Percé Handicrafts Guild

In 1934 the Percé Handicrafts Guild was formed by a group of women, many of them wealthy "summer people" from Montréal, to encourage Gaspé handicrafts both for their intrinsic value and as a means of alleviating the financial hardships of the Depression. The Guild organized lectures, competitions, and exhibits, and in 1936 opened a shop in Percé called "The Black Whale." Guild members manned the shop on a volunteer basis, and profits were used for community projects, such as the Dental Clinic, staffed in the summer by McGill professors Roland Lamb and Arthur Walsh. The shop was a centre for the study of Gaspé history and natural science, and sponsored a number of publications, including a cookbook. Ethel Renouf was president of the committee who created and ran the Black Whale handicrafts shop. Margaret Lamb served as the first assistant clerk in the shop, beginning in the summer of 1935. She later married Roland Lamb, who served as the community’s first volunteer dentist in the summer of 1939. Phyllis Birks served as Chairman of the Percé Handicrafts Guild.