Preserving the Artifacts and Stories of Canada’s Dental Past At the Canadian Museum of Health Care in Kingston, Ontario, a cabinet gleams with artifacts that together help tell the story of 200 years of dental history in Canada and beyond. Most of the artifacts are from the Crawford Dental Collection, named for Dr. Ralph Crawford and his wife Olga. “Ralph and Olga always shared an interest in antiquities,” says Rowena McGowan, the museum’s curator (shown in above photo). “When he became a dentist, that interest focused on dental artifacts. For years, they kept much of the collection on display at his dental office, though they also kept some at their home. There’s a story he told in one of our records about his young son drilling into the fireplace with a dental drill.” Dr. Crawford was very active in organized dentistry, serving as president of the Manitoba and Canadian Dental Associations. He retired from dental practise in 1988 and moved to Ottawa to work as the editor of the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association (JCDA), a position he held for 9 years. In 1997, the Dentistry Canada Fund invited Dr. Crawford and Olga to establish a museum in its building. For more than a decade, the Crawford Dental Collection was on public display in Toronto until the fund dissolved in 2008. In 2010, the Canadian Museum of Health Care took custody of the collection, where it remains one of the most comprehensive representations of dental history in Canada. All photos courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Health Care. 22 | 2026 | Issue 1
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