Centre d'archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges

Recipient of the 2016 Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming

November 28, 2016
Director Julie Bellefeuille receiving the Governor General's History Award on behalf of the Centre d'archives at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, 2016.

Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec

Avec les yeux d’hier et d’aujourd’hui is a unique initiative spearheaded by the archivist/director at the Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges. It brings together three groups of Vaudreuil-Dorion citizens to breathe new life into the city’s old photos.

The groups were invited to peruse the photos, in their own environment: Seniors from three seniors’ residences were recorded as they shared their stories and reminisced about the photos.

Then, teenagers from the local youth centre returned to the sites where the photos had been taken to take new ones, creating a fascinating before-and-after.

Finally, the seven- and eight-year-old Grade 2 students at the École Saint-Michel drew pictures of the things they found most interesting from that long-ago era.

The results of these happy encounters were then assembled onto huge displays to create a collective community exhibition.