COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Historic Houseplants and Storing Ceramics
As Spring arrives, be prepared to start seeing fresh new plants and flowers poking their heads up through the soil getting ready to bloom. Phoebe Watson loved flowers, and they

Handwritten Homerisms
Over the past couple of years, we at Homer Watson House & Gallery have been transcribing the Watson family’s letters and correspondences in order to make them more accessible. During

Homer & Roxa’s Wedding
In 1874 at the age of 17, the young artist Homer Watson began courting the daughter of a family friend, Roxa Bechtel. On the days of their courtship, Homer would

Winter Holidays in Doon
Winter does not appear as frequently as the other seasons in Homer Watson’s works, however, snowy hills and barren trees still make an appearance on some of his canvases and

Homer Watson’s Black Thursday
This Black Friday, as shoppers scramble to the shopping centres, hoping to score some great deals, we’d like to explore the origins of the term “Black Friday” and how its

On the Air with Monica Mugan
Before the television made its way into North American homes, radio changed the ways that Canadians consumed news and entertainment. Radio was a widespread “craze”, and consequently, the Watson family

Sourcing Slang in Historical Transcriptions
One of the tasks undertaken by researchers in a museum collection is the transcription of historic documents. Typing out old letters, diaries, and notes helps preserve their contents when paper

Homer’s Spiritualist Contemporaries
Homer Watson became involved in the Spiritualist movement at a point when it was gaining interest in Canada after the First World War. He had many friends involved in the

Lily Dale
Each year, thousands of tourists flock to a small hamlet in New York with the hopes of witnessing something supernatural. Since its founding in 1879, the spiritualist settlement of Lily