Summer Lecture Series: Lisa Rance

Wednesday July 22 – Lisa Rance: Sydney Hill’s Muskoka Orbit: “Uncle John” Brashear of Beaumaris

It was in making First World War additions to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial that Orillia resident Lisa Rance chanced upon a fascinating story of a Bracebridge teen and his friendship with the world-renowned astrophysicist and humanitarian John A. Brashear of Pittsburgh. From his summer residence on Lake Muskoka’s “Isle Urania”, Professor Brashear was working with the University of Toronto’s J.S. Plaskett to build the largest telescope in the world! Lisa heard of a Brashear Co. portable refractor that had been donated to the Bracebridge high school in 1922, and the hunt was on

Admission: $10 general | $8 for museum members.