Collection search - J. Russell Harper fonds [multiple media]

Record information – Brief
1
J. Russell Harper fonds [multiple media]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1624-1988.

Reference:

R2454-0-7-E, MG30-D352

Type of material:

Textual material, Photographs, Art, Sound recordings, Stamps and stamp products

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

98373

Context of this record:

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J. Russell Harper fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

36 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1624-1988.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

11.67 m of textual records.
2627 photographs predominately b&w.
5 prints collograph, screenprint, linocut, photomechanical reproduction.
2 audio cassettes (ca. 2 h).
3 postal covers.

Language of material:

English

Accession:

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J. Russell Harper collection [graphic, philatelic record]

Scope and content:

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Fonds consists of the papers of J. Russell Harper which includes the following: a small amount of personal material; material relating to his teaching career; general correspondence; correspondence with artists; research material comprising copies of artists' letters; research files on historical and contemporary artists and various subjects relating to art; inventories of private and public collections; lectures, articles and miscellaneous writings; research material and manuscripts relating to "Early Painters and Engravers in Canada", sculptors, stoneware and stained glass, architecture, W.G.R. Hind, "Painting in Canada", Paul Kane, "A People's Art", Cornelius Krieghoff and arctic research; and other material, 1624-1988.

The fonds also contains photographs showing architectural and sculptural works, which includes views of churches, museums, galleries, statues, headstones, paintings, sculptures in Ontario and Quebec from 1940-1967 taken by J. Russell Harper. There are also photographs taken by Ramsay Traquair of Quebec churches, 1926-1937 used for a work entitled, "The Old Architecture of Quebec". There are photographs by Dora De Pédery-Hunt, Kazuo Nakamura, de Greeff Studios Ltd., United Press International, and Alan Gordon. These photographs are of J. Russell Harper in various professional and social contexts, mostly unidentified, including portraits with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Jennifer on the occasion of receiving an honourary degree from the University of Guelph, 1972; photographic portraits of artists and colleagues of J. Russell Harper including Kazuo Nakamura, Diane and Peter Waxer, Harold Town, Walter Yarwood, Henri Hébert, Fritz Brandtner, Jack Humphrey, Gershon Ishkowitz, a photograph believed to be New York art critic Clement Greenberg; and the Jarvis Collegiate baseball team with Cornelius Krieghoff III (second from the left), 1922-ca. 1972.

Also included are five greeting cards sent to J. Russell Harper by Dolores and James Henderson Boyd, Jack and Jean Humphrey, Fritz Brandtner, and an unidentified source. The works on the cards are by James Henderson Boyd, Jack Humphrey, and Fritz Brandtner.

The fonds also contains sound recordings of interviews recorded in 1975 by J. Russell Harper with Kathy MacKay and Nellie King relating to the Group of Seven artist Frederick Horsman Varley. MacKay, who was a personal friend and model for Varley and King, who studied under him at the Doon School of Fine Arts, provide insights into the life and work of Varley during the late 1940s and 1950s.

Provenance:

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Harper, J. Russell (John Russell), 1914-1983
Additional name(s):

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Humphrey, Jack, 1901-1967

Boyd, James, 1928-

Brandtner, Fritz, 1896-1969

Nakamura, Kazuo, 1926-

de Greeff Studios Ltd

Gordon, Alan

United Press International

De Pédery-Hunt, Dora, 1913-2008

Royal Canadian Institute
Biography/Administrative history:

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Harper, J. Russell (John Russell), 1914-1983 : J. Russell Harper was born in Caledonia, Ontario, in 1914. After receiving his teacher's certificate from the Hamilton Normal School in 1932, he taught primary school in Haldimand County before continuing his education as a part-time student at McMaster University. He attended the Ontario College of Art, 1938-1940, and after serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War enrolled at the University of Toronto, from which he graduated in 1948 with an M.A. in Art and Archaeology. While at the University of Toronto, Harper acted as curator for Hart House and after graduating, he became chief cataloguer at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Harper moved to New Brunswick to work for the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, 1951-1955. He was curator of Lord Beaverbrook's art collection, 1957-1959, and in 1959 also worked on the Louisbourg restoration project. He moved to Ottawa later that year to begin working at the National Gallery, where he was curator of Canadian art until 1963. He then moved to Montreal where he was chief curator at the McCord Museum, McGill University, 1965-1968, and taught at Concordia University, 1965-1979.

Following Harper's studies at the University of Toronto, he began to publish articles on Canadian history, art and archaeology in various learned journals. During the 1960's, Harper focussed more and more on Canadian painting and in 1966 he published his "Painting in Canada: a History" and in 1970, his "Early Painters and Engravers in Canada". These were followed by major studies on the Canadian artists Paul Kane and Cornelius Krieghoff, and on Canadian folk art.

