3. The Team at Shaw Studios

The Team is aptly named, as the two horses were Joe and Moe from Billy Hamilton’s farm in Minden, where Andre Lapine often stayed. These two horses appear in many of Lapine’s paintings.

It is likely that Andre Lapine would not have set foot in Minden if it were not for the friendship he had with Dr. Agnes Jamieson.

Agnes Jamieson achieved what very few women of her time could ever dream of doing. As a woman, she was required to achieve 10% higher than her male counterparts all through medical school at the University of Toronto, yet in 1935, she graduated as a doctor and began her rotating internship at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto, where she met Andre Lapine as a patient. The two hit it off and became lifelong friends - a perfect team.

In 1940, Dr. Jamieson contacted Dr. Crowe of Minden, asking whether she could join his practice. Crowe – who was set to join the war effort – readily agreed. True to her grit and determination, she arrived in Minden and met all the challenges the rural area had to offer. Travelling by car, horse or foot, Dr. Jamieson provided medical care and attention to the people of Minden Hills through blistering heat or blizzardy winds.
One review of Dr. Jamieson highlights the locals enthusiasm for her character, saying “the lady doc’ is only chin high to a rail fence, but she’s all wool and a yard wide, and is okay by us – she is more of a man, for all her skirts, than many a guy we know.” In 1950, Dr. Jamieson became the first female coroner in Ontario.

It was not all work however. Dr. Jamieson also enjoyed painting and would often accompany Lapine when he went to sketch the beauty of the surrounding area. Dr. Jamieson lived and practiced in this very building, and played a key role in Andre Lapine's presence and legacy in Minden Hills.