Series 2 - Correspondence

0.28 m of textual records and graphic records

This series consists of letters received by Frieda from Bud, and from her friends and family. Frieda and Bud were separated for long periods in the 1920s and the 1930s and did not live together until the end of the 1930s, following the death of Frieda's grandmother. The house they shared, on the Niagara escarpment near Burlington, had been purchased by Frieda's mother some years earlier. Built in 1834, it was situated on a large acreage with an orchard on the slope behind. When apart they wrote to each other frequently, often every day and sometimes more than once a day.

Some of the correspondence is undated, but only a few letters pre-date 1925 and these are from Frieda's college friends. Most of the letters were written by Bud to Frieda, between about 1925 and 1942. They cover all aspects of their lives, professional and personal, including relationships with their families and friends and how same-sex love was perceived.

For the period up to 1950, the remainder of the correspondence is from friends whom Frieda retained in adulthood, along with a few letters from and about members of her family, including relatives in Germany. There are fewer than a half-dozen letters for the period between 1950 and the mid-1960s.

Nearly all the later correspondence dates from 1976 to 1979, the very trying years during which Bud struggled with the effects of her stroke. Letters and cards poured in from concerned colleagues, friends, and relatives. Those addressed to Frieda and Bud jointly are filed in this series; those addressed to Bud alone are filed in Series 2 in Sous-fonds 3. Only a representative sampling of the cards has been retained.

Photoprints have been removed from B1995-0044/010(19) and filed separately in B1995-0044/003P(01).

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