The Canadian Canoe Museum

09/01/2026

A great night out can do a lot of good!

On October 3, join us on Little Lake in Peterborough for the Lakeside Gala—an evening of inspired dishes from exceptional chefs, live music by Thompson Egbo-Egbo, exciting auction experiences and good company.

Your ticket supports The Canadian Canoe Museum and helps care for the collection, share stories and create experiences that connect people with canoes and waterways.

Tickets are $250 and include a charitable tax receipt. Reserve yours today!
🥂 canoemuseum.ca/lakesidegala

08/31/2026

Save the date for this year's Jack Matthews Fellowship on November 3 at Lakefield College School!

We’re honoured to welcome one of Canada’s most celebrated photographers to LCS.

On Tuesday, November 3, Edward Burtynsky will join us as the 2026 Jack Matthews Fellow.

For more than four decades, Burtynsky’s photography has explored the complex environmental, social and economic forces shaping our world. His large-scale images offer a powerful perspective on industry, resource use, climate change and our relationship with the landscapes around us.

We invite our community to join us for this special evening at LCS.

📅 Tuesday, November 3
📍 Hepburn Hall
🕖 7:00 p.m.
🎟️ Free and open to the community

Registration details coming soon!

Trent University The Canadian Canoe Museum

08/31/2026

🖼️ Canoe Building at Fort William, Ontario, 1898
William Armstrong R.C.A. (1822-1914)
Watercolour
15.2cm (6in) x 21.5cm (8.5in)

WILLIAM ARMSTRONG was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1822 and emigrated to Toronto in 1851, where he became a partner in a firm of civil engineers and photographers. Westward trips with survey parties beginning in 1859 allowed him to document expeditions through art, and his work recording the 1870 Wolseley Expedition to the Red River Colony appeared widely in the Canadian Illustrated News. Armstrong taught at the Toronto Normal School and the University of Toronto, was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and exhibited internationally in Paris and Dublin. He retired in 1897 and died in Toronto in 1914.

🛶 See the canoe differently.

The Canoe Perspectives exhibit brings together more than 40 works of art alongside canoes and artifacts from The Canadian Canoe Museum's collection, revealing the canoe as both subject and symbol within Canada's artistic and cultural traditions.

📍Experience Armstrong's artwork in person at The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, ON until April 2027.

Learn more at canoemuseum.ca/perspectives

08/28/2026

Farley Mowat's Vagabond

Long before it became part of The Canadian Canoe Museum's collection, Vagabond was part of the Mowat family.

Passed from father to son, this turquoise 16-foot Peterborough Canoe Company canoe accompanied Canadian author Farley Mowat through childhood adventures, personal struggles, and decades spent on the water. Along the way, it inspired a personal and unpublished poem that was later gifted to the Museum.

🎧 Listen to the latest Canoe Story at canoemuseum.ca/learn/canoe-stories

Want to experience Canoe Stories in person?
Join us for a Collection Hall Highlights tour on Saturdays at 2 PM, or explore the collection alongside Curator Jeremy Ward during our next Curator-led signature tour on Thursday, September 24.

➡️ Learn more and register at canoemuseum.ca/tours

08/24/2026

Can you feel the weather changing? 🍂

🖼️ Squally Morning in October, Mouth of Restigouche, 1879
John A. Fraser (1838–1898)
Watercolour
27.9cm (11in) x 50.8cm (20in)

JOHN ARTHUR FRASER was born in London, England, in 1838 and immigrated to Quebec with his family in 1858, later moving to Montreal. There he joined William Notman’s photographic firm, eventually becoming senior art director—an experience that would shape his oil and watercolour work throughout his career. In 1868 Fraser moved to Toronto, where his teaching influenced a generation of younger artists including Homer Watson and George A. Reid. He was instrumental in founding what became the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872, and was a charter member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts / L'Académie Royale des Arts du Canada in 1880. In 1886, he was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to sketch along the newly completed transcontinental rail line. Fraser died in New York on January 1, 1898.

🛶 See the canoe differently.

