Collection search - Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren fonds [multiple media]

Record information – Brief
1
Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren fonds [multiple media]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1904-[1999]; predominant 1930s-1997.

Reference:

R3209-0-4-E, MG31-D245

Type of material:

Photographs, Art, Stamps and stamp products, Moving images, Textual material, Objects (including medals and pins)

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

106884

Context of this record:

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Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

25 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1904-[1999]; predominant 1930s-1997.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

2.585 m of textual records : 5 published volumes.
400 puppets, props.
ca. 4656 drawings : pencil, pastel, chalk, charcoal, pen and ink, conté, brush.
19 paintings : tempera, oil, oil on masonite, canvas and board.
208 watercolours : gouache, watercolour on pencil, pen and ink.
100 prints : silkscreen and aquatint.
12 collages : mixed media.
9 sketchbooks (132 drawings) : pen and ink, pencil.
499 photographs : b&w and col.; 296 slides.
18 postage stamps.
9 film reels (ca. 1 h, 5 min).
4 optical tracks (36 min).
6 audio reels (ca. 20 min).
17 panes of postage stamps.
21 postal covers.
24 postal stationery items.
4 reproductions
2 blocks of label stamps (53 label stamps).
1 engraving.
9 drawings : greeting cards.
1 map : drawing.

Language of material:

English

Accession:

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Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren fonds [textual record, graphic material, philatelic records]

Scope and content:

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Fonds consists of records relating to the personal lives and professional careers of artist Alma Duncan and photographer Audrey (Babs) McLaren, and to the film production company they established, Dunclaren Productions. Most of the material relates to Alma Duncan and her work.

The fonds contains the following series: Personal material and memorabilia; Notebooks and journals; Correspondence; Teaching and studying; Projects and exhibitions; Inventories and materials; Publicity material and clippings; Alma Duncan art works; National Film Board; and Dunclaren productions.

Included in fonds are three animated films by Dunclaren Productions: Kumak, the sleepy hunter; Hearts and soles; and Friendly interchange.

The graphic material includes photographs and artwork. The art records include portraits of Jay Macpherson and P.K. Page; maquettes; design proposal for 1951 Canadian nickel; National Film Board poster Look to the North; material on a Captain Morgan advertising campaign; artwork depicting industrial subjects, Canadian Members of Parliament 1947-1948, Marian Congress, Ottawa, 1947, and the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWACs); a mural design of activities in an art gallery; preparatory work for National Film Board and Dunclaren films; and Second World War posters.

Some of the photographs form part of the Projects and exhibitions series. There are also photos relating to philatelic projects, artwork for the Maple Leaf in Four Seasons stamp issue, 1971, and the floral aerogrammes issue, 1973, comprising ink and pencil, watercolour drawings and colour photographs. Also included are different postal stationery items and first day covers, correspondence and clippings relating to the postage stamps and aerogrammes designed by Alma Duncan.

Also included are art works by other artists that were acquired by or given to Duncan and McLaren, including a self-portrait by Greg Curnoe in 1980, drawings, self-portraits by Ernst Neumann, 1931, and Alma Duncan, 1978, and one portrait of Alma Duncan by Arthur Lismer around 1942.
Provenance:

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McLaren, Audrey, 1916-2014

Duncan, Alma, 1917-2004
Additional name(s):

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Dunclaren Productions

Artist: McLaren, Audrey, 1916-2014

Artist: Duncan, Alma, 1917-2004
Biography/Administrative history:

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McLaren, Audrey, 1916-2014 : Eleanor Audrey (Babs) McLaren was born 31 October, 1916, in Hythe, England. Her parents moved to Canada when she was one year old. She was educated in Hamilton, Ontario; Montreux, Switzerland; and Florence, Italy. In 1941, she joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. At the end of the Second World War, she joined the National Film Board as a film cutter and became a film technician the following year. At the Film Board, she met Alma Duncan, with whom she formed the film company, Dunclaren Productions, in 1951, where she acted as cameraman. After Dunclaren ceased its activities, she worked as a photographer.

Ms. McLaren continued to reside in Ottawa, living in a retirement home until her death in 2014.

Duncan, Alma, 1917-2004 : Alma Mary Duncan was born in Paris, Ontario, in October 1917, and attended high school in Hamilton and Montreal. During the 1940s, she attended life drawing classes given by Ernst Neumann and Goodridge Roberts and undertook a project to record the Canadian war effort through drawings made in arms factories and shipyards; this work is now held in the Canadian War Museum. She was on the executive of the Federation of Canadian Artists, 1942-1943, and was treasurer of the Writers', Artists' and Broadcasters' War Council. She was invited to join the Graphic Division of the National Film Board in November 1943, working first with the Information Display department and then with the Animation department.

After the Second World War, Alma Duncan produced Folksong Fantasy as an independent producer under contract for the National Film Board and, in 1951, she and Audrey McLaren established a film production company called Dunclaren Productions. After Dunclaren ceased its activities in 1960, Duncan concentrated on her work as a painter and graphic artist, regularly exhibiting in group shows. She had begun working as a commercial artist in Montreal in the 1930s, and throughout her career she regularly had commissions for graphic work, creating, for instance, an advertisement for Captain Morgan Rum and illustrating the textbook Le Français vivant. In 1949, she gave a course on the Visual Presentation of Ideas for Macdonald College in Montreal and she taught painting and drawing at the Ottawa School of Art, 1962-1966, as well as at various art clubs in the Ottawa area.

