CANTON – Photographs of camps upstream on the Grasse River from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been added to an exhibit on J. Henry Rushton at the Silas Wright House, 3 East Main St.

Four aerial photographs of the Village of Canton from 1939 to the 1960’s are also on display. Most cottages could be accessed by river and also by horse and carriage via Miner Street from the Village of Canton.

The exhibit. “Paddling to Perfection,” also celebrates canoes made by J. Henry Rushton in his Canton boat shop. It focuses on Rushton’s involvement with the American Canoe Association meet in 1886 at Grindstone Island on the St. Lawrence River, and his award-winning canoes at the 1893 Columbian World Exposition in Chicago.

A separate, permanent exhibit J. Henry Rushton: the Stradivarius of the Canoe explores Rushton’s life, as well as the growth and eventual decline of his boat shop business.

Rushton built his first canoe in 1876 and his business grew into the Rushton Boat Shop on Water Street, now Riverside Drive. By the 1880’s he was receiving national and international recognition for his boats.