Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on the creator of the fonds.
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1860-1956 (Creation)
- Creator
- Wallis, Katherine E.
Physical description area
Physical description
8 volumes of textual records and other materials
photographs
drawings
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Katherine E. Wallis was born in 1860 in Peterborough, Ontario. She studied art as a copyist at the National Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland and later at the Royal College of Art in London, England. In London she discovered sculpting as her medium of expression and won the College's bronze medal and the Modellers' Free Scholarship for her work. After two years of study in London, she went to Paris to study under noted sculptor Oscar Waldmann and was soon invited to exhibit at the Exposition Universelle where she won honourable mention. In subsequent years, she exhibited frequently in the Spring Salon of the Artists Francais and later in the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, as well as at numerous exhibits in London and elsewhere in the British Isles. Katherine E. Wallis' career was interrupted by World War I while she served as a nurse in the Canadian Hospital in Paris, France. For her services she was decorated by the French and British governments. At the end of the war, Miss Wallis spent several years in Canada exhibiting her work and visiting her sister in Peterborough, Ontario. Later she returned to Paris, and in 1929, she received her highest recognition as an artist when she was the first Canadian to be elected Societaire of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts for her sculpture titled "La Lutte pour la Vie." She was forced to flee from France at the beginning of World War II and took up residence in Santa Cruz, California, where she lived until her death, 14 December 1957. Examples of the photographs are reproduced here.
Custodial history
The fonds remained within the Wallis family in Montreal, Quebec, until it was donated to Trent University in 1965 by Colonel Hugh M. Wallis, nephew of Katherine E. Wallis.
Scope and content
The fonds is in eight bound volumes and consists of letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, diaries, poetry, sketch books, accounts and a typewritten unpublished autobiography.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The fonds was donated by Colonel Hugh M. Wallis, nephew of Katherine E. Walls, February,1965.
Arrangement
The original order of the fonds was destroyed. The fonds was bound into eight volumes in chronological order before it was donated to Trent University. The items in volumes one to five have been inserted loosely between the pages of the volumes. The sketchbooks bound into volume six were very difficult to research without causing damage to the sketches and bindings. In 2012, bound volumes 5 and 6 were professionally disassembled to enable access.
Language of material
- English
- French
Script of material
Language and script note
Some of the correspondence and news clippings are in French.
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
The news clippings and the autobiography have been photocopied and contact sheets and negatives have been made of the photographs in the collection.
Restrictions on access
None
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Box 1
Volume 1: 1860-1920
Includes extracts from Katherine's diary 1881, diplomas, war medals, loose newspaper clippings and photographs. NOTE: See binder, Appendix "A" at end of collection which contains contact prints and negatives of photographs in volume 1. See file folder shelved at end of collection which contains xeroxed copies of newspaper clippings in volume 1.
Volume 2: 1921-1945
Includes exhibition press clippings, materials regarding visit to Bosnia, Greece; diary of trip sketching around the world, 1931; materials re Santa Cruz, 1944; Prague Medal, 1928; photographs of Wallis and her works. NOTE: See binder, Appendix "A" at end of collection which contains contact prints and negatives of all photographs in volume 2. See file folder shelved at end of collection which contains xeroxed newspaper clippings from volume 2.
Volume 3: 1945-1957
Life in Santa Cruz, poetry, literature, clippings and photographs. Notices re death of Wallis in December, 1957. NOTE: See binder, Appendix "A" at end of collection which contains contact prints and negatives of all photographs in volume 3. See file folder shelved at end of collection which contains xeroxed newspaper clippings from volume 3.
Box 2
Volume 4: Photographs of works of art and bound-in sketches and watercolours. These have not been copied.
Volume 5: Poetry and Stories, 1893-1956 (NOTE: In 2012, this bound volume was professionally disassembled to enable access).
Box 3
Volume 6: Sketchbooks. Very fragile and difficult to use. (NOTE: In 2012, this bound volume was professionally disassembled to enable access). Included in this volume is a notebook with cover brand name "South Kensington Note Book, Lamley & Co." which contains photographs of models and art works. As with volumes 1, 2 and 3, contact prints and negatives of these photographs have been made and are included in the binder shelved at the end of this collection as Appendix "A".
Box 4
Volume 7: Diaries, address books, accounts, 1939-1956
Volume 8: Autobiography entitled, "Before the West Became the East"; biography by A. R. Collins; published poems,"Chips From the Block."
