The Kawartha Artists Gallery and Studio (KAGS), founded by Dorothy Martin, was a not-for-profit artist collective located in Peterborough, established in June 1990 in the basement of the Peterborough Public Library’s De La Fosse branch. Some of the well-known, founding members include George Elliot, Poul Thrane, Ann Cossar, John Norton, and Neil Broadfoot. For a $25 membership fee, they offered the opportunity for artists to access to exhibition space with a hanging fee and no commission on sales, individual painting space, storage space for materials and unfinished work, and use of worktables, easels, work areas, kitchen and washroom facilities. They showcased demonstrations during exhibitions, held workshops for young children and adults, and hosted various art events and contests. They aimed to bring together local artists, both professional and aspiring, to support the growth of arts and culture in the surrounding area.
Kenneth Charles Bellamy was born in 1919 in Cramahe Township, Northumberland County, the youngest son of Charles and Olive Bellamy (nee Bland). The Charles Bellamy family lived in the Smithfield/Brighton, Ontario area. Charles owned a farm in Salem, Ontario in his later years and in his younger years, worked for the Grand Trunk Railway as a brakeman. In 1938, Ken joined the Canadian Armed Forces and served overseas in World War II with the Midland Regiment, Hastings Prince Edward Regiment and the Essex Scottish regiment. Upon returning home, he married Ruth Catherine Allen. Over his career, he worked on the family farm, for the Department of Highways, and with Marbon Chemical Corporation in Cobourg, Ontario.
Ruth and Kenneth married 30 June 1947 in Brighton, Ontario. They had two daughters, Mary Margaret and Kathryn Ann, and lived in the community of Salem. After Ruth’s death in 1979, Ken married Joyce Blakley. Joyce died in 1985 and Ken in 2007. (Taken from information supplied by the donor).
Mary Susanne Edgar was born on May 23, 1889, the daughter of Joseph Edgar and Mary Little, in Sundridge, Ontario. She was educated at the Sundridge Public School and the Barrie High School. Later she studied at Havergal Ladies College, Toronto, and took extension courses at the University of Chicago. She also took lectures at the Teachers' College, Columbia University, and graduated from the National Training School of the Young Women's Christian Association, New York City, in 1915. From 1912 to 1914, Mary Edgar was engaged in First National Girls' Work, Y.W.C.A., in Canada. From 1915 to 1919 she was Girls' Work secretary in Montreal, and Director of Camp Oolahwan in the Laurentians. In 1920, she spent four months in Japan doing volunteer work for the Y.W.C.A. In the same year, Mary Edgar purchased a large property on Lake Bernard, where she developed as a girls' camp, near her hometown of Sundridge. The camp, Glen Bernard Camp, was opened in the summer of 1922 with thirty-eight campers. Ms. Edgar was the Camp's Director, a position which she held until her retirement in 1956. Mary Edgar devoted much of her life to work in the field of camping and girls' work. Beside working with the Y.W.C.A., Mary also worked with the Canadian Girls in Training (C.G.I.T.), the Girl Guides of Canada, the Canadian Camping Association, and the Ontario Camping Association. Mary Edgar is the author of several books including "Wood-fire and Candlelight" (Toronto, 1945), "Under Open Skies (Toronto, 1956), "The Christmas Wreath of Verse" (Toronto, 1967), and "Once there was a Camper" (Toronto, 1970). She also wrote a number of one act plays and hymns. Her best known hymn is "God Who Touchest Earth with Beauty" which has been placed into hymnals around the world and has been translated into several languages, including Cree. Mary S. Edgar died at Toronto on September 17, 1973. (Taken from the finding aid for the Edgar Papers at Queen's University Archives.)
John Erskine was a merchant (Glasgow Warehouse) in Peterborough, Canada West, in the mid 1800's.
