McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Dale Cairns Thomson Fonds
Fonds
6.12 m of textual records.
83 photographs.
40 sound recordings.
audio equipment
Dale Cairns Thomson was born in Westlock, Alberta on June 17, 1923 to Walter James Cairns Thomson and Margaret Charlotte (nee Falkson). Thomson had two siblings, Peggy Thomson Scott and Walter Thomson. He married Shirley Lavinia Cull in 1967 (divorced 1980), Hamidol Mena Syne in 1982 (died 1987) and Lizanne Ryan in 1996 (widowed 1999). Thomson had no children. Dale Thomson died on April 27, 1999 following a prolonged illness.
The fonds was acquired in three accessions, one from Dale Thomson (97-043) and two from his estate (01-016 and 01-082). An earlier accession made by Dale Thomson (81-058), consisted of one item. This was de-accessioned because it replicated material acquired later.
The fonds consists of correspondence, course material, research and interview notes, articles, speeches, transcripts, grant applications, and other records pertaining to Dale Thomson's activities as a researcher, professor, journalist and Liberal Party activist from the 1940s to 1999 in Canada, The United States and other parts of the world. There is also a considerable amount of original, primary source material collected by Dale Thomson for his books. The fonds is composed of the following series:
Although there are three separate series, it must be noted that some information contained in series files is often relevant to more than that area of activity. This is especially true of correspondence files.
The files are generally grouped together by chronological period and subject. The material within some of the files is arranged in reverse chronological order.
English and French; some documents are in German and Spanish. File titles are in English or French.
Accession 03-201, received in October 2003, contains textual and audio materials - this accession is not yet processed and Is not included in this finding aid - see the University Archivist for details.
The Louis St. Laurent Fonds at the National Archives of Canada, MG 26 L, has material created by Dale Thomson when he worked in the Prime Minister's Office. The Division des Archives at the Universlte de Montreal also has a small amount of material by or about Dale Thomson when he was with the Departement de Science Politique.
Further accruals are expected from the estate of Dale Thomson.
The McGill University Archives also has material created by Dale Thomson when he was the Vice Principal, Planning from 1973 to 1976 in RG 3: Offices of the Vice-Principals.