By Karine Gélinas

The DigiLab is a new hands-on facility for clients to digitize and contextualize documents from the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) collections. Since its launch in 2017, the DigiLab has hosted more than 30 projects that have resulted in the digitization of over 30,000 pages of textual material and 9,000 photographs.

The DigiLab space at 395 Wellington. Photo by Tom Thompson.

One of the projects hosted in the DigiLab was with the National Capital Commission (NCC), which digitized stunning historical images of the National Capital Region. You will find below some of the material the NCC digitized that is now available on LAC’s website.

Albums from the National Capital Commission fonds

• Aerial views of Ottawa, 1952–1962 (8 images) – MIKAN 5025694
• Federal District Improvement Commission, 1927–1929 (56 images) – MIKAN 5016537
• Federal District Commission, 1927–1932 (291 images) – MIKAN 5023881
• Photos by R.A. Ramsay showing installation of a steel railway structure (4 images) – MIKAN 5025167
• Russell House block, Russell Hotel photographs (63 images) – MIKAN 3788413
• Ottawa Region, Federal District Commission, 1902 (20 images) – MIKAN 5050722

Looking south from East Block on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, MIKAN 5026166

LeBreton Flats, Ottawa West Station & Turning House, ca. 1962. [Present-day City Centre Bayswater Station area] @Government of Canada (e999909317-u)

Ted Grant fonds

• Government House, State Ball – MIKAN 3344843
• Scenes at Rideau Falls, John Street, the Park – MIKAN 3344899
• Major’s Hill Park – MIKAN 3344902
• Historical Section, Old Houses – MIKAN 3346234
• Government House Gate with Guards – MIKAN 3346216
• The Driveway and Dows Lake – MIKAN 3346219
• Confederation Square – MIKAN 3344955
• Prime Minister John Diefenbaker with Six Nations Group – MIKAN 3344983
• Tulips along The Driveway [and Sparks Street Mall] – MIKAN 3345019
• NCC houses – MIKAN 3345030
• Rideau Hall interiors – MIKAN 3345038
• Alan May, Chairman of the NCC – MIKAN 3345040
• Views of Wakefield and Chelsea – MIKAN 3345044
• NCC workers planting shrubs at Confederation Heights – MIKAN 3345089
• Inuit and Indigenous delegates meeting Governor General Vanier and his wife Pauline at Rideau Hall – MIKAN 3345092
• Sparks Street at night – MIKAN 3345094
• Overpass at Kingsmere – MIKAN 3345108
• Victoria Island [and Britannia] – MIKAN 3345120
• Victoria Island and area – MIKAN 3345011
• NCC houses [and churches in Hull] – MIKAN 3345013
• Overpass at Kingsmere – MIKAN 3345115

Sparks Street [Ottawa] at night, taken November 14, 1960. Credit: Ted Grant. (e999906140-u)

Federal District Commission fonds

Photographs, editorials catalogue and newspaper supplement proofs for the plan and model of the National Capital Planning Committee’s Master Plan, and its Canadian Tour – MIKAN 3788892

Interested in the DigiLab?

If you have an idea for a project, please send us an email at bac.numeri-lab-digilab.lac@canada.ca. Give us an overview of your project, the complete reference of the material you would like to digitize and any extra information you know about the collection.

After we verify the condition of the material to ensure it can be digitized safely, we’ll plan time for you in the DigiLab. We’ll provide training on handling the material and using the equipment and you’ll digitize and capture simple metadata. Material has to be free from restrictions and copyright.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Links of interest

• A Trip Down Memory Lane – National Capital Commission
• Urbsite

Karine Gélinas is a project manager in the Public Services Branch at Library and Archives Canada.