A.Y. JACKSON LAKE SUPERIOR LEGACIES > The Arts and Letters Club Night

Monday, June 1

Club Night – A.Y. JACKSON LAKE SUPERIOR LEGACIES
Dinner 6:30 pm. Presentation to follow
Harry Ross, Twenty-Nine Years with A.Y. Jackson
Johanna Rowe, Spirit of the Land

The Presenters:
Bryan Davies (Tagona Press, Sault Ste. Marie; Project co-leader / Club member)
Ken Ross (Cobourg; Harry’s son and first-hand Twenty-Nine Years observer)
Johanna Rowe (Michipicoten Harbour (Wawa); (Spirit of the Land author)
And the entire team will be on hand! Gary McGuffin and Phil Norton, acclaimed Canadian nature / conservation
photographers; Thomas Davies (project researcher); Karen Whaley (book layout, Club member).

A.Y. Jackson and the Group of Seven left indelible imprints on Canadian and the Arts & Letters Club history. Lake Superior Legacies tells Jackson’s story from unique perspectives. Club member Harry Ross (1912–1996) wrote a remarkable 1981 memoir chronicling his family’s long friendship with Jackson. Never before published, Harry’s story now comes to life. Annual Jackson and Ross family summer Lake Superior sketching and painting treks (1954– 68) are captured through Harry’s fine storytelling and 83 splendid Kodak slides. No similar Group of Seven visual treasure trove exists anywhere else. A transcribed 1954 Jackson account of the Group’s formative years adds another unique Ross memoir dimension … and there’s a twist … the previously untold story of Jackson’s polio affliction, and how this condition affected his painting technique.

Accomplished Algoma District writer/historian Johanna Rowe now leads Jackson painting site-themed summer walking
tours. Johanna’s contemporary take on Jackson’s numerous works created along Michipicoten Bay gives the Ross
memoir many compelling counterpoints.

Visit : artsandlettersprivate.ca/lampsletters_2026

Photos: Ken Ross & “Uncle AY,” July, 1954; Algoma District / AY Jackson (Last Algoma Trip, Summer, 1966)

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