Canadian art history is in its adolescence and like an adolescent, it is attracting more and more attention to itself in the nation’s universities, galleries, museums and periodicals. The choices facing the study of Canadian art history are critical. There is the danger of skimming the surface for the immediate result, something which we are seeing too frequently now, or there is the long hard path of methodical documentation, not so glamorous and therefore rarely found but in the long term much more lasting. The Agnes Etherington Art centre with the exhibition and catalogue of George Harlow White’s work has undertaken the first of a series of exhibitions and documented studios of 19th century Canadian artists which we hope will make a lasting and worthy contribution to the study of the visual arts in Canada.