Possibly the smallest group
of early settlers to establish a distinct cultural tradition in Canada
were Polish immigrants who came to Ontario in the late 1850s and by the
1890s had established an ethnic community of some 325 families in Renfrew
County, northeastern Ontario. They came from a region in Poland known as
Kazuby lying west of the Vistula River and touching the Baltic Sea. They
brought with them Old World ways and built log houses and filled their
rustic homes with country furniture unexcelled in decorative charm and
charming beauty elsewhere in Canada. Two examples, viewed here, of Polish-Canadian
furniture, include the skrynia or storage chest, and kreddens or kitchen
cupboard, very useful household furnishings in any century and pursued
by a growing gamut of passionate Canadiana collectors. [Photos, courtesy
Howard Pain]
