Canada Hall


Travelling from east to west, this virtual exhibition presents a thousand years of Canada’s rich history and culture.

Meet a Viking family arriving in Newfoundland around AD 1000. Discover New France through a farmhouse, public square, inn, hospital and the houses of a shoemaker and a cooper (a barrel maker). Visit a voyageur camp, a lumber camp, a Métis campsite, British military living quarters and a Maritime shipyard. Go window shopping along the main street of a small town in late 19th-century Ontario. Visit a turn-of-the-century prairie railway station and railway yard, a Saskatchewan grain elevator, an authentic Ukrainian church, a Chinese hand laundry and a 1920s Alberta oil derrick. Finally, explore the history of Canada’s North at Yellowknife's Wildcat Cafe, the town’s first restaurant and a popular gathering spot for prospectors, bush pilots, miners and trappers.

Note: The gallery space that had been devoted to the Canada Hall is now being completely renovated to become part of the upcoming Canadian History Hall. When it opens on July 1, 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the Canadian History Hall will be the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever developed on the history of Canada.

Take a QuickTime VR tour of the Canada Hall.


ON THE EDGE OF A NEW WORLD
(1000-1600)

TAKING ROOT
(1600-1810)
The Norse
North Atlantic Crossings
Shipboard Life
A Whaling Station
Early Acadia
Farm Life
Place de la Nouvelle-France
The Inn
The Shoemaker's House
The Cooper's House
The Hospital

EXPANDING FRONTIERS
(1700-1860)

TOWNS AND TRADE
(1840-1890)
The Fur Trade
Metis Bison Hunters
The Timber Trade
Arriving in Upper Canada
From Rebellions to Confederation, 1837–1867
An Officer's Room
The Maritime Shipyard
Ontario Town Life
The Merchant's House
 
WESTERN AND NORTHERN CANADA (1885–2000)
Canadian Pacific Gallery
Saskatchewan Grain Elevator
Language and Culture in Manitoba
Winnipeg Labor Temple
Chinese Hand Laundry
Ukrainian Church
The Story of Toles School in Amber Valley
Alberta Oil Rig
West Coast Communities
Pacific Gateway
Visions of the New North

Text: Canadian Museum of History, Hill and Knowlton, Roger Dowdall, Jérôme Bourgault and Nancy Ruddell
Photos: Harry Foster, Steve Darby and Stephen Alsford
Editing and Production: Ed Laine, Daniel Careau and Stephen Alsford
Graphic design: Hugh Hamilton
Quicktime VR Production: Romy Randev and Harry Foster