The Famous Folk Art Hooker of Canada Elizabeth LeFort and her Tapestry Mastery

Famed hooker Elizabeth LeFort!  Hooked tapestry, that is.  Canada' s artist in wool! 

Her first significant work was a portrait of President Ike.  16,000 loops,  but that's nothing.  Her tapestry of 33 United States Presidents had 750,000 loops!  Not only that, she hand-dyed the wool! Dr. LeFort dropped out of school at age 12, but eventually she achieved an honorary doctorate from the Universite de Monction and  was appointed a member of the Order of Canada.

Watch Elizabeth LeFont dye her wool Below!


Three circa 1965 postcards collection Jim Linderman
Read more aboutElizabeth LeFort at  Les Trois Pignons
 

The Saga of Cactus Mac (!) Rare Photographs of Canadian Hillbilly with Cactus! Hillbilly History

Cactus Mac Collection Jim Linderman

Cactus Mac Collection Jim Linderman

Cactus Mac Collection Jim Linderman

Cactus Mac tends his dusty garden!

Not all guitar players take their monikers seriously, but I have the scarce photographic proof that Cactus Mac walked the walk and grew the cactus!

Cactus Mac was an obscure performer on the CKNX Barn Dance (called "Canada's Largest Traveling Barn Dance" in an equally obscure book.  It was a radio program which broadcast out of Wingham, Ontario on Saturday nights from 1937 to 1963.  According to the North Huron Museum in Wingham, Cactus Mac was a beloved performer…and though he was on the radio, he mugged like a TV Star in the photograph they own.  Could be as Cactus Mac was a comic as well.  

The website Hillbilly Music is seeking more information on Cactus Mac…well, if they are looking, now they'll know he was a botanist!  

At least one recording is known, but since the show ran so long I am sure there are many.  The CD Saturday Night Barn Dance volume 1 contains Mac's version of Little Brown Jug.

Three original snapshot photographs of Cactus Mac circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

See Jim Linderman Books and Ipad ebook downloads HERE

Indian "cemetery" Holy Place Carvings F. Gowan Vancouver Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman

Imagine coming across this scene in 1900. Titled "Indian Cemetery" I am not quite sure that describes the scene adequately or correctly. Shrine? Holy Place?

F. Gowan Publishers was a real photo postcard and photography seller based in Vancouver, British Columbia during the very early 20th Century. Sparse documentation for a most extraordinary environment.

ADDITIONAL interesting early Canadian photography work is shown HERE HERE and HERE or you can enter "Canada" into the search box above.


"Indian Cemetery" by F. Gowan Vancouver BC Real Photo Postcard circa 1910-1920? Collection Jim Linderman
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Contortionist Helen Paguin of Canada RPPC Jim Linderman Collection

A perfect "V" and an incredible set of real photo postcards of young Helen Paguin of Western Canada, Vaudevillian and child performer. This girl could literally compose words with her body. I have no other information on Helen Paguin or the rest of her extraordinary family, who would have been active 1910-1930 in Canada and likely across the border. Helen Paguin Child Performer

Collection of 5 real photo postcards collection Jim Linderman
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Canadian Vaudeville Performer with Snake and Monkey RPPC 1939 Paguin Pequin Paguin Canada Moose Jaw Saskatchewan

A member of the Paguin vaudeville family active in the Saskatchewan Province of Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. I purchased a photo archive of the group and am seeking information. The multi-talented group (musicians, contortionists and more) performed on the prairie circuit of Canada. If you have information, please write me at j.winkel4@gmail.com. If you know family members, please forward? Thanks!


Edward Paguin(?) 1939 Real Photo Postcard Paramount Film Service Collection Jim Linderman

UPDATE! Brian Busby, friend, writer and manager of the beautiful site The Dusty Bookcase was kind enough to get me started with the note below. I will do a proper thank you post one day, but for now please note Brian's latest book A Gentleman of Pleasure: One Life of John Glassco, Poet, Translator, Memoirist and Pornographer was just published by McGill Queens University Press and looks fantastic. You MUST see this link. THANKS BRIAN!



"Though not a betting man, I'd be willing to wager a few dollars on Paquin over Paguin. The former is a fairly common French Canadian surname. The 1911 Canadian census (the most recent open and available online), doesn't list more than a few dozen Paquins on the Prairies... and none are named Edward. In fact, the only Edward Paquin I could find was then a 32 year-old plumber living in Quebec. My thought - and here I won't place a wager - is that the Paquins likely came from Quebec, moving west to the new provinces. Edward might actually be one of several young Edouard Paquins listed in the census."

Canada Carte de Visite Stephen Allen Spencer Finds Gold Taking Pictures

It occurs to me I have never posted a carte de visite photograph, so here is a bunch! CDV photos were an albumen print on small cards, about the size of a small tintype (2.5" x 3.5")

They became the predominant form of photography following the "hard" images of dags, ambros and tintypes and were popular from 1860 to 1900 or so...a few were produced earlier and a few later.

They were common, and they were cute. Many were tinted by hand, and many were popular figures of the day...show folk, authors, politicians...and in this case, Canadians!

S.A. Spencer was born in Connecticut but headed west to find gold. How he happened upon photography is unknown to me, but he was a bit better than most...and being on the West Coast of Canada early means his work is valuable for genealogy and Canadian history. The sitters might not look it, but they were pioneers. They dressed for the camera...but trust British Columbia was frontier when he produced these images.

One is dated on the reverse 1874, I suppose from his peak. Stephen Allen Spencer passed away in 1911.

Group of CDV photographs by S.A. Spencer, circa 1870-1880 Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books HERE