Mennonite Furniture

The Ontario Tradition in York County

by Lynda Musson Nykor and Patricia Musson

photographs by Martha Kuehner

The art, architecture and furniture of Ontario's Mennonite settlers reflected the deep convictions of these law-abiding, profoundly religious and pacifist people.

The art, architecture and furniture of Ontario's Mennonite settlers reflected the deep convictions of these law-abiding, profoundly religious and pacifist people.

Among the earliest settlers of Ontario's Niagara and York County regions, Mennonites brought to Canada a long rural tradition of building, furniture making and folk art. These ideas inspired the houses and farms they built and the production of a great variety of furniture, and informed the emergence of a style rooted in Germany and Pennsylvania, but clearly modified by the Ontario experience.

Mennonite Furniture is a well-illustrated examination of an unmistakable nineteenth century Ontario style of domestic construction and ornament.

About the Authors

Lynda Musson Nykor

LYNDA NYKOR is a free-lance journalist who lives in Thornhill, Ontario.

Patricia Musson

PATRICIA MUSSON is professor at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.

Martha Kuehner

Reviews

"When Mennonites arrived in Upper Canada to settle near Niagara and in Waterloo and York counties, they began to make furniture that retained the basic Germanic shape and spirit and also showed its contact with other cultures, particularly the American culture."
Judy Liebner, London Free Press

Subjects (BISAC)

Subjects

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top