Fonds consists of records relating to the personal lives and professional careers of artist Alma Duncan and photographer Audrey (Babs) McLaren, and to the film production company they established, Dunclaren Productions. Most of the material relates to Alma Duncan.
The fonds contains the following series of textual records: Personal material and memorabilia; Notebooks and journals; Correspondence; Teaching and studying; Projects and exhibitions; Inventories and materials; Publicity material and clippings; and Dunclaren productions. Some of the philatelic material is interfiled with the textual records.
Included in fonds are three animated films by Dunclaren Productions: Kumak, the sleepy hunter; Hearts and soles; and Friendly interchange.
The graphic material includes photographs and artwork. The art records include portraits of Jay Macpherson and P.K. Page; maquettes; design proposal for 1951 Canadian nickel; National Film Board poster Look to the North; material on a Captain Morgan advertising campaign; artwork depicting industrial subjects, Canadian Members of Parliament 1947-1948, Marian Congress, Ottawa, 1947, and the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWACs); a mural design of activities in an art gallery; preparatory work for National Film Board and Dunclaren films; and Second World War posters.
Some of the photographs form part of the Projects and exhibitions series. There are also photos relating to philatelic projects, artwork for the Maple Leaf in Four Seasons stamp issue, 1971, and the floral aerogrammes issue, 1973, comprising ink and pencil, watercolour drawings and colour photographs. Also included are different postal stationery items and first day covers, correspondence and clippings relating to the postage stamps and aerogrammes designed by Alma Duncan.
Also included are one watercolour, self-portrait by Greg Curnoe in 1980, drawings, self-portraits by Ernst Neumann, 1931, and Alma Duncan, 1978, and one portrait of Alma Duncan by Arthur Lismer around 1942.
McLaren, Audrey, 1916-2014 : Eleanor Audrey (Babs) McLaren was born 31 October, 1916, in Hythe, England. Her parents moved to Canada when she was one year old. She was educated in Hamilton, Ontario; Montreux, Switzerland; and Florence, Italy. In 1941, she joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. At the end of the Second World War, she joined the National Film Board as a film cutter and became a film technician the following year. At the Film Board, she met Alma Duncan, with whom she formed the film company, Dunclaren Productions, in 1951, where she acted as cameraman. After Dunclaren ceased its activities, she worked as a photographer.
Ms. McLaren continued to reside in Ottawa, living in a retirement home until her death in 2014.
Dunclaren Productions : In 1951, artist Alma Duncan and photographer Audrey McLaren established a film company in Ottawa called Dunclaren Productions. It produced three films, Kumak the Sleepy Hunter (1953) and Hearts and Soles (1955), using puppets and a single frame technique, and Friendly Interchange (1959), using chalk drawings. Although Dunclaren was not dissolved, it became inactive after 1960.
McLaren, Audrey, 1916-2014 : Eleanor Audrey (Babs) McLaren was born 31 October, 1916, in Hythe, England. Her parents moved to Canada when she was one year old. She was educated in Hamilton, Ontario; Montreux, Switzerland; and Florence, Italy. In 1941, she joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. At the end of the Second World War, she joined the National Film Board as a film cutter and became a film technician the following year. At the Film Board, she met Alma Duncan, with whom she formed the film company, Dunclaren Productions, in 1951, where she acted as cameraman. After Dunclaren ceased its activities, she worked as a photographer.
Ms. McLaren continued to reside in Ottawa, living in a retirement home until her death in 2014.
Duncan, Alma, 1917-2004 : Alma Mary Duncan was born in Paris, Ontario, in October 1917, and attended high school in Hamilton and Montreal. During the 1940s, she attended life drawing classes given by Ernst Neumann and Goodridge Roberts and undertook a project to record the Canadian war effort through drawings made in arms factories and shipyards; this work is now held in the Canadian War Museum. She was on the executive of the Federation of Canadian Artists, 1942-1943, and was treasurer of the Writers', Artists' and Broadcasters' War Council. She was invited to join the Graphic Division of the National Film Board in November 1943, working first with the Information Display department and then with the Animation department.
After the Second World War, Alma Duncan produced Folksong Fantasy as an independent producer under contract for the National Film Board and, in 1951, she and Audrey McLaren established a film production company called Dunclaren Productions. After Dunclaren ceased its activities in 1960, Duncan concentrated on her work as a painter and graphic artist, regularly exhibiting in group shows. She had begun working as a commercial artist in Montreal in the 1930s, and throughout her career she regularly had commissions for graphic work, creating, for instance, an advertisement for Captain Morgan Rum and illustrating the textbook Le Français vivant. In 1949, she gave a course on the Visual Presentation of Ideas for Macdonald College in Montreal and she taught painting and drawing at the Ottawa School of Art, 1962-1966, as well as at various art clubs in the Ottawa area.
In 1970, Duncan was commissioned by the Canada Post Office to design a series of stamps, The Maple in Four Seasons, followed by a series of floral aerogrammes. Much of Duncan's work reflects her interest in nature, and she and Audrey McLaren owned property in the Ottawa Valley where Duncan often sketched. She was also interested in industrial subjects, dating back to her Second World War project, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, mounted a travelling retrospective of her industrial drawings in 1987. A third enduring interest was the Canadian north, the setting for Dunlaren's award-winning film, Kumak the Sleepy Hunter, in 1953. In 1975, Duncan spent two months on a sketching trip to Ellesmere and Baffin Islands. She was a founding director of the Atai Arctic Creative Development Foundation.