In 1970, Duncan was commissioned by the Canada Post Office to design a series of stamps, The Maple in Four Seasons, followed by a series of floral aerogrammes. Much of Duncan's work reflects her interest in nature, and she and Audrey McLaren owned property in the Ottawa Valley where Duncan often sketched. She was also interested in industrial subjects, dating back to her Second World War project, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, mounted a travelling retrospective of her industrial drawings in 1987. A third enduring interest was the Canadian north, the setting for Dunlaren's award-winning film, Kumak the Sleepy Hunter, in 1953. In 1975, Duncan spent two months on a sketching trip to Ellesmere and Baffin Islands. She was a founding director of the Atai Arctic Creative Development Foundation.

Alma Duncan died in Ottawa in December, 2004.

Dunclaren Productions : In 1951, artist Alma Duncan and photographer Audrey McLaren established a film company in Ottawa called Dunclaren Productions. It produced three films, Kumak the Sleepy Hunter (1953) and Hearts and Soles (1955), using puppets and a single frame technique, and Friendly Interchange (1959), using chalk drawings. Although Dunclaren was not dissolved, it became inactive after 1960.

Finding aid:

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Textual records (Electronic) The finding aid is a descriptive file list of volumes 1 to 7 and a file list of volumes 8 to 18. MSS1986 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000538.pdf

Philatelic material (Paper) Inventory list in Reference Services. Does not include material acquired in final accrual, see lower levels of description. CPA-167 (90: Open)

Artistic material: (Paper) Inventory list in accession file.

Alma Duncan art work: (Electronic) File and item listings (Alma Duncan Fonds.rtf; AlmaDuncanFonds1994-294List.xls; AlmaDuncanFondsContainerList.xls; AlmaDuncanFondsPuppetsPropsItemList.xlsx; AlmaDuncanFondsR3209List.xls) are available from the archivist. New finding aid in progress. See lower levels of description for works acquired in final accrual. (90: Open)

Moving images: (Electronic) See MISACS for item level descriptions. (90: Open)

Additional information:

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General note:

Moving images received in 1988 from Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren of Dunclaren Productions. The majority of the remaining material was received in 1994 from Alma Duncan and in 2001 from Audrey McLaren. In 2003, two additional drawings were received from Audrey McLaren.

Final accrual of material received from the estate of Audrey McLaren in 2020.

Container note(s):

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2738 : Drawings: Frogs 1962-1994 (items 2670::2685);
Drawings: Kumak The Sleepy Hunter Book ca.1952 (items 2686 to 2702);
Drawing Men at Work catalogue 1987 Industry and Alma Duncan (item 2703)
Subject heading:

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Filmmakers - Canada Dunclaren Productions (proposed)

Animation (cinematography) - Canada

Artists - Correspondence

Artists as teachers

Artists Canada

Artistes Canada
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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122-080023-6
122-080142-9
1988-0180 MISA
1994-294 DAP
1994-413 DAP
1994/0155
1998/0033 (1998-03-20)
1999-01107-4
2001-01012-5
2003-02709-2
2020-00077-6
745 (1988-02-04)
94-050
94-111
94-179
97-702 (1997-12-17)
MG31-D245

Former archival reference no.:

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MG31-D245
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Access restriction document

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/pdf/pdf001/r000001115.pdf

Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R3209]

[Consultation 90 Open]

2738 Item no. assigned by LAC 2670--2703

[Consultation 90 Open]

Item no. assigned by LAC [R3209]

[Consultation 90 Open]

1--290;

[Consultation 90 Open]

293--358;

[Consultation 90 Open]

396--459;

[Consultation 90 Open]

467--893;

[Consultation 90 Open]

895--2584;

[Consultation 90 Open]

2597--2669;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Philatelic records

[Consultation90 Open]

Moving images (film)

[Consultation90 Open]

Textual records

[Consultation96 Restrictions vary]

Finding aid box [FA 1986] 146

[Consultation 10 Closed]

Object

[Consultation90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Photographs: No restrictions on use. Various copyrights. Credit: Name of photographer / Library and Archives Canada / Copy negative no.
Philatelic material: Restrictions and copyright vary. Some material copyright Canada Post Corporation, some material copyright estate of Alma Duncan or estate of Audrey McLaren, some material copyright Library and Archives Canada.
Art work (Acc. No. 1994-294):No restrictions on use or reproduction. Copyright varies: estate of Alma Duncan, estate of Audrey McLaren, or Library and Archives Canada. Credit: Library and Archives Canada
Moving images: Reproduction and use in any form requires the written permission of the copyright holders.
Textual records: The recipient of copies is responsible for determining whether material is subject to copyright and for ascertaining the name of the person or organization holding copyright. The recipient is also responsible for determining whether any use of copyrighted material does or does not constitute an infringement of copyright under the Copyright Act.
Copyright on Audrey McLaren material: Anne Maheux. Contact art and photography section for further information.

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