The exhibit’s full title will be Artisan and Industry: Canoe Making in the Manufacturing Age. The exhibit will represent the idea that what began as a localized cottage industry in the Peterborough area would eventually become an iconic Canadian industry with international reach. The exhibit will be made public on June 23, and it will be on display until the museum moves in 2021.
This year is a celebration of Canada’s 150th as well as the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Canoe Museum located in Peterborough. As momentum builds for the museum’s redevelopment at a new site located adjacent to the Peterborough Lift Lock, it is preparing a salute to the rich heritage of wooden canoe manufacturing in this community through its latest exhibit called “Artisan and Industry: Canoe Making in the Age of Manufacturing.”
150 years ago, a few settler craftsmen in the Peterborough area were reimagining the way canoes could be fashioned. Their innovative methods launched a golden age for wooden canoe manufacturing in both Canada and the United States that would last a century, garner world-wide renown and link regional names such as Peterborough, Ontario and Canadian with the word canoe.
The exhibit will feature a selection of locally-made canoes, some never exhibited before, as well as canoe making forms, patterns and tools. The exhibit also draws upon a highly significant collection of archival materials related to Canadian Canoe Manufacture, which will be featured in an interactive digital kiosk. A canoe making workshop.
Other artifacts featured in this exhibit will range from gleaming varnished watercraft hulls to rough canoe-making tools, patterns and original graphic materials. Several interactive stations will welcome guests for hands-on experience.