Museum Shop

The Orillia Museum of Art & History shop will delight and amaze with its carefully selected handcrafted items from local and Canadian artisans. From books on art and Orillia history to glass, silver and pottery, the museum shop is an excellent choice for everything from Orillia and Lake Country souvenirs to wedding gifts. Museum shop treasures include jewelry by Ann Wylie-Toal and Johnna Dalrymple, pottery by renowned potters Roger and Heather Kerslake, Mad River and Gina Denne, North Woods animal carvings, glass art by Hour Glass, specialty soaps, and cards for every occasion. OMAH's friendly volunteers and staff will help you find everything you need during your visit. Remember that as well as receiving numerous other benefits, OMAH members receive 10% off every museum shop purchase.

Online Ordering

The Orillia Museum of Art & History’s unique collection of local publications and interest driven novels are easy to order and ship to anywhere in Canada and the U.S. That’s right! With one email or phone call, you will be well on your way to reading the unique book, novel or biography that you have found hard to find. Just follow these simple steps: Step One: Call or email us with your name, contact information, the title of the publication and the Address it is being shipped to: Orillia Museum of Art & History | (705) 326-2159 | Step Two: Within 24 hours (up to 72 hours over weekends) we will contact you with the final total including shipping and to receive the billing information. We accept AMEX, VISA, and MASTERCARD. That same day your order will be shipped via regular Canada Post. You and your new book should be hand in spine within 10 business days (unless otherwise stated in ordering process). Whether for a leisurely read or a gift for that special someone, Orillia Museum of Art & History has the right book for you.

Available Titles

		Title: On the Front Line of Life Author: Stephen Leacock Selected, Edited, and Introduced by Alan Bowker Price: $29.99 ISBN: 1-55002-521-X In the last decade of his life, Leacock turned to writing informal essays that blended humour with a conversational style and ripened wisdom to address the issues he cared about most – education, literature, economics, Canada and its place in the world – and to confront the joys and sorrows of his own life. With an introduction that sets them in the context of his life, thoughts, and times, these essays reveal a passionate, intelligent, personal Leacock, against a backdrop of Depression and war, finding hope and conveying the timeless message that only the human spirit can bring social justice, peace, and progress.

		Title: Elliott Erwitt’s Handbook Foreword by: Charles Flowers Price: $28.99 ISBN: 0-9714548-3-3 “Erwitt’s photos of hands are photos of character, of feeling and discourse, of life in flow guided or articulated by gesture. Although his humour is sly and his images witty in composition, his work comes down to love of humanity and of the beauty of life in its homeliest forms.”-Charles Flowers. Features photos of dignitaries and people from around the world, including Fidel Castro, Charles De Gaulle, Richard Nixon and JFK. A great guide for photographers at any experience level.

		Title: Haunted Ontario Revisited Author: Terry Boyle Price: $22.95 ISBN: 978-0-9780239-1-1 Wow! Ontario really is haunted! Discover the truth of this statement with Terry Boyle. Join him as he revisits Haunted Ontario and presents you with a compilation of his best stories, new sightings in old places and brand new locations too. Places he wrote about years ago have been visited once again only to discover that these hauntings have not merely continued, they have increased in spirit activity. Travel with your mind (and body too, if you wish) to hotels, motels, inns, museums and even private homes; experience the rattling of doorknobs and the slamming of doors, faces in the mirrors and lights that go one and off; read accounts from former sceptics and feel their nervous tension; watch a television show when the set is not plugged in and hear tales of vanishing sailors – boats and all.

		Title: I’ve Been Shot At, What’s Your Excuse? Author: Sherry Lawson Price: $18.00 ISBN: 978-0-9784980-0-9 Join Sherry Lawson as she reminisces about events and people from her life and the lessons she has learned through them. Sherry Lynn Lawson (nee Douglas) is a member of Mnjikaning First Nation near Orillia, Ontario, the daughter of an Algonkian mother and Ojibway father. She grew up listening to the stories of her father and paternal grandmother. She worked for many years in libraries and still considers herself an information geek. Turning fifty and becoming a grandmother changed the way she looks at the world. Wanting to leave a record for her children and grandchildren, the result is this first book. Sherry’s hobbies include visiting museums and historic sites, reading slasher novels and watching horror movies (not all at the same time). Her search continues for the perfect restaurant-made rice pudding (with raisins).

		Title: The Orillia Spirit Author: Randy Richmond Price: $19.99 ISNB: 1-55002-240-7 The Orillia Spirit tells the history of the city through the stories of its people, who insisted on making their lives and their community alive with significance.

