Showing 22 results

Archival description
William George Dean fonds
Print preview View:
Date modified
Descending

William George Dean fonds

  • UTA 1209
  • Fonds
  • 1961-1982; (predominant 1961-1973)

Correspondence, notes, memoranda, reports, manuscripts, articles, brochures, reviews, photoprints and maps documenting the production of the Economic Atlas of Ontario which appeared in 1969. The project was directed by Professor William Dean of the Department of Geography.

The production of the Economic Atlas of Ontario was undertaken by the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto by a group of staff and graduate students headed by Professor William Dean. The principal financial sponsors were the Ontario Department of Economics and Development and the University of Toronto through the "Varsity Fund".

Its purpose was to provide new insights into the complexity of economic activities in Ontario and their relationship to the physical and behavioural environments. When the Atlas appeared in 1969, it was immediately recognized as a superlative example of its genre, both for the information it provided and for its design. In 1970 it won the world's highest international design award, the gold medal at the International Book Fair in Leipzig. In 1973 it received the Wallace W. Atwood Prize for "the work which is of greatest significance and which has made the greatest contribution to the field of geography in the continent".

Dean, William George

Correspondence

This series contains, in addition to letters, a wide range of material associated with the ongoing production of the Atlas: notes, memoranda, reports, brochures, partial drafts of the manuscript, photoprints and maps. The arrangement is generally chronological, except where otherwise noted.

Manuscripts and publications

Professor Dean, in collaboration with his colleagues on the Atlas project, began speaking and writing about it almost as soon as it began. These addresses and articles helped maintain scholarly interest in the project as it proceeded and also created a wider public awareness. Both are reflected in the reviews that the Atlas received, and the articles that were written about it, particularly after the Leipzig prize was awarded.