Exhibitions and Galleries
Special Exhibitions
More than 250 years ago, the French, the British, and First Peoples collided in
an historic struggle for North America. Known as the Seven Years' War, it would
soon become the world's first global conflict. Erupting in the Pennsylvanian
backwoods, war quickly spread to Quebec City, Europe, the West Indies, Africa,
and Asia. It changed the world map, set the stage for the American Revolution,
and shaped the evolution of Canada and the United States. Clash of Empires is
the first major Canadian-American joint exhibition to tell this compelling
story.
An exhibition organized by the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, in partnership with
the Canadian War Museum. Supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage
through the Canada Travelling Exhibitions Indemnification Program.
Bomber Nose Art
Commissionaires Way
Cartoons and symbols known as nose art often decorated military
aircraft during the Second World War. Nose art images ranged from symbols
of bombs and swastikas to well-known cartoon characters and pin-up girls.
Although a great number of aircraft were decorated in this way, only a
few examples survive. These panels would have become scrap metal had it
not been for RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Harold H. Lindsay. While waiting to be repatriated he
decided to explore an aircraft junkyard in England. He saw nose art on
many Halifax bombers and suggested that a number of examples be cut and
shipped back to Canada. This is the first time that this collection of
nose art has been on display.
Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times
The Foyer
Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times are portraits of Canadians
in wartime, and on peacekeeping and
humanitarian missions. The display includes paintings from the First World
War through to the war in Afghanistan. The museum's portrait collection
is part of the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, which holds more than
13,000 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures.
Children in Wartime Propaganda
The Foyer
Children in Wartime Propaganda are poster reproductions depicting
images of children used in
Second World War propaganda in different countries. They are
selected from the Canadian War Museum's collection of more than
8,000 posters.
Veterans by Elaine Goble
North Corridor in the Canadian Experience Galleries
Elaine Goble specializes in graphite or pencil portraits. In 1995, she
drew her first war picture – a portrait of six veterans at a
Remembrance Day service. Three years later, in 1998, she depicted her
eight-year-old daughter politely distracted as an elderly woman
described her own Second World War experiences. Goble realized that her
daughter had no understanding of conflict and its extraordinary and
sometimes devastating effects on human life and experience.
As a result, Goble undertook a project to explore in portraiture the
consequences of war for survivors – the people who still live in
ordinary communities across Canada. She found her subjects in veterans'
hospitals – for the most part in the community of Ottawa. Her
portraits are direct, realistic, and unsentimental.
