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This postcard was used to help lure people to Orillia to fish

Frank Stewart, one of Orillia's best-known photographers, shows off the spoils of his hunting and fishing expedition
101 1904 Sporting Card - Edited
This postcard, from 1907, shows Orillia's best-known photographer of that era on the right, B. Frank Stewart.

Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.

Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.

“Who says there are no fish in Lake Couchiching?” is the caption on this postcard dated 1907 and published by the R. O. Smith Co. store in downtown Orillia. The sportsman shown on the right is B. Frank Stewart, Orillia’s best known photographer for over 30 years.

Holding a large catch of fish with one hand and rabbits and game birds with a rifle in the other, the men are posing in Stewart’s studio on Mississaga Street East in downtown Orillia. 

Frank Stewart and his sons did not publish any postcards until 1938, but it is suspected that they provided hundreds of quality photos to the Robert Smith Company who opened his stationery store near Stewart in 1897 and published promotional Orillia postcards for many years.

Likely produced in Toronto by the Warwick Bros. Printing Company this promotional card was sold as a stock card. R.O. Smith would have supplied this inviting caption to promote the great fishing in the area.


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