by Rosa Bateman McGee
with artwork & photography by Janie Dugan-Downey
72 pages
$20
This is a new version of Rosa Bateman McGee's inspirational book entitled, Songs for Sighs. The poem "Evening" was originally published in The World's Fair Anthology of Verse, Vol. 2, 1939. The final poem of the book is a tribute to the steam ship the Islinda of Young's Point, Ontario, 1910 - 1945. The poem about the S.S. Islinda will take you on an excursion up through the Trent-Severn Waterway through the beautiful Kawartha Lakes. Wherever she went, the S.S. Islinda delivered mail and took on passengers, granting them an enjoyable leisurely tour from Lakefield to Young's Point.
by Brooke Broadbent
190 pages. Over 100 graphics (photos, maps, documents)
$20
In 34 short stories the author examines the lives of two families from south west England, the Hardings and the Garretts who faced difficult times in England and sought better lives in Peterborough County. They emigrated in 1840, 1863 and 1870. Moonrakers at Peace and War traces the lives of Peterborough pioneers as they decide to emigrate, board sailing ships to the New World, and meet adversity in their lives in Canada during the 19th and 20th centuries. The families are seen dealing with separation, death, a shipwreck, cholera, poverty, jail, vagrancy, the Fenian Raids, Catholic-Protestant conflict, the Great War, adjusting to life after the war, homesteading on the Prairies, the Great Depression, political protest during the depression, alcoholism, raising a severely handicapped child, family breakdown during the Great Depression, and the Second World War.
Moonrakers at Peace and War follows the author’s search in finding his roots. He finds clues in Ancestry.com; Llanddewi, Wales; Wiltshire, England and especially Douro and Otonabee townships, as well as the Trent Valley Archives and the Lang Pioneer Village. The book is part memoir, part genealogical findings, part social history and part historical fiction.
"Moonrakers at Peace and War is about the wonder of the “ancestral stories” that form our lives and enhance our quest for what is meaningful, real, and important in our lives. While these narratives include both the inspirational as well as heart-wrenching realities and disappointments, they also provide a whole picture that enables us to live life truthfully, authentically, and compassionately because of the deeper understanding and healing garnered by dancing with the stories of our foreparents."
Rev. Brian Cornelius, United Church Minister
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Cavan, North of Highway #115
by Marlyne Fisher-Heasman
48 pages, 95 b&w photos
$12.50
TVA is proud to carry Marlyne Fisher-Heasman's latest book, entitled Cavan, North of the Highway #115. The book reads like a tour of the area, focusing on the businesses of Cavan, Ida, and Mount Pleasant - new and old. It is 48 pages and contains 95 black-and-white photos. top of page
 Lumberjack in the Court House: the remarkable career of Judge
Joseph Wearing
by Joseph Wearing Jr.
$5
Lumberjack in the Court House: the remarkable career of Judge Joseph Wearing, is a son's tribute to a remarkable father who was nearly sixty years older. This is Occasional Paper 31 for the Peterborough Historical Society, which has published an occasional paper annually (more or less) since 1980. Each booklet is based on a program that was presented to the Peterborough Historical Society. Judge Wearing (1879-1947) was a county judge in Middlesex County, appointed in 1935, but most of his legal career was in Peterborough, 1918 to 1935. He also had a long association with Frontier College that began when he was a lumberjack.
Peterborough Successes: Community Organization in Peterborough in the 1970s and 1980s
by Peter Adams
$20
This book looks at four community-based responses to challenges facing the community and assesses the success of the made-in-Peterborough efforts. In each case, Adams was active in the responses and the personal papers which he accumulated are being deposited in the Trent Valley Archives or with the Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame. The first issue was the 1970 effort to save the downtown Peterborough Collegiate Institute. This story is very current as the regional Kawartha Pine Ridge School Board plans to close one of the four Peterborough high schools. One cannot apply the 1970 case directly to the current situation because the school boards now cover a huge area. However, there are many useful points made that can be helpful for people looking for ways to get political decisions. The second key story was on ParticipAction Peterborough in the ten years from 1974. This story was central to the analysis of "The Participation City" in Peterborough: the Electric City. Adams ties ParticipAction to the efforts to put on the 1980 Ontario Summer Games in Peterborough. One could also add the successful efforts of Paul Wilson to define athletics at Trent University as more participation and less spectator. The other big story in the book is the story of Energy Savers Peterborough (see feature story in Heritage Gazette of the Trent Valley, May 2010). In different ways the stories continue to have lives, and this is part of what makes this book so relevant today.
