceptor. It remains one of the most contentious moments in Canadian aerospace history.

Jasmine Lydia Bligh, television hostess at the British Broadcasting Corporation, aboard a Cierva Rota autogiro of the Royal Air Force with Reginald Alfred Charles Brie, Hanworth, England. Anon., “On a ‘télévisé’ les évolutions d’un autogyre.” Paris-Soir, 21 February 1939, 10.

Come with me Jasmine in my flying machine

Rénald Fortier

Hello there, or is it here, my reading friend. No matter. Yours truly is pleased to present you a little something that should pique your interest. Before going too far in this peroration, I thought you might be interested in reading the caption of the photo that initiated it. Said photo was found in the 21 February 1939 issue of a long defunct French right of centre illustrated newspaper, and a very successful one at that, Paris-Soir . Here’s the caption.

A man tries out virtual reality glasses and holds a controller.

Engineering & Technology

Sports & Gaming

Museum visitors offer valuable input in development of space simulation game

Allissia Le Hénaff

As a student in the Game Development program at Algonquin College, I never thought I’d be working on my final, cumulative project at a museum! Perhaps I should give you a little bit of the back story. Thanks to a partnership between Algonquin College and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, a space simulation game in Virtual Reality (VR) is benefiting from the interactive feedback of museum visitors.