Collection consists of records documenting the life and legacy of Tom Thomson and research on his family. Included are textual records, photographs and some art material. The textual records and photographs have been arranged in six series: Correspondence; Memorabilia; Estate accounts; Family records; Printed material and articles on Tom Thomson; and Photographs (see also accession record 189370 for additional photos). The collection also includes miscellaneous artworks by or attributed to Tom Thomson including a gouache drawing with lettering depicting a young man playing a cello near a window, signed "Perce Cuthbert 1912", found in his sketch box after his death; an unsigned pastel drawing of a pastoral landscape found in Margaret Thomson Tweedale's kindergarten sample book; and a printed place card of white uncoated card stock, designed by Tom Thomson for the wedding of his niece, Jean B. Harkness.
Thomson, Tom, 1877-1917 : Tom Thomson, artist, was born in Claremont, Ontario (near Owen Sound), the sixth of ten children of John and Margaret Thomson. In 1901 he followed his eldest brother, George, to Seattle, where, largely a self-taught painter, he began to work in commercial art. He returned to Canada in 1904 and found work under Albert Robson with the Toronto commercial art firms Grip and Rous & Mann, where he met some of the artists who were to become the Group of Seven. In 1913, he met James MacCallum, who became an important patron and who, with artist Lawren Harris, financed the construction of the Studio Building where Thomson had a studio, initially sharing one with artist A.Y. Jackson and then moving into a shack at the back.
Influenced by the Toronto artists' interest in outdoor oil sketching, Thomson made his first trip to Algonquin Park in 1912 and returned to spend the summer and fall of 1913 at Canoe Lake, making his headquarters at the Mowat Lodge run by Shannon Fraser. During this stay Thomson was introduced to his later fiancé, Winnifred Trainor, and park ranger Mark Robinson, with whom he became good friends. Thomson left commercial art in 1914 and supplemented his income as a painter by working in Algonquin Park as a guide for fishing parties in 1914, a firefighter in 1915 and a ranger in 1916.
Although he was an important figure in the formation of the Group of Seven, Thomson was never a member as he died before its organization in 1920, drowning as the result of a mysterious canoeing accident in Algonquin Park, July 1917. His brother-in-law, Tom Harkness, husband of his sister Elizabeth, was selected to settle his estate and Thomson's patron, James MacCallum, assisted in the disposition of the large number of paintings he left behind. Thomson's work is now represented in all the major Canadian galleries and he has become one of Canada's best known artists.
