Cameron Peck Photo Archive

Cameron Peck (1912-1990) was a Chicago resident who grew up spending summers with his family at their Lake of Bays cottage. He developed a passion for the classic boats of Muskoka and eventually assembled a fleet of beautifully restored steamboats and launches.

Peck left an extensive archive on Muskoka boats and the boats of Lake of Bays that included 1500 photographs and negatives. Some of the photos were taken by Cameron and several by his mother, Janet Peck, who was a keen amateur photographer. Most of the images are of Cameron’s boats. There are also shots of his family at their cottage and wonderful photos of the passenger steamers and the little train, the Portage Flyer.

John Peck, Cameron’s nephew, made the archive available to the community in 2016. He actively shares his knowledge of the photos and encourages their use.

Scroll down to see a selection of photos from the archive.

Community Use

Mark McLean, former president of the Foundation, has assembled a collection of over 400 photos from the archive. The collection, organized into 40 folders of boats and places, represents a part of Lake of Bays and Muskoka history, and includes a “Brief History of Cameron Peck and His Boats” written by Mark. Due to the size of the collection it is stored in Google Drive. View the collection here.

Mark has also selected 14 beautiful photographs from the archive, and partnered with Bob Carnie, an internationally known fine art photographic printer with 40 years of experience, to produce platinum-palladium prints. Invented in the 1850s, platinum-palladium prints have a rich and delicate tonal scale and unmatched archival quality. These limited edition prints are available for purchase with net proceeds going to the Foundation.

John Almstedt has created a digital story from the archive based on two memorable summers (1950-51) when, as a teenager, he worked in Cameron Peck's Baysville boatyard. John’s story and website, developed with the help of the Foundation, is extensive and thoroughly researched. See Cameron Peck’s Heritage Boatyard (1939-52)