This cottage is an amazing collection of artifacts collected by a Toronto resident named Norm Elder.
Norman Sam Elder (August 12, 1939 - October 15, 2003), explorer, exotic animal owner, writer, artist, Olympic equestrian, was one of Toronto's eccentrics. Elder, was the owner of the Norman Elder Museum at 140 Bedford road in the Annex, an affluent neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

As an explorer, Elder embarked on lengthy expeditions to remote areas of Papua New Guinea, Namibia, the Amazon, the Congo, the Arctic, Madagascar, and many other countries. He founded the Canadian Chapter of the Explorers Club in 1979.

Norman Elder was an accomplished equestrian. He competed as a member of the Canadian Equestrian Team in Three-Day Eventing at the Olympic Games, first inRome in 1960, and again in Mexico City in 1968.
In 1998, Elder pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 10 young men between 1970 and 1980. On March 12, 1998, Judge Faith Finnestad sentenced Elder to two years less a day in jail.

The men were all between the ages of 18 and 20 at the time of the encounters but Canada's laws at the time gave 21 as the age of consent for same-sex contact.