There are two castings of the well-known statue of Timothy Eaton

Timothy Eaton

Timothy Eaton was a Canadian businessman who founded the Eaton's department store, one of the most important retail businesses in Canada's history.-Early life and family:...

, the famous Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 retailer: one in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, the other in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

.

History

In 1919, employees of the Eaton's

Eaton's

The T. Eaton Co. Limited was once Canada's largest department store retailer. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue...

 department store decided to present the Eaton family

Eaton family

The Eaton family of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, were owners of the Eaton's department stores, a national chain that was founded in 1869, and became bankrupt in 1999. At the family's height, their net worth was around $2 billion...

 with a special gift, in honour of the store's fiftieth anniversary. The First World War had just ended, and Eaton's, unlike many employers, had made a pledge to all of its employees serving overseas that their jobs, or jobs of equal value, would be waiting for them when they returned home. Married men who enlisted voluntarily received full pay for the duration of the war, while single men who enlisted voluntarily received half-pay. Men serving in the field regularly received parcels from their pre-war employer, containing coffee, chocolate, socks and other items from the shelves of the Eaton's stores. Moreover, Eaton's donated all profits from its many government war contracts back to the war drive. This corporate generosity and loyalty during trying times engendered much affection for the Eaton family from its thousands of employees, and in gratitude the employees presented the two bronze statues to the family, on the occasion of the chain's golden jubilee and in tribute to the store's founder.

The employees commissioned Ivor Lewis

Ivor Lewis

Ivor Rhys Lewis was a Canadian artist and business director.Lewis was born in Wales, but emigrated to Canada as a small boy. He trained as an artist at the Ontario School of Art, and was hired in the art department of the Eaton's department store chain in Toronto...

 (1882–1958), from the Eaton's advertising department, to create the statues. Two castings were made: one for the main store in Toronto, and one for the Winnipeg store. The Toronto statue was unveiled on December 8, 1919, with thousands of employees in attendance. The Eaton Choral Society sang "O Canada

O Canada

It has been noted that the opening theme of "O Canada" bears a strong resemblance to the "Marsch der Priester" , from the opera Die Zauberflöte , composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that Lavallée's melody was inspired by Mozart's tune...

", and the statue was presented to Margaret Eaton and John Craig Eaton

John Craig Eaton

Sir John Craig Eaton was a Canadian businessman, and member of the prominent Eaton Family.Sir John was the youngest son of Toronto department store magnate Timothy Eaton, and his wife, Margaret Wilson Beattie Eaton. John was born in Toronto...

, Timothy Eaton's widow and son respectively. A similar unveiling took place in Winnipeg on December 11, 1919.

Landmarks

The two statues greeted shoppers in their respective stores for decades, serving as both a meeting place and a local landmark. Over time, the tradition developed of rubbing Timothy's left toe for good luck. As countless shoppers rubbed the toe on a daily basis, one bronze foot was always a golden colour compared to the darker shade of the rest of the statue.

The Toronto statue stood for years inside the Main Store at Yonge

Yonge Street

Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...

 and Queen

Queen Street West

Queen Street West describes both the western branch of Queen Street, a major east-west thoroughfare, and a series of neighbourhoods or commercial districts, situated west of Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Queen Street begins in the west at the intersection of King Street, The...

 streets. When the Main Store was demolished in the late 1970s to make way for the Toronto Eaton Centre

Toronto Eaton Centre

The Toronto Eaton Centre is a large shopping mall and office complex in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, named after the now-defunct Eaton's department store chain that once anchored it. In terms of the number of visitors, the shopping mall is Toronto's top tourist attraction, with around one...

, the statue was moved to the Dundas Street entrance of the chain's new flagship store. The Winnipeg statue stood for eight decades in the downtown store on Portage Avenue.

Bankruptcy of the Eaton's chain

When the Eaton's

Eaton's

The T. Eaton Co. Limited was once Canada's largest department store retailer. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue...

 chain declared bankruptcy in 1999, countless television news stories commenced their coverage with shots of the Timothy Eaton statue. Flowers and cards were left at the base of both the Toronto and Winnipeg statues, in condolence of the end of a Canadian institution. When Sears Canada

Sears Canada

Sears Canada Inc. is a retailer, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, that operates in all provinces and territories across Canada with a network of 196 corporate stores, 195 dealer stores, 38 home improvement showrooms, 108 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide home maintenance, repair, and...

 acquired many of the corporate assets of the Eaton's chain, there was a brief legal tussle between Sears and the Eaton family over ownership of the statues. Eventually, litigation was averted when the family presented documents certifying that ownership of the statues vested with the family, not the defunct chain. Soon thereafter, the Toronto statue was moved to the Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...

, where it stood in the museum's Eaton Court.

In 2005, as part of the Royal Ontario Museum renovations, the statue was moved to a new location in the Lower Rotunda of the museum, outside the Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre.

The fate of the Winnipeg statue generated more controversy. The Eaton family agreed that the statue would be moved to the Polo Park Shopping Centre, where Eaton's had years earlier opened its first suburban location in Manitoba and where Sears would be opening the only Winnipeg location of its short-lived "eatons" experiment. In 2002, Sears announced the end of the eatons mini-chain, and the Polo Park store was slated for conversion to an outlet of Eaton's historic rival, the Bay

The Bay

The Bay is a chain of 91 department stores that operate across parts of Canada. It is the main brand of Hudson's Bay Company , North America's oldest company. It has its headquarters in the Simpson Tower in Toronto. In French, the chain is known as la Baie, short for "Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson"...

 department store. Fred Eaton

Fredrik Stefan Eaton

Fredrik Stefan Eaton, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian businessman, diplomat and the great-grandson of Eaton's department store founder Timothy Eaton....

 made arrangements for the statue to be moved to St. Mary's, Ontario, the site of one of Timothy Eaton's first stores. Heritage advocates and a group of former Winnipeg Eaton's employees sought to have the statue remain in Winnipeg. On October 22, 2002, the Manitoba government designated the statue as a protected provincial heritage object, with the cooperation of the Eaton family. It was placed in the concourse of the city's new hockey arena, the MTS Centre

MTS Centre

The MTS Centre is an indoor sports arena and entertainment venue in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and home of the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League. It is located on the former Eaton's site and is owned and operated by True North Sports & Entertainment. The 440,000 square feet ...

, which stands on the site of the now-demolished downtown Eaton's store.

Museum-goers in Toronto and hockey fans in Winnipeg continue to rub Timothy's toe for luck. While ROM generally discourages visitors from physically touching its artifacts, an exception is made for the statue, as the accompanying plaque invites museum-goers to partake in the tradition.