The fonds consists of textual records, 1770-1979, which concern Creighton's publications, research, university career, and his involvement in a number of organizations, as well as, in the Monckton Advisory Commission on the Review of the Constitution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1957-1963. There are letters, memoranda, minutes of meetings, manuscripts, notes, speeches, research papers, clippings, diaries, reports, course outlines, roll books for the students in his classes, correspondence with Eugene Forsey, 1939-1975, and publications.
The fonds also contains photographs: eighteen photographs, 1940-1965, depict the Monckton Commission on Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1960; Monckton Advisory Commission members and activities, Government House, N. Rhodesia; a plaque at Sir John A. Macdonald's birthplace, Glasgow, Scotland, ca. 1965; a studio portrait of Harold Innis, ca. 1940, by Ashley & Crippen. Forty-two photographs, 1949-1977, depict Creighton at universities across Canada, receiving honourary degrees; meetings of National Historic Sites Board, 1962; old fortifications in Canada; some photos by Creighton. Six photographs, ca. 1960, depict Donald Creighton and wife, Luella in Venice, Italy and Muskoka, Ont.
The fonds also contains 13 medals and four lapel pins, 1894-1977, awarded to or acquired by Donald Creighton during his career. Of the 17 items, one Victoria University medal was given to his father, W. B. Creighton. The medals include the Companion of the Order of Canada, the Governor-General's Award for Academic Non-Fiction, the J. B. Tyrell Historical Medal of the Royal Society of Canada and several other university medals. Three of the lapel pins are Order of Canada. The material was received with three manuscript items relating, as well, to honorary awards. There are also eight maps, 1957-1960, pertaining to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland collected by Creighton while he was on the Advisory Commission on the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Creighton, Donald Grant, 1902-1979 : Donald Grant Creighton, historian, university professor, the son of Rev. William Black Creighton, editor of the Methodist Christian Guardian, and Laura Harvie, was born in 1902 at Toronto, Ont. He was educated at the University of Toronto and Balliol College, Oxford. He taught history at the University of Toronto from 1927 to 1970 serving as Chairman of the Department from 1955 to 1959. He was appointed Sir John A. Macdonald Professor of History in 1965. In 1960 he served as a member of the Advisory Commission on the Review of the Constitution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. He was appointed a member of the Ontario Advisory Committee on Confederation in 1965,
Donald Creighton was especially known for his outstanding works on Canadian history which were noted for their attention to detail and his readable prose style. Some of his best known historical works include, The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence, 1760-1850, published in 1937 and reprinted in 1956 as the Empire of St. Lawrence, British North America at Confederation, 1940, Dominion of the North: A History of Canada, 1944, John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician, 1952, John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain, 1955, Canada's First Century, 1970, and the Forked Road: Canada 1939-1957, 1976. In 1978 he published his only novel Takeover.
He received numerous awards for his works including honorary degrees from most Canadian universities and from Oxford. He also received the Tyrrell Medal for History in 1951 from the Royal Society of Canada, the Governor-General's Award for Academic Non-Fiction in 1952 and again in 1955 and the Molson Prize from the Canada Council in 1964. Creighton was made a Companion of the Order of Canda in 1967.
See also: The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1985, and Encyclopedia Canadiana.
