Contract between Pierre Rousseau and Nicolas Dupont of Faubourg St. Laurent and outfitter Archibald Norman McLeod, partner, for McTavish, McGillivrays & Co. The voyageurs receives an advance of 8 piastres, will receive 8 when leaving. Contract duration is three years. Payment is for 700 livres per annum. Position given as "wintering" milieu. Destination of posts of the Northwest in Upper Canada.

Contract between Jean-Marie Hupé of Montreal and Reuben Sherwood, land surveyor, of Elizabethtown, Upper Canada, to work as a labourer to help with a land survey. Contract duration is approximately seven months. Payment is for 48 livres per month. Position is not stated. Destination of Elizabethtown.

Contract between Basile Beaulieu and outfitter Jean-Marie Boucher (agent) for McTavish, Frobisher & Co. Voyageur has received 90 livres on account Contract duration is two years. Payment is for 700 livres per annum. Position given as "wintering" milieu. Destination of the Northern Limits.

Contract between Jean-Baptiste Chauvin and the Montreal outfitter Joseph Trottier Desruisseaux. The contract outlines Chauvin's agreement to travel to Illinois country and trade among the Tamarois people for the winter 1732-33 for the payment of 150 livres of beaver fur and half of the profits of his trades.

This sketchbook points to Crane's political leanings, his view of the world, and his thoughts on labour and leisure. Bound in green cloth with gold embossed letters, the visual content tends towards the bucolic––featuring landscapes, sunsets, and a countryside cottage and imagery of animals. The pencil sketches include studies of birds––a solan geese, a black cock, and a cormorant. The absence of detail in the line drawings of cows and a horse rider on horseback contrast with the detailed studies of a cottage and rocks and shrubs.

Located near the end pages, the textual content includes hand-copied sections of written works by Charles Kingsley, John Ruskin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Copied in part, Kingsley poem titled Palinodia, 1841, which begins as an ode to nature, and continues as a commentary on mankind’s place in “sunless cities, and the weary haunts of smoke-grimed labour.” Crane also copied out sections of Ruskin’s essay, Unto the Last, 1860, which attacks aspects of classic economic theory associated with Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. Excerpts from Ruskin are followed by Emerson’s History, from Essays: First Series, 1841.

The medium is pencil and ink on paper.

Black leather-bound notebook combines Crane’s work and leisure interests.

The portraits of a woman, of a man with the initials L.F.C., and the table of diners are possible representations of Crane’s friends and family––many of whom are mentioned in his autobiography. The sketch of the seascape Llangrannog suggests a trip to Wales, otherwise undocumented in his autobiography.

The sketchbook's varied visual content also includes pigs, building exteriors, architectural details (cornices and panels), Greco-Roman figures, and action scenes where human figures engage with the land; they fish, farm, and gather hay. Additionally, the sketchbook contains a folded sheet of a heraldic lion design, and one page of notes.

The medium is pencil and ink on paper.

Brown leather notebook with clasp containing extensive drawings of Walter Crane’s travels in Ireland in the summer of 1901. These drawings of landscapes, shores-capes, and townscapes depict scenes from Crane’s time in Killiney, Killarney, Dublin, Bray, Cork, Glengarriff, Kenmare, and Cashel. Serving the function of a travel journal, most of the drawings are signed with dates and locations.

The sketchbook also includes drawings of building exteriors, such as Muckross Abbey and Hore Abbey, as well as a sketch of a dog, plants, and people. Within Crane’s seemingly apolitical journey he includes a drawing of the monument to the Irish political leader Daniel O’Connell located in Dublin. There are two pages of textual notes.

The medium is pencil on paper.

Dark blue leather notebook containing drawing techniques and sketching types. The sketchbook's date parallels Walter Crane's ideas on good design.

The sketchbook includes preliminary sketches, line drawings, perspective views drawings, and gesture drawing, as well as cartoons and portraiture. The subject matter varies from studies of flowers, such as the iris, to floral patterning. It includes preliminary sketches for his book design--roughly indicating how Crane saw double page spread as a basic design unit. The sketches also include a pram, a house exterior, and furniture.

One of the cartoon sketches shows a man at pulpit with flag (possibly William Morris: see illustration of Speech of William Morris Speaking from a Wagon in Hyde Park, Artist Remininance, p.440)

Some of the legible words in Crane’s rough writing refer to artistic media such as “gesso” and techniques “silverwork,” “relief,” “wood carving,” and “stencils.” One page in particular is dedicated to the scribbled letters which make the words Bases of Design. This sketchbook notably predates Crane’s publication titled The Bases of Design, by one year.

Medium: pencil on paper