Box 5
Folder 1: Correspondence, from vol. 1, no date
Folder 2: Correspondence, from vol. 1, 1884-1920
Folder 3: Correspondence, from vol. 2, no date
Folder 4: Correspondence, from vol. 2, 1921-1929
Folder 5: Correspondence, from vol. 2, 1930-1945
Folder 6: Correspondence, from vol. 3, no date
Folder 7: Correspondence, from vol. 3, 1946-1950
Folder 8: Correspondence, from vol. 3, 1951-1959
Folder 9: Miscellaneous copy photographs and negatives
General note
APPENDIX "A"
CONTACT PRINTS AND NEGATIVES OF PHOTOGRAPHS
Contact Sheet 1 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 1)
2 Grandma Haultain, Helen, Bessie Gibson
3 dup. of above
4 William Donald Forbes
11 Waldmann and "Owl"
12 Nurse and 2 patients
13 dup. of above
14 Nurse and patients
15 K. E. Wallis and patient
16 KEW and patient
Contact Sheet 2 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 3)
2 unidentified
3 KEW
4 Mildred and KEW
5 Helen Haultain
6 KEW and Clara 1939
7 Santa Cruz
8 KEW, Mrs Brody, Mrs Lynton
9 KEW, Santa Cruz
10 Santa Cruz
11 Sculpture
12 KEW
13 KEW, 1957
14 KEW, 1957
15 KEW
16 Mrs Herron, Miss Gardner, KEW (1956)
17 Duplicate of above
18 "For Miss Katherine Wallis, 1953"
19 Dup.
20 Wallis studio, Santa Cruz, 1948
Contact sheet 2 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 1)
21 Adah and Katherine Wallis
22 Ada and Katherine Wallis with horse
23 Katherine and Adah Wallis
24 Dup.
25
26 Katherine Wallis with dog
27 Haultain grave stone
28 Dup.
29 War Medals
30
31 H Waldmann and student
Contact Sheet 3 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 2)
6 Waldmann sculpting
7 Dup.
8 KEW with sculpted bust
9 KEW seated at desk
10 Funeral of Msr. Trenier, 1937
11 Quilt sent to Queen Elizabeth
12 Chapel of L'Ascension, Paris
13 Père Georges Lamothe, 1944
14 Paris, 1944
15 Dup.
16 Bosnians in native costume
17 Dup.
18 Dup.
19
20 In the garden,Rue D'Allery, Paris
21 Archimandrite Denis Chambault
Contact Sheet 3 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 6)
22 Unidentified, South Kensington Notebook
(hereafter SKN)
23 Same
24 Same
25 Same
26 Same
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34 SKN
35 Dup. of above
Contact Sheet 4 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 6)
14
15 SKN
16 Dup.
Contact Sheet 4 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 3)
17 "From Pig-tails to KEW, 1956
18 Same [her father ie Pig-tails, 1937]
19 Same
20 KEW in Santa Cruz studio
21 KEW
22 Harold's visit, 1949
23 KEW and guest, 1949
24 KEW and guests
25 KEW: Harold's visit, 1949
26 Kathleen Wallis and KEW, 1949
27 KEW: HArold's visit, 1949
28 KEW, 1949
29 Mrs. Lynton, KEW, Gertrude
30 Unidentified
31 KEW
32 KEW
33 KEW, 1955
34 KEW and nephew Hugh, 1955
35 KEW, 1955
36 KEW, 1955
37 Roses, Santa Cruz
38
39
40 KEW
41 KEW
42 KEW
43 Santa Cruz
Contact Sheet 5 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 1)
5 C.S.W.
6 Hospital Chaise
7 C.S.W.
8 KEW and patient
9 KEW
10 Unidentified
17 KEW and Sergeant Besse
18 KEW
19
20
21 Unidentified (see sheet 1, nurse and patients)
22 As above
23 Unidentified
24 KEW and Marechal Courtois
25 "With love from Gertie & Marquis, 1919"
Contact sheet 5 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 2)
26 Exhibition at the Chateau Laurier
27 Same
28 Same
29 Same
30 Unidentified
31 Exhibition at the Chateau Laurier
32 KEW
33 KEW and Clara Haultain
34 KEW and Clara Haultain
35 "K. sketching. F & the cat looking on, 1922"
36 KEW and Waldmann
37 Unidentified 2
38 KEW
39 Maj. Gen. F.J. Fraser
40 KEW
Contact Sheet 6(a)
6 South Kensington Notebook (SKN)
7 Dup. of 6
8 Dup. of 6
9 SKN
10 Dup. of 9
11 SKN
12 Dup. of 11
13 SKN
14 Dup. of 13
15 SKN
16 Dup. of 15
17 SKN
Contact Sheet 6
8
9
10 SKN. Dup. of 29
11 SKN. Frieze
12
13
14 SKN
15 Dup. of 6:26
16 SKN
17 SKN
18 SKN. Female model
19 SKN. Female bust
20 SKN. Frieze
21 - 35 SKN: Various pieces of sculpture
Contact Sheet 7
4 - 32 SKN: Various pieces of sculpture
Contact Sheet 7 (corresponding photographs located in Vol. 1)
32 KEW in living room at Merino
33 Merino
34 Merino
35 Katherine and Adah Wallis
36 KEW about 1880
37 "Piper of Hamelin"
38 KEW
39 "In Captivity" by Waldmann
40 "Mother"
Contact Sheet 8
10 - 44 SKN: Various pieces of sculpture
Contact Sheet 9
6 - 17 SKN: Various pieces of sculpture