Owen Sound Harbour - A Photographic History by Robert A. Cotton, with foreword by Scott L. Cameron, is now available exclusively at Foto Art Camera Shop. Using over 100 restored historical photographs, each accompanied by a short commentary, Cotton takes you on a visual journey of the harbour from the early grain schooners and side-wheel steamers through the arrival of Canadian Pacific's fleet in 1884 to a harbour filled with the Hindman fleet in the 1950s.

Owen Sound played an important role in pushing  the Canadian frontier westward beyond Georgian Bay to Northwestern Ontario, the Canadian prairies and the American midwest.

Owen Sound Harbour - A Photographic History tells you this story. Stories of schooners, side-wheelers, tugs and lake boats, of Owen Sound harbour and rail facility development, of entrepreneurs who financed the building of these ships, of shipbuilders who often took their own financial risks to get the ships built and of captains and crews who risked their lives on a daily basis navigating the treacherous waters of the upper Great Lakes.

In his Foreword to Owen Sound Harbour - A Photographic History local marine historian Scott L. Cameron writes: "This photographic collection is more than a simple compilation of pictures; Cotton's documentation of shipping in Georgian Bay reveals a rich part of Ontario's history. Often overlooked and usually forgotten in the chronicle of the province's evolution is her maritime past. It was the thread of water transportation that stitched the country together before the construction of the Trans-Canada highway of the 1950s."

The majority of the photographs are from the John James Collection held by Grey Bruce Image Archives (GBIA). A commercial and portrait photographer in Owen Sound from 1905 until his death in 1956, James photographed hundreds of vessels and harbour scenes. Photographs of the Hindman boats are from GBIA's Gerry McDonald Collection. Other photographs came from local museums and archives as well as from personal and corporate collections.
Owen Sound Harbour - A Photographic History (35.00+GST) is available exclusively at Foto Art Camera Shop (519-376-4592) in downtown Owen Sound.