The book was produced by Bruce Stewart at Package Plus, and is Occasional Paper 19 for the Department of Geography at Trent University. The proceeds of the book are going to Casa De Angelae, a family-supported home for developmentally challenged women.
 Standing Strong, Facing Forward: the history of the labour movement in Peterborough and district
by Tara DeBlois
$25
DeBlois covers the history of trade unions since 1872 and is particularly strong in describing important local landmarks in worker history. The local citizens supported the workers at General Electric in the strike of 1895. The workers had political success in 1919. Labour suffered badly in the textile strike of 1937 and the Tilco strike of the 1960s. The success of Walter Pitman in the 1960 federal by-election was a high moment. DeBlois has covered this and more.
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 An Historian's Notebook
by Elwood Jones
292 pages. Heavily Illustrated.
$40
This volume brings together stories that appeared in the popular "Historian at Work" column, a must-read feature of the Saturday edition of the Peteroborough Examiner since early 2007. These 100 wide-ranging stories from award-winning local historian Elwood Jones are interesting in their own right, but together they form a well-rounded, intriguing history of Peterborough. Jones, with over 40 years of university teaching and archival research to his credit, brings to light these biographies and stories about politics, show business, sports, commerce, and neighbourhood events. Richly illustrated, An Historian's Notebook presents the unique perspective of Elwood Jones and shows that Peterborough has always been a place of diversity and excitement - full of character and characters.
"Ontario is filled with good stories and An Historian's Notebook exemplifies the best in the art of story-telling."
- Thomas F. McIlwraith, Ontario History
Click here to read the full review.
by Elwood Jones
64 pages. Heavily Illustrated
$15
Written for the 160th anniversary of the incorporation of the Little Lake Cemetery Company, this book chronicles the history of Peterborough's first burial ground and the need to establish a new cemetery in 1850 resulting in one of the first incorporated cemetery companies in Ontario. Winner of the Peterborough Historical Society's 2011 F.H. Dobbin Award, Little Lake Cemetery is beautifully illustrated through a series of vintage and modern-day photographs it highlights the spectacular park-like grounds and many of the unique markers that dot its landscape. Click here to read a full review.
Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Peterborough
A Walker's Guide to Omemee:
The Pigeon Town
by Marlyne Fisher-Heasman
80 pages. Heavily illustrated
$25
Take a walk down King Street with this book and the history of Omemee will unfold before your eyes. Using existing buildings as the basis of narrating the town's history, Marlyne Fisher-Heasman makes Omemee's past come to life. As the author says, "the story is about what can be seen, and what can be imagined from what remains." With almost 300 black and white photos, both modern and archival, illustrating the text, this book is both a valuable reference, a useful guide and a "coffee table" book that will give you hours of pleasure. For those who have left the village, having been born and brought up here, it will be a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane.
Peterborough: The Electric City
by Elwood Jones and Bruce Dyer
176 pages. Heavily Illustrated.
$50
While it may overstate the case to call Peterborough the nation's most typical city, it is clear that the handsome community on the Otonabee River does reflect the mainstream of eastern Canada's development from colonial outpost to modern urban centre. Gifted with abundant natural resources, a strategic location, and imaginative and determined pioneers "the place at the end of the rapids" began its modern tale as a mill site chosen by Adam Scott and Charles Fothergill in 1819. Professor Elwood Jones and Bruce Dyer tell Peterborough's tale in these pages with authority and insight. And what a rich and intriguing story it is, drawing its first energy from the rich forests of the Kawarthas for timber and lumber, but sustained by the industrial revolution just then waking in Britain's Midlands. Over the Atlantic and up the St. Lawrence swept the new technology shaping foundries, factories and mills, laying a foundation of diversified enterprise which gives the city its strength even today.
Peterborough and the Kawarthas
by Peter Adams and Colin Taylor
252 pages.
$35
Peterborough and the Kawarthas is a comprehensive overview of the partof Ontario known as "The Kawarthas." It includes chapters (complete with colour photos, maps, diagrams and tables) on geology and landforms;soils, plants and animals; weather and climate; rivers and lakes; localhistory; urban geography; tourism and recreation; regional planning; local area field trips; and map and remote-sensing imagery. A special feature of the book is a series of aerial photographs, each accompanied by a sketch to help their interpretation. These include many aerial photographs of parts of the city of Peterborough, as well as pictures of local villages, including Lakefield, Douro, Millbrook and Warsaw.
The new edition of the book includes comprehensive references and lists of websites, including links to map, air photo and satellite images of the region, and databases for statistical information about the local area.
