About me

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Hmmm......Where to start.  My name is Doug Smith and I live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada and I have been collecting Vacuum cleaners for over 40 years.

 

I have been fascinated by vacuum cleaners since I was very small.  One of my only memories of my grandparents home is the Regina electric broom standing behind the front door.  As my grandmother passed away when I was only about 2 1/2 years old and my grandfather moved in with my Aunts family I would have been VERY young.  Also, when she passed away I was given her Goblin Ace vacuum cleaner, which is still in my collection (and one of my favorite machines).  This was actually the start of my collection. My favorite toy for many years was my mothers Lewyt vacuum.  By the time I was 5 or 6 years old I was actively looking for old vacuum cleaners.

 

After high school I took a year of Electronics Engineering and the Electricians courses. Soon afterward I landed what, at the time, I considered the perfect job.  Service manager for the local Electrolux store.  Unfortunately I found that working with vacuums all day long kind of killed my wish to collect.  I didn't want to come home and work on them too. So my collecting was put on hold.  I didnt get rid of what I had though.  When I finally quit in 1997, after 10 years of working there, I slowly resumed collecting.

 

In the early 1990's I created a small display of machines at the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village Museum and, in 2000, I became a member of the museum and made a larger, more permanent display. 

My collection reached a peak of over 600 machines in 2012, unfortunately over 250 of those machines and all my spare parts were lost in a fire that spring. Presently I have around 500 machines in my collection but I have run out of space to store them.  I hope to eventually create a place at the museum to display the entire collection.

 

This webpage is a work in progress.  It will take a while for me to add everything I want to so stop back occasionally and see whats new.

 

I am also slowly adding a list of parts that I still need to find for machines (and in some cases machines) at the bottom of each of the pages.  If you can help me with any of these please contact me at mjdkas@hotmail.com

Doug