Norma Shephard

Hi! I am the founder and director of the Mobile Millinery Museum, a unique travelling museum whose “working hats” have raised funds for diverse causes; from homeless teens in rural Ontario, to cancer research and diagnostic equipment, to a women’s and children’s shelter in Israel. My use of hats, shoes, and bridal gowns as cultural story blocks to prompt the telling of tales, myths, and legends transforms audience members into folklore informants, eager to share their own reminiscences.

As an authority on millinery history, I have appeared on Canada A.M., CBC Morning, CBC Fresh Air, CBC Ontario Today, CH Morning Live, Breakfast Television, Canadian Living Television, This Morning Live, Main Street, CKCO, The Source, and Neighbour to Neighbour and have been featured in numerous print media. I am also the subject of a memoir by Patricia Boyle, entitled The Hat Lady. “What Martha has done for the domestic arts, Norma is doing for museum curatorship,” says Boyle. “She has taken material history out of the archives and into the community, presenting it in new and exciting ways."

In 1985 Iearned a Canadian Achiever’s Award for entrepreneurship and since founding my museum in 1999, I've penned and photographed: Accessorizing the Bride; Vintage Wedding Finery Through the Decades (Schiffer Publishing),

1000 Hats (Schiffer Publishing),

In Step With Fashion: 200 Years of Shoe Styles (Schiffer Publishing),

Lingerie; Two Centuries of Luscious Design (Schiffer Publishing),

Dear Harry; The Firsthand Account of a World War I Infantryman.

Col. Gordon Atkinson, retired, said of Dear Harry, “…fascinating and evocative of war … a tome of obvious labour and love. Tim Cook, First World War Historian at the Canadian War Museum and author of Shock Troops said, “As a student of Canadian history {the} book was a thrilling opportunity to gain insight into a little taught era in our heritage.”

As an editor and writing coach, I have assisted others in achieving their dream of being published. I've written on the subject of costume history for Canadian and American magazines, and my latest book for Schiffer Publishing, Darlings of Dress; Children’s Costume 1860-1920, was inspired by a Mobile Millinery Museum sub-collection of family letters and images.