Snowshoes
Photo by Peter Oliver. Photo used with permission of the Fenelon Museum Management Board.
Snowshoes were a vital part of winter life in Fenelon Falls, Ontario. Anne Langton wrote of learning to wear and use snowshoes in her journal.
Post credits from “A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada: The Journals, Letters, and Art of Anne Langton” page 230 by Barbara Williams.
Anne and John also produced a number of Canadian items for their English nieces and nephews over the years. These included a model backwoods farm, a canoe, a toy sleigh and snowshoes – the latter complete with artificial leg so that the children could see how to put it on. Anne made a moccasin for the foot; John made two marginal diagrams; one of a snowshoes, another of the tracks that it left in the snow. He enclosed instructions for putting on the snowshoes and observations about weating them. Letter from John Langton to his brother William, 17 February 1845, I, Correspondence, env. 3 JLff, F 1077, MU 1690, AO.
Snowshoes are a located at the Fenelon Museum.