À La Carte

6 January - 27 May 2012

Giving credit where it’s due

The humble credit card has been part of Canadian culture for over half a century. Plastic payments give us the freedom to buy what we need or go where we want, days before payday. The Museum did credit to the credit card in À La Carte, an exhibition that explored the evolution of credit as currency.

From its beginnings as a makeshift piece of signed cardboard to embossed plastic with magnetic strips and smart chips, the credit card has come a long way.

Photo Gallery

Exhibition

The design of this exhibition was meant to echo that of a credit card.

Exhibition

The exhibition covered everything from cardboard cards to digital signatures.

Credit cards

Many of the artifacts were familiar to all.

Credit cards

Those were credit cards? Examples from the National Currency Collection.

Credit cards

Credit and charge cards were advertising as well as credit tools.

Exhibition panel

There was credit 5000 years ago.

Exhibition title panel

We liked a title that worked in both languages.

30 Bank Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0G9, CANADA
613‑782‑8914