March/April 2004
Vol. 36, no. 2
ISSN 1492-4676

The Camera and the Capital: Gathering A Pictorial Memoir of Ottawa’s Past

Luc-Emmanuel Pinard, Research and Information Services

Mr. Doug Fischer, senior writer at the Ottawa Citizen and editor of four books, presented the November 25 SAVOIR FAIRE lecture. His career spans three decades in the newspaper industry. In 1987, Mr. Fischer shared a Michener Award for Meritorious Journalism for his work on a groundbreaking literacy project.

The focus of his lecture was a book project that stemmed from a series of souvenir sections published in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper in early 2000. The book Our Times: A Pictorial Memoir of Ottawa’s Past became a fitting tribute to celebrate the end of the 20th century. Containing page after page of engaging essays and numerous photographs of Ottawa’s distant, and not so distant past, this publication quickly became the city’s best-selling history.

In early 1999, Mr. Fischer was approached by the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, Russell Mills, to come up with a millennium project idea that would capture the true essence of Ottawa’s past. The Ottawa Citizen, in existence for 155 years, is the oldest operating business in Ottawa. Mr. Mills wanted to capture that printed history in a souvenir to give back ‘’something extraordinary’’ to its readers and yet be presented in an interesting but informative way.

As ideas were being developed for a forthcoming project, Mr. Fischer and his working team agreed to focus on three resources that were uniquely their own: local events, collection of news photography and letters-to-the-editor. The concept of publishing a coffee-style book came up, but was decided otherwise. Ultimately, a greater number of readers could be reached if a series was published in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

The result of the brainstorming yielded two large packages of special features.

The first package, published during the last 100 days of 1999, was a selection of letters-to-the-editor from every year of the 20th century. This endeavour became a major undertaking. Within a few short months, 1,500 of the 250,000 letters-to-the-editor of the past were read and individually researched for context, and subsequently chosen for publication. As these letters were published in the newspaper, success became apparent as the number of positive responses from readers increased in late summer 1999. This generated tremendous interest among the readership by way of comments and suggestions. By popular demand from avid readers, the letters-to-the-editor-series was eventually published in a book format.

The second package, published in the early weeks of 2000, featured 12 ad-free souvenir sections containing illustrations, paintings, photographs and stories tracing back to Ottawa’s evolution as it emerged from its humble, rural setting and landscapes to a modern-day city as we know it today. The first two souvenir sections published in the newspaper covered life events of the 19th century. The remaining 10 sections covered each decade within the 20th century. Each section had its own introduction prepared by columnist Mr. Charles Gordon, and each section included 50 photographs along with a time capsule history.

Mr. Fischer explained that gathering photographic material for this important project became quite challenging. Photographs were handled individually from more than 200,000 physical photo files in the Ottawa Citizen’s newsroom library and from its extensive electronic photo library created in the early 1990s.

As the photo research operations progressed, drama would soon unfold. Mr. Fischer described how a "tragic discovery" was made. When the Ottawa Citizen operations moved to the suburbs in 1972 from its original location on Sparks Street, tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of photo negatives and glass plates, gathered over the last 70 years, had been discarded for some unknown reason. With this unexpected turn of events, and a very limited supply of pre-1970 photographic material, the Ottawa Citizen working group quickly set out to consult outside sources such as the National Archives of Canada, National Library of Canada, city archives, various small museums and the city’s old businesses for material.

Launching a public call for support, more than 500 individuals answered and offered photographs from their personal collections. In the end, the photo selection and research were completed. Soon, the finalized sections were ready for publishing!

The Ottawa Citizen team did not anticipate such an outpouring of nostalgia from its readers when it set out to publish the commemorative sections. As days went by, Mr. Fischer revealed that thousands of calls, letters and e-mails were sent in to the newspaper, stirring readers’ interest in one way or another.

Based on readers’ reactions to the first few published sections in early January 2000, the Our Times book project became inevitable. Our Times ended up being different than what the newspaper sections had been. New information brought forward by readers about certain published photographs, and several other rare and never before seen photographs were submitted by them as well for publication.

Mr. Fischer said an important goal had been reached by publishing photographs rarely, or never before seen in the many other books published over the years on Ottawa’s past. He indicated that photographs were in fact, historical documents, and although the Ottawa Citizen intended to cover a wide spectrum of years and subjects, they never planned for Our Times to be a history. The aim of their photo selection was to choose good, lively photographs that well represented Ottawa.

Mr. Fischer praised highly how the city and national archives offered their support by providing access to original material instead of negatives to create superior reproductions of old photographs for the book. Interestingly, the world-renowned Karsh brothers also allowed use of their images, some of them published in Our Times for the first time. In addition, photographs from prominent Canadian photographer, the late William J. Topley are featured. In recognition of the National Archives of Canada’s involvement, Mr. Jim Burant, Chief of Photography and Art at Library and Archives Canada was asked to write the foreword for Our Times.

The highlight of Mr. Fischer’s lecture came when he presented and commented on some of the endearing photographs included in Our Times. As if turning back the hands on the clock of time, the Our Times seminar provided attendees with a nostalgic glimpse of Ottawa’s rich and historic past through the photographic lens of highly creative individuals from an era long gone. This legacy has left an indelible mark on Ottawa’s history for everyone to enjoy today and to be discovered by future generations. Our Times: A Pictorial Memoir of Ottawa’s Past is truly remarkable!