Fonds 69-002 - Katherine E. Wallis fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Katherine E. Wallis fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record
  • Graphic material
  • Multiple media

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

Fonds

Reference code

69-002

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)

  • 1861-1956 (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

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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

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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

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. NOTE: In 2012, bound volumes 5 and 6 were professionally disassembled to enable access.

Immediate source of acquisition

The fonds was donated by Colonel Hugh M. Wallis, nephew of Katherine E. Walls, February,1965.

Arrangement

The items in volumes one to five have been inserted loosely between the pages of the volumes. The sketchbooks bound into volume six are very difficult to research without causing damage to the sketches and bindings.

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

Associated materials

Related materials: 14-001.

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

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