The Canadian War Museum spent most of its existence in borrowed spaces. Dr. Andrew Burtch says the collection deserved better long before it got it.

Before the 2005 building at LeBreton Flats, the museum occupied a run-down building where the National Gallery now stands, then moved to the old Dominion Archives on Sussex Drive while major artifacts sat in a former streetcar facility. The current building was opened on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe and designed with Raymond Moriaman Associates around the concept of regeneration, from the grass roof to the rising fin that represents how war extends beyond its own ending.

Dr. Andrew Burtch watches visitors come through every day. He can usually tell which families have a first-hand connection to what they are looking at before anyone says a word. His great-grandfather was killed in the Halifax explosion in 1917 and he mentions it every time he leads a tour through that gallery, because he believes that is where history starts: inside a family, before it reaches a museum.

Topics: Canadian War Museum, http://warmuseum.ca , Ottawa museums, LeBreton Flats Ottawa, Canadian military history

GUEST: Dr. Andrew Burtch | http://warmuseum.ca

Originally aired on2026-05-07