Bytown Museum: Stories From the Collection

Bytown Museum: Stories from the Collection is a project created to digitize and disseminate artefacts from the Bytown Museum collection. Each artefact was documented with photogrammetry and is now exhibited online. A website was developed to enhance visitors’ access to Bytown’s culture and heritage.

Photogrammetry offers new opportunities for the valorization of the artefacts, which have primarily remained in storage over the years, and are now accessible to tell a history of Bytown in a new way. Now that the current condition of these artefacts has been documented, they can be digitally “handled” by visitors without fear of damage. 3D modelling has allowed the museum to highlight the meaningful connections between artefacts and the stories they tell. Each artefact in the project represents a key moment in Bytown’s history, from the Indigenous stewardship of the land since time immemorial, to the opening of the Museum in the Commissariat Building in 1952.

The artefacts in this project tell stories of industry and labour, women, prominent people, disaster and war, and everyday life from the pre-Bytown, Bytown, and Ottawa eras. The interactive storytelling experience allows visitors to explore a map of Ottawa to discover stories from the City’s history in their chronological and geographical contexts.

The Bytown Museum: Stories from the Collection website: bytownstories.ca