When Auguste Vachon and his wife Paula Gornescu-Vachon began collecting ceramics featuring Canadian heraldry (coats of arms, armorial bearings, insignia and other related symbols), even they had no inkling that their collection would eventually include more than 1,100 ceramic pieces.

In the waters off the southeast coast of Baffin Island, an immense iceberg towers a hundred metres above the illustrious British ship HMS Terror. This dramatic watercolour, painted in 1836 by Admiral Sir George Back, was recently acquired at auction by the Museum of Civilization.

From the Way of St. James, to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, to Mecca, to the shores of the Ganges: pilgrimage sites across the world attract tens of millions of visitors every year. Religious duty, spiritual tourism, personal quest…each pilgrim who takes to the road is driven by a personal motivation or goal that shapes their unique path.