Fonds consists of photographic documentation of the eye survey of east Canadian Arctic Inuit, 1945-1946, and of the Canadian Arctic in general; photos by Arthur H. Tweedle, ca. 1936-1946.
Fonds also contains journals of two voyages made by Mr. Tweedle on the Hudson's Bay Company supply ship Nascopie, into the far north in 1946-47. These voyages were sponsored by the Canadian Government and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. The purpose of these voyages was to investigate the incidence of refractive errors, devise practical methods for fitting the necessary glasses to correct these errors and photograph in natural colour any eyes showing pathology in the lids or anterior segment. There were 1,564 Eskimos examined. The ship made many stops including Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet, N.W.T., Chesterfield, N.W.T., Churchill, Man., and Wolstenholme, Que. Papers include report an eye survey, map of the voyage, and newspaper clippings and articles on Tweedle's work, 1945-1947.
Also included is a map of the Dominion of Canada and a map of the city of Edmonton, n.d.
Tweedle, Arthur H., 1900-1976 : Arthur H. Tweedle, optometrist and amateur photographer, (born at Binbrook Twp., Wentworth Co., Ont, 6 Jan. 1900; died at Midland, Ont., 22 Oct. 1976) was educated in Hamilton, Ont. He completed a course in Optometry at the College of Optometry in 1920. In 1941 he joined the RCAF and set up a school in aircraft recognition. In 1943 he supervised the glass distribution to the airmen. He was a Flight Lieutenant. In 1945-46 he made an expedition to the Arctic, sponsored by the Canadian Institute for the Blind. He opened an office in Midland in 1947.
As an optometrist, his professional interest in precision optical instruments made him especially receptive to the Leica introduced to him by Leonard Davis in the early thirties. Tweedle became an active member of the Hamilton Camera Club, and although he exhibited little outside the salons of Southern Ontario, he participated in the monthly print competitions and assisted in the organization of the annual Canadian Salon. He travelled widely in Canada, filling snapshot albums with prints from these trips and later producing salon prints from the negatives. Described by Leonard Davis as "an absolute perfectionist with a sense of humour that made his eyes dance", Tweedle was most successful in his candid portrayals of people on the street or in the midst of their everyday activities. He was president of the Hamilton Camera Club in 1940, the same year that one of his prints was named "Canada's Print of the Year" at the Seventh Annual Canadian Salon. At this time, Tweedle became an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and shortly thereafter a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1945, immediately after his discharge from the RCAF, and again in 1946, Tweedle went on trips sponsored by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind aboard the R.M.S. Nascopie, travelling throughout the eastern Arctic to examine the eyes of the Eskimos. During these voyages, he kept a journal and took black and white photographs and colour slides of the Inuit, their settlements and the landscapes of the Canadain Arctic, as well as the crew and activities aboard ship.
Exhibition(s): 1940, 7th Annual Canadian Salon (group). 1983, Private Realms of Light, PAC, Ottawa, Ont. (group). Private Realms of Light, Ottawa, PAC, 1984, page 326.
