Postcards were typically collected by Collingwood’s early museum for the snapshots of the past that appeared on their fronts.
Today’s featured postcard depicts the C.P.R. Steamer Keewatin in Owen Sound alongside the grain elevator. The S.S Keewatin is presently docked in Port McNicoll, a main port of call during its years of service between 1907 and 1965.
She was built in Glasgow, Scotland and joined the Canadian Pacific Railroad Great Lakes Steamship Fleet in 1907. Today, Keewatin is the last remaining Great Lakes Passenger Liner and may be toured by members of the public through the Friends of Keewatin.
On the postcard back, a 106-year-old message from a grandmother to her grandson, Dick Irwin, is preserved. Dick was the son of Collingwood Dentist Dr. Irwin whose office was located on Hurontario Street.
The charming note is written in cursive handwriting and will test the calibre of your cursive reading skills, particularly the last sentence. Please comment below if you are able to decipher the missing text.
Collingwood Museum staff are at an impasse. The handwritten note appears in the second photograph.
Prince Albert
My Dear Dick,
I wish you were hear [sic] there are so many pretty wild flowers. We have a bunch on the table picked out of the fence corner. Your roses were lovely and kept for a week. I wore one to dinner each day and have the leaves in my ___ ____.
Lovingly Grandma
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Remember This is a weekly series of historic photographs submitted by the Collingwood Museum to CollingwoodToday.ca. These photographs were originally collected and documented by the Huron Institute in an historical catalogue entitled Huron Institute Paper and Records: Volume III. Much of Collingwood’s early history has been preserved due to the dedication and foresight of the early museum’s founders, namely its secretary-curator David Williams, upon its establishment in 1904.
