Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian War Museum says its summer show - Clash of Empires: The War That Made Canada, 1754-1763 - is "the first major Canadian-American joint exhibition on the first global war."
Known as the Seven Years' War, the conflict began with Britain and France fighting over supremacy in North America. It spread to Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
"Few people realize that hugely important events in Canadian history like the fall of Louisbourg, the expulsion of the Acadians and the British victory at the Plains of Abraham were all part of this global war," said museum CEO Joe Geurts.
The exhibition follows the course of the war and ends with a look at the consequences for the British, French and First Nations. Included are almost 200 artifacts from a total of 55 collections around the world. The Royal Armouries in Leeds, England, the Field Museum in Chicago, and National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., are among institutions that contributed to the show.
Highlights include a document signed by George Washington confessing to the assassination of a French envoy; a silver wine cup that belonged to Louis-Joseph de Montcalm; paintings by Dominic Serres; and Benjamin West's painting The Death of General Wolfe, "the most recognized image associated with the Seven Years' War," the war museum says.
Clash of Empires, organized by the Canadian War Museum and the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, runs from May 31 to Nov. 12 and will later travel to the Smithsonian Institution's International Gallery in Washington, D.C.
