Local History
Want to know more about your city? Visit the Ottawa Room
The Ottawa Room collection was started in 1955 as part of the Ottawa Public Library’s contribution to the City of Ottawa’s centennial year. To help preserve Ottawa’s written heritage for researchers, and for residents with a passion for local history, this unique collection was established to bring together books written about Ottawa, important municipal documents, and a broad selection of historical and literary works by Ottawa authors.
Over the years, this collection has expanded and grown to become:
a treasure trove of Ottawa’s past, containing biographies of every city mayor, genealogies, antique maps, old photographs and collections of Ottawa literature, the jewel of the Ottawa Public Library’s main branch. (Dave Rogers, the Ottawa Citizen, May 6, 2002, p. D.8)
During the first 18 years of its existence, the collection did not have “a room of its own.” When the new Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library opened in 1973, the collection was, at last, housed in a specially created “Ottawa Room” on the second floor of the new building. In 1990, the collection moved to its current, considerably larger space on the third floor, where it forms an integral part of the Main Branch Reference Department.
Visitors to the Ottawa Room are able to consult an excellent collection of material of local interest pertaining to: Architecture, Festivals, Industry, Biography, Geography, Local Elections, Culture, Genealogy, Municipal Government, Demographics, Heritage, Police and Law Enforcement, Education, History, Tourism, and much more!
The Ottawa Room provides a centralized information resource about Ottawa and the surrounding area, both past and present, plus a large collection of municipal documents, including all current and past city by-laws. Currently, the holdings of the Ottawa Room collection consist of:
- more than 25,000 books, documents and reports – in English and French
- over 1,200 maps – from 1856 to the present
- an extensive vertical file collection – approximately 1,550 local subjects
- 109 preservation microforms
- a collection of community newspapers
- over 500 high school yearbooks from many local schools
For more information, visit the Ottawa Room during its opening hours, phone 613-580-2424, ext. 32159 or e-mail brian.silcoff [at] biblioottawalibrary.ca.