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Archival description
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS) Harold Innis fonds
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Harold Innis fonds

  • UTA 1413
  • Fonds
  • 1906-1970

Fonds consists of biographical and personal records, family and professional correspondence, tributes, field notes, interviews, research notes, subject notes, unpublished and published manuscripts including versions of "History of Communication" manuscript. Correspondence, briefs, reports and other material relating to the Nova Scotia Royal Commission on Provincial Economic Inquiry, 1934, and assembled by Harold Adams Innis who was a member of the Commission. The mimeographed copies of the hearings and the final report are in Government Publications, Robarts Library. Also includes records relating to administrative activities at the for the Department of Political Economy and School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto, Arctic research, Canadian Radio-Television Commission, the Royal Society of Canada, Workers' Educational Association, Canadian Social Science Research Council, professional correspondence, photographs, maps and other records on and by Harold Innis. Records of Mary Quayle Innis relating to Innis' career including bibliography card file.

Photonegatives, photoprints and slides taken during Harold Innis' research trips to Fort Prince of Wales; Repulse Bay; Churchill, Manitoba; Newfoundland; Northern Bay; Saint John, New Brunswick. Innis family photoprints and negatives; military photoprints of Harold Innis during World War I; graduation portraits of Innis from McMaster University; photoprints taken while Innis was on holiday on the MacKenzie River, in Churchill, Manitoba, and in Russia; group photoprint of the staff of the Dept. of Political Economy; passport photos of Harold Innis; various unidentified photoprints. Artifacts include academic gown and cap worn for conferring of doctorate in 1920.

Innis, Harold Adams

Biographical and Personal Records

Records in this Series reflect H.A. Innis' education at Woodstock Collegiate Institute, McMaster University, University of Chicago and his war service as a signaller. Includes diaries, notebooks, assignments, certificates and scrapbooks. Scrapbooks include press clippings up to 1945.

Innis 1st 1972 accession

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 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 behalf of the Harold Innis Foundation and Innis College. In March, 2010 these were returned to the University Archives and are now designated as /001ART. Researchers studying Innis should also consult B72-0025 for a more extensive record of his correspondence with colleagues and his University activities. The records of the Department of Political Economy will provide further evidence of Innis' administrative role.

Correspondence

Series consists of letters written by Harold Innis to members of his family. Includes some incoming letters to him and some press clippings of obituaries.

Press Clippings

Series consists of clippings from newspapers and serials relating to Harold Innis' activities and publications

Unpublished Manuscripts

This Series consists of addresses, lectures and notes written by H.A.Innis that show no evidence of being published. Original manuscripts for the "Idea File" and "History of Communication", undated. [The "Idea File" was later edited by William Christian and published in 1980.]

Innis 1993 accession

Accession consists of correspondence to Harold Innis from family friends in Otterville, Ontario.

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