BUSINESS, ART AND LABOUR: BRIGDEN'S AND THE GROWTH OF THE CANADIAN GRAPHIC ARTS INDUSTRY 1870_1950 By Angela E. Davis A Thesis presented to the University of Manitoba in partial fulfillnent of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhiLosophy in History The University of Manitoba t{innipeg, Manitoba September 1986 ABSTRACT The thesis presented in this dissertation concerns the inter-reLationship between business, art and labour in Canada during the years 1870 to 1950. It will suggest that the foundations of "Canadian Art" and a Canadian popular culture rest not only within the European traditions of "fine" art, but also in the work of those artists who practiced in the commercial environment of engraving, or graphic arts, houses. Indeed most artists, for the period under discussion, worked as both "commercial" and "fine" artists. In order to substantiate this argument, a history of the development of the Canadian graphic arts industry will be traced, using the firm of Brigden's Limited as a case study. Graphic arts firns such as Brigden's demonstrate the unique aspects of an industry which included among its workforce artÍsts as wel.l as skilled technicians. Not only did thjs reguire a management capable of recognizing artistic creativity and practical knowledge, but it al.so necessitated an organization capable of adapting to econonic, social and technoj.ogical change. It was from out of this structure that the product of the industry, the reproduced visual image, made its considerabLe contribution to the development of a Canadian popular culture. - l-L - TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iiJ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV CHAPTER I: Introduction CHAPTER I I : The English Tradition 28 CHAPTER III: Transference of the Tradition 62 CHAPTER IV: Business and Labour in Toronto, 1870-1914 82 CHAPTER V: Art and Commerce in Toronto, 1870-1914 722 CHAPTER VI: Business, Labour and Art in Winnipeg, 1913-1940 153 CHAPTER VII: Management, Unions and Art, 1914-1950 186 CHAPTER VIII : Conclusion 278 FOOTNOTES 238 CONCLUS I ON - 11r - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the course of preparÍng this dissertation, I have received help from many people. I would particuìarly like to thank those who contributed their knowledge and their memories to my understanding of artists and the commercial art world: Kevin Best, Hunter Bishop, Frank Ferguson, Dorothy Garbutt, Kenneth Martin, Vi Murray, T.F. Nicholson John Phillips, Agnes Riehl, Jean Vale, Sid Vale, and William Winter gave me a weal.th of valuable information. I am grateful to Walter Lypka of the Graphic Communications International Union; John Mingay of Rous, Mann and Brigdens; F.M. RoJ.ph, Art Alder and Stuart Bryan of Ronald's Federated Limited; Tom Snart of the University of Toronto and Richard StoveL for leading me to sources dealing with the Canadian graphic arts industry. And I acknowLedge the professional assistance of Christine Mossop and John Crossthwaite of the Metropolitan Toronto Library, and Nancy Dillow, Shirley Roche and Gary Essar of the Winnipeg Art Gallery for their help with locating the BrÍdgen material. I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to Professor Gerald Friesen for his untiring patience in guiding me through the completion of this study and, above aLl, I thank my husband and my family for their continuing support and encouragenent. TV CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION The contenporary graphic arts industry in Canada is a nultimillion dollar commercial enterprise which includes within Íts terns of reference printing, typesetting, stereotying, lithography, photo-engraving and bookbinding. Its workers incLude graphic designers and photographers as well as printers and typesetters; the various unions connected with the industry since their formation in the nineteenth-century, have recently analganated (in 1983) to form the Graphic Communications International Union, and the industry's equipment is in the van of computerized technology. But those who work in the industry still taLk of "craftsmanship" and "dedication," and many stilt train in institutions connected with the arts. There are, in short, aspects of an earlier artisanal existence stil.L extant in the graphic arts industry in spite of its position within the modern world of nass communÍcation and advanced technology. As a unified and all-incl.usive service industry, however, that of the graphic arts is a conparativeJ.y recent innovation. For a considerable period of tine, indeed well into the twentieth century, firms in this field were divided into those working with the written word and those dealing with illustrative material. Thus, in the nineteenth-century, printing, engraving and lithography businesses were, nore often than not, separate establishments. The unions were divided fnto photo-engravers, lithographers, bookbinders, printers and stereotypers, separations which were not changed until 1960, and the artists who worked for the graphic arts firms were not considered to 2 need a specialized training until after the Second t{orld War. Visual inages nere not introduced into popular magazines until the 1840s and the engravers and illustrators ¡rho initiaLly produced them considered thenselves artists or superior craftsmen. In fact, it was not until the speeded-up conditions of industrialized publishing forced an increase in the employment of ìarge numbers of "comnercial engravers," that a division was created between engravers working independently and those working as employees. The term "graphic arts," then, whether defined as an industry, an art or a craft, has not traditionaLly referred to the reproduction of the written word, but to the creation and reproduction of visual images from one medium to another. Close association with the printing trade was, of course, essential, and lithography, as an alternative reproductive technique, competed for dominance in the early years. But it was the art of wood-engraving which was the founding elenent of the graphic arts industry. Beginning in the first hal.f of the nineteenth-century in England, wood-engravÍng became the major form of reproducing images for mass publication. The tradition was transferred to Canada in the 1870s and, parallel to the EngÌish experience, was transformed by the introduction of photography, in the form of photo-engraving as a mechanical process, later in the century. From then on, technology, and the whol.e industriaJ.izing process, succeeded in changing the. practice of a traditional art, or craft, into a modern commercial enterprise. The shift from craft to industry during the late nineteenth-century was not, of course, unique to the graphic arts. Other trades underwent siniÌar changes as mechanical inventions altered traditional modes of production. What nade the graphic arts situation different was its dependence on those of its empLoyees with creative skil.ls. However large the enterprise, "art" renained the basis of the whole structure, with all areas of the business related to the talents of the artists employed. Yet, at the sane time, graphic arts firms, whether called engraving, photo-engraving, or graphic design firms, fol.Iowed the same pattern of development as many other Canadian business enterprises. They started as small firms, founded in the nineteenth-century by craftsmen-entrepreneurs, were inherited by family members and were gradually turned into executive and nanagerially-run organizations. The work-force became unionized, new technology spelled either disaster or rejuvenation, and expansion into branch plants resulted in success or failure. Graphic arts firms, in fact, demonstrated all the customary aspects of business and industrial development, with the added element of artistic creativity. It is this component which suggests that the graphic arts industry holds a place in Canadian social and cultural history unlike that of any other industry. The people whom it employed, and the material which it produced, became essential ingredients in both the formation of "Canadian Art" and the expansion of popular mass communication. There are three najor historical strands which have to be explored in order to trace the developnent of the graphic arts industry: first, business, because of examining one of the numerous firns which nade up the industry as a ¡rhole; second, art, because of the artists and 4 craftsmen who were involved in the creation of illustrations and designs; and third, labour, because of the changes which came about in the graphic arts work force as the result of the introduction of new technology. These three strands are suppìemented by a number of other themes which will also be addressed in this study. For example, the retail trade and its advertising requirements affected both busjnessmen and artists; the establishment of an art "elite" changed the status of artists and craftsmen working in the industry; and the divisions of labour produced by increased specialization and unionization in the printing trades influenced the who-ì.e organization of the commercial graphic arts as an industry. These issues, like the main themes of business, art and Labour, are customarily explored in separate historiographical fields and rarely brought together. However, by viewing them alL under the umbrella of social history, it becomes possibLe to find new links and to cast new illumination on the development of an important contribution to Canadian popular culture. Canadian business history is not, so far, an established academic discipline. Historians working in the field deplore the fact that there are no university