An Ottawa Album

This illustrated history of Ottawa traces the city’s development from the days when Bytown was a lumber village to its emergence as Canada’s capital and fourth-largest urban area. From the earliest photographs of the original Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, through the VE-Day and VJ-Day celebrations at the end of World War II and beyond, this beautiful book of superb black-and-white photographs and informative text offers a charming glimpse of the evolving city.

The photographs have been chosen both for their historical importance and their quality as visual art. They show a cross-section of life in the developing capital from the formality of Rideau Hall to working people selling wood and straw in Byward Market. This art, among the best from Canada’s early photographers, has been culled from major collections in the National Archives of Canada and Ottawa’s city archives. Many of the photographs have never been published before.