Ivy Lea is a village of about two hundred close to the spot where the 1000 Islands Bridge crosses the St. Lawrence River to the United States. Located in Eastern Ontario, Canada, Ivy Lea is about 25 miles east of Kingston and more or less mid-way between Montreal and Toronto. We set up the Ivy Lea Shirt Co. in 1986 to promote awareness of Canada and Canadian culture through its rich heritage of canoes, canoeing and wooden canoe-building. To do this, we began by selling leisure clothing decorated with authentic trade-marks and other art-work once used by some of Canada's foremost old canoe and boat builders. In the late 1980's we took the motto "History on your Shoulders." And indeed, in the twenty years since, our customers have taken the names of Canada's old canoe builders and their attractive company logos all over the world, either on their shoulders or in their suitcases. Some years ago we also began making decorative wall posters from vintage canoe brochures, re-printing old canoe catalogues and so on. For this side of our work we adopted the name "Plumsweep Press" as a kind of salute to the Maliseet place-name Plumweseep on the beautiful Kennebecasis River in King's County, New Brunswick. We have made a point of celebrating the Chestnut Canoe Co. of Fredericton, N.B. This effort is best summarized in the 1994 introduction to our reprint of the 1950 Chestnut catalog: “Our objective in re-issuing the 1950 catalogue of the old Chestnut Canoe Co. is to pay tribute to one of Canada's foremost names in old-time canoe building, and to foster in a small way an awareness of the culture which the Chestnut canoe helped to shape.” We originated this means of telling people about Canada and the old Canadian canoe, and we continue to do so through fine wearing apparel and other high-quality products. The business has branched into many tributaries since 1986; so much so that though it is something of an exaggeration, we feel there is more than a grain of truth in our motto of recent years: “All About the Old Canadian Canoe.” We hope our clothing, our printed things and our service bring you satisfaction and pleasure. Roger MacGregor IVY LEA SHIRT Co. Plumsweep Press