Canadian Art

Find Books, DVDs, Maps, Music and more in the McGill WorldCat Catalogue.

Sources for Background Information

• Art and Architecture in Canada
  Bibliography and Guide to the Literature Access online or Find a copy in the library.
• Contemporary Canadian Art
  A survey of developments in painting and sculpture in Canada from WWII to 1980s. Illustrated in colour, includes bibliography.
  Find a copy in the library
• Key Dates in Canadian Art
  A chronology of Canadian art and architecture. Integrates dates of events relevant to painting, printmaking, sculpture, architecture, folk art, antive art and photography as well as landmark political and social events. Handy for quick reference.
  Find a copy in the library
• A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Reid)
  The definitive volume on Canadian art. A comprehensive overview of painting in Canada from New France 1665-1760 to the Painters Eleven, 1965. Written from the point of view that "of all the arts in Canada, painting is the one that most directly presents the Canadian experience." Illustrated with colour plates.
  Find a copy in the library
• Painting in Canada: A History (Harper)
  A survey of the development of painting in Canada written by a former curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada and of the McCord Museum. Covers 1665 to mid 1950s. Includes brief biographies of artists. Illustrated in colour.
  Find a copy in the library
• Sightlines: Reading Contemporary Canadian Art
  An anthology of essays reflecting trends in Canadian critical art writing of the 1980s Intended as a "reference for the informed reader while providing a sourcebook on contemporary art in Canada for the general reader." Includes an extensive bibliography.
  Find a copy in the library
• Sights of Resistance: Approaches to Canadian Visual Culture
  Acts as a comprehensive guide to Canadian art, providing a broad sample of aspects of Canadian visual culture. Includes essay on visual cuture, chronology of important events, case studies of individual works, and extensive bibliography.
  View eBook or Find a Copy in the library

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

• The New A to Z of Canadian Art (McKendry)
  Find a copy in the library
• Canadian Encyclopaedia
  View eBook
• The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction
  Find a copy in the library
• Contemporary Canadian Artists
  Find a copy in the library
• Oxford Art Online provides access to these resources:
  Grove Art Online
  The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms
  Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
  The Oxford Companion to Western Art
• A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (MacDonald)
  Find a copy in the library
• Early Painters and Engravers in Canada (Harper)
  Find a copy in the library
• Encyclopaedia of World Art
  Find a copy in the library

Researching Artists and Exhibitions

• Artists in Canada/Artistes au Canada
  Guide to the National Gallery of Canada's Documentation Collection, which contains newspaper articles, press releases, obituaries, exhibition notices, and other ephemera on the National Gallery, Canadian Art Schools, galleries and societies, Canadian and non-Canadian artists, and more. Artists in Canada is a bilingual union list of documentation files and biographical information on more than 52,000 Canadian artists, held by 23 libraries and art galleries across the country.
  Find a copy in the library
• Artists of the World Online / Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon
  Access online
• Canadian Women Artists History Initiative
  A bio-bibliographic database of Canadian women artists born before 1925. Access online.
• Dictionary of American Art and Artists
  Access online
• Dictionary of Artists (Benezit)
  Find a copy in the library
• Dictionary of Artists' Models
  Find a copy in the library
• Index to Art in Canada / Index to National Gallery of Canada Exhibition Catalogues, 1880-1930
  Index by artist to works of art exhibited at the National Gallery and other Canadian galleries and recorded in contemporary exhibition and auction catalogues.
  Access online

Journal Databases

Find journal articles using these online indexes and databases:

• Art Bibliographies Modern (Proquest)
  ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) Covers contemporary and modern art in all forms, from painting, sculpture and photography to video, body art and graffiti. From the late 1960s+.
• Art Full Text (EBSCO)
  Covers Art, Architecture, Housing and Urban Planning. Indexes (from 1984) and abstracts (from 1994) articles from periodicals published throughout the world. May cross-search with Art Index, Art Retrospective (1929-1984) and Art Image Gallery.
• Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA and Répertoire de la litterature de l'art (RILA)
  Covers material published between 1975 and 2007. For material published after 2007 see the International Bibliography of Art (IBA)
• International Bibliography of Art (IBA) (CSA)
  Covers international scholarship within the following broad parameters: European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945; Visual arts in all media, plus decorative and applied arts, museum studies and conservation, archaeology and classical studies, antiques and architectural history, and related fields.

Additional Online Indexes and Databases

• Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA)
  AATA Online is a comprehensive database of more than 100,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage.
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index - Web of Science (Citation Database)
  This citation database contains references cited by the authors of the articles. Use these references to do cited reference searching. This type of search allows you to find articles that cite a previously published work.
• Design and Applied Arts Index
  online via McGill Library
• JSTOR

Find journal articles using these print indexes:

• Art and Architecture in Canada
  Bibliography and Guide to the Literature Access online or Find a copy in the library.
• Concordia University Art Index to 19th Century Canadian Periodicals
  Z5937 C67 (Ref)

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are characterized by their content, regardless of their format. Have a look at more examples of different types of primary sources on the Yale Library Website.

