McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Cyrus John MacMillan Fonds
Fonds
68 cm of textual records.
English professor, author and politician, Cyrus MacMillan was born in Prince Edward Island and earned his B.A. (1900) and M.A. (1903) from McGill. After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1909, he returned to McGill as a Lecturer in English. MacMillan served in the First World War with the 7th Canadian Siege Battery, which he helped to organize. In 1919, he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 1923 became Chairman of the English Department. From 1940 until 1947 he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. During this period, MacMillan pursued a second career as a politician. He was Federal Minister of Fisheries in 1930, and federal M.P. for Queen's (P.E.I.) from 1940 to 1945. A prolific writer, he published a history of McGill as well as volumes of Canadian folktales and studies of Canadian literature. After 1945 he was chief editorial writer for the Charlottetown Patriot. MacMillan passed away in 1953.
Fonds consists of correspondence and literary manuscripts, documenting all aspects of MacMillan’s career. Biographical background is provided by his own notes on his life and family history. From his student years come certificates and testimonials in support of his application for a Rhodes Scholarship (1904-1909). His war experience is recorded in letters from the front preserved by his family, and by a personal diary for 1917. There are also approximately twenty photographs of Macmillan and his family taken between about 1905 and 1940.
Macmillan's correspondence includes files of letters to his wife (1917-1936) on his war service and political affairs; personal and social letters (1923-1929); political correspondence, including several letters from McKenzie King (1926-1946); letters concerning McGill, including a number from Sir Arthur Currie and from Stephen Leacock (1920-1947); post-retirement correspondence on McGill and public affairs; and correspondence concerning his publications (1920-1960). There are also files of invitations to events at McGill and elsewhere.
The manuscripts fall into two categories: political speeches and literary manuscripts. Besides notes and texts for his own speeches, there are also texts of, and newspaper clippings about speeches written by Macmillan for Sir Arthur Currie and others (1920-1950). Drafts and typescripts of his literary works are supplemented by notes, clippings and correspondence.