Category: Notebook

Camp Fire vs Camp Site

8/15/2024

Summer means a chance to travel and enjoy the outdoors. The two 5" x 8" notebooks evoke the camping vibe in a remarkably similar way. Both feature the same basic scene from two perspectives. I wonder if the artist was the same or if they were inspired by the same reference image? I'm sure there is an interesting story to be told here.

Gage Camp Fire No. 3327 note book

Hilroy Camp Site No. 806 note book

The Camp Fire note book is definitely the older notebook design. I found an description of this notebook in the W.J. Gage Stationery catalogue from 1911. The number given in this catalog is No. 27 and the number on my notebook is No. 3327. The Hilroy company was not established until 1918 (they celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2018).

Page 107 from W.J. Gage Stationery catalogue from 1911

The notebook shown at right has "No. 27" in the bottom left corner. This is the same number for this notebook from the 1911 catalogue. I don't know when the number changed from No. 27 to No. 3327. You'll also note that the Gage trademark is not found on this notebook (or any reference to the maker). The Gage trademark on my notebook above appears to date from the 1960s. The image of an older notebook comes from a story from toronto.com where the notebook was found on a bench. It was filled with poetry and notes from the second world war era.

Gage Camp Fire notebook with No. 27 probably dates from 1930s or 1940s.

While these two note books are quite old, the camping theme continues. Field Notes also makes a set of small campfire notebooks. These limited edition notebooks even came with a patch. I wonder if there are any other camping themed notebooks I could add to this tiny collection?

This mini-collection reminds me of "A Collection a Day" from Lisa Congdon.

0 Comments

Back in Time for Back to School - 1960s

1/29/2022

2 Comments

My son and I are fans of the CBC television show Back in Time for Winter. The show follows a modern day family as they recreate life in Canada through several different decades (1940s to 1990s).

The show doesn't really address what school might have been like for Canadian children in these decades, so this is my attempt to fill in the gap. I did recently see that there is a BBC show Back in Time for School. I haven't watched it but there is an episode on The 1960s.

Below you can see a few supplies that Canadian kids might have taken with them as they headed to school in the 1960s.

1960s school supplies: Gage Notebook, Acme ruler, Eagle Rocket pencils and Canadiana coloring pencils.

Canadian made school supplies from the 1960s.

Campfire Note Book: This memo style notebook was produced by W.J. Gage Limited in Ontario. You can see the Gage logo in the bottom left corner of the cover. A search of the "Gage and Design" logo in the Canadian Trademarks database (Registration number TMA148615) shows that this logo was in use in Canada as early as 1965. In the 1960s, Gage operated from a 20-acre site in Scarborough, Ontario. Many students would have had "scribblers" like this or similar exercise books produced by Hilroy.
Acme 12" wooden ruler: This ruler was manufactured by the Acme Ruler and Advertising Company in Toronto, Ontario. The Acme diamond logo was first filed by the company in 1964. I recently wrote about the rulers that this company produced.
Rocket 84 HB Pencils: These pencils were manufactured by the Eagle Pencil Company of Canada in Drummondville, Quebec. Space themed school supplies were popular in the 1960s with the development of the Saturn rocket program and the race to the moon culminating in the 1969 lunar landing.
Canadiana Coloring Pencils: These coloring pencils were also produced by Eagle Pencil. The style of packaging shown above comes from the late 1960s. Many students of this era would have had either Canadiana or Venus Laurentien colored pencils in their school bags.

Dating vintage school supplies can be difficult so I can be 100% sure all of these specific items were available in the 1960s but I think I'm pretty close with this small selection of items. Do you have any memories of these or other Canadian made school supplies?

2 Comments

Pencils, eh

Camp Fire vs Camp Site

Back in Time for Back to School - 1960s

Archives

Categories