Fonds consists of papers of Sir George Eulas Foster which reflect his public and personal life. This includes correspondence, diaries, speeches, notes, subject files, scrapbooks, clippings, autobiographical and biographical material, manuscripts, business files, memorabilia, and family papers, n.d., 1864-1931.
The fonds also contains portraits of George Foster and his family and other photographs 1900-1918; and a postcard of the Saint John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, n.d.
Foster, George E. (George Eulas), Sir, 1847-1931 : The Rt. Hon. Sir George Foster, born in Carleton County, N.B., was educated at the University of New Brunswick, Edinburgh and Heidelberg. He taught school at King's County, N.B. and was Professor of Classics and Ancient Literature at the University of New Brunswick, 1871-1879. He was a Conservative member of the House of Commons for King's County, N.B., 1882-1896, and for York County, N.B., 1896-1900. He was defeated in 1900 but returned as a Conservative member representing Toronto North until his Senate appointment in 1921.
Foster was a member of the cabinets of the Macdonald, Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, Tupper, Borden and Meighen governments serving as the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, 1885-1888, the Minister of Finance, 1888-1896, and the Minister of Trade and Commerce, 1911-1921. His activities in Canada's trade relations and foreign policy included representation on the Dominions' Royal Commission, 1912-1918, the Allied Economic Conference, 1916, and the Canadian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1918-1919.
In 1920-1921 Foster was the chairman of the Canadian delegation to the League of Nations and was elected vice-president of the First Assembly. In 1926 and 1929 Foster returned to the League of Nations as the Canadian representative. He was knighted in 1912 and appointed an Imperial Privy Counsellor in 1916. He authored Canadian Addresses, 1914, and Citizenship: The Josiah Wood Lectures, 1927.