Trent, McGill and the North: A Story of Canada's Growth as a Sovereign Polar Nation
Peter Adams
221 pages
$10
Former MP and Trent University Professor Emeritus Peter Adams has published a new book entitled Trent, McGill and the North: a story of Canada’s growth as a sovereign polar nation examining how Canada’s governing authority in the Arctic has matured over the last 50 years. “To be responsibly sovereign, a nation must have the capacity to fulfil its sovereign obligations,” explained Prof. Adams, who served as Liberal MP for Peterborough from 1993 to 2006. “That involves developing a capacity to govern, to the highest international standards, the territory concerned, year in and year out, politically, socially and environmentally.” Throughout his book, Prof. Adams describes Trent University as a vanguard in polar research creating the educational and scientific foundation for meaningful government in the north. “Trent recognized northern studies from its earliest days, in the 1960s,” said Prof. Adams. “It was a pioneer in indigenous peoples studies and in extending northern studies to the undergraduate levels.” Prof. Adams’ book chronicles his active research career in the north where he studied snow and ice hydrometeorology and led dozens of arctic field courses for Trent geography students. Much of their research on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut was some of the earliest work recognizing climate change through glacier retreat.
Timber Empire: The Exploits of the Entrepreneurial Boyds
by Grace Barker
143 pages.
$20
In 1834, 19-year-old Mossom Boyd arrived in the backwoods of Upper Canada with few assets other than his intelligence and determination. Within a decade he'd taken over a small sawmill at nearby Bobcaygeon, in the Kawartha Lakes district. Gradually he expanded operations until he was shipping millions of feet of lumber each year to the U.S., and his logging operations extended north to the farthest reaches of the Trent River headwaters in Haliburton County.
Boyd also engaged in the risky but exciting and often financially lucrative square timber trade, annually floating rafts of pine all the way down the Trent and St. Lawrence rivers to Quebec for export to Britain.
Timber Empire follows the exploits of Mossom Boyd and two of his sons as they battle natural, political and economic obstacles in their quest to extract a living from the pine forests of the Kawarthas and Haliburton.
Grace Barker's well-researched narrative, based to a large extent on information in the diaries and correspondence of the Boyds, overlays a sense personality and immediacy on the hardships, excitement, and innovation that characterized 19th-century lumbering in Ontario.
Bad Luck Bank Robbers
by Grace Barker
143 pages.
$20
In a bold daylight heist on August 31, 1961, armed robbers made off with over $230,000 from the Toronto Dominion Bank in the eastern village of Havelock. If not for a bit of "bad luck" it would have been the perfect crime. But things started to go wrong. A wild car chase along back roads in the rugged Canadian Shield bush country north of Havelock ended with the bandits fleeing into the woods on foot. After an intensive 96 hour manhunt, the Ontario Provincial Police aided by local residents rounded up the suspects. But where was the money? It had vanished! Not only that, the clever bandits had worn masks and gloves at the bank. Nobody could identify them, and there were no fingerprints. The chances of putting them behind bars seemed slim.
Elections in Peterborough County
by Peter Adams
$5
Hunter St. Stories
by Ed Arnold
$30
The last time Arnold took us on a trip down George Street and now he's walking Hunter looking for more interesting stories and he found them from: bakers to barbers, landlords to druggists, artists to lawyers, actors to monks, a street full of fascinating people and spirits.
A Journey Through Glamorgan's Past
by Elva Bates
$25
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Goodroom, Eh?
by Elva Bates
$25
This work of fiction is based lightly on the history described in "A Journey Through Glanmorgan's Past" and does not attempt to describe the day-to-day life of a pioneer. Most of the characters are fictitious and their lives are followed to show different sets of circumstances that could have brought the settlers to Gooderham. Other characters are based on real people who pioneered in and around Gooderham but the characteristics, conversations, and actions that are ascribed to them in this work are fictitious and it is not the authors intent to show any of them in a derogatory fashion.
From the Pioneers to the Seventies: A History of the Peterborough Catholic Diocese
by Edgar Boland
$30
By Lake and Lock
by Al Brunger
41 pages
$5
A guide to historical sites and tours of the City and County of Peterborough.
The Incredible Walk: The True Story of my Parents' Escape from Nazi-Occupied France
by Judi Olga Cahorn
116 pages
$20
Paul Sekelj and Trudy Katzenstein, a talented young couple very much in love found their world collapsing as persecution of Jews moved toward the Final Solution. Having fled to Paris, they were forced to join the exodus of apporximately five million French from the city. When all seemed lost, the French Resistance organized a plan for escape across the Pyrenees into Spain. Thus began the incredible journey to freedom, fraught with perils and hardships never imagined, but now carefully documented and beautifully illustrated with a surprise ending.
