Skip to main content

Canoes: A Natural History in North America

Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims

Overview
Stats

This is the story of the canoe, that singular American artifact so little changed over time. Featured here are canoes old and new, from birch bark to dugout to carbon fiber; the people who made them; and the adventures they shared. With features of technology, industry, art, and survival, the canoe carries us deep into the natural and cultural history of North America.

Follow author Mark Neuzil on Twitter: @mrneuzil

Citable Link

Published: 2016

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

ISBN(s)

9780816681174 (hardcover)

Subject

Resources

An illustrated postcard depicting a woman carrying her own oar.

Canoeing Girl

A woman in a canoe plays an instrument while a male paddles.

Morris Canoe Catalog, 1917

Several women paddle canoes.

Morris Canoe Catalog, 1919

The Old Town Canoe Company celebrated the end of the First World War in 1919 with a military-themed catalog cover.

End of World War I

A 1923 Old Town Canoe catalog cover featuring two women paddling solo.

Women Paddle Canoes

A color photograph of a wood and canvas canoe in the process of restoration.

Restoring a Canoe

A before-and-after restoration of a 1927 Carleton canoe, which was built in the Old Town Canoe Company factory. Using the Old Town “build record,” the canoe was restored to the same colors and condition as the original. Restoration by Tom Seavey.

Carleton Canoe Restoration - Before

A before-and-after restoration of a 1927 Carleton canoe, which was built in the Old Town Canoe Company factory. Using the Old Town “build record,” the canoe was restored to the same colors and condition as the original. Restoration by Tom Seavey.

Carleton Canoe Restoration - After

A photograph of a restored Chestnut Canoe in the water.

Restored Chestnut Canoe

Pam Wedd, owner of Bearwood Canoe Company near Parry Sound, Ontario, paddles a restored Gerrish canoe.

Pam Wedd

Emily Schoelzel restoring a 1964 Old Town OTCA canoe in the Salmon Falls Canoe shop.

Emily Schoelzel

Dylan Schoelzel makes wood-and-canvas canoes at Salmon Falls Canoe in Massachusetts. Note the metal bands on the canoe form at left.

Dylan Schoelzel

Alice Zalonis Brylawski stands in a dugout canoe at a Wooden Canoe Heritage Association MiniAssembly at Gifford Pinchot State Park in Pennsylvania in 2012.

Alice Zalonis Brylawski

Rollin Thurlow working in his shop at Northwoods Canoe Company in Atkinson, Maine. Thurlow restores old wood-and-canvas canoes and builds his own Atkinson Traveler canoes along with new Morris, Rushton, and E. M. White boats.

Rollin Thurlow

"In My Tippy Canoe"

Open external resource at http://www.loc.gov

"Canoeing on the Charles River"

Open external resource at https://www.loc.gov

Canoeing by Reg Blomfield

Open external resource at https://www.youtube.com

Tom Seavey with a 1905 Morris Veazie canoe that he restored.

Tom Seavey

The tangled business of restoring a rotted canoe stem.

Restoring a Rotten Canoe Stem

The 1905 Morris Veazie halfway home in Tom Seavey’s shop.

1905 Morris Veazie