McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
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H3A 0C9
Selwyn Dewdney fonds
Fonds
1.4m of textual records and other material
Note: Includes ca. 48 pencil drawings, ca. 25 newspaper clippings, 19 periodicals and pamphlets, 5 maps, 4 b&w photographs, 3 books, 3 pen and ink drawings, 2 hand drawn graphs, 1 hand drawn diagram
Selwyn Hanington Dewdney was born on October 22, 1909, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
He was a Canadian writer, illustrator, artist, activist and pioneer in art therapy and pictography. He graduated from the University of Toronto (B.A. in astronomy and English), the Ontario College of Education (1932) and Ontario College of Art (1934). In 1928, he accompanied his father on a 3,800 mile canoe journey to visit the Ojibway and Cree missions in Northern Ontario. This experience established his interest in native culture and love of the bush in the Canadian Shield. He taught at Sir Adam Beck Secondary School, London, Ontario. With a growing family of three sons, he turned to illustrating books, writing, researching, editing and painting commissioned murals to support them. When Dewdney was commissioned to illustrate Lionel Penrose's psychiatric "M" test, he became interested in art therapy. He began giving art instruction to the psychiatric patients, which led to his position of Psychiatric Art Therapist. His and his wife’s work helped develop an art therapy training program at the University of Western Ontario in 1986. Dewdney helped record the ancient native pictographs painted in red ochre on the rocks. By 1957, eleven rock-painting sites were recorded in Quetico Provincial Park. Between 1959 and 1965, he discovered and recorded rock art from the foothills of the Rockies to the Atlantic coast. He is the author of the books "Wind Without Rain" (1946) and "Christopher Breton" (1978).
In 1936, he married Irene Maud Donner (1914–1999). He died on November 18, 1979, in Toronto, Ontario, following an open heart surgery.
Custodial history is unknown; donated to McGill Rare Books around 1980
The fonds consists of records documenting Selwyn Dewdney’s professional activities as a writer, artist, teacher, and student. In addition, there are also records documenting Dewdney’s personal activities. Records related to Dewdney’s professional careers and scholarly pursuits include: printed editions of published articles and books, manuscript drafts, research materials, reviews, essays and speeches, newspaper and magazine clippings, notes, exhibition catalogues, financial records, correspondence, sketches and drawings, notebooks, photographs and plays. The fonds also contains letters, photographs, notes, holiday cards, and invoices related to Dewdney’s personal activities.
Some papers contain light damage, ink damage and creasing, dried and brittle adhesive residue.
The fonds is composed of the following series:
1) Written Works (1931-1993)
2) University Notebooks and Essays (1927-1931)
3) Correspondence (1933-1979)
4) Teaching Material (1974-1980)
5) Art Catalogues and Illustrations (1951-1993)
No other formats available.
Not restricted.
A finding aid with file level description is available.
No further accruals are expected.
Acronyms:
UWO (University of Western Ontario), TSTS (They Shared to Survive), CB (Christopher Breton), WAL (Western Art League), IRPGL (Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes), WWR (Wind Without Rain), CCF (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation), WWI (World War 1)
Finding aid prepared by Beck Gilmer-Osborne, Tatjana Chartrand-Biello, Madeleine Scott and Emily Jaeger-McEnroe as part of McGill’s School of Information Studies course GLIS 641 ; edited by Prof. Gordon Burr, December 2019.