Collection search - Barbara Chilcott fonds [multiple media]

Record information – Brief
1
Barbara Chilcott fonds [multiple media]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

[1920-2004].

Reference:

R11210-0-8-E

Type of material:

Textual material, Art, Photographs, Moving images, Objects (including medals and pins), Architectural and technical drawings

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

212522

Context of this record:

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Barbara Chilcott fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

7 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

[1920-2004].

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

2.64 m of textual records.
5 watercolours.
2 drawings : brush and black ink.
1 medal : enamel on gold.
2 film reels (10 min, 20 s).
1361 photographs : 193 col. (includes 22 polaroids) and 997 b&w prints; 171 b&w negatives ; size varies prints and 35 mm negatives.
1 technical drawing : blueprint.
1 videocassette (11 min 30 s).

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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The fonds consists of textual records and graphic material, as well as clips from two early home movies. The textual records have been arranged in 6 series: Personal material and memorabilia, Theatre records, Personal correspondence (including 5 photos enclosed with letters - see accession record for additional photographs); Murray Davis records; Donald Davis records; Davis Family records (which includes several items relating to Dorothy Chilcott, Barbara's mother).

The two film reels document family and friends of the Davis family at St. Elmo in the Muskokas, August 1931; and operations inside the Davis Leather Company, Newmarket, Ontario, circa 1930.

Provenance:

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Chilcott, Barbara, 1923-2022
Additional name(s):

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Crest Theatre, [1939-1980]

Davis, Murray, 1924 - 1997

Davis, Donald, 1928 -1998

Barbara Chilcott, 1923 - 2022
Biography/Administrative history:

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Chilcott, Barbara, 1923-2022 : One of Canada's leading actresses during the 1950s and 1960s, Barbara Chilcott was born in 1923. Her father, E.J. Davis, managed the Davis Leather Company in Newmarket and her mother, Dorothy Chilcott, who had been born into an emigrant Romany family of entertainers from Britain, taught elocution, dancing and dramatic arts. Barbara Chilcott had two brothers, Donald and Murray Davis, who also became well-known actors. Although their mother died when they were young, the Davis children learned theatre arts from the Toronto actress and teacher Josephine Barrington, who often visited the Davis family at their Muskoka summer home at St. Elmo. Chilcott went on to study in the United States with Tamara Daykarhanova, from Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, and then in London, England, at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She joined the Royal Canadian Navy Show in 1943 and returned to London, performing at the London Hippodrome, and then touring throughout Britain and post-war Europe.

She returned to Canada in the 1950s, working with the Straw Hat Players, the International Players in Kingston, the Canadian Repertory Theatre in Ottawa, and at Stratford Festival. She played the female lead in Tyrone Guthrie's famous Stratford production of Tamburlaine the Great on Broadway in 1956. She also appeared in CBC radio and television dramas, notably directed by Paul Almond. She was a co-founder with her brothers of the Crest Theatre in Toronto in 1953. In 1957, she won critical acclaim in London, England, in the Crest's production of a J.B. Priestley play, The Glass Cage, and she appeared on British television during the following years. She settled again in Canada in 1959, working at the Crest until it folded and then founding the Crest Theatre Hour Company, which toured Ontario schools performing dramatic works. After the Crest Theatre Hour Company in turn folded in 1968, Chilcott worked in regional theatre across Canada and occasionally appeared in films. She married the Canadian composer Harry Somers in 1967 (an earlier marriage, in 1952, to the actor Max Helpmann had ended in divorce).

Barbara Chilcott is the recipient of awards from the Toronto Theatre Alliance and Canadian Actors' Equity Association for her contributions to Canadian theatre, as well as being a Member of the Order of Ontario.

Chilcott died in Toronto on January 1, 2022, at the age of 99.

Finding aid:

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Textual records (Electronic) The Finding Aid provides a file list of the textual records. MSS2380 (90: Open)
http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000956.pdf

Graphic material (art) (Electronic) The works are catalogued on the Minisis-ICON database. (90: Open)

Audio-visual material (Electronic) Moving images : Electronic Refer to MISACS database for item-level descriptions. 90: Open (90: Open)

Additional information:

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Associated material note:

A Donald Davis fonds exist also at York University Archives, Toronto, ON.

A Crest Theatre fonds exists at Guelph University Library, Guelph, ON.

Container note(s):

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31 : b&w prints and negatives: files 1-35 (27 part 1),57.
33 : b&w prints and negatives: file27 (part 2).
34 : file 57: photograph album:Royal Canadian Army Show. See vol. 31 for loose prints.
35 : b&w prints and albums, files 54-55. Family photograph albums. File 75, 8x10 col. print)
36 : b&w prints: files 58,61-74. Oversize theatre photographs.
32 : b&w prints and negatives: files 36-38, 40, 44-50, 52, 56.
37 : b&w oversize prints: files 59-60. Theatre photographs.
38 : Colour prints and negatives: files18,22,36,39, 41-46,50,51,53,56, 75 (colour snaps: see vol 35 for 8x10 col. print).
Subject heading:

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Stratford Festival

Davis Leather Co Ltd

Theatre - Canada
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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2004-01015-0
2004-0161 VSA
2008-00043-5
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Access restriction document

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/pdf/pdf001/r000001143.pdf

Textual records

[Consultation96 Restrictions vary]

Finding aid box [FA2380] 524

[Consultation 10 Closed]

Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R11210] 31--38

[Consultation 90 Open]

Moving images (film)

[Consultation90 Open]

Object

[Consultation90 Open]

Moving images (video)

[Consultation90 Open]
No reproduction without the consent of Barbara Chilcott

Architectural: technical drawings

[Consultation90 Open]
To be consulted with the supervision of a specialized media archivist.

Terms of use:

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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.
Graphic (art): Physical access through an art archivist. Various copyrights.
Graphic (photo): Copyright varies.
Audio-Visual material. No reproduction without the consent of Barbara Chilcott.

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