Collection F2226 - Arthur Henshaw Packer Collection

Identity area

Reference code

CA OTTCA F2226

Title

Arthur Henshaw Packer Collection

Date(s)

  • [194?] - 2005 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

6 cm of textual records
22 photographs

Context area

Name of creator

(1888-1953)

Biographical history

Arthur Henshaw Packer, sculptor, artist, designer, carver, was born on 11 May 1888 at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. He studied art and architecture in Bath, England and as a part of his training, did a number of carvings on public buildings around the Bath area. In 1910, after the completion of his course study, he immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, joining his family who had arrived in Canada in 1907.

Upon arrival, he worked at the DeKew Company, which supplied ornamental stone and mouldings. Packer also worked on a number of small commissions, such as the carvings on Gaiety Theatre [1912?] and Marlborough Hotel [1913?] in Winnipeg. In 1913, he married his fiancée Kate Edith Cox (1886-1943) shortly after her emigration from Bournemouth, England. Packer and his wife had one daughter, June K. Ridley (1914-2001).

Packer received the commission to carve the reliefs on the tympanum of the Winnipeg Law Court around 1914. After 1914, he became a homesteader, owning a farm on the Peguis First Nations Reserve with his extended family. In 1917, he began working as a school teacher on the reserve. Around 1935, he moved with his wife, daughter and son-in-law to Toronto, where he once again took up sculpting and carving. He designed and constructed a series of English Cottage style homes in the Kingsway area in west Toronto with his son-in-law. In 1941 he accepted the commission from Trinity College to carve the portraits of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Archbishop Owen and the Provost Cosgrave in the Trinity Quadrangle. He may have worked on the bas reliefs and the coat of arms on the former Postal Building at 40 Bay St. (now the Air Canada Center) around 1938 and he contributed to the carving of the QEW Monument in 1939. He is also thought to have carved the Canadian Coat of Arms on the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls in 1942.

During the war period he worked for the DeHavilland Aircraft Company, modelling parts of planes. He continued to work on private commissions after 1945. Packer died in 1953 at his home in Toronto.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Photographs of Packer working on the sculptures at Trinity College were given to the archives by June K. Ridley in 1995.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The collection consists of material documenting Packer’s professional work in the city of Toronto,
including photographs, a report from the Toronto Historical Society Board, and his biography.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Open

Conditions governing reproduction

Various copyright holders. It is the researcher's responsibility to obtain permission to publish any part of the fonds.

Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Finding aid attached.

Uploaded finding aid

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

OTTCA-F2226

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Dates of creation revision deletion

2016-07-22

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area

Related subjects

Related people and organizations

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