Canadian War Museum facts for kids
| Musée canadien de la guerre | |
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Exterior of the museum in 2022
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| Established | January 1942 |
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| Location | 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Type | War museum |
| Architect | Moriyama & Teshima Architects & Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects |
| Owner | Canadian Museum of History |
| Public transit access |  Pimisi |
| Canadian Museum of History network | |
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The Canadian War Museum (CWM) (French: Musée canadien de la guerre) is a national museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It tells the story of Canada's military history. The museum helps people learn about Canada's past wars and remember those who served.
The museum building is very large, about 40,860 square metres (440,000 sq ft). It is located in LeBreton Flats, near the Ottawa River. Inside, you'll find many exhibits, memorials, a cafeteria, a theatre, and spaces for caring for artifacts. It also has the Military History Research Centre, which is the museum's library and archives.
The Canadian War Museum officially opened in 1942. However, some of its collections are even older, coming from a military museum that existed from 1880 to 1896. Over the years, the museum's management changed hands. In 2005, a brand new building for the museum opened. It was designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects.
The museum has a huge collection of over 500,000 items related to military history. This includes more than 13,000 pieces of military art. Besides its main exhibits, the museum also hosts and creates special travelling exhibitions about Canada's military past.
Contents
History of the Canadian War Museum
Early Beginnings (1880-1907)
The museum's collection started with the Cartier Square Military Museum. This early museum was created in 1880 to save historical items about the Canadian Militia and earlier colonial forces. It quickly grew too big for its space. By 1896, it closed to make room for new military equipment.
The collection was moved to an old military warehouse near Parliament Hill. But there wasn't much effort to reopen the museum. In 1907, officials decided there wasn't enough interest to restart it.
Building the Collection (1910-1942)
Years later, between 1910 and 1919, many items from the old military museum were moved to the Dominion Archives. The military believed the Archives would then be responsible for any future military museum.
During the First World War, captured German weapons and other war items were collected. In 1916, some of these were shown in a travelling exhibition. A special group was set up to share German war trophies across Canada. However, some important pieces were kept at the Dominion Archives, hoping they would be part of a national museum one day.
In 1924, a special War Trophy Building was built next to the Dominion Archives to hold this military collection. Finally, in January 1942, the Canadian War Museum officially opened in this building. It was run by the Dominion Archives and partly funded by the Department of National Defence.
New Homes and Growth (1958-2005)
In 1958, the National Museum of Canada took over managing the War Museum. Later, in June 1967, the museum moved to the original Dominion Archives building. This happened after the Public Archives of Canada moved to a new place. The War Trophies building was then used for storage.
In 1990, the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (now the Canadian Museum of History) began managing the War Museum. By the 1990s, the museum's staff felt their building was too small and not good enough for the artifacts. A report in 1991 called the museum's condition "embarrassing" and a "national disgrace."
Plans to expand the museum started in the mid-1990s. There was a discussion about including a Holocaust exhibition, but some Canadian veterans felt it would overshadow their stories. After much debate, the museum decided not to include the Holocaust exhibition but continued with plans for a new building.
In 2000, the Canadian government announced plans for a new museum building. The location was first planned for CFB Rockcliffe, but Prime Minister Jean Chrétien decided it should be built at LeBreton Flats. This area was once industrial and needed cleaning up. The museum would be a key part of making the area new again.
The design by Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects was chosen in 2001. Construction began in November 2002. The new building opened on May 8, 2005, which was also the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe day. The total cost for the new building and its exhibits was about C$135 million.
Museum Location and Design
The museum is located in LeBreton Flats, a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. It is southwest of Parliament Hill and the National War Memorial. The museum property is bordered by roads, a pathway, and the Ottawa River. Water from the river is even used to cool the building and water the plants.
South of the museum is a park called The Commons, where the museum hosts events. A path around the building's green roof connects The Commons to the parkland.
Building Architecture
The museum building was designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects. The main architects were Raymond Moriyama and Alex Rankin. The building cost about C$96 million to build.
The main idea behind the building's design is "regeneration." This means showing how war affects nature, and how nature can grow back and "regenerate" after war. The building has tilted and jagged shapes, with rough materials. This "controlled imperfection" is meant to make you think about trauma and imbalance.
Most of the building is low to the ground, except for the eastern parts, which rise higher. A lot of concrete was used in its construction. Many of the walls, both inside and out, are set at different angles, not just 90 degrees.
Outside the Museum
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The outside of the building looks like it's "emerging from a scarred landscape," showing the "devastations of war." It also seems to rise from the Ottawa River. The tallest part of the building is 24 metres (79 ft) high and faces the Canadian Parliament Buildings and the Peace Tower.
The roof has a large 20,500 square metre (220,660 sq ft) self-seeding green roof. This green roof connects to the surrounding park and riverfront. It helps the building be more sustainable by managing rainwater, saving energy, and cleaning the air. The roof's design changes from west to east, blending with the natural parkland on one side and showing more concrete slopes towards downtown Ottawa.
