The E.M. White Canoe Company was founded by Edwin White, who produced wood and

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...

canoes from 1889 into the 1940s. White is considered one of the pioneers of wood and canvas canoe building and one of several prominent canoe builders in Maine.

Background

The company's construction methods evolved from the manufacture of birchbark canoes. The transition occurred in the 19th century when canoe builders in the Eastern United States and Ontario, Canada, laid canvas instead of bark into a traditional building bed. Later, builders in Maine adapted English boat-building inverted-forms technology, whereby an external waterproofed

shell was fastened to a wooden hull formed with

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planks and

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The earliest commercial builder of wood-and-canvas canoe may have been Evan H. Gerrish of

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

, a hunting and fishing guide from

Brownville, Maine Brownville is a town in Piscataquis County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,139 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Brownville, Knight's Landing and Brownville Junction, near which passes the 100-Mile Wilderness of ...

. Upriver at Gilman Falls, E.M. White started producing canoes in 1889. White gave an interview in 1901 in the ''Old Town Enterprise'', saying: "I saw a man by the name of Evan Gerrish of Bangor riding in the

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in a canvas-covered canoe. I quickly saw the advantages of that kind over my birchbark, which moreover leaked. I examined the canvas canoe closely, and in a short time was able to produce one which was so good someone wanted to buy it." White started building canoes at his Gilman Falls family home by boiling wooden ribs in his mother's washtub and using a horse on a treadmill for power. In 1895, White's brother George and Alfred E. Wickett were working for him. Wickett would go on to help start the Indian Old Town Canoe Company (later the

Old Town Canoe Old Town Canoe Company is a historic maker of canoes in Old Town, Maine. The company had its beginnings in 1898, in buildings constructed in 1890 for a shoe business, and was incorporated in 1901. Old Town entered the canoe market as a builder of ...

Company), and founded the Penobscot Canoe Company and St. Louis Meramec Canoe Company. White's brother-in-law, E.L. Hinckley, became a working partner and provided the capital to open a large shop in

Old Town, Maine Old Town is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,431 at the 2020 census. The city's developed area is chiefly located on the relatively large Marsh Island, though its boundaries extend beyond that. The island i ...

in 1896, the town where

would be established in the early twentieth century. After World War Two, Walter King, one of White’s employees, and his brother-in-law Pat Farnsworth purchased the company and changed the name to White Canoe Company and began to build fiberglass canoes. The company was purchased by The Old Town Canoe Company in 1984.Miller, Daniel, ''E.M. White'', WCHA Forums, KnowledgeBase, Wood Canoe Manufacturers.

Identifying features

White employed a variety of deck styles, from a simple triangular shape to an inverted heart. Planking is often bevel-edged. The stern seat on earlier Whites is steam-bent in a "D" shape. The tips of the inwales, deck, and outwales extend an inch or so beyond the top of the stem.

References

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Background

Identifying features

References

See also