The series consists of personal and business correspondence received by Mabel Lockerby, as well as a few drafts of her replies on the backs of some of the incoming correspondence.
Included is an invitation to the first Beaver Hall Group exhibition, 1920; correspondence with the Art Association of Montreal, regarding the Morrice Prize, 1914, and the later sale of her work at its spring exhibitions; correspondence with the National Gallery of Canada (Eric Brown, H.O. McCurry, Alan Jarvis and R.H. Hubbard), 1923-1957, relating to its purchase of Lockerby's work and to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembly, an exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Southern Dominions exhibition, Coronation exhibition, Women's International exhibition, and other exhibitions. The correspondence documents Lockerby's exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the sale of her Christmas card designs to Rous and Mann, the sale of her work by the Leonardo Society in Montreal, her work being exhibited at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition, and her entries in the Willingdon Art Competitions. There is correspondence with the Canadian Group of Painters (notes on the back of a 1936 letter suggest an interest in numerology); with the American Federation of Arts regarding her work being exhibited in the United States; the Art Gallery of Toronto regarding a proposed exhibition with Marian Scott, Pegi Nicol MacLeod and Jori Smith; and with the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Other material includes a certificate, 1920, acknowledging her war work with the YMCA and a list of paintings auctioned by the Canadian National Committee on Refugees in Ottawa, 1940. There are a few letters from private collectors, including Alice Massey, 1933, William Perkins Bull, 1933, Frank Meier, 1951, and Peter Dobush, 1956.
The correspondence includes letters from fellow artists including Arthur Lismer, n.d. (relaying to Lockerby the National Gallery's interest in buying one of her paintings); Henri Hébert, 1904 (sending a postcard from France); Lilias Torrance Newton, 1915 (on the death of Mabel's father) and 1917 (sending 2 canvasses from Cornwall for Mabel to forward to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts); Prudence Heward, 1930 (commenting on the Russian design illustrating the postcard she sends), 1944 (illustrated with a sketch of violets), and 1946 (shortly before she died, commenting on the importance of Sarah Robertson and Mabel in her life); and Nora Collyer, 1968 (on a postcard featuring a Prudence Heward painting) and 1976. There are also letters regarding the legacies Lockerby was left by Prudence Heward and Kathleen Morris.
Also included are a few letters from family members, including three from Mabel Lockerby's father (two to Mabel while she was apparently in Cuba with a convalescent mother, and one to her sister Florence); several from Ernest McNown, 1915-1917 (illustrated Christmas cards while he was serving at the front during the war) and 1969-1970; and one from Mabel's mother, 1928.