In recognition of the seminal work he contributed to the development of the study of Canadian art history, Russell Harper received a number of honours and awards during his lifetime. He received a Royal Society of Canada Fellowship to study in Paris, 1956-1957, and a Social Science Research Council grant to study in Rome and Great Britain 1957-1958. He received honorary degrees from the University of Guelph, 1972, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1982. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, 1974, and in the same year was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Finding aid:

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Textual records: (Paper) The finding aid is a file list of volumes 8-63. MSS1766

Textual records: (Electronic) Finding aid. MSS1766
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000363.pdf

Photographs: (Other) See photographic inventories, indexes, and caption lists arranged by accession number. FA-500

Sound recordings: (Electronic) See MISACS for item level descriptions.

Additional information:

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General note:

Received between 1987 and 1990 from J. Russell Harper's widow, Elizabeth Harper of South Lancaster, Ontario. The Arctic Research material (vol. 63) was received in 1990 from Elizabeth Harper through Robert Stacey of Toronto, Ontario.

Arrangement note:

Harper's original order was retained where order existed. There is consequently a fair amount of overlap between various series and the researcher should examine the finding aid closely to avoid overlooking any material.
Subject heading:

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Hind, William George Richardson

Art historians Canada

Authors, Canadian, 1914-1988 Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec), 1967-1976

Artists, Canadian, 1878-1988 Carleton University (Ottawa, Ont.), 1967-1976

Art, Canadian - Arctic, 1878-1988 Edmund Alleyn, 1878-1973

Art museums - Canada, 1964-1980 Maxwell Bates, 1878-1973

Art - Private collections, 1964-1980 Aba Bayefsky, 1878-1973

Bertram Charles Binning, 1878-1973

Bruno Bobak, 1878-1973

Sam Borenstein, 1878-1973

Ronald L. Bloore, 1878-1973

Jack Bush, 1878-1973

Oscar Cahen, 1878-1973

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, 1878-1973

A.J. Casson (Alfred Joseph), 1878-1973

Alex Colville (David Alexander), 1878-1973

Kathy Cooper, 1878-1973

National Art Gallery of Canada, 1959-1963, 1971

Pegi Nicol MacLeod, 1962

Sir George Back, 1884-1983

Château de Ramezay. Museum, 1964-1980

W.H. Coverdale Collection of Canadiana. Manoir Richelieu Collection, 1964-1980

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1964-1980

Eric Goldberg, 1964-1980

David Morgan, 1964-1980

John Miller, 1964-1980

Lorne Coutts, 1964-1980

Toni Onley, 1964-1980

Jack Shadbolt, 1964-1980

Fritz Brandtner, 1972

Mrs. Ward C. Pitfield, 1972

John Russell, 1972

Antoine Plamondon [ca.1914-ca.1983]

Jack Humphrey, 1963-1978

Alfred Pellan, 1963-1978

Carl Shaefer, 1963-1978

A.Y. Jackson (Alexander Young), 1963-1978

Marion Nicoll, 1963-1978

Charles Comfort, 1963-1978

David Brown, 1963-1978

André Garant, 1963-1978

Donald L. McLeish, 1963-1978

Kathleen Moir Morris, 1963-1978

Harold Town, 1963-1978

Paul Kane, 1856-1983

Paul Kane's Frontier, 1856-1983

Wanderings of an Artist, 1805-1893

Royal Ontario Museum, [ca.1914-ca.1983]

Cornelius Krieghoff, 1822-1984

Krieghoff, 1970-1980

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 1966-[ca.1979]

Canadian Encyclopedia, 1966-[ca.1979]

Art, Canadian

Painting in Canada: a History, [1966-ca.1977]
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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117-020027-3
117-020039-7
119-020007-4
140-88
1870 (1991-03-21)
1987-162 NPC
1987/0431 MSS
1988-101 DAP
1988/0132
1991-0150 MISA
1991-218 DAP
91-154
91-166

Former archival reference no.:

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MG30-D352
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Finding aid box [FA 1766] 134

[Consultation 10 Closed]

Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Box [HARPER, J. RUSSELL 1987-162] 4034

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [HARPER, J. RUSSELL 1988-101] 4034

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [HARPER, J. RUSSELL 1991-218] 4203

[Consultation 90 Open]

Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

Box [1991-218]

[Consultation 90 Open]

A301-03 Item no. assigned by LAC 1--5

[Consultation 90 Open]

Sound recordings

[Consultation90 Open]

Philatelic records

[Consultation90 Open]

Box [1991-218]

[Consultation 90 Open]

C57;

[Consultation 90 Open]

C8;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Photographs: No restrictions on use. Various copyrights on items less than 50 years old. Copyright is expired on items greater than 50 years. Credit: Name of photographer / National Archives of Canada / Copy negative no.
Photographs (Acc. No. 1987-162): No restrictions on use. Copyright is unknown on photos by R. Traquair. Copyright on photos by J. Russell Harper: National Archives of Canada. Copyright is expired on other photos over 50 years old. Credit: Name of photographer / National Archives of Canada / Copy negative no.
Artistic material: No restrictions on use. Copyright: James Henderson Boyd or the Estates of Jack Humphrey and Fritz Brandtner. Credit: National Archives of Canada.
Sound recordings: Reproduction and use in any form requires the written permission of the copyright holders.

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09