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A large glass wall on the southeast side lets people outside see some of the exhibits inside the LeBreton Gallery. Near the top of the walls, small windows spell out "lest we forget/n'oublions jamais" in Morse code. The main entrance has aluminum frames and faces Parliament Hill.
Inside the Museum
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The inside walls are mostly concrete, which helps save energy. The walls rise sharply from the ground, and the floors have slight slopes. These features are designed to make visitors feel a sense of instability, reflecting the themes of war. All galleries have ramps and slopes, making them easy to access for wheelchairs.
The museum's lobby uses a lot of concrete and exposed steel. One wall looks like rough wooden planks, while another looks like large stone blocks. Copper from the old roof of the Library of Parliament is also used on some walls. The interior is mostly simple and serious, creating a quiet space for reflection. A tall audio-visual display at the entrance shows what's inside the exhibits.
Other parts of the museum include the Military History Resource Centre, which is a library and archive. There's also the 236-seat Barney Danson Theatre, named after Barney Danson, who supported the museum. The building also has a special entrance for groups, a sunny cafeteria with a terrace, and special climate-controlled rooms for storing and repairing artifacts. The total size of the museum building is 40,860 square metres (440,000 sq ft).
Exhibitions and Galleries
The Canadian War Museum is both a history museum and a place to remember. Its main exhibits are designed to teach and to serve as memorials. These include the Canadian Experience Galleries, Memorial Hall, Regeneration Hall, and the Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour. The Canadian Experience Galleries show Canadian military history in order from oldest to most recent. Memorial Hall is free to enter and can be reached from the lobby.
The museum's permanent exhibits were designed to show themes like brutality, geography, politics, and survival. They are divided into seven main areas and 25 smaller themed sections. Information is presented with text and images throughout the exhibits.
The exhibition designers worked closely with the architects of the new building. This allowed them to create exhibits that fit perfectly with the building's angular and trapezoidal shapes. The exhibit areas use materials like galvanized steel, concrete, and wood, with strong, deep colours. This design is meant to make visitors feel the story of war. Even though many lines are angular, curved structures are placed to add contrast.
Besides its main exhibits, the museum also hosts special and traveling exhibitions.
Canadian Experience Galleries
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The Canadian Experience galleries cover 5,028 square metres (54,120 sq ft) and tell Canada's military history. There are four galleries: Early Wars in Canada, South African and the First World War, Second World War, and From the Cold War to the Present. Each gallery focuses on how Canadians were involved in these conflicts.
These galleries aim to show the "human experiences of war" and how these events shaped Canada's identity. Many exhibits try to show the "collective perspective" of Canadian service members and, to a lesser extent, people on the homefront. The galleries are built around four main ideas: geography, brutality, politics, and survival. Visitors learn about these ideas before entering the galleries.
The Early Wars in Canada gallery looks at conflicts involving First Nations, as well as wars in New France and British North America, and after Canada became a country in the 1800s. It shows how geography, like lakes and rivers, influenced early conflicts. This exhibit covers wars like the Beaver Wars, Anglo-French conflicts, the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the North-West Rebellion.
The South African and the First World War gallery explores Canada's part in the Second Boer War and the First World War. This gallery is designed to look like Canada during Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897, showing the strong sense of empire at that time. In 2015, a new part of this gallery opened, focusing on the homefront during the First World War. It highlights events like the Conscription Crisis of 1917, the suffragette movement, and personal stories.
The Second World War gallery explains the causes of the Second World War and Canada's role in it. It focuses on Canada's part in the Battle of the Atlantic, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the war in Europe, the homefront, and the internment of Japanese Canadians. There are also small parts about Canadian involvement in the war in Asia and the Pacific, and the Holocaust. One famous item is a Mercedes-Benz 770K car that belonged to Adolf Hitler. The gallery also has an M4 Sherman tank called Forceful III, dedicated to soldiers who died in the Second World War.
The last gallery, From the Cold War to the Present, looks at Canada's role during the Cold War and the fear of nuclear war. In 2017, the end of this gallery was updated to include conflicts involving the Canadian Armed Forces after the Cold War. This part of the gallery encourages visitors to think about the challenges of war and peace. It has an interactive space where visitors can share their own thoughts on war, peace, and remembrance.
LeBreton Gallery: Military Technology
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The LeBreton Gallery is a large, open space that displays many pieces of military equipment. These items were used by Canadians or other military forces. The eastern walls of this gallery are made of glass, letting natural light fill the space.
The equipment is organized into sections like land, air, sea, artillery, and tanks. Most of the items have been restored and cleaned. Each piece has a label explaining its technical details. The LeBreton Gallery holds some of the largest items in the museum's collection, including a McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo jet, 19th-century cannons, tanks, and other military vehicles. Most of the lighter vehicles are from the Second World War or the Cold War era.
Memorial Hall
Memorial Hall is located in the museum's lobby and is a quiet place for reflection and remembrance. The entrance to the hall is angled upwards and designed to look narrow. The walls around the entrance are covered in copper and lit by floor and ceiling lights. This part of the museum is lined up with the Peace Tower of the Canadian Parliament Buildings.
