Episode 18: Artist Tom Thomson‘s Mysterious Death in Algonquin Park

Episode 18: Artist Tom Thomson's Mysterious Death in Algonquin Park

On Tuesday, July 16th a little over 104 years ago, after almost a week of fruitless searches, the body of Tom Thomson was found on Canoe Lake just east offshore from Little Wapomeo Island.  Over the next few days, chaos and confusion seemed to have reined on Canoe  Lake. This is the second of a three-part series on the life, the body, and the legend of Canada’s artistic icon Tom Thomson.  In Part 1, I focused mostly on Thomson’s time in Algonquin Park, some of the people he met, and his journey as an artist. In this second part, I will share what happened to his body after it rose to the surface of Canoe Lake on July 16th, 1917. In Part 3, I will focus on the mystery and mythology that has grown up around him since the 1940s and discuss why he has become such a part of the Canadian national identity. Below is the list of biographical and musical references used as the research basis for this series. Note that If you are interested in listening to more of Ian Tamblyn’s  CD Walking in the Footsteps - Celebrating the Group of Seven check out his website at www.iantamblyn.com.

Biographical References

• Roy MacGregor’s 2011 Northern Light
• Gregory Klages’s 2016 The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson and Death on a Painted Lake website https://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/thomson/home/indexen.html
• Sherrill Grace’s Inventing Tom Thomson
• Blodwen Davies 1967 reprint of Tom Thomson: The Story of a Man who Looked for Beauty and Truth in the Wilderness (plus discussions of her 1935 version by Grace and Klages)
• Ottelyn Addison and Elizabeth Harwood’s 1969 Tom Thomson: The Algonquin Years
• William Little’s 1970 The Tom Thomson Mystery
• Bernard Shaw’s 2003 Third Edition of Canoe Lake Algonquin Park, Tom Thomson and other Mysteries
• Discussions of Joan Murray’s contributions in Klages and Grace’s books
• Neil Lehto’s 2005 Algonquin Elegy
• Mary Garland’s 2015 Algonquin Park’s Mowat- Little Town of Big Dreams
• Harold Town and David Wilcox’s 1977 Tom Thomson: The Silence and the Storm
• Art Gallery of Ontario’s  2002 Tom Thomson, Edited by Dennis Reid