City Daily Photo Theme Day: Double

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. For February, that theme is Double. See how others are interpreting the theme right here. 

I start with these shots taken at Lansdowne Park one morning. Two big doors at one end were open for load-in of the flea market, which is here a couple of days a month. A pair of regular doors flank the big ones.

On another side of the building, the doors as they look closed.

Churches commonly have double doors. Passing by Fourth Avenue Baptist Church in the Glebe, I took this shot of the main entrance.

A few blocks away, and a few nights later, I took this shot of the main doors for St. Matthew's Anglican Church.

Double is Two, and this fits the theme. I attended a concert showing of The Lord of The Rings The Two Towers at Lansdowne Park one night. The movie was screened, with an orchestra and choir doing the music live. A handful of orchestra members were already warming up as I took my seat.

Another two, taken at home- two shoes in the Dutch style. The key chain I bought in the last year from a Dutch store here. The porcelain version was passed down from my parents. Both have a place in my roll top desk.

I have a number of beer mugs and tumblers from Thor's Trinkets, an artisan who appears locally at the Christmas market here each year, as well as Comiccon. Among the tumblers is this one, with cinema's greatest secret agent as the motif. 

Double letters also drew my eye. Two eateries are side by side in an office tower downtown, and I stop by either of them on occasion. This double T is part of the signage for Manhattan's, which specializes in burgers and poutine.

Its neighbour is El Toro Pizza, and I'll stop for a couple of slices if I'm passing through. The double Z suits the theme.

Double is also a pair. These two sit outside the main headquarters of Library and Archives Canada.

Another set of double doors. This is one of the secondary entrances for a funeral home in Centretown.

I took this on a snowy afternoon some days ago. The main post office building downtown is at Sparks Street and Elgin. All three of the entrance points are flanked with stone lions. And because of the shape of the roads- particularly Elgin, which here veers sharply towards the northwest to meet Wellington at Parliament Hill, we have the effect of two streets in one shot.

Lastly, this one is from the archives. Back in 2019 I stopped in at the Ottawa Art Gallery, where on the main floor, a table with mirrors was set up. I took a shot with the phone I had at the time, looking thoroughly disreputable. Double the trouble, so to speak. But who's from the Mirror Universe, or is this the Matrix?

"I'm going to enjoy watching you die, Mr. Anderson..."

Informed And Shaped By Nature

 This display looks at the efforts to populate the Canadian west in the late 19th century and into the early 20th century.

Central to this space is this church. St. Onuphrius Ukrainian Catholic Church once stood in Alberta, and was moved here to the Museum in the 1990s. It's not a large building, but it is a beautiful one, and it remains a consecrated church, with services still held on occasion, including earlier this month marking the Feast of Theophany.

You can walk right in.

A video display looks at the history of the church and its congregation.

The path winds around the church, with display cases on the walls opposite the church. Life in the West was a challenge, with social isolation at times.

One room school houses provided education to children in the vastness of the West.

This is the sacristy of St. Onuphrius.

These literary quotations about the West really speak volumes. We'll continue with this tour after the theme day.

The Transcontinental Railroad

 One of the famous photographs of Canadian history- the driving of the last spike in British Columbia, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad- the Canadian Pacific Railway.

A rifle and a buffalo robe are displayed here.

The transcontinental railroad was one of the biggest projects in the history of the country, particularly so for the challenge that the landscapes of the West posed.

Sir Sanford Fleming was a Canadian railway engineer who earned his place in history with his proposal of standard time- dividing the world up into 24 standard time zones. The concept was eventually adopted around the world.

1885 saw open conflict in the west, as the Metis pushed back against the Canadian government.

It would end with the trial and execution of one of the Metis leaders, Louis Riel, seen here in the prisoner's box during his trial. The display case includes his shackles. Today he is considered the founder of Manitoba, and a Father of Confederation.

Charles Edenshaw was a Haida chief who became a prolific artist over the course of his long life. These are some of his works.

With the indigenous peoples brought in line by Canadian military forces, the subject of settling the West became one of the objectives of the Canadian government.

Advancing Across The West

 A reminder to those in the area that Winterlude begins this weekend and goes through to February 16th.

This is an elk skin, an artifact of the Blackfoot people. It was their habit to do a winter count, painting onto the elkskin what had been most significant for the tribe that past year, and done in a circle spiraling out.

French-Canadian fur traders went out ahead of anyone else, long before the country itself moved west. Called voyageurs, they pushed deep into the continent, adapting to life among indigenous peoples, establishing relationships, usually marrying into the tribe. This painting from 1869 is by Frances Anne Hopkins. It is titled Canoe Manned By Voyageurs Passing A Waterfall.

The voyageurs that had gone out and established families among indigenous peoples eventually gave rise to a culture distinct by itself- the Metis, a blending of the two influences. These are clothing items made by Metis women. The Metis would become a big part of the story of the Canadian West, looking to assert their own right to exist.

The Canadian government looked west to expand the Dominion of Canada, to make it a sea-to-sea country. Metis and other indigenous peoples would be in the way.

These are art pieces by the Haida, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, originally called the North-west Mounted Police, would go out ahead of the country as a form of law enforcement in the West.

Here in a display case is a ceremonial last spike, and a pocket watch presented to Prime Minister Macdonald.