Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Helen Kemp Frye fonds
General material designation
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Title statements of responsibility
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Level of description
Fonds
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)
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1858-1984, predominant 1923-1984 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
1.14 m of textual records
38 photographs: b&w
2 photographs: col.
3 photographs: 35 mm b&w negatives
16 photographs: 3 x 4.5 inch b&w negatives
1 photograph: 4 x 5 inch b&w negative
12 sketches (4 pencil and 8 watercolour)
6 sketchbooks
250 postcards
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Numbering within publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Helen Kemp Frye was an educator, editor and artist. She was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Stanley and Gertrude Kemp. In 1937 she married Northrop Frye. She died in Australia while accompanying her husband on a lecture tour.
Helen Kemp Frye was educated at Riverdale Collegiate, Toronto and studied piano and musical theory at the Hambourg Conservatory of Music, Toronto. In 1929 she enrolled in the Pass Course at Victoria College, Toronto, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1933. Upon graduating she was offered a position in the education department at the Art Gallery of Toronto by Arthur Lismer, who was a personal friend of her father, a commercial artist. She spent one year at the National Gallery in Ottawa and a year studying at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, England. Upon her return to Toronto she continued to work at the Gallery, conducting study groups, sending out loan exhibitions, and organizing lectures and concerts. In the late Thirties she worked as a contributing editor and then as art editor for Canadian Forum. From 1943 until 1946 the Toronto Star Weekly employed her as a reprint editor. She devoted much of her spare time to committee work at Victoria College and later, when Northrop Frye became College Principal, took charge of various women’s organizations at the College.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of Helen Kemp Frye’s records pertaining to her activities as an educator, editor and artist, and to her personal life. The fonds is comprised of the following series: 1) Correspondence files 2) Literature/Art/Activities files 3) Personal files 4) Publications and art work by Helen Frye and 5) Various printed files.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Files from the Helen Kemp Frye Estate were acquired by Victoria University from members of the Frye family in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No restrictions on access.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
General note
Title based on contents of the fonds.
General note
A description of the Helen Kemp Frye fonds can also be found in the Guide to the Northrop Frye Papers / Victoria University Library – Toronto : Victoria University Library, 1993. However, the present finding aid has been updated as a result of further research and additional accruals.