A new exhibition called Unexpected! Surprising Treasures From Library and Archives Canada is out for all to see from December 9, 2022, to November 26, 2023!
The unveiling of this exhibition presents a great opportunity to share some of Canada’s outstanding national collection items with those who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to see them. This partnership agreement between the Canadian Museum of History and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) provides Museum visitors with access to some of Canada’s founding documents while fulfilling their mandates as national memory institutions.
For almost a year, you are given the opportunity to lay your eyes upon 36 artifacts from the LAC collection, including maps, paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, rare books, classified documents, codebooks, diaries, and even a music score. Additionally, the Museum of History chose three artifacts from its collections to include in the presentation, complementing the exhibition’s narrative.
View this post on Instagram
“The Museum of History is proud to have collaborated with Library and Archives Canada in the development of this exhibition, which showcases important fragments of our collective past,” says Caroline Dromaguet, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of History. “We are pleased to highlight some of the incomparable artifacts that our two institutions preserve and that the public might not expect to find in our respective national collections.”
Unexpected! Surprising Treasures From Library and Archives Canada reveals the remarkable stories behind a diverse selection of extraordinary artifacts from all regions, spanning four centuries of Canadian history while focusing on three themes: wonders, secrets, and mysteries. The exhibition presents items you might not expect to find in a national library and archive, but have important stories to tell about the country’s past.
A secret agent receives instructions from his handlers. The delivery of this and other Soviet espionage documents to Canadian authorities in 1945 helped to start the Cold War. Photo provided.
“Many Canadians might assume that the national archives consist of dusty government files, but the collections also include works of art, maps, photographs, rare books, and music, all of which are represented in this exhibition,” says Forrest Pass, LAC curator. “When visitors first encounter these items, they might wonder why they are in the collections at Library and Archives Canada. When they leave, we hope they’ll have a new appreciation of what the unusual and the unexpected can tell us about our shared past. There is a good reason why Library and Archives Canada has preserved each of these items!”
Some of the notable items include a handwritten composition by Ludwig van Beethoven (yes, that one) made for a Quebec music teacher as a souvenir of their meeting in 1825; a geographical treatise published in the 1580s that includes “volvelles”—paper models which readers could manipulate to understand complex scientific concepts; a bizarre 19th-century painting called a tracing board used to teach new initiates about the secrets of Freemasonry; as well as photographs documenting the alleged landing site of a UFO in Manitoba in the 1960s. Additionally, you can access documents packed with code names and instructions, showing a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada. The documents were delivered to Canadian authorities by Russian defector Igor Gouzenko, marking the beginning of the Cold War.
Extract from a page of the April 1945 war diary of Le Régiment de la Chaudière. Photo provided.
During the exhibition’s development, the LAC wanted to ensure that the selection was representative of all regions of the country and various time periods, as well as present what archival and library collections can reveal about diverse perspectives and experiences.
“The star Indigenous items in the exhibition are three maps drawn by Inuit women two hundred years ago that record Inuktut place names in the Aivilik region of present-day Nunavut,” says Pass. “We worked closely with the Inuit Heritage Trust to match these names to their records based on oral history and found that most, if not all, were still in use today—a testament to the breadth and resilience of traditional knowledge of the land. The extent of Inuit traditional knowledge is even more striking when compared with a map displayed next to these, the earliest European depiction of the Arctic, which is a colonial fantasy bearing little resemblance to reality on the ground. Indigenous stories appear elsewhere in the exhibition also. For example, a set of military codes used by the Marquis de Montcalm, French commander in North America during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), includes three-digit ciphers for the names of Indigenous nations, emphasizing that what we now call Canada was still very much an Indigenous space, which, of course, it remains to this day.”
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the National Archives of Canada—the LAC is more than pleased to be able to make rarely seen and unexpected archival and published works available to the Canadian public through this unique exhibition. Leslie Weir, Librarian and Archivist of Canada says, “Our collaborations with the Museum are valuable opportunities to combine our strengths to highlight the importance of preserving and conserving our heritage, and to share our history.”
Unexpected! Surprising Treasures From Library and Archives Canada is presented at the Canadian Museum of History (100 Laurier St.) from Dec. 9, 2022, to Nov. 26, 2023. Admission fees apply.
.gif)
