University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services Finding Aid – Harold Innis fonds Contains the following accessions only: • B1972-0003 • B1972-0025 For description of other accessions, please see Discover Archives University of Toronto Archives Harold A. Innis Personal Records B1972-0003 Sharon Larade, 1985 Revised 2003, 2010 © University of Toronto Archives 2003, 2010 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES B1972-0003 Harold A. Innis 1906-1970 Access: Open Textual, graphic, artifacts 4.5 metres Table of Contents BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.......................................................................................................................... 3 SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE .............................................................................................................. 3 SERIES 1: BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL RECORDS .............................................................. 5 Subseries 1 Education ................................................................................................................................... 5 Subseries 2 Military Service .......................................................................................................................... 6 SERIES 2: CORRESPONDENCE ............................................................................................................... 8 SERIES 2: CORRESPONDENCE ............................................................................................................... 9 SERIES 3 TRIBUTES .................................................................................................................................. 9 SERIES 4 FIELD NOTES ........................................................................................................................ 10 SERIES 5 INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................................................ 11 SERIES 6 RESEARCH NOTES ................................................................................................................. 11 SERIES 7 THEME NOTES ........................................................................................................................ 11 SERIES 8: NOTES TAKEN BY INNIS FROM OTHER SOURCES .............................................. 13 SERIES 9: UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS ......................................................................................... 15 SERIES 10: PUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS ............................................................................................. 16 SERIES 11: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. ........................................................................................... 24 SERIES 12: ASSOCIATIONS AND SOCIETIES ................................................................................... 24 SERIES 13: RUSSIAN TRIP ........................................................................................................................ 25 SERIES 14: MAP............................................................................................................................................. 26 SERIES 15 PHOTOGRAPHS. .................................................................................................................... 26 SERIES 16: ARCTIC RESEARCH ............................................................................................................. 27 SERIES 17: BIOGRAPHIES ........................................................................................................................ 28 SERIES 18: PRESS CLIPPINGS ................................................................................................................. 28 SERIES 19: REVIEWS AND CORRESPONDENCE re INNIS' PUBLICATIONS ....................... 29 SERIES 20: SOUVENIRS ............................................................................................................................ 30 SERIES 21: CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION COMMISSION ................................................... 30 SERIES 22: MATERIAL ACCUMULATED BY M.Q. INNIS ............................................................. 31 SERIES 23: BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD FILE ............................................................................................ 31 SERIES 24: ARTICLES AND REVIEWS NOT WRITTEN BY INNIS ............................................ 32 APPENDIX 1 SERIES 15 PHOTOGRAPHS .......................................................................................... 35 - Page 2 - UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES B1972-0003 Harold A. Innis 1906-1970 Access: Open Textual, graphic, artifacts 4.5 metres BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Harold Adams Innis was born on November 5, 1894 near Otterville in Ontario's Oxford County, the eldest son of William Anson and Mary Adams Innis. He attended Woodstock Collegiate Institute, received his B.A.(1916) and M.A. (1918) from McMaster University in Toronto, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1920. From 1916 to 1917 Innis served as a signaller with the Fourth Battery of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Western Europe. Innis joined the staff of the University of Toronto's Department of Political Economy in 1927, rising to the post of Head of the Department by 1937. Under his direction, economic history grew to a position of respected importance. As a teacher of economic staples theory, Innis interpreted Canadian history through the perspective of the fur trade, the fisheries, and the wheat and lumber economies. His interest in railways and transportation spawned studies of communication and the history of information technology. From 1947 until his death in 1952 Innis assumed the additional responsibility of Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. Beyond his academic duties, he participated in such professional organizations as the Royal Society of Canada, the American Economic Association, the Canadian Social Science Research Council and the National Conference of Canadian Universities. Innis' concern for continuing education found him chairing the Workers' Educational Association of Canada. Recognition of his professional expertise earned Innis respected advisory positions on numerous royal commissions of economic inquiry. Innis' international reputation as an economist took him on the lecture circuit. The most prestigious of these was the British tour in 1948 of the Beit, Cust and Stamp lecture series in Oxford, Nottingham and the University of London respectively. As well, Innis was a featured participant in conferences at home and abroad. In Tune of 1945 he traveled to Russia on a special invitation to join the 220th Anniversary meeting of the Academy of Sciences in U.S.S.R. In May of 1920 Harold Innis married Mary Quayle. They had four children: Donald, Mary Ellan, Hugh and Anne. Innis died on November 8, 1952 at the age of 58, after a prolonged battle with cancer. SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE Records; textual, graphic; 1906-1970; 4.5 metres The arrangement of this archive reflects its handling by Harold Innis' literary executors and subsequently by members of the Rare Book Department and the University Archives. Some records were given to the Rare Book Dept. by M.Q.Innis as early as 1965; following her death in January 1972, her son Hugh Innis donated more records to RBD. These latter records had been collected and arranged by the executors (M.Q,Innis, Donald Innis, Del Clark, Donald Creighton and Tom - Page 3 - UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES B1972-0003 Harold A. Innis 1906-1970 Access: Open Textual, graphic, artifacts 4.5 metres Easterbrook), with the assistance of Jane Ward. In December 1972, RBD transferred the archives of Harold Innis to the University Archives. Three different attempts to arrange and describe the Innis records were never seen through to completion until the project was made a priority in May 1985, resulting in the present inventory. Previous manipulation of the Innis archives made discernment of original order very difficult. This inventory bases arrangement and description on the guiding principle of provenance, and follows as accurately as possible the form and the function of the records. While the archives reflect Harold Innis' life and career, some of the series are based on artificial creations by Mary Quayle Innis as her husband's personal secretary and editor. The press clippings and scrapbooks are her creation, as are the bibliographic card file and the editorial records for the Communications manuscripts. The records of Innis' primary research appear before the draft manuscripts and publications. Three voluminous studies - Empire and Communications, The History of Communication, and The Idea File - are supplemented by Innis' reading notes found in Series VII and VIII. The Innis archives cover the period from 1906 to 1970 and total 4.5 metres in extent; the bulk of the records date between 1920 and 1952. Records dating after Innis' death in 1952 pertain principally to the editorial preparation of several of his books that were reissued. There is also some record of posthumous Innis studies, and some references to Innis College and the Innis Foundation. Access to the records in this accession has been restricted only in cases where the physical condition is considered fragile. Most of such restricted files are available in another form, such as typed transcripts or photocopies. Permission to use restricted or closed items must be obtained from the University Archivist. In May 1979, a number of artifacts belonging to the Innis archives were transferred to A.S.Wood on