Primary sources can be found in various collections, including libraries, museums, and online. In Montreal, good sources include the McGill Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, the McGill Archives, the McCord Museum and the BANQ. Here are some examples:

1) A Guide to Archival Resources at McGill University

*A good place to start* Published by the McGill University Archives, the three volume set brings together descriptions of documentary resources held by McGill University collecting repositories  including: McGill University Archives, Rare Books and Special Collections, Osler Library, Notman Photographic Archives, Montreal Neurological Institute, Blacker-Wood Library of Zoology and Ornithology, Blackader-Lauterman Library of Architecture and Art, and the McCord Museum. Access the guide online or find a copy in the library.

a) Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University and McGill University Archives
Location and Hours (no appointment needed)

To search all catalogued material in Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), search the library catalogue. For those items that are not yet catalogued, please review our collection descriptions, then visit RBSC for more information regarding on-site finding aids. The following are selected RBSC collections related to Canadian History:

• Colgate History of Printing Collection
  Established by William Colgate, an art historian, in the 1950s, the collection is noted for its extensive holdings on the history and technique of printing; calligraphy and letter forms; design of typefaces and typographical productions; type founding and type founders' specimens and printers' manuals and handbooks, including those for colour printing and paper making.
  
• Lawrence Lande Collection of Canadiana [read collection description]
  Search the Lande collection in the library catalogue. You may also wish to browse the Lande Bibliography and its supplement, Rare and Unusual Canadiana (in print) as an alternate access point to the collection.
• Map Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections
  Discover Montreal and Quebec Maps and more in the library catalogue. Early Canadian maps have been digitized. View site.
• Max Stern Collection
  Dr. Max Stern (1904-1987) was an art collector and art dealer, the owner of the Dominion Gallery in Montreal, and a generous donor of works of art to public collections. His working library is housed at McGill and searchable in the library catalogue.
• McGill Archives Searchable Databases
  Photograph databases (including 14 000 digitized images), selected private fonds, media collections, and record group listings.
  Search online.
• Print Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections
  Includes Canadian and European prints and more. Ask for the print inventory at the desk in Rare Books and Special Collections. [General collection description] Many framed works related to Montreal are on display in the reading room.
• Roy States Black History Collection [read collection description]
  The monographs in this collection have been catalogued and are searchable in the library catalogue. Ephemeral material, including: material by and about Roy States; material related to black history in Montreal; material related to the National Black Coalition of Canada, may be searched using the finding aid, available at the desk in Rare Books.
   

b) McCord Museum Archives and Documentation Centre
Location and Hours (By appointment)

The McCord Museum also provides access to selected collections through their online database.

2) Finding Primary Documents Online:

a) Look at Library and Museum websites around the world

As you look at books and journals on your topic, make note of where the authors did their research - a good reference will include information about the archive, library, or museum where they consulted the primary documents. With that information, have a look at the websites of those institutions to see what has been made available online.

b) Search the library's databases:

• Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1960 A collection of papers generated by Britain's Foreign and Colonial Offices, in reference to the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. Includes references to the railway, trade, slavery, military and finance. [Adam Matthew Digital]
• Early Canadiana Online [Canadiana.org]
• Early Encounters in North America, 1534-1860 [Alexander Street Press]
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• Empire Online Includes archival material from 1492-2007: "Exploration journals and logs; Letter books and correspondence; Periodicals; Diaries; Official Government Papers; Missionary papers; Travel writing; Slave papers; Memoirs; Fiction; Children's Adventure Stories; Traditional; folk tales; Exhibition Catalogues and guides; Maps; Marketing Posters; Photographs; and Illustrations..." [Adam Matthew Digital]
• HathiTrust Digital Library: This digital library provides access to selected full-text items. Login with your McGill email address and password for increased access to: US government documents; Material published in the US prior to 1923; Material published outside of the US prior to 1870
  
• Index to Art in Canada / Index to National Gallery of Canada Exhibition Catalogues, 1880-1930
  Index by artist to works of art exhibited at the National Gallery and other Canadian galleries and recorded in contemporary exhibition and auction catalogues. Access online
• Making of the Modern World [Gale]
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
  Includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives.
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries The collection includes some 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, including more than 6,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 600 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings.
• Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History [Adam Matthew Digital]

3) Historical Journals and Newspapers

• Eighteenth Century Journals
• Globe and Mail: Canada's Heritage from 1844
• Quebec Historical Newspapers (from Bibliothèque et archives nationales du québec)
• Toronto Star: Pages of the Past, 1892-2002
• Quebec Historical Newspapers From the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BANQ)
• Search the library catalogue for additional titles - these may be available online, on microfilm, or in print.

4) Image Resources

• A list of general online sources for images available here.
• Online image collection From the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BANQ)