Inside Memorial Hall, the walls are smooth concrete with a grid pattern. This pattern looks like the headstones used for Canadian soldiers in the First World War. The hall is lit by a skylight that extends from the roof. There's also a glass-enclosed pool of water. The design makes visitors feel a sense of lightness. The hall holds one special item: the original headstone for the soldier later buried at the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The hall is designed so that sunlight shines directly onto this headstone once a year, on November 11th at 11:00 am, which is the exact time the armistice that ended the First World War began.
Regeneration Hall
Regeneration Hall is an exhibit at the highest point of the museum building. It represents "hope for a better tomorrow." The walls of Regeneration Hall are angled, similar to the buildings on Parliament Hill. You can see the Peace Tower through the glass wall on the east side. This hall displays several artworks, including the original models for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial and the painting Sacrifice by Charles Sims.
Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour
The Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour is an oval-shaped exhibit that shows how Canada's military history has been remembered and honored over time. In the center of the hall is the original plaster model that was chosen for the National War Memorial.
Along the walls are tall display cases filled with items like service certificates, letters, medals, models, paintings, photos, and souvenirs. These exhibits are arranged in order by time period. They include items from First Nations, New France, British North America, and modern Canada. Most of the displays focus on items from the 20th century. These items and their stories show the many ways Canadians have honored those who died in war.
Museum Collection
As of 2015, the museum has over 500,000 items in its collection. This includes letters, documents, equipment, maps, medals, military art, military vehicles, and uniforms. The museum receives about 700 offers for donations each year, but it only accepts 100 to 150 of them. However, Canadian service medals and medals of bravery are always accepted as a way to show honor. About 2,000 artworks and photos from the collection are used in the museum's exhibits.
Items from the collection are either displayed in the museum, sent on traveling exhibitions, loaned to other museums, or kept in the museum's storage area. Before 2004, items not on display were stored in separate buildings. Now, all items are stored in a new storage space within the main museum building.
The museum's collection began with artifacts from the Cartier Square Military Museum in 1880. These included weapons, a bell from a ship used during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and flags from various military units. The collection grew a lot during the First World War. After the end of World War II in Europe, the museum sent teams to Europe to get many German military items. During the Cold War, the Canadian Armed Forces gave the museum its old equipment and examples of enemy equipment.
In 2019, 39 of the 99 Victoria Crosses awarded to Canadians are held in the Canadian War Museum's collection.
War Art Collection
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As of 2015, the museum's Beaverbrook Collection of War Art has over 13,000 pieces of military art. Most of these artworks are on paper. The museum has been involved in Canadian war art programs since 1971. That's when the National Gallery of Canada gave the War Museum its collection of war art from the Second World War. The art collection is named after Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, who started the original art collection.
The museum's war art collection includes over 400 works by Alex Colville. Other artists in the collection include Alfred Bastien, Charles Comfort, Alma Duncan, and Frederick Varley. The collection also has models and statues, like the plaster model by Vernon March that was chosen for the National War Memorial. It also has the original models by Walter Seymour Allward for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. These models were stored for many years before being displayed in 2000 and are now part of the Regeneration Hall exhibit.
The Canadian War Museum has organized major traveling exhibitions of war art, such as A Terrible Beauty: The Art of Canada at War (1977) and Canvas of War: Masterpieces from the Canadian War Museum (1999-2004).
Selected Artworks
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Over the Top, Neuville-Vitasse, by Alfred Bastien, 1918
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School of Gunnery, Beamsville, by Frank Johnston, 1918
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Women Making Shells, by Mabel May, 1918
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A Stream Bed at Labergement Jura Forest, by Alfred Munnings, 1918
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Gas Chambers at Seaford by Frederick Varley, 1918
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Sacrifice, by Charles Sims, 1917–1919
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His Majesty's Canadian Ship Prince Henry in Corsica, by Alex Colville, 1944
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Untitled, Pegi Nicol MacLeod, 1944
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Library and Archives
The Military History Research Centre at the museum includes the Hartland Molson Library Collection and the George Metcalf Archival Collection. The library has reference books and rare books on Canadian military history. The archives store blueprints, old photos, films, journals, maps, and tapes. The research center has a general reading area overlooking the river and a special room for fragile materials.
The museum's oral history archive had nearly 400 interviews in 2007. This program started in 1999. It records interviews with service members who served in the Second World War, United Nations Emergency Force, Canadian Forces Europe, Yugoslav Wars, and the War in Afghanistan.
In 2000, the museum's photo archives had over 600 collections, with more than 17,000 individual photos and over 250 photo albums. Most of these photos came from private sources, often people who took the pictures while participating in conflicts.
Images for kids
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The original Dominion Archives building housed the war museum from 1967 to 2005.
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Exterior of Vimy House. From 1983 to 2004, items from the museum's collection that were not on display were stored at Vimy House.
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Exterior façade of Memorial Hall from the museum's lobby.
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An angled concrete wall line a hallway leading to the museum's exhibition space.
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Storage units in the museum's collections vault. The vault holds items from the museum's collection not on display in its exhibits or on loan.
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