A visit to the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives to see the John McCrea Model Collection

Two examples of John McCrea's work. Left: Pioneer Shanty | Right: Pioneer Squared Log House

If you're a long time reader here you may recall that I'm interested in folk artists of the past who've made their art building miniature buildings. A few of them worked in model railroading, like E. L. Moore, others went in different directions in accordance with their own natures. You can find all my posts, along with this one, on the subject under the 'Folk Roots' tag.

I've been looking into Ontario folk art buildings artists and stumbled across the work of a gentleman named John McCrea, whose models are archived and on display at the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives in Lindsay, Ontario.

Apparently the scale of McCrea's large models is 1/2" = 1'

I've been meaning to get out to the museum for awhile and this week I had my chance.

In a nutshell, John McCrea was born on 16 April 1865 in Omemee, Ontario, and died on 19 April 1957 in Toronto. Recall that E. L. Moore was born on 14 March 1898, so McCrea was of an earlier generation, but both Moore and McCrea were born into rural life: Moore to farming, and McCrea to cabinet making, a skill which he apparently learned from his father as a child.

There's an interesting biography of McCrea here, but one thing I will note is that he didn't start building the models in the collection until 1935 when he was 70, and continued until is death in 1957 when he was 92.

The collection consists of models he made of the buildings, structures, and accoutrements of pioneer life in Ontario. I asked one of the staff - who turned out to be the managing director - if she knew why McCrea built these models? Was there some ulterior motive like building up a collection for a public display? She said there didn't appear to be any. He simply wanted to capture the physical reality of the objects that comprised Ontario pioneer life. E. L. Moore had much the same attitude for a lot of his work: he wanted to capture his early life in model form for his daughter. 

Before I go much further I should note that the museum's managing director, Barbara Doyle, generously answered all my crazy questions and provided lots of great background information I hadn't considered. She and the gentleman at the front desk - whose name I unfortunately can't remember :-( - were very friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable and made our brief visit quite enjoyable.

I believe the scale of this model is the same as the house

McCrea was a fine craftsman. As an example, take a look in the photo below at these models of farm implements he made in 1952, especially the blade and teeth on the cross cut saw.

Some modelled farm implements

Although there were only two model buildings on display I'm told the collection is quite large and numbers in the hundreds of items. As well as being large in number the models are also large in size: they're built in scales ranging from 1" = 1' to 1/2" = 1' to the smallest ones being 1/4" = 1'. Different models are rotated in and out of the museum display as different thematic presentations are created. When you visit you may see different models than I've shown here; however, whatever is there you'll no doubt get a good sense of McCrea's high level of craftsmanship.

If you want to see more of these fine models there's a booklet you can buy called History in Wood: The John McCrea Collection. Once I've studied the book a bit I'll probably follow up with a post on tools, materials, scale, and other such model making related things. 

Before I wrap up I should mention that there's much more in the museum than this one collection, and lastly mention the museum building is a repurposed 19th century jail that performed said function from 1863 to as recently as 2003 (!).

So, if you ever find yourself in or around Lindsay, drop by and have a look.