		Title: 2007 Sunshine Scrapbook Published by: The Orillia Packet & Times Price: $9.95 ISBN: N/A As well as providing a glimpse of long-lost streetscapes, this magazine will also help support efforts of the Research Room of the Orillia Museum of Art & History. This publication does two things. It celebrates our rich and fascinating local history, but it also stands as a testament to Orillians, who work so hard to make sure our past remains ever present.

		Title: The Oro African Church: A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Edgar Ontario Canada Author: Tim Crawford Price: 14.95 ISBN: 0-9685011-0-9 The African Episcopal Methodist Church in Oro is both a heritage building and a historic site. The church is unique in that it was build by the Blacks 150 years ago. The Blacks were unique in that they settled on the first section of land especially set aside for Blacks in Canada. The designated section of land may have been a first in the world; it would be challenging to find any nation at the time that encouraged land ownership by Blacks, and set aside large acreages for Black pioneers. This site pre-dates other well-known Canadian Black heritage sites, the Wilberforce Settlement in Buddulph Township by 11 years, and the Buxton Settlement in Elgin County by 20 years.

		Title: Beautiful Old Orillia Author: Su Murdoch Price: $35.00 ISBN: 0-9691864-2-8 By the end of the eighteenth century, the narrow passage between lakes Simcoe and Couchiching was known to many as the Narrows. There were at least three landings in the vicinity: at the Narrows where the settlement of Invermara marked the point at which a trail leading to Port Hope crossed Lake Simcoe, on the shore of Shingle Bay, and on Lake Couchiching where Orillia now stands. At these locations and along the connecting routes from eastern to western Canada, fur traders, aboriginals and settlers met.

		Title: Foresters: The Canadian Quest for Peace Author: Brian A. Brown Price: $19.95 ISBN: 1-55046-017-X The Power Shift that is causing such interest in the world has its Canadian ramifications. One hundred years ago public opinion really mattered on the Canadian frontier as Militia units frequently took the law into their own hands while governments dithered and eventually followed. Opinion polls and the information explosion have brought us full circle so that public opinion at local level is once again the engine for war and the brake upon reckless military adventure. The American public pulled U.S. forces out of Viet Nam. The Russian public required retreat from Afghanistan. In early time the Canadian Community has exercised this influence on its politicians. Using the Forester Regiment based in typical small cities of Ontario, Brian Brown shows how that direct influence was lost in the twentieth century. The power shift away from the people and back again is documented in chapters like “Revolution Aborted”, “Invasion Thwarted”, “Civil War Averted”, “The Cost of Peace”, “Blessed Peacekeepers” and “Power Shift”. Foresters also illustrates how the peacekeeping ideal originated in the ethos of early Canada. “Stalling around” and “massing in strength” are old Canadian techniques appropriate for the future in a world more worried about brush fire wars and unstable situations than the nuclear threat.

		Title: History of Orillia’s Water Front Author: Donald A. Hunter Price: $14.95 This is a glimpse into the lives of the early settlers and their families who were involved in the development of approximately fifteen miles of Orillia’s shoreline on Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, in the period between 1855 and 1985. They built sawmills, flourmills, refineries, distilleries, steamboats, hotels, factories, bridges and railways, all of which were instrumental in the development of this part of Orillia. Later, beautiful parks, lakeshore drives and residential areas would enhance the charm of this city along much of this same area. Famous events took place on the waterfront that drew thousands of spectators to Orillia. Many world and North American records were set here. Lake Couchiching always played an important part in the celebrations of special holidays and events. Much of this is captured in this history for your enjoyment.

		Title: Huronia: Cradle of Ontario’s History Author: J. Herbert Cranston Price: $5.99 Huronia is the modern name given to that lovely land around the southern shores of Georgian Bay where, in 1610, the white man’s story began in what is now the Province of Ontario. Here, 350 years ago, native Huron Indians lived in bark-covered long-houses, each village encircled by palisaded walls made from the trunks of young trees. Here the primitive Hurons tilled the soil, fished, hunted game, and trapped animals whose furs they sold to often unscrupulous white traders. Here they fought against the Iroquois enemies who ultimately drove them from their homeland and all but destroyed the one-third population which had survived the smallpox and other diseases brought by the Europeans. Here the destiny of New France, now Canada, whether it was to be ruled by French or English was in large measure decided. Here in Huronia lay the key to North American History.

