Fonds consists of records documenting the lives of Octavius Henry Lambart and Hannah Sarah Howard, who settled in Ottawa ca. 1874, and their descendants in Canada. Among the descendants documented are Evelyn Lambart, co-director of many of Norman McLaren's films at the National Film Board; her sister, Hyacinthe Lambart, an air pilot; their brothers, Arthur Lambart and Edward Lambart, who died serving in the Second World War; and their father, Fred Lambart, a civil engineer.
The textual records have been arranged in the following series: Octavius Henry Lambart and Hannah Sarah Howard records; Lady Cavan, Caroline Augusta Littleton Lambart records; Caroline Augusta Lambart records; Howard Frederick John Lambart and Helen Marianne Wallbridge records; Helen Hyacinthe Lambart records; Frederick Arthur Henry Lambart records; Evelyn Lambart records; Edward Howard Wallbridge Lambart records; and Lambart and Wallbridge family papers and memorabilia.
Photographic material consists of portraits of Evelyn Lambart and her family, colleagues, and friends; photos of her colleagues working at the animation department at the National Film Board include Norman McLaren, Grant Munro and George Dunning, 1943-1948; quilts done by Evelyn Lambart; Evelyn Lambart's house in Sutton and family cottage at Blue Sea Lake, Québec, and the Lambart family home; a B.C. photo survey; civil aviation in Canada, the USA, and Europe; Charles Lindbergh, 1927; Rideau Hall, Ottawa, 1913; various disasters such as shipwrecks, fires, floods; group photographs; buildings in Québec City and Philipsburg, Quebec, and Ottawa, Ont.; Blackfoot Confederacy, Calgary, Alberta; and postcard views of Canadian scenes (1905-1915). Fonds also includes a photo album entitled, "Vine Lynne Canada and Abroad", depicting Lord Dufferin's Fancy Dress Ball, 1876; the National Council of Women, 1896; early hydro-electric development, 1908; and various provincial and Canada-USA boundary surveys, topographical surveys, trips, and expeditions to western Canada, the Yukon, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories, 1909-1925.
An other photo acquisition consists of 373 colour slides, particularly three color slides of Norman McLaren taken in 1942, 121 colour prints, 1144 black and white prints (both loose and in five albums), 2 black and white negatives; one tintype, a small watercolour entitled Pantheon du Quai Hotel de Ville, inscribed to Evelyn Lambart by Gerald Budner, July 1989; metal cutouts used by Evelyn Lambart in creating an animated film, presumably from her last film "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse"; an address book, a book containing lists of gifts given and received, manuscript materials relating to commissions for embroidery, the Lambart family tree, various press clippings relating to Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren.
The photography covers the following general subjects: Evelyn Lambart's home, gardens, cats and activities at Sutton, 1969-1998; the Lambart family, including both portraits and activities of family members, from prior to the First World War to the Second World War; albums maintained by Evelyn Lambart during the 1930s and 1940s, showing primarily summer activities, sports, friends, vacations, but also including material on the Ontario School of Art in the late 1930s; activities at the National Film Board animation studios, from the early 1940s to the early 1950s, including photographs of staff, particularly Norman McLaren; the activities of the staff preparing the Book of Remembrance. Identification of the photography is uneven. This donation was donated jointly and equally by Cotton Aimers and Cornelia Eyre.
The art material of the last donation consists of two cotton fabric appliqués of countryside, created by Evelyn Lambart after moving in the 1970s to her retirement house in Sutton. They were designed to be hang up on the wall. The exact dates of their execution is unknown, and the donor could give only scanty details about the contents. From her identifications, we know that the group of women depicted includes Joan Matthews, a local person who teaches yoga, and who can be identified from her "white blooming hair" (description from correspondence with the donor). The other piece is a country view in Abercorn, a small area adjacent to Sutton and near the United States border; the donor's former house is shown in the foreground. Ms. Lambart created many of these sorts of art pieces, as can be seen in photographs which form part of this accession, but their current locations and ownership are unknown.
Philatelic material consists of 284 franked English postal covers, ca. 1830-1845.
The art portion of the Lambart Family fonds consists of material both created and collected by members of the Lambart family, especially Evelyn Lambart which include: sketches and a single diary entry from Evelyn Lambart's National Film Board journal; a decorated letter and envelope to Evelyn Lambart by Norman McLaren; a pen and ink drawing of birds; an heraldic drawing for "Book of Remembrance" by Alan Beddoe. Other items include designs, drawings and greeting cards by Norman McLaren to Evelyn Lambart; an engraved portrait of Mrs. Littleton; a lithograph of an unknown man; postcards of Jasper National Park published by Printing & Litho. Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia. Also included is a scrapbook of original drawings and watercolours as well as English and European engraved and lithographed portraits and scenes.
Cartographic material consists primarily of maps of Canada produced by the Topographic Survey of Canada, Department of the Interior, with information relating to airports, airline companies, air transportation routes and with the location of airports, airline companies, and airplane clubs throughout Canada added to the maps. There is also a map showing the location of airports and radio beacons across Canada produced by the Department of Transport along with a map showing experimental air mail service from Red Bay to Ottawa published for "Canadian Aviation."
Audiovisual material consists of excerpts from films by Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren as well as an interview of Evelyn Lambart by Sam Kula about her career and the collection of films at the former National Film, Television and Sound Archives.
Medallic material consists of a Confederation medal awarded to Evelyn Lambart.