McGill Libraries
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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Black Whale Fonds
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title from contents of the fonds.
Level of description
Fonds
Repository
Reference code
CA MUA MG 1001
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1934-1975 (Creation)
- Creator
- Percé Handicrafts Guild
Physical description area
Physical description
20 cm of textual records
60 photographs
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Numbering within publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(established 1934)
Biographical history
In 1934 the Percé Handicrafts Guild was formed by a group of women, many of them wealthy "summer people" from Montréal, to encourage Gaspé handicrafts both for their intrinsic value and as a means of alleviating the financial hardships of the Depression. The Guild organized lectures, competitions, and exhibits, and in 1936 opened a shop in Percé called "The Black Whale." Guild members manned the shop on a volunteer basis, and profits were used for community projects, such as the Dental Clinic, staffed in the summer by McGill professors Roland Lamb and Arthur Walsh. The shop was a centre for the study of Gaspé history and natural science, and sponsored a number of publications, including a cookbook. Ethel Renouf was president of the committee who created and ran the Black Whale handicrafts shop. Margaret Lamb served as the first assistant clerk in the shop, beginning in the summer of 1935. She later married Roland Lamb, who served as the community’s first volunteer dentist in the summer of 1939. Phyllis Birks served as Chairman of the Percé Handicrafts Guild.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of textual records related to the operations and administration of the Percé Handicrafts Guild, the Black Whale Shop, as well other community initiatives sponsored by Percé Handicrafts Guild such as the the Black Whale Dental Clinic, and photographs of the shop and its volunteers. Operational and administrative files are intermingled with a range of informal correspondence, in particular many letters between Ethel Renouf and Phyllis Birks, and files of anecdotal notes and clips related to the Black Whale shop as well as to the history, flora, and geology of the Gaspé region.
Formal administrative records consist of letters patent for the Percé Handicrafts Guild, full minutes for 1939, and brief annual summaries of activities from 1933 to 1975. Legal documents comprise licence and registration papers, together with pertinent correspondence, 1938-1953, and a correspondence file relating to rental of the shop building. The financial side is illustrated by a cash book, 1934, and files of miscellaneous receipts, inventories, balance sheets and bookkeeping instructions, 1935-1971. Almost half the records of the Black Whale are informal in nature, for example, letters from Ethel Renouf to Phyllis Birks mixing personal news with accounts of shop operations and craft production, 1934-1937. Files of anecdotal notes and clippings relate the shop and to the history of the Gaspé, as well as on the flora and geology of the region. The fonds includes a copy of The Black Whale cookbook and some related records.. Some correspondence, budget notes and flyers pertain to the work of the Dental Clinic, 1939-1940. Sixty photographs featuring different views of the Black Whale handicrafts shop in Percé, Quebec, are also included. A number of photographs are individual and group portraits of the volunteers who created and ran the shop, including Ethel Renouf. A few photographs document a Black Whale Shop stand at the University of Montreal.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Some photographs are duplicates in differing sizes.
Alternative identifier(s)
Accession no.
0000-2738
Standard number
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Black Whale Shop (Subject)
- Renouf, Ethel (Subject)
- Birks, Phyllis (Subject)