Accession B1988-0053 - Cody Family 1988 accession

12.20 m of textual and graphic records, artifacts, and publications (35 boxes)

According to Cecily Blackstock, a niece of Henry John and Barbara Blackstock Cody, these records comprise a portion of the Cody personal records that were offered to the University of Toronto Library in the early 1950s following Dr. Cody's death. William Stewart Wallace, the Librarian, rejected the offer because of a lack of space. The records were then offered to the Archives of Ontario which selected some of the material and returned the remainder to Mrs. Cody. She stored the boxes in her basement, moving them from one residence to another, worrying all the time what to do with them. In the mid to late 1970s, a student at OISE visited her to talk about education and Dr. Cody, and was given free access to the records. The better to use them, he was allowed to transfer them to OISE where they remained. It is not known what files, if any, he removed and his name was not recorded.

In May of 1988 these records were transferred to the loading dock of OISE and the University Archives was given short notice to take what it wanted. Harold Averill went through piles of boxes (numbering perhaps 75), the contents of which were totally unarranged, and selected a number for retention by the Archives. 26 scrapbooks of press clippings (from the British Weekly) on the writings of Robertson Nicoll were not taken; nor were other boxes of miscellaneous textual material and many boxes of books.

Records of members of the Cody and Blackstock families, in particular Henry John Cody, his son Maurice Cody, and his second wife Barbara Blackstock Cody, but including some of her siblings and uncles. Included is correspondence (largely from ca. 1920-1950); records relating to World War I, including correspondence from soldiers at the Front, files on injured soldiers, along with pamphlets, press clippings and related material; press clippings, pamphlets and correspondence relating to World War II; undergraduate course notes and prize books; lecture notes for courses in church history and related subjects given in Wycliffe College; other notebooks, numerous scrapbooks, and publications relating to education, religion (including the late nineteenth century conflict between the Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church), reconstruction, the temperance movement, and other topics of interest to Dr. Cody; poetry; photographs; artifacts.

This accession is unprocessed and requires further arrangement and description.

Open

No finding aid. Handwritten box list available - please contact University Archives for further information.

Edits made to scope and content note to remove ablest term, June 2022.