The fonds consists of textual records, in both paper and electronic form, pictures, motion pictures, video recordings and sound recordings. Included are letters to and from Newman, memoranda, reports, financial records, personal documents, memorabilia, clippings, printed material, posters, manuscripts, notes, scripts, films produced by Newman, broadcasts, oral history interviews and other material. The records have been arranged to reflect the chronology of Newman's life, with the series documenting the various stages in his career. The series are as follows: personal material; correspondence; commercial art records; National Film Board files; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation files; ABC Television files; BBC Television files; Associated British Films files; Canadian Radio-Television Communications Commission files; Secretary of State files; freelance work records; interviews and memoirs; histories and studies on film and broadcasting; clippings; and art studies and works.
System description: It appears that Newman created all his earliest textual records in electronic form on an Amstrad PCW 8512 microprocessor using Protext and LocoScript software under CP/M (probably acquired while he was in England). These documents were converted to PC formats or ASCII by a contractor in St. Andrews, Scotland, on behalf of the National Archives. Later documents which were created using Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0c were retained in that format. Later documents which were created using Microsoft Word for MAC 5.0 were converted at the National Archives to Microsoft Word for PC and WordPerfect for Windows 6.x.
The photographic records consist of photographs documenting Sydney Newman's early life; his career in commercial art and with the National Film Board, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC Television, BBC Television, Associated British Films, Canadian Radio-Television Communications Commission, and Secretary of State; his works of art; his personal life; also included are photographs taken by Newman during the 1930s, mostly figures and portraits studies. There are photographs documenting his set designs for Jupiter Theatre and his art classes. Also included are portraits and snapshots of Newman by various photographers; photographs of him at conferences (including the First Canadian Television Clinic, later Academy of Arts, 1950), on trips (including in China with Deng Xiaoping, 1974), at awards events, and at the NFB, CBC and BBC. There are few family photographs dating back to 1926. There are a number of television and film production stills and a couple photographs of the Stratford Festival (including one of Lorne Greene, Michael Langham, Lloyd Bochner and William Shatner). Among the photographers represented are John Steele, Bob Cunningham, Stephen Chesley, Herb Taylor, Ken Bell, Peter Smith, E.H. Hausman, Rick Porter and Dennis Colwell.
The graphic material consists of 4 sketchbooks, 182 drawings, 6 prints, 29 posters, 12 stage designs and 4 medals, as well as some clippings of published artwork. The material is largely by Sydney Newman but also includes work by Nat Petroff, Molly Lamb Bobak, Grant Munro, Don Arioli, Aislin, and others. Includes caricatures of colleagues at the National Film Board drawn by Newman and posters designed by Newman & Petroff for various Russian films shown by the Cosmopolitan Film Company.
The electronic files consist of scans of photographs created by Sydney Newman and others, of printed images, and of computer-created paint files. These have been melded, revised, changed, or left whole and complete. The intent of the selection (for the original files were very repetitive) was to show Mr. Newman's interest in the computer's image-changing/creating possibilities specifically in reference to photographic and photographically-based images.