		Title: The Old Brewery Bay: A Leacockian Tale Author: James A. “Pete” McGarvey Price: $10.00 ISBN: 1-55002-216-4 Here we have the personal account of the misadventures that preceded the opening to the public of the Leacock home in 1958. Forty years ago in October 1954, a committee was formed, chaired by Pete McGarvey, to acquire the preserve Stephen Leacock’s summer home, known as The Old Brewery Bay. Four years later a golden key opened the front door of the home, allowing Leacock fans to pay homage to the humorist in a setting he had prized above every other. As the years have passed, appreciation of Leacock’s genius has grown and today the Leacock Museum is open year-round to visitors from all parts of the globe. The Old Brewery Bay is a Leacockian yarn full of ironies, the greatest one being that the salvation of Leacock’s home was accomplished not by a national campaign involving governments, philanthropists, McGill alumni, and foundations (all of whom were approached in a spirit of urgency and all of whom backed away), but a gang of naïve and stubborn Orillians, using old-fashioned political moxie. Leacock would have loved that – his Mariposans showing the sophisticated world how to get things done.

		Title: Fit to be Tied: Ontario’s Murderous Past Author: Terry Boyle Price: $19.95 ISBN: 1-896757-15-4 What characters they were: the charming, poetic Lord; the female bluebeard who entranced and then poisoned her young husbands; and the handsome doctor who decided he needed a more comely wife – after she’d put him through medical school. And they were those unjustly accused who were convicted, just the same, and so suffered a terrible fate. They were victims of harsh times in which they lived. Gossip could convict the accused before the trial was over. Families traveled for miles and took picnics to hangings. Courtroom drama and public hanging were the best entertainment of the day. You will be as enthralled as the public was all those years ago – by shocking courtroom revelations, rudimentary autopsies, groupies who swooned over the accused, lurid press accounts, the horror of the crimes themselves and, most of all, the ghoulish fascination we had for murder both private and public.

		Title: Whiskey and Wickedness Vol. 2 Orillia, Ontario 1800 to 1900 Author: Larry D. Cotton Price: $23.95 ISBN: 0-9732872-1-7 Whiskey continued its death-dealing work and rowdyism in Orillia ran riot in the winter and spring of 1873. Fighting and stabbings were becoming so common as to be scarcely worthy of comment, stated a Village newspaper. Orillia had 24 legally licensed hotels and shops in 1873 for a population of 2,500. In 1876, a Toronto newspaper classified Orillia as one of the most notorious towns for wickedness and drunkenness in Ontario. A Barrie newspaper stated that Orillia made Sodom and Gomorrah look like a paradise. Town Constable Sam Cotton described the community, in his diary in 1898, as “an awful town.”

		Title: Whiskey and Wickedness Vol. 3 Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts, Ontario 1850 to 1900 Author: Larry D. Cotton Price: $23.95 ISBN: 0-9732872-2-5 The drunken deprivations of shantymen in Gravenhurst led to the formation of a vigilante group called the “Press Gang”. They assaulted hapless woodsmen wherever they could find them. In Bracebridge, five drunken shantymen placed in jail for fighting with the Constables, were forcibly freed by dozens of their friends in open defiance of the law. Drunken brawls in the hotels in Huntsville disturbed respectable citizens. Meanwhile, Parry Sound was “dry”, while Parry Harbour or Parry “Hoot” was “wet and wild”.

		Title: No Reservations: Fern Resort Uncensored Author: Robert Kennedy Price: $18.95 ISBN: 0-9737449-0-1 Fern Resort, that beguiling lady nestled along the shoes of Lake Couchiching, has known her share of suitors over the past one hundred and ten years, and the relationships have, at times, been as choppy and temperamental as the local waterway. So intoxicating is Fern’s charm that gentlemen were given to curious leaps of faith by deciding that they needed to have her before they had even met the lady.

		Title: Bomber Crew Author: Jack E. Thompson Price: $15.00 ISBN: 1-41206715-4 Forty-one years after we said our goodbyes to our faithful Lancaster G – George, to 12 Squadron friends and to Wickenby, six of the original seven of us were together again in September 1985. Our reunion was held in Sarnia at the spacious home of our rear-gunner Cal. The only sad note in our three-day gathering was the absence of our bomb-aimer Jim who died of cancer in 1962. We drank a toast to Jim’s memory, talked about him for a few minutes, then got on with the reunion. This was a time for living, for the six of us who had not only survived the war but also the peace that followed. Forty-one years is a long time for separation of such a group as closely-knit as we had been but we gathered up the years, thrust them aside and immediately resumed our former camaraderie.

