Person

Wallace, Arthur W., 1903-

1903-1978

Architect Arthur William Wallace was born in Staten Island, New York City, but spent most of his working life in Canada. He enrolled in McGill University’s School of Architecture in 1922 and graduated in 1926, having become interested in measuring and making architectural drawings of historic buildings in Quebec. In 1947 many of his drawings were published in Ramsay Traquair’s Old Architecture of Quebec. After graduation he worked in New York briefly, then spent time in Nova Scotia photographing and measuring early buildings. In 1935 he went to London and worked there till 1939 when he joined the War Office to help design industrial and military buildings in France and the Middle East. After the war he formed a partnership with Lester Husband and Hugh Robertson in Hamilton, Ontario, where he lived until 1971. After his death, his large collection of more than 20,000 photographs, clippings, maps and drawings, and articles on architecture and style was acquired by the National Archives of Canada in 1982.