Patrick Daniel was a teacher in Ottawa, Ontario until he retired in the 1980s. At the time of his retirement, Daniel purchased a farm that had been bought by his grandmother and uncle near Campbellford, Ontario in the 1920s, and operated it until 2002. In 1979-1980 and 1984 he was a NDP candidate for Victoria Haliburton.
Marlow Banks was a resident of Peterborough, Ontario and the owner of the Banks Bicycle Store. He was a hockey fan, and more specifically, a fan of the Peterborough Petes hockey team. Mr. Banks used to sponsor the "Banks Bicycle Store Trophy" which was awarded annually to the Petes regular season scoring champion.
Joseph H. Daley was a Government Immigration agent who lived in Montreal, Canada East. He had affiliations with Sir John A. Macdonald and Thomas D'Arcy McGee.
Leslie Barker is a descendent of the several Barker relatives who figure largely in the fonds, Dr. E.J. Barker, R.W. Barker, Lt. Col. R.K. Barker, and Capt. W.D.P. Barker.
Alvin Bee was a farmer on Concession 1, Lots 26, 27, 28 in Hope Township, Douro County, in the early 1900s.
Richard Birdsall was born in 1799 at Thornton-le-dale, England, and educated at Londesborough, Yorkshire. His family intended a naval career for him upon graduation. Instead, when he graduated in 1817, he emigrated to Canada. Due to his education, he qualified for a position as a fully-accredited land surveyor in Canada West. In May of 1820, he was commissioned to survey the Newcastle District, where he remained for the rest of his life and became a very prominent man. The Newcastle District was comprised of the counties of Northumberland and Durham and included which would later become the counties of Peterborough, Victoria, and Haliburton. In 1821, he married Elizabeth Burnham, daughter of Zaccheus Burnham, who was a prominent early settler in the District. From his father-in-law, Birdsall bought 920 acres of land at the northeast end of Rice Lake (Lot 1, Concession 1, Asphodel Township) and made his home there. His wife died in a tragic fall in 1827 leaving Birdsall with four young daughters. He remarried in 1836 to Charlotte Jane Everett of Belleville and had four more children with his second wife; two of these were Richard Everett Birdsall (1837-1877) and Francis (Frank) Birdsall (1838-1914). Between the years of 1827 and 1836, Birdsall carried out most of his surveying work, including the survey for the town of Peterborough. In 1831, he was commissioned Captain of the fourth Regiment of Northumberland Militia and he led the Asphodel contingent when the militia was called out in the Rebellion of 1837. Later he was an officer in the Peterborough Regiment. Birdsall was also a Commissioner of the Court of Requests and a Justice of the Peace. When the Colborne District was created in 1841, he was the councillor for Asphodel and in 1850, when districts were replaced by counties, he represented Asphodel at the Peterborough County Council as its first Reeve. He continued in this position until his death on January 20, 1852.
Henri Bourassa, journalist and politician, was born at Montreal, Quebec, on September 1, 1868, the son of Napoleon Bourassa and Azalie Papineau, and the grandson of Louis Joseph Papineau. He was educated by tutors, and became a journalist. He was a contributor to Le Nationaliste, a journal published in Montreal; and in 1896 he was elected to represent Labelle as an independent Liberal in the House of Commons. He became a pronounced "Nationalist" and in 1910 he founded Le Devoir, a Nationalist newspaper in Montreal, of which he became the editor-in-chief, and he continued as editor until he broke with many of the Nationalists, and resigned from the paper in 1932. Bourassa has been described as a man of erratic impulses. This is exemplified in his resignation from the House of Commons in 1907 so he could sit in the Quebec Legislative Assembly. He remained in the Assembly from 1908 to 1912. He sat once again in the House of Commons from 1925 to 1935, when he was defeated in his old constituency, Labelle. Bourassa was an outstanding political figure, and a first-rate orator. He also published many pamphlets on political questions, in both French and English. Henri Bourassa died at Outremont, Quebec, on August 30, 1952.
Annie Sheila Boyd was the daughter of Mossom Martin Boyd and Ida Lillian de Grassi, and the granddaughter of Mossom Boyd. She never married.
