Dr. Shaw at the Opening on October 14, 2001.
A well attended Event with many members of the
maritime and research community present.

The Gordon C. Shaw Study Centre at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston has been named in honour of a generous benefactor of the Museum. The Centre provides a spacious and well lit area for all to conduct their own research on questions of interest to them, be it genealogy to fill in a family tree, underwater archaeology in support of a diving adventure or serious scholarly work for the purpose of publication. The full resources of the Museum are available for study or consultation in the Study Centre. These are the artefact and pictorial collections, the archives, and the library - built up in support of the Museum’s mandate related to Great Lakes marine history, shipping and shipbuilding.

The official geographic limits are from Montreal to the Lakehead. The one exception is the library collection. International in scope, it reflects the world-wide roots of the shipping industry. Many ships built on the Great Lakes served their lives at sea, as other ships from the seven seas entered the lakes. Within these parameters the collections have been focused on social and technical history of the ships and their people from their design, through their building and service to their breaking up.

ARCHIVES

The Museum archives have over 3,500 linear feet of documents catalogued in 39 different record groups. As might be expected for Great Lakes shipping, the bulk of the material is from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The life of a ship is represented in the archives by three major collections.

The first example is a design collection, which features the working papers and drawing of German & Milne. In addition to their many commercial ships they designed over thirty vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard. From design one moves to construction. The ship building collection includes the records of eight major shipyards; Port Arthur on Lake Superior, Midland and Collingwood on Georgian Bay, Port Weller on the Welland Canal, Polson at Toronto, Kingston Shipyard at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, Vickers at Montreal and Davies at Quebec City on the St Lawrence River.

These major finds are supported by collections from many other smaller yards as well. The archives has over 35,000 ship drawings. To document the operating life of a ship the archives holds a number of records of shipping companies. The principal holdings are Canada Steamship Lines and Upper Lakes Shipping. As with the shipyards, the collection includes papers from many smaller or more local firms.

The corporate records include letters between designers, builders and owners, administrative papers relating to the management of the companies, and employment records which offer a wealth of information about social topics relating to employment and the life of the communities were the firms were located. These records are supported by many private collections of letters, journals and a photograph collection of over 14,000 images.

LIBRARY

The Audrey Rushbrook Memorial Library commemorates the principal founder of the museum when it was established in 1976. Over 10,000 books are catalogued in accordance with the Library of Congress system, and are listed on the museum’s online database at www.marmuseum.ca.

The library also has over 250 periodicals titles. These include professional journals such as The Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers Transactions and academic publications such as The Mariner’s Mirror and a complete run of The American Neptune. Pleasure boating magazines of a now past era provide an important window on social life, such as Yachting Monthly of the 1930s.

The library’s rare book collection is based on the David Ian Moor gift of over 800 titles. It includes items as two volumes of plates of The Modern System of Naval Architecture (1864) by John Scott Russell, the engineer who collaborated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Truth About the Navy and its Coaling Stations is in a bound volume of naval pamphlets. This famous work that prompted the great naval revival and modernization movement in Britain in the 1880s, was written by the journalist W.T. Stead using information from then Captain "Jacky" Fisher.

Many of the books are on specialized topics not normally found in more general collections. One such example is the navigation collection which includes texts on the practice of navigation from as early as the 1790s. This is supported by more than 1500 charts of the Great Lakes.

ARTEFACTS

Much can be learned from the material culture available to us. The Gordon C. Shaw Study Centre offers researchers the unique opportunity of being able to handle the smaller artefacts and see at first hand how they were constructed or used.

The Museum’s collection includes over 3,000 items over the spectrum of instruments, tools, ship models, clothing and decorative arts. (Larger artefacts, such as the retired Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and buoy tender, Alexander Henry, must be examined in situ.) The pictorial collection includes the art work of Grant Macdonald. A longtime resident of Kingston he served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. The Museum has over 300 of his portraits and sketches of naval figures, from ordinary seamen to senior officers, and of life at sea. Other collections include profiles of ships and views of ships at sea and in harbour.

HOW TO FIND US

School student or movie producer; novice or scholar, researchers may find it easiest to begin their inquiry by searching on the Museum’s web site. The address is www.marmuseum.ca.
The Museum is located at in Kingston, Ontario, at 55 Ontario Street. The postal code is K7L 2Y2. An appointment should be made prior to arrival both to reserve staff time and to ensure easy availability of the requested materials. Certain fees may apply. The Study Centre hours are Monday through Friday 10 to 5 only.

These links will take you to:

A more detailed description of the Collections
The online Collections Catalogues
A biography of Dr. Gordon C. Shaw
To Information about Membership