Accession B1995-0044 - Fraser Family 1995 accession

8.16 m of textual and graphic records (52 boxes)
3 oversized items

Records of the Fraser family, principally William Henry Fraser, Professor of Italian and Spanish, and his wife, Helene and two of their children, Donald Thomas and Frieda Helen, both professors in the School of Hygiene. Fonds also contains the records of Frieda Fraser's lifetime companion, Edith (Bud) Bickerton Williams, a veterinarian, including extensive correspondence between Frieda and Bud that documents their personal lives as a same-sex couple, as well as their professional lives as women in medicine in the early 20th century. The correspondence has been noted for its significance both in terms of both Canadian lesbian history and the history of medicine [1].
Also included are course and laboratory notes, lecture notes, research files and notebooks (including work done during World War II), addresses, drafts of articles, prize books, photographs and slides, sketches and watercolours.

[1] Perdue, Katherine, “Passion and Profession, Doctors in Skirts: The Letters of Doctors Frieda Fraser and Edith Bickerton Williams,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 2005 22:2, 271-280, https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.22.2.271

Open

See attached finding aid.

Finding aid created by Harold Averill, June 1996
Edits made to improve language, discoverability and contemporary significance of the relationship between Frieda Fraser and Bud Williams. Updated by Louise Curtis July 2022