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Garden of Eden (South Monaghan)
by Jean Murray Cole
$35
Origins: The History of Dummer Township
by Jean Murray Cole
$35
The History of Dummer Township tells the story of the people of the township - who they were, where they came from, how their lives evolved, how they interacted with their neighbours, what diversions lightened their burdens. Today's readers will find their forefathers on these pages, a sense of the real men, women, and children behind some of the rather stern countenances that gaze out from the remarkable portraits that appear in this book. An essential book for everyone with roots in, or an interest in, Dummer Township.
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Nation Builders: Barnardo Children in Canada
by Gail Corbett
$10
Nation Builders: Barnardo Children in Canada unmasks one of the greatest human interest stories in Canadian history: the emigration of tens of thousands of children from Britain, from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, to become home children in Canada. Through first-hand accounts and archived materials, Corbett sensitively and accurately records the pilgrimage of the children, who, against great odds, proved that Canada was the promised land. Today Barnardo Children and their descendants are legion, and they are counted among Canada's greatest nation builders.
Calling All Condons
Audrey Condon Delaney and Judy Potter Baird
440 pages
$20
Condon famly history.
Township of Douro, 1840 Map
by Gordon Dibb
$5
David Thompson, George E. Shaw and Peterborough
Edwards, Dennis Carter
24 pages
$30
The Days of My Years
by Clare Galvin
158 pages
$10
Intermittent Ambition
by Elwood Jones
21 pages
$5
Cox Terrace
by Elwood Jones
$5
Fighting Fires in Peterborough
by Elwood Jones
$40
Facts and figures, pictures and tales of heroism and humour tell the story of Peterborough Fire and Rescue from its humble beginnings through to its present day force.
Strike Up the Band!
by Elwood Jones
$20
A history of the Peterborough Concert Band and its connections with 150 years of local band traditions, and its outstanding band leaders such as Finch Miller, Rupert Glidden, William Peryer, Wally Parnell and Cal Smith.
Winners: 150 Years of the Peterborough Exhibition
by Elwood Jones
271 pages
$25
Peterborough has hosted one of the leading fairs in Ontario annually since 1843 except during World War II, and a few early years. As an urban fair with a strong agricultural tradition, the fair has been a meeting place, a showplace of innovation, and host of a grandstand and midway. The book discusses the issues related to fairs, and also the experience of the war training camp in World War II. The Morrow Trust has been discussed as well, as the fair usually relied on relations with landlord and city.
Historical Sketches of Peterborough
by Martha Kidd
149 pages
$20
Sixty stories of major homes and buildings in Peterborough sensitively told by the local grand dame of architectural history. Illustrated by Louis Taylor, well-known for his attention to detail and spirit. The book is an ageless classic.
Up the Burleigh Road
by Doug and Mary Lavery
$35
"Up the Burleigh Road - beyond the boulders" is comprised of 170 pages lavishly illustrated with approximately 300 photos and documents, most of them unpublished and from private collections, to compliment the text. The story covers the pioneer, settling and cottage history of Burleigh and Anstruther Townships from Burleigh Falls to the northern border of Anstruther Township. Logging stories of winter work away from home and dangerous activities felling and floating the huge pine trees down the waterways are recounted by area men. The Burleigh Road is one of the Colonization Roads which the government of the day hoped would open up the backwoods to settlement. Building and rebuilding the road from the 1860s onward provides incredible tales of creating corduroy road sections and blasting the granite rock by hand methods - all recounted by men who worked on the road in their youth.
Along the Gravel Road: A Brief History of Cartwright Township
by Sherill Leetooze
172 pages
$19
Being a township at the back of Durham County, Cartwright was the last of the six townships to see settlement. Even though the first settler appears to have been John Hoople in about 1816-17, he stayed only a few years. The first permanent settler on record being George Hall, who built his cabin in 1833, then brought his new bride there in 1834.
Situated on the south shore of Lake Scugog, Cartwright Township citizens were more strongly allied with Victoria County (Lindsay) on the north shore, and Ontario County (Port Perry) on the west. Trade naturally was done on the waters on Lake Scugog, and road building was a task undertaken much later in Cartwright than in other townships in the County. The main arterial road was the gravel road, between Bowmanville and Caesarea on Lake Scugog. This road passed through Blackstock, known as Williamsburg in the early days, giving that town the distinction of being the seat of township government, and housing the first post office in the township. This road was once an Indian trail from Lake Ontario to the Scugog River. It gave the settlers their link to the incoming goods from Bowmanville’s port as well as a road down which to haul their crops, flour, etc. to markets in the south, and to the harbour for shipping abroad.