The Canoe Perspectives exhibit brings together more than 40 works of art alongside canoes and artifacts from The Canadian Canoe Museum's collection, revealing the canoe as both subject and symbol within Canada's artistic and cultural traditions.

📍Experience Squally Morning in October, Mouth of Restigouche and more in person at The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, ON until April 2027.

Learn more at canoemuseum.ca/perspectives

08/17/2026

What makes a paddling route truly superior? 🛶

Is it the scenery? The campsites? The wildlife? Or the feeling of travelling along a shoreline that remains remarkably wild?

After more than 25 years of paddling Lake Superior, kayak instructor and guide David H. Johnston has a few favourites ... and he is ready to share them.

Join us this Thursday for an evening of routes, stories, practical insights, and inspiration for your next adventure!

🗣️ Wild Shores: Lake Superior’s Best Paddling Routes
🗓️ Thursday, August 20 at 6:30 PM
🎟️ Tickets: $15 | Members save 10%

Learn more and reserve your seat: https://bit.ly/4bRCQqq

📸 Heron Bay by David H. Johnston

08/16/2026

🖼️ Fishing Near the Ottawa River, 1875

What can a canoe reveal about a landscape, a moment in history, or the people who travelled through it?

Lucius O’Brien was born near Barrie, Ontario, in 1832, and developed an early interest in art during his studies at Upper Canada College. After working in architecture and teaching through the 1850s and 60s, he settled in Toronto in 1870 and became a leading figure in Canadian art circles. He was named the first president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880 and shortly after became the Canadian Pacific Railway’s first contract artist, sketching and painting along the newly completed western rail line. O’Brien spent his later years teaching, travelling, and exhibiting, and was celebrated with a retrospective in Toronto in 1895. He died in Toronto in 1899.

🛶 See the canoe differently.

Fishing Near the Ottawa River is one of more than 40 works featured in Canoe Perspectives, a temporary exhibition exploring the canoe as both subject and symbol within Canada’s artistic and cultural traditions.

Swipe through to see more of O’Brien’s work, then experience the exhibition in person at The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario (on view until April 2027).

Which artwork would you most like to see up close? Let us know in the comments!

Plan your visit and learn more at canoemuseum.ca/perspectives.

🖼️ #2: Ojibwa Indians, Lake Simcoe
🖼️ #3: Denizens of Ottawa, 1875
🖼️ #4: End of the Portage, 1875

08/15/2026

This fall, The Deep Dark Woods are coming to The Canadian Canoe Museum. 🍂🎶

Blending folk, blues, ballads, and rich storytelling, the acclaimed band will perform beneath the suspended canoes in the Museum’s Atrium for an intimate evening of live music.

🗓️ Saturday, September 19
📍The Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, ON
🕢 Doors open at 6:30 PM | Show starts at 7:30 PM
🎟️ Tickets: $50 | Members save 10%

Experience live music in an unforgettable setting! https://bit.ly/3Sb0SWz

📸 Photo by Heather Saitz

08/15/2026

Ready to get out on the water? 🛶

Climb aboard a 36-foot voyageur canoe for a guided group paddle, or choose your own adventure with a canoe or kayak rental from our Canoe House.

Explore on-water experiences at canoemuseum.ca/paddling.

📍2077 Ashburnham Dr., Peterborough, ON
On the shores of Little Lake, along the Trent-Severn Waterway

08/14/2026

Some of Lake Superior’s best paddling routes are also its best-kept secrets. 🌊

Next Thursday, kayak instructor and guide David H. Johnston is spilling the beans.

Drawing on more than 25 years of exploring Lake Superior, David will share where to go, how to get there, what you will encounter along the way, and what makes each route…superior.

Whether you are dreaming about your first paddling trip or planning your next wilderness adventure, you will leave with plenty of inspiration for exploring the lake’s remarkably wild Canadian shoreline.

🗣️ Wild Shores: Lake Superior’s Best Paddling Routes with David H. Johnston
🗓️ Thursday, August 20, 2026
🕡 6:30 PM | Doors open at 5:30 PM
🎟️ Tickets: $15 | Members save 10%!

Reserve your seat at https://bit.ly/4bRCQqq