History Hall

MORE THAN 1,500 ARTIFACTS

will fill the new Canadian History Hall at the Canadian Museum of History come July 1, 2017. Some of the objects will be familiar to museum visitors. Others will be new. Some are on long-term loan from other museums.

The new include the sword believed to have been carried by Samuel de Champlain on his 1615 voyage past what is now Ottawa to the Huron community of Cahiague on Georgian Bay.

There’s also a plain brass ring owned by a Hudson’s Bay Company employee in the 1600s at Fort Severn, Ont.; an engraving from a wife or sweetheart says: “The gift is small but love is all.” Knowing the context of the ring brings it alive and stirs the imagination.

Here, six artifacts with fascinating Canadian backstories that were not seen in the old Canada Hall, but will be in the new Canadian History Hall.

A Rock Icon Randy Bachman is Canadian rock royalty from The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. He played “Takin’ Care of Business”, “These Eyes”, and other hits from the ‘60s to the ‘90s on this Gretsch Chet Atkins guitar model 6120.

Bishop of Baffin This Thule ivory carving of a Norseman wearing a cloak and cross was found on Baffin Island. It dates back to about 1350 and shows that Europeans and Indigenous Canadians were trading long before Christopher Columbus “discovered” the...