Along the Gravel Road begins with an introduction of the dawn of township, through early settlement, then addresses the history of the township and the communities that were, and those that remain within its boundaries.
The Past is Simply a Beginning (Peterborough Doctors)
by Dr. John Martyn
368 pages
$15
A biographical dictionary of over 900 doctors who spent part of their careers in Peterborough county, together with discussions of doctors who served in the American Civil War, and of the hospitals.
From Cork to the New World: A Journey for Survival
by Michael McCarthy
299 pages
$20
From Cork to the New World: A Journey for Survival is a work of historical fiction based on a true story: rather than watch their children weaken and starve, the McCarthy and Sullivan families leave poverty-stricken Ireland to become part of the Peter Robinson Settlement in Canada. Robinson, a member of the Canadian Upper Parliament, was responsible for bringing thousands of Irish settlers to Canada, where they vastly improved their situation through hard work and determination.
The story follows the fortunes, trials and tribulations of Thomas McCarthy, his wife Johanna and their three children. At the same time, we learn about the William Sullivan family, who travel on a different ship to Canada. The two families become acquainted when Denis McCarthy agrees to teach the Sullivan children to read.
Both families must deal with tragedies and never is a day taken for granted, although every day there is cause for thanks. Interspersed throughout is the Irish love of song, music and dance. And through all the trials and joys, the spirit of these immigrants remains strong.
A Heritage of Caring: History of St. Joseph's School of Nursing
by Margaret M. McDonald
$15
A History of the Peterborough Ski Club: The Forgotten Sports Era
by Cy Monkman
$35
A History of the Peterborough Ski Club beginning with the Peterborough Ski and Snowshoe Club (1923) and ending as the Bethany Ski Club Inc (1980).
History of the County of Peterborough: Biographies
by C.P. Mulvaney
$50
History of the County of Peterborough: The Townships
by C.P. Mulvaney
$50
Forest to Farm (Otonabee Township)
by Gayle Nelson
$35
Midland on Georgian Bay
by William Smith and William Northcott
288 pages
$60
Midland on Georgian Bay, accurately captures the mood that defines the town's unique personality, so strongly influenced by it location on the shores of Georgian Bay, With over 620 colour and duotone illustrations, the book is beautifully photographed and designed. The reader is taken for a long journey from the earliest settlement of the Oundat/Huron Nation to the inauguration of Midland's Town Council in 2007.
Lillies and Shamrocks (Emily Township)
by Howard Pammett
$35
The Elusive Isabella Valancy Crawford
by Michael A. Peterman
24 pages
$5
The Early Settlement of Peterborough County (1967 Edition)
by T.W. Poole
$50
Mills of Peterborough County
by Diane Robnik
$28
Preventative Care for Cemeteries (CD)
by Diane Robnik
$20
Kawartha Nordic Ski Club
by Marjorie Shephard
$35
At the Edge of the Shield: Smith Township
by Cliff and Elaine Theberge
$30
Peterborough Interiors: A Photographic History
by TVA
$15
An attractive 36 page publication filled with about 40 illustrations, mostly large format. It is hoped that the publication will draw attention to our archival sources relating to photographs and how they might be used in your own research. How many stories can a single picture tell? In addition to an introductory essay each photo has a useful caption. All the photos come from TVA holdings.
Heritage Gazette: Back issues, as available
$10
History of North Monaghan Township
by Alta Whitfield
$20
This is a story about people, their hopes, their struggles, their dissappointments, and their successes. It is the story of the historic development of the township of North Managhan during one hundred and seventy years. A History of North Monaghan Township 1817-1989 is a comprehensive history of the area with a strong emphasis on individual members of the community. An ideal resource for the family historian with roots in Monaghan Township.
Standards of the Highest: From Edison to GE Canada, Peterborough 1891-1991
$10
Peterborough: Land of Shining Waters
$25
Peter Robinson Settlement (1975)
$8
Dictionary of Surnames
$10
Discoveries
by Robertson Davies
$20
Peterborough Folklore and Folklife
$10
Illustrated Historical Atlas for Victoria County
$65
Changing Lives in Changing Times: Peterborough, Women and the YMCA
by Lisbeth Shaw-Cullen and Alissa Lee
$10
To Fare Sumptuously Every Day
by Mary F. Williamson
$5
Native Trees of Canada
$10
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