		Title: The Story of Hunter Boats Author: Donald A. Hunter Price: $6.00 Ditchburn Boats Ltd. Of Gravenhurst, Ontario built two large boat-building plants in Orillia’s lakefront near the Royal Canadian Legion, in the years 1924 and 1926. They operated in this location from 1924 to 1931. The original company, which built small pleasure craft for Muskoka Lakes summer residents, began at Helmsley, now Rosseau, in Ontario 1875.

		Title: Anecdotes of Olde Orillia: A Collection of the Works of Allan Ironside Author: Allan Ironside Price: $7.95 ISBN: 0-9691864-0 The early settlers and their landmarks and commemorative monuments; the reformers, dreamers, industrialists, inventors and prohibitionists – all came to mind when the real old timers spoke of the early days in Orillia. We are grateful to Allan Ironside for researching and collecting these many varying items of local interest and presenting them to the members of the Orillia Historical Society in our monthly newsletter. This historical material has been received enthusiastically by our members. We are proud to preserve some of these sketches in this book for the enjoyment of present members and friends who for the enlightenment of younger folk whose interest may be aroused in years to come.

		Title: The Group of Seven: A Collection of 20 Rare Works Revealed Author: C. G. Guthrie Price: $2.50 ISBN: N/A This catalogue has been written to accompany an exhibition of 20 never before seen works by The Group of Seven placed on loan at the Sir Sam Steele Art Gallery by a very generous anonymous collector.

		Title: Adventures of Maxine: Tales of a Lady Groundhog Author: Eleanor Anderson Price: $12.95 ISBN: N/A Imagine looking at the world from a low-down perspective, even an underground perspective. That’s how Maxine sees it. Maxine is a groundhog. She comes from humble beginnings, but manages to “rise to the occasion” as she travels around in rather unexpected ways. Various liberties have been taken with natural history in these stories of a small creature of the earth and some of her associates. Here is life as it may be in some more kindly and interesting dimension. The stories are meant as gentle entertainment for young and old. In familiar storybooks, teddy bears, mice and hedgehogs have adventures. Now here are groundhog adventures. Believing in Maxine is as easy as believing in purple dinosaurs, maybe easier.

		Title: Backhouses of the North Author: Muriel E. Newton-White Price: $4.95 ISBN: 0-88954-003-9 A glorious and witty testament to the Outhouse.

		Title: Art Smart Author: Alan D. Bryce Price: $24.99 ISBN: 978-1-55002-676-4 Art Smart is a comprehensive guide to the Canadian art market for both novice and experienced collectors. It is full of advice that can give anyone the tools they need to venture into the often intimidating world of art with confidence and make intelligent art purchases for pleasure and profit.

		Title: Kitche-uwa’ne’: A Legend Author: David Dupuis Price: $9.95 ISBN: 0-9686511-0-0 Many hundreds of years ago on the shores of Georgian Bay, the Bear Tribe from the Huron village of Toanche on Penetanguishene Bay, found a baby the size of a man and raised him as their own. He grew to become a great giant named Kitche-uwa’ne’. His amazing story of kinship, love, rejection, betray yet ultimate forgiveness would culminate into the Giant’s creation of the five bays of the Severn Sound, Georgian Bay’s thirty-thousand islands and the Giant’s Tomb – which can still be seen today! Thus, he would become the greatest of Hurons and a true Georgian Bay legend. This magical, timeless Huron myth is brought exquisitely to life in words and illustrations for the first time. It is a wondrous story the whole family will be able to enjoy time and again, and one you will not soon forget…

		Title: Loving Your Life: becoming who you are & loving it through passionate creative living. Author: Elke Scholz Price: $24.95 ISBN: 0-9736023-0-9 I believe that each person has a well of creativity, and an ability to achieve dreams. It is within us, waiting to be recognized. With clarity and confidence of mind, body and spirit, we can access all possibilities. This book is not about fixing or changing who you are, but about how, through creativity, you can increase your awareness of yourself and your surroundings, and fully live your life. Through the arts we can access our true potential. – Elke Scholz

		Title: Turning Clouds Inside Out: A Country Woman’s Life In The Twentieth Century Author: Catherine R. Ashton Price: $25.00 ISBN: 0-9780577-0-8 How many people live through an entire century? Very few. And how many of those value history enough to preserve it in their minds and their possession, ready to be passed on to whoever is interested? Fewer still. Margaret Isabella (Wallace) Beach was such a person. Blessed with a gift for story-telling and a phenomenal memory, she passed on many of her stories and possessions to her daughter, who has interwoven them with her memories and those of others to create this docu-narrative of one exceptional woman’s ordinary life.

