This summer, learn about the life of an artifact in the guided tour of our state-of-the-art Ingenium Centre, home to more than 150,000 objects of different shapes and sizes, including railway locomotives and other rolling stock, an array of farming equipment, beautifully conserved vintage cars, and so much more.
Tours will cover a wide range of collection areas in this nearly 36,000 m² space, including:
- Automobile collection
- Agriculture collection
- Library and Archives
- Conservation Lab
- Rolling stock collection
- Industrial collection
The Ingenium Centre has been designed with accessibility in mind, including gender-inclusive accessible washrooms and elevator access.
Meeting Location
Meet your tour guide in the front lobby of the Canada Science and Technology Museum (located just across the pavilion from the Ingenium Centre). Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of your tour. The tour will depart promptly at the scheduled start time, and proceed directly to the Ingenium Centre. Note that there is no means to join the tour after it departs.
Registration links
Online ticket sales close 1 hour prior to the start of the tour. Any remaining tickets can be purchased on-site.
July
Ticket price
| Category | Fees |
|---|---|
| Adult | $12 |
| Senior (age 60+) | $10 |
| Students (ages 18+)* | $10 |
| Youth (ages 3-17) | $7.50 |
| Child (age 2 and under) | Free |
| Members receive a 20% discount. | |
*Students must show valid student identification.
Ticket prices do not include applicable taxes and are subject to change without notice.
Your tour ticket does not include admission to other Ingenium sites. To visit our museums, please purchase a separate ticket online or at the admission desk.
Complimentary admission
Ingenium offers free tickets to all active Canadian military personnel, Canadian military veterans, Indigenous peoples, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and support leaders accompanying a person with disabilities. When available, presentation of an Identification Card is requested. Please visit the admission desk to obtain your complimentary admission.
Ingenium Members
Museum Members may apply their discount when booking tour tickets online. Your special promo code was included in the June 27 members exclusive newsletter. For more information, please contact our Customer Engagement Team at 613-991-3053 by phone or contact@IngeniumCanada.org. Please book online as far in advance as possible as spots are limited.
CANOO ACCESS PASS
New residents and citizens of Canada are entitled to complimentary and discounted guided tours of the Ingenium Centre with the Canoo Access Pass. Special rates are offered to individuals within their first five years of permanent residency or citizenship within Canada. Learn more here.
*Please note that all other discounts such as CAA Memberships and Ottawa Museum Passes from Ottawa Tourism do not apply.
Visitor Code of Conduct
Respectful use of the space and resources at Ingenium Centre ensures a safe and enriching experience for all visitors. We ask that you adhere to the guidelines defined in the PDF below.
FAQ
When purchasing your ticket, you will be able to select a date and time slot. A confirmation email will be sent to you confirming your order.
Unable to purchase your tickets online or have questions? Please contact our Customer Engagement Team at 613-991-3053 or contact@IngeniumCanada.org.
Online ticket sales close 1 hour prior to the start of the tour. Any remaining tickets can be purchased on-site. Please visit the admission desk to inquire about the remaining tour spots available.
Visitors are responsible for arriving on time for the visit time indicated on their ticket. No-shows, late arrivals, and tickets cancelled within 48 hours before the start of your tour are non-refundable.
A staff member will escort you out of the Ingenium Centre should you need to leave partway through your visit. Refunds will not be possible.
You may cancel your registration at no cost up to 48 hours before the start of your tour by emailing contact@IngeniumCanada.org. No-shows, late arrivals, and tickets cancelled within 48 hours before the start of your tour are non-refundable.
For changes to your existing reservation, please contact our Customer Engagement Team at 613-991-3053 or contact@IngeniumCanada.org.
12 tour tickets are available per time slot. For larger groups, please contact our Customer Engagement Team at 613-991-3053 by phone or contact@IngeniumCanada.org.
Eating and drinking are not permitted inside the collection spaces. If you need to leave the tour to eat or drink, please let your tour guide know so they can direct you to an appropriate space.
For artifact donations, please contact IRI@IngeniumCanada.org.
Image gallery
The Ingenium Collection
Photo credits: CASM Archives CAVM-04504, CAVM-25290 and CAVM-16035; Cliff Wolfe; Cpl Roxanne Shewchuk, Rideau Hall; DND Archives/CKC89-3773; National Research Council, 1975.0336; CSTM Archives CN Images of Canada Collection 39406 and X-05750
Transcript
Canada has a unique geography…. a unique history…. and unique stories.
At Ingenium, we showcase Canada’s stories of science and innovation.
Behind these walls, objects are brought to life by the stories that shape them.
By their creators, their users. By the lessons we can learn from them.
We celebrate those who dare to think differently.
Their stories reflect our nation’s drive to learn, to adapt, to discover, and to create.
Our collection preserves the stories of our nation’s heritage.
We are home to millions of artifacts and archival documents spanning soil to space, and everything in between.
There is no other collection like ours in the world.
It showcases Canada’s instrumental contributions to science and innovation
Artifacts are a gateway to understanding the world in a new way.
What may look like an ordinary water sample is a specimen of the oldest-known flowing water on earth – dating back over a billion years.
We are safeguarding more than the artifacts in our care. We are preserving with respect the stories of their users and their creators.
We embrace the knowledge of equity-deserving communities by collaborating with them to uncover new stories about our collection.
This Algonquin style birch bark canoe dates back centuries. It is an example of master craftsmanship of the Anishinàbeg Algonquin people and represents authenticity, identity, history, culture and language.
The Dome mine carries over 100 years of mining history. Inscriptions on this mine door mark moments in time made important by the miners who left them - from a first snow to historic events.
Spanning transportation, physical sciences, medicine, communications, agriculture, and natural resources, our collection signals wide-reaching impacts – from redefining the way we measure time, to launching modern satellite broadcast technology, increasing access to Canada’s remote Northern areas
Whether the first, the oldest, the largest, or the smallest of their kind, there is no limit to what you can discover in our collection.
Our stories can inspire amazement… a time and place to rediscover Canada’s contribution to the world.
About the Ingenium Centre
The Ingenium Centre is a state-of-the-art facility designed to protect and showcase Canada’s national science and technology collection.
The building provides controlled environments to properly house and protect the national collection’s artifacts and archives, many of which are fragile, easily damaged, and are one-of-a-kind. Located beside the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, the Ingenium Centre is designed to be one of the most accessible artifact and archive collection storage facilities in the world – for museum professionals, heritage researchers, as well as for the public.