Canoes: A Natural History in North America

E. M. White Company catalog cover from 1915 showing a courting canoe.

This 16-foot “Comfort Craft” courting canoe was built by the Peterborough Canoe Company in 1904. Also known as the “Girling Canoe,” it came equipped with lockers under the side decks for a phonograph and records. The front seat faced the stern of the canoe.

Cover from sheet music for “In My Canoe,” a song written by Bobby Jones and Chick Story, published by O. E. Story in 1913.

Courting on Grand Canal in Belle Isle Park in the Detroit River, with Detroit, Michigan, on one side and Windsor, Ontario, on the other, ca. 1900. Note the Victrola mounted in the canoe in the foreground.

A wood-and-canvas courting canoe built by R. C. Robinson with mahogany extended decks. The forward thwart served only as a backrest for the woman, who sat facing her man in the stern. The long decks were handsome and pushed the couple closer together.

On July 12, 1919, hundreds of canoeists saluted “The Star Spangled Banner” during a band concert at the Riverside Recreation Grounds on the Charles River in Weston, Massachusetts.

The Charles River at Newton, Massachusetts became one of the most popular waterways for “canoedling” among young people during the early twentieth century.

Early postcards documented the scandalous “canoedling” craze that took place on lakes and rivers throughout the Midwest and Eastern United States.

Music publishers capitalized on the popularity of courting canoes in the 1920s with songs like “While We Drift Along” by Harry D. Squires.