McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
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H3A 0C9
Maxwell John Dunbar Fonds
Fonds
1.62 m of textual records
1821 photographs
78 charts
9 pen and ink drawings
7 reels of film
7 medals
8 diplomas
Maxwell John Dunbar was born in 1914 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His research interest was marine biology, particularly in the polar seas. As an undergraduate he went on expeditions to Greenland in 1935 and 1936, examining ice-free mechanisms at the face of the glaciers. From 1933 to 1937 he studied at Oxford University earning a B.A. and an M.A. In 1937 and 1938 he was awarded a Henry Fellowship to Yale University from Oxford. He made an expedition to Glacier Bay in Alaska in 1938, studying marine protozoa. He spent the summers of 1939 and 1940 as a member of the Government Party with the Hudson’s Bay supply ship, Nascopie, on the trips to the Eastern Arctic regions of Canada. Dunbar received his Ph.D. from McGill University in 1941. His research was interrupted by service as Canadian Consul to Greenland from 1941 to 1946. In 1946 joined the staff of the Department of Zoology as Associate Professor, and remained at McGill since then. He participated in expeditions to Ungava Bay between 1947 and 1951, and to Hudson Bay between 1954 and 1958. In 1963 Maxwell Dunbar organized the Marine Sciences Center, later the Institute of Oceanography, with the main research centers in the waters of the Canadian North, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Caribbean Sea. He served as its Chairman until 1977. In 1982 he was appointed Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at McGill, and since 1988 he was a member of the Climate Research Group in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Maxwell Dunbar was an active member in numerous professional associations, and a recipient of many honours. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1954 and was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in 1990. He wrote about 150 scientific papers and other publications. Dr. Dunbar died in 1995.
The accessions 1987-0089, 1988-0041, 1988-0047, 1991-0056, and 1992-0080 were donated to the McGill University Archives by Maxwell Dunbar over a six year period, beginning in 1987 until his death. The following accessions, 1999-0079, 2000-0195, 2003-0069, and 2011-0023 were maintained and deposited by Dr. Dunbar's heir, Dougal Dunbar. Annotations of some of these documents were compiled by this donor and included within the deposit.
The fonds consists of textual documents, photographs, films, drawings and medals relating to Maxwell J. Dunbar’s professional life. These documents predominantly cover his early career (1935-1970), though include his later distinctions (1980-1990). In addition, there are 13 diaries of scientific expeditions (1935-1938), which reveal the progress made in the Field of Arctic research, mainly of scientific exploration in Greenland and Ungava Bay. One diary, non-scientific in nature, was kept by Maxwell Dunbar’s wife, Jean, during a winter in Greenland (1945-1946), when Dunbar was Acting Consul for Canada. The diary gives an interesting account of day-to-day life in Greenland in the post-war period. Included is correspondence and reports on Nansen Drift Station, and Dunbar’s extended biography (about 100 pages). Cartographic materials consist of charts dealing with fauna, fish, seabirds, and shorebirds of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (1980). Non-textual records comprise of 7 reels of film with an Arctic subject. The files are arranged by subject and the diaries are in chronological order.
Donated by Marian McLaren on July 27, 1988; and by Maxwell Dunbar on October 26, 1987; on September 18, 1991 and on November 20, 1992
Box Listing available
Further accruals are not expected.
Handwritten and typescript