		Title: Letters to Edgewood Farm: From a Canadian Girl in World War II Author: Catherine K. Drinkwater Price: $29.95 ISBN: 1-894255-21-6 This is an autobiographical window of Catherine Drinkwater’s life using letters and photographs to express the thoughts and feelings of the time. The reader is led through some of the experiences of a young Orillia, Ontario girl serving as a soldier over-seas in World War II. It is quite easy to imagine ‘what it was like’ One might term it as a ‘love affair’ with a time and a place, the time being the Second World War and the place being Europe circa 1943/5. Even today, still living at Edgewood Farm, one can detect a sparkle in Catherine’s eyes as she reflects on her great adventure during those war years.

		Title: The Golden Bridge: Young Immigrants to Canada, 1833-1939 Author: Marjorie Kohli Price: $34.95 ISBN: 1-896219-90-X Many thousands of Canadians are descended from young immigrants transported to Canada from 1833 to 1939. Author Marjorie Kohli has meticulously documented the incredible story of the removal of thousands of ‘waifs and strays’ and young men and women, primarily from the UK and Ireland. They braved the perilous voyage to an unknown future in Canada, ultimately being placed throughout the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec and westward as far as British Columbia. The most comprehensive resource of its kind, The Golden Bridge promises to be an indispensable tool for family researchers with a “home child” ancestor, and of interest to those unfamiliar with this aspect of Canadian history. This extensively researched book incorporates background detail on agencies and key organizers such as Maria Rye, Annie Macpherson, Thomas Barnardo and William Quarrier, along with lesser knowns including Ellinor Close and Charles Young. Marjorie Kohli is well known for her years of active involvement with juvenile and child migration issues. Supported by charts, passenger lists and archival visuals, The Golden Bridge is a must-read for genealogists and history buffs alike.

		Title: Severn River: An Illustrated History Author: James T. Angus Price: $29.00 ISBN: 0-9694197-1-6

		Title: Outhouses of the West Author: Silver Donald Cameron Price: $19.95 ISBN: 1-55209-523-1 Outhouses of the West is not just a book of photographs. It is actually a profound meditation on the noble old theme of the vanity of human wishes. This book is about the lusty, roistering, rammish society which has dug deep into the fecund earth of Western North America. It is about culture and architecture, about moments of contemplation in the midst of strenuous pioneering labour. But it is also a threnody of sorrow, a mystical and nostalgic book. The outhouse, for all its many charms, has gone the way of scatomancy and the mail-order catalog, with which it had such a long and intimate relationship. All is mutability, transient as methane on the breeze. As the poet Yeats put it, “All things fall and are built again.” Sherman Hines’ brilliant images capture for posterity the unique quality of things which have fallen, and evoke the rich character and essence of others which have yet to fall. On a more sociopolitical level, Outhouses of the West is a gesture of reconciliation and restitution – a gesture of fellowship from an Easterner to the West.

		Title: They came to Mara… Pioneers of Mara Township circa 1829-1900 Author: The Corporation of the Township of Mara Price: $34.95 ISBN: 0-9697961-0-2 This book contains genealogical and pictorial information. It represents families who settled in Mara.

		Title: Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching Author: Mary Byers Price:$12.99 ISBN: 1-55046-381-0 Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching have long been a magnet for travelers, serving first as a route for native people, explorers and fur traders, and providing a geographical liaison between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron and stepping-off place for points north. Then came the settlers and, on their heels, a cast of bold entrepreneurs and colourful characters prepared to find wealth in the new railway, the lumbering industry, the business of cutting and shipping ice blocks, and other enterprises in what are now the cities of Barrie and Orillia. Tourists were soon drawn by the beauty of the water and surrounding countryside. Steamboats, no longer in service as the only means of transportation, took sightseers around the lakes. The smaller communities along Kempenfeldt Bay were part of the halcyon days of boat building. After sunset, the bay would fill with paddlers, their canoes equipped with all the comforts needed for a moonlight excursion. City-dwellers came, camped and built cottages, and have returned here for generations. Today, the more thank 300 square miles of shining water are surrounded by a diverse array of communities settled round a shoreline ragged with bays and points. In this wonderful collection of photographs and essays, Mary Byers, one of Canada’s most respected historians, turns her attention to a lake that has been witnessed a remarkable wealth of events. Illustrated with rare archival photographs and the stunning contemporary colour photography of John de Visser, this is sure to be the finest work ever published on this exceptional part of Ontario.

There are many more titles to choose at OMAH in the Museum Shop.