Six Moments in the History of an Urban Forest

Curated by Carleton University professor Joanna Dean and graduate student Will Knight, this exhibit explores the contested place of trees in Ottawa's urban history. Six Moments in the History of an Urban Forest explores early street-tree planting, woodlands as places of refuge and risk, shifting fashions in city trees, and the role of arborists in negotiating the conflicts between trees and the built environment. The exhibition will include such artefacts as the cross-section of a 150-year old bur oak, arborist tools, and digital maps showing changes in Ottawa’s tree canopy since the 1920s. Six Moments in the History of an Urban Forest runs from January 24-May 13, 2012 and is funded by the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), a Jack Kimmell grant from the Canadian Tree Fund, and Carleton University.

Curated by Joanna Dean and Will Knight

Curator's Biography
Joanna Dean is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University, where she teaches environmental and gender history. She is currently writing a book on the history of city trees.  Her research began when she was chair of the City of Ottawa's Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee and became fascinated with the complex history and politics of city trees.   Dean sees historical research as a way of giving a voice, and a context, to the trees that we see every day.  Trees rarely appear in written documents, so Dean makes extensive use of visual images in her research: postcards, aerial photographs, architectural plans, and family snapshots all shed light on the place of the tree in the city, and in our imagination.  She continues to be an advocate for city trees, and hopes that understanding the long history of the urban forest will help us to be better neighbours to the trees around us.

Will Knight is a 4th year PhD student in Carleton University's history department. He is currently writing his dissertation on fisheries exhibits in 19th and 20th century Canadian natural history museums.

About the Bytown Museum
Located in the heart downtown Ottawa, the Bytown Museum explores the stories of an evolving city and its residents from its early days as Bytown to present day Ottawa. The Museum is located at the Rideau Canal, Ottawa locks between Parliament Hill and the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel—one of the most picturesque sites in the city. For more information, visit www.bytownmuseum.ca

Admission Price
Regular museum admission: $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and students (age 13 to 18 or with valid student ID), $3 for children between 5 and 12, and $15 for families (two adults and three children). Admission is free of charge for children under 5 and for members of the Bytown Museum.
Winter Hours: 11 October, 2011 – 19 May, 2012
Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 4 pm
Free admission on the first Sunday of each month