Rare Champlain historic document on display for the first time at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

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For immediate release

Gatineau, Quebec, June 4, 2013 — A newly discovered baptismal record for Samuel de Champlain will be shown in public for the first time from May 29 until August 25, 2013 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. This is the document’s only Canadian venue and it will return to France at the end of August.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain’s exploratory voyage up the Ottawa River, the Departmental Archives in Charente-Maritime, France is lending the baptismal record to Canada. The Museum of Civilization is proud to have the honour of displaying the document this summer.

“This display is the result of a strong collaboration that will give Canadians access to more information on a key milestone of our history,” said the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. “Samuel de Champlain is one of the most important figures in our country’s history. On the road to 2017, Canada’s 150th birthday, we encourage Canadians across the country to visit museums, to learn from them, and to reconnect with their history.”

Discovered in the spring of 2012 by Jean-Marie Germe, a French genealogist, the baptismal record not only appears to resolve the mystery of Champlain’s year of birth, but also may confirm another rumour that has long circulated about the famous French explorer: he was Protestant.

“The baptismal record tells us that Champlain’s birth year was likely 1574 and that he was born into a Protestant family — a fact historians had long suspected, but had been unable to prove,” said Dr. Jean-Luc Pilon, Museum of Civilization archaeologist and curator of the Museum’s 400th anniversary commemorative display on Champlain. “However, there is a very slight possibility this document has nothing to do with our Samuel de Champlain, given that the father’s surname on the baptismal record is written as Chapeleau and not Champlain. But we know that spelling rules were very flexible at that time.”

On the baptismal record, the mother’s maiden name, Marguerite Le Roy, and the father’s first name are identical with the names of his parents entered on Champlain’s marriage contract. Dr. Pilon and other experts therefore agree that the newly discovered baptismal record almost certainly belongs to the man who became known as the “Father of New France.”

There is a close symbolic connection between Champlain and the Museum of Civilization because the explorer passed the site of the future Museum when he arrived in what is now Ottawa/Gatineau on June 4, 1613. Champlain no doubt set foot here as he portaged around the Chaudière Falls.

His baptismal record will be on display in the corridor to the Museum’s Voyageurs Cafeteria until August 25, 2013.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization is the centre for research and public information on the social and human history of the country. Located on the shores of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec, the Museum is Canada’s largest and most popular cultural institution, attracting more than 1.2 million visitors each year. The Museum of Civilization’s principal role is to preserve and promote the heritage of Canada for present and future generations, thereby contributing to the promotion and enhancement of Canadian identity.

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