Series contains photographic records documenting the lives and careers of York and Lela Wilson, their extended families, Maxwell Henderson, and many of their friends and colleagues.
Included among the family records are images of Lela (Miller) Wilson's parents; their daughter Virginia; formal portraits taken at Virginia's wedding to Murray Barrett; numerous parties including ones held at the home of Cleeve and Jean Horne and with members of the Arts and Letters Club; groundbreaking for the Wilsons' house and new studio on Alcina Ave., Toronto; celebrations for the Wilson's 50th wedding anniversary and Lela Wilson's 90th birthday party; scenes of the Wilson's homes in San Miguel de Allende and of the memorial service held there for York Wilson; formal portraits of York and Lela Wilson, including the last photos taken of York Wilson before his death; the York Wilson Award ceremonies in 1998; and Lela Wilson with Adrienne Clarkson at the Governor-General's Visual Arts Award in 1998.
Found throughout several albums put together by Lela Wilson are formal and informal portraits of numerous friends such as Fulvio Ara, Ernesto Barbini, André Bieler, Earl Birney, Leonard and Reva Brooks, Spencer Clark, Charles Comfort, Marcelle Ferron, Peter Haworth, Cleeve and Jean Horne, Yvonne McKague Housser, Charles Lee Hutchings, Kay Kritzwiser, André Lapine, Pauline McGibbon, Marshall and Corinne McLuhan, Ron Moore, Alec Panton, Luc Peire, Helen and Syd Watson, Graeme Wilson, and Ayala and Sam Zachs., Well documented in the records are the Wilsons' frequent travels abroad, notably many trips to Mexico over a forty-year period; their world travels in 1965-1966 and the studios maintained in Paris and Hong Kong; and a trip to Banff and Algonquin Park in 1978.
Professional photographic records include colour slides of the majority of paintings produced by York Wilson during his career; some colour and b&w prints of other artwork; slides for murals for the Salvation Army, Thunder Bay General Hospital, Bell Canada and Imperial Oil and many of their preliminary sketches; images of installations of exhibitions at the Museo de Bella Artes, Mexico (1969), at the Moore Gallery, and at the retrospective at the Art Gallery of Windsor (1979). The series also includes material relating to York Wilson's work on the publication "Face at the Botton of the World and other poems by Hagiwara Sakutaro" with Graeme Wilson.
One album documents Lela Wilson's marriage ceremony to Maxwell Henderson and the party that followed. There is also an album featuring highlights of Henderson's career, primarily as Auditor-General; it also contains a studio portrait of him by Karsh.