Ted Brock was Chair of the Camp Tonakela Association.
Edward Templeton Brown, grandson to Frances and Thomas Stewart, was born at Goodwood, the family farm in Douro Township, Canada West, on December 24, 1852 to Edward Wilson Brown and Elizabeth Lydia Stewart. In 1879 he went to the Northwest Territory to help survey Riding Mountain National Park. After the survey was completed he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1880 he joined a party, led by Major Boulton, heading for the Shell River area of western Manitoba to settle on land. He joined Boulton's Scouts and during the Battle of Batoche was killed in action on May 12, 1885. The community in Peterborough decided to raise a memorial stone to Edward Brown to commemorate his death in the Riel Uprising.
David Brown was a teacher and collector of historical documents and books who resided in Hamilton, Ontario.
Jane W. Deyman (nee Curran) was born November 7, 1914 to James W. Curran (see 74-006) and Edith Pratt. She married Harry R. Deyman (1912-1975) and they had three children: Mary, Susan and Peter. Her husband was a supreme court judge for Cobourg and then Peterborough. Jane was the chair of the Board of Directors at the Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives as well as chair for the Peterborough Historical Atlas Foundation. She was a long time member of the Peterborough Historical Society and volunteered at Hutchinson House. She was an active participant in heritage and humane fields and volunteered her time to numerous heritage activities. Jane Deyman died January 27, 1993.
Tommy Douglas was born in Scotland in 1904 and immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1919 with his family. Born of working-class and religious parents, he was ordained into the Baptist church in 1930. He later became interested in alleviating the suffering he witnessed during the Great Depression, and in the federal election of 1935 was successfully elected the leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). In 1944 Douglas resigned his federal seat to become Premier of Saskatchewan for the next 17 years. In 1961 Douglas resigned as premier and in the following by-election became the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) until 1971. Douglas is recognized as the father of socialized medicine, having first advocated Medicare in Canada. He is also credited with having fought for a Canada-wide pension plan and bargaining rights for civil servants. In 1946 Douglas undertook to sponsor a union of the various aboriginal tribes in Saskatchewan, as a way to assist the tribes in having a more effective voice in promoting their own welfare. (Taken from "The Canadian Encyclopedia", Vol.1, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1985, p.507-508.)
Wayland Drew was born in 1932 in Oshawa, Ontario. He graduated with a B.A. Honours in 1957 from Victoria College at the University of Toronto. He majored in English Language and Literature. He married Gwendolyn Parrott in October of 1957. They had four children, Scott, Marda, Paula and Cindy. Drew raised his family in Port Perry, Ontario and Bracebridge, Ontario. Drew began to write short stories and poetry in high school and university. Drew's first published novel, "The Wabeno Feast," was released in 1973 by Anansi. Drew's interest in Canadian history, Native culture and social ecology comes through in this novel and his other works. "The Wabeno Feast" was republished in 1985 by General Publishing. Since "The Wabeno Feast," Drew has written eleven other books of fiction and non-fiction. These include the non-fiction books, "Superior: The Haunted Shore" (1975), "A Sea Within: the Gulf of St. Lawrence" (1984), both with photography by his friend, Bruce Litteljohn, and "Brown's Weir" (1983) with photography by his wife, Gwen. In the late 1970s, Drew was approached by a friend, Matthew Robbins, to write a novelization of the film script, "Corvette Summer." The novelization was released in conjuction with the film in 1978. Drew proceeded to write the novelizations of three other film scripts: "Dragonslayer" (1981), "Batteries Not Included" (1987), and "Willow" (1989). Drew produced a science-fiction trilogy, "The Erthring Cycle," in the mid-eighties. The titles include "The Memoirs of Alcheringia" (1984), "The Gaian Expedient" (1985), and "The Master of Norriya" (1986). His final novel, "The Halfway Man," was published in 1989 by Oberon. Drew wrote and published works of short fiction and non-fiction. Some of his early stories were published in "The Tamarack Review" and "Acta Victoriana." Later short fiction was published in collections such as "New Canadian Short Stories," "Anthology," "Islands of Hope," and "Once Upon a Time." Drew also wrote scripts for CBC radio and for a Ministry of Natural Resources film called "Places Out of Time" (1994). He also wrote short non-fiction for a variety of publications such as "Ontario Naturalist," "Alternatives," "The Illustrated Natural History of Canada," and "Green Teacher." Drew began teaching high school in Port Perry, Ontario, in 1961. He earned a teaching certificate by taking summer courses at the Ontario College of Education while teaching during the school year. As a teacher, he also worked at the Ministry of Education and Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School. Drew took leaves from teaching in order to write full time, though he also wrote part-time while teaching. He retired from teaching in 1994. In addition to writing and teaching, Drew was active in the community. He was president of the Historical Society of Bracebridge, and chair of the "Signs of Hope" environmental conference in 1991. Drew also gave numerous guest lectures and facilitated workshops. Drew's acomplishments were recognized formally twice in 1991. In October of that year, Drew was honoured with the Lieutenant-Governor's Award from the Conservation Council of Ontario. Later that month, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Trent University. Wayland Drew died on December 3, 1998.
J. Brown was a farmer in Peterborough, Canada West, during the mid 1800's.
Kenneth Brown was born 21 January 1949 in Toronto and moved to Peterborough in 1974. He is married to Kathleen Brownscombe and has three children. Brown attended the Haliburton Scout Reserve for boy scouts in 1965-1967 and became a leader there. He was founding president of Kawartha Jazz Society (founded in 1989) and a partner at Stow Brown and McLeod where he worked until 2011 in public accounting. Interested in local history, Brown has extensively researched his wife's family, the Brownscombes, and is author of: The Invention of the Board Canoe, 2001; The Peterborough Potteries, 2003; and The Canadian Canoe Company, 2011. He also published a poster entitled "View of Ashburnham from the Tower of St. John's Church c. 1874."
William Brownscombe was a potter by trade in Peterborough.
Professor Alan Brunger was educated in England (B.Sc. Hons. Southampton 1963) and came to Canada in 1964 for graduate work, first in Alberta (M.Sc. Calgary 1966) and later in Ontario (Ph.D. Western Ontario 1973). He joined the faculty in Geography at Trent University in 1969 and has lectured and undertaken research mainly in historical geography within Canada, Australia and South Africa. His main research interest is in the pattern and process of nineteenth century immigration and settlement. Professor Brunger retired from the Geography Department at Trent University in 2008.
John William Burbidge was born in 1936 in Hoiryung, Korea, the son of missionary parents. He married Barbara Annette Perkins in 1958 and they have three children, James, Elizabeth, and Bruce. Professor Burbidge received an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and History at the University of Toronto in 1957 and a M.A. degree in Philosophy at Yale University in 1958. He then entered Emmanuel College, proceeding to ordination in the United Church of Canada and a Bachelor of Divinity in 1962. After studying theology at the University of Heidelberg the following year, Professor Burbidge became the minister responsible for Lakeview United Church in Mississauga. In 1971 he received a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. Professor Burbidge began teaching at Trent University in the Philosophy department in 1970 and taught there until his retirement in 1999. While at Trent, he served in several roles including Master of Champlain College, Chair of the Philosophy Department, Acting Registrar, and Associate Vice President for Student Services. He was also a long-time member of the Friends of the Bata Library. In the 1980s, Professor Burbidge served as Vice-President and President of the Hegel Society of America and in 1998 was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Amongst his publications, to name a few, are such titles as: On Hegel's Logic; Hegel on Logic and Religion; Real Process: How Logic and Chemistry Combine in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature; and Hegel's Systematic Contingency. Professor Burbidge has developed an interest in bookbinding and repair and is working towards certification by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.