The MARKET GALLERY, on the second floor of St. Lawrence Market South, is a city-run museum which consistently mounts superb exhibitions.  Their latest – “Toronto Does Her Bit” – explores the texture of life on the home front during the Great War (‘the war to end all wars’), 1914-18.

TORONTO was headquarters for a military district spanning central Ontario, and became a focal point for recruiting, training and sending men and women off to war.  As the War neared its end, TORONTO faced food shortages and the Spanish flu pandemic.

<ABOVE – Robert Ford Gagen’s painting “Shipbuilding – Ashbridges Bay, 1918”.  During World War I there were four active shipyards in TORONTO.  This one was at the foot of Sherbourne Street.  Front and centre, the War Taurus>

<ABOVE – Hart House shooting range at the University of Toronto.  The painting of a Belgian village, by famed artist LAWREN HARRIS, was used for target practice.>

<ABOVE – encampment on the grounds of the University of Toronto>

The Market Gallery, 95 Front Street East, closed Sunday and Monday, 416-392-7604, http://www